Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > SATURDAY/ AUGUST 10, 2019

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, check the tab above:  “August NYC Events”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.
OR to make your own after dinner plans TONIGHT, see the tab above;  “LiveMusic.”

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Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Under Siege (Aug.8-10)
A superstar’s take on the fight for ancient China.
NYS Theater, Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, $65+
“Choreographer Yang Liping abbreviates the story and expands the spectacle of China’s third-century B.C. civil war into a visual extravaganza that combines dance, music, and martial arts against a cinematic backdrop by Oscar-winning production designer Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).” (Justin Davidson, NYMagazine)

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7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Love, Noël: The Letters and Songs of Noël Coward
>> BILL FRISELL
>> Michael Feinstein: I Happen to Like New York
>> INGRID LAUBROCK
>> Summer Streets
>> 3 on 3 Tournament
>> Tap + Cork

You may want to look at previous days posts for events that continue through today.

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Music, Dance, Performing Art

Love, Noël: The Letters and Songs of Noël Coward (Aug.7-11)
Irish Repertory Theatre / 3PM, +8PM, $45-$50
“The Noël Coward touch was always a light one. His music scampers like a mouse; his lyrics bounce like balloons. In his plays, even suffering has an upward tendency. But when his work is excerpted and performed by others, that glancing quality can turn coy and saccharine, as it sometimes does in Barry Day’s two-handed cabaret Love, Noël.

Reading from Coward’s letters and covering nearly two dozen songs, cabaret stars Steve Ross and KT Sullivan pay Coward tribute. Sometimes Ross, the longtime king of café cabaret, is his own tuxedoed self, and sometimes he’s pretending to be Coward; an amused-seeming Sullivan takes on all the women. (She does a great, gloomy Marlene Dietrich.)” (TONY)

BILL FRISELL (Aug. 6-11)
at the Village Vanguard / 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; $35
“Blue Note Records announced this week that it had signed Frisell, a homey eminence of downtown guitar experimentalism. He has often appeared on the label as a sideman over the years, but “Harmony,” due this fall, will be his first as a leader. Whatever he has in store with that release, his recent albums for ECM — luminous duo affairs with the bassist Thomas Morgan — probably offer a good clue of what to expect at these shows, where he and Morgan will be joined by the drummer Rudy Royston.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Michael Feinstein: I Happen to Like New York (Aug.7-23)
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, $85+
“The popular and polished standard-bearer of American song returns to the club that bears his name for a three-week run devoted to tunes that celebrate New York City; the set includes a salute to the masterfully ebullient singer-pianist Bobby Short, who defined the champagne wing of cabaret in his four-decade run at the Café Carlyle. Feinstein is joined by special guests Marilyn Maye (August 6–13), Melissa Manchester (August 15–20) and Jackie Evancho (August 21–23).” (TONY)

INGRID LAUBROCK (Aug. 6-10)
at the Stone / 8:30 p.m.; $20
“Laubrock can manipulate her tenor saxophone with everything from thin, breathy lines to harsh slaps of the tongue. Despite her expressionist tendencies, she never lets go of her devotion to cool, lyrical clarity. Laubrock kicks off a five-night run at the Stone on Tuesday with Mary Halvorson on guitar, Kris Davis on piano and Tom Rainey on drums. She will convene a different combo on each of the following nights — featuring all-stars of the avant-garde — before wrapping things up with a quintet performance on Aug. 10 dedicated to the music of Anthony Braxton.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC EventS

Summer Streets (first three Saturdays in August)
Park Avenue and Lafayette St./ 7AM-1PM, FREE
“The 12th annual Summer Streets is closing 7 miles of road to cars from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park for the first three Saturdays of August. Selected streets will be made available exclusively to cyclists, runners and pedestrians, where there will be free fitness classes, dance performances, and rock climbing at stops along the route.” (amNY)

These are not Manhattan’s WestSide, but they sure look worth the detour:

3 on 3 Tournament
Watch a streetball tourney
Brooklyn Bridge Park / 12PM, FREE
If you’ve ever been by the West Fourth Street Courts (famously known as The Cage), you may have seen a game of streetball. It’s a close take on basketball, usually played half-court, without requiring a uniformed ref. Adidas’ streetball tournament in Brooklyn Bridge Park ups the ante by inviting teams playing 3-on-3 to compete for a $15,000 cash prize. Can you play? Um, no. But you can hang with sneakerheads, listen to DJs spin, eat from the gathered food trucks, and then go home and try your hand at H-O-R-S-E.” (thrillist)

GD: Forget the Knicks, remember that basketball is THE city game.

Tap + Cork
Pop your cork in Brooklyn
King’s Theater / 2-8PM, $40
“Tap + Cork — a beer and wine festival featuring over sixty craft beers, artisanal wines, and small-batch spirits — is dedicated to showcasing local and POC-owned businesses. Held in the beautiful Kings Theatre’s outdoor courtyard and lobby, think of Tap + Cork as half block party and half wine tasting: There’ll be dancing, live music from DJs CEO and Christopher Sealey, food pairings from local vendors, and the chance to sip your way to a solid afternoon buzz.” (thrillist)

Continuing Events

LAST DAY!
“Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival will run from July 10 through August 10, 2019. Harnessing Mozart’s innovative spirit as its inspiration, this edition will feature groundbreaking, multidisciplinary, international productions and acclaimed artists from a variety of genres, introducing the audience to emerging creative voices, commissions and premieres.  The program will include performances from Mark Morris Dance Company, a panel discussion on Mozart’s Magic Flute, a screening of the film The Great Buster: A Celebration, and much more. For a full festival lineup, visit the Mostly Mozart Festival event page.” (nyc-arts.org)

NYC Restaurant Week 2019: Start making your reservations.

“The more than three-week-long promotion featuring two-course lunches ($26) and three-course dinners ($42) at some of the city’s best restaurants is back for its summer edition starting July 22. This time around, the celebration features prix-fixe meals at more than 380 eateries, with deals through Aug. 16.

You can find links to menus and the restaurants involved here, but check out our picks for some of the most enticing deals below.” (amNY)

JAZZ IN TIMES SQUARE
Concert Series / Curated by Jazz at Lincoln Center

Thursdays from 5-7pm, from June to September
Broadway Plaza between 43rd and 44th Streets

“Give your Thursday night a new rhythm as you head to the train or wait for a colleague to join you for dinner. Jazz at Lincoln Center brings New York City’s hottest young jazz bands to the plaza, creating the feeling of an intimate club amidst the lights and sounds of Times Square.”

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COMING SOON (WFUV)

8/10 My Morning Jacket, Forest Hills Stadium
8/10 Mountain Goats, SummerStage East River Park
Lincoln Center “Out Of Doors” festival: Roots of American Music:
8/10 Patty Griffin and Yola
8/11 David Crosby and Anais Mitchell

♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.6 million, had a record 65 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2019 – the ninth consecutive year. BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.

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WHAT’S ON VIEW
These are My Fave Special Exhibitions @ MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museum exhibitions,
and also see the expanded reviews of these exhibitions)

‘SCENES FROM THE COLLECTION’

“After a surgical renovation to its grand pile on Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum has reopened its third-floor galleries with a rethought and refreshed display of its permanent collection, which intermingles modern and contemporary art, by Jews and gentiles alike — Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and the excellent young Nigerian draftswoman Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze — with 4,000 years of Judaica. The works are shown in a nimble, non-chronological suite of galleries, and some of its century-spanning juxtapositions are bracing; others feel reductive, even dilletantish. But always, the Jewish Museum conceives of art and religion as interlocking elements of a story of civilization, commendably open to new influences and new interpretations.” (Farago) 212-423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org

Museum of the City of New York

NY AT ITS CORE (ongoing)
“Ten years in the making, New York at Its Core tells the compelling story of New York’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World.” The exhibition captures the human energy that drove New York to become a city like no other and a subject of fascination the world over. Entertaining, inspiring, important, and at times bemusing, New York City “big personalities,” including Alexander Hamilton, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Fiorello La Guardia, Jane Jacobs, Jay-Z, and dozens more, parade through the exhibition. Visitors will also learn the stories of lesser-known New York personalities, like Lenape chieftain Penhawitz and Italian immigrant Susie Rocco. Even animals like the horse, the pig, the beaver, and the oyster, which played pivotal roles in the economy and daily life of New York, get their moment in the historical spotlight. Occupying the entire first floor in three interactive galleries (Port City, 1609-1898, World City, 1898-2012, and Future City Lab) New York at Its Core is shaped by four themes: money, density, diversity, and creativity. Together, they provide a lens for examining the character of the city, and underlie the modern global metropolis we know today. mcny.org” (NYCity Guide)

and you should be sure to check out these special exhibitions at that little museum on Fifth Ave., The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(open 7 days /week, AND always Pay What You Wish for NewYorkers)

“In Praise of Painting” (thru Oct.4, 2020)

“How great are the Met’s holdings in the Dutch golden age? Very. This long-term installation rings the lower level of the Lehman Wing with scores of lesser-known gems from the mid-seventeenth century, many of them rarely on view before, amid masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Ruisdael. The period, vivified here, began in 1648, when the end of the Eighty Years’ War with Spain brought a boom in wealth and morale, expressed by genre paintings that exalt the national ideal of gezelligheid—social warmth, comfort, belonging. A key figure was Gerard ter Borch, who had travelled widely and worked at the court of Philip IV, in company with Velázquez. Ter Borch’s lustrous, ineffably witty domestic scenes inspired a generation of masters, notably Vermeer, whose genius rather eclipsed his elder’s. The pictures often star ter Borch’s younger sister Gesina, preening in satins or enigmatically musing. Herself a painter, she is cutely funny-looking—pointy nose, weak chin—and desperately lovable. There’s much to be said for a world with such a family in it.” (Peter Schjeldahl, NewYorker)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Eight museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio (closed Sun-Mon)*
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York (open 7 days /week)
•  92nd Street – The Jewish Museum (closed Wed) (Sat FREE) (Thu 5-8 PWYW)
•  91st Street  –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (open 7 days /week)
•  89th Street –  National Academy Museum (closed Mon-Tue)
•  88th Street –  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (closed Thu) (Sat 6-8 PWYW)
•  86th Street –  Neue Galerie New York (closed Tue-Wed) (Fri 6-8 FREE)
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
•  82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art (open 7 days /week)*
*always Pay What You Wish (PWYW) for NewYorkers

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection (closed Mon) (Wed 2-6pm PWYW; First Friday each month (exc Jan+Sep) 6-9pm FREE) on the corner of 70th St. and Fifth Avenue and the The Morgan Library & Museum (closed Mon) (Fri 7-9 FREE) on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl (info on hours & admission updated June 2, 2015).
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 08/08 and 08/06.
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Bonus Live Music  – NYC Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. My favorite Jazz Clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide, feature top talent every night of the week.
Hit the Hot Link and check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(4 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. So., villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037 (1st 8:30)
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592 (1st set 8pm)
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883 (1st 7pm)
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346 (1st 8)
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346 (1st set 7:30pm)
The Stone at The New School – 55 w13 St. (btw 6/5 ave) – thestonenyc.com (8:30PM)

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595 (1st set 7:30pm)
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080 (1st 8:30pm)
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com/ 212-864-6662 (7pm)
Jazz Standard – 116 E27 St. (btw Park/Lex) – jazzstandard.com – (1st set 7:30)

For a comprehensive list of the best places to hear All Types of Live Music in Manhattan see the tab above “LiveMusic.”

In Memoriam:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538 (1st 7pm)
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprised with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It was my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.
Alas, Caffe V is no more, another victim of a rapacious NYC landlord. Owner Ishrat fought the good fight and Caffe V will be sorely missed.
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319
And more recently we have lost Cornelia Street Cafe. After 41 years, it too became another victim of an unreasonable rent increase.

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