Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > FRIDAY/ FEBRUARY 28, 2020

“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:  “February 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:

New York City Ballet (through March 1)
NYS Theater, Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, $78+
“The choreographer (and occasional dancer) Justin Peck has been incredibly busy in the past two years, choreographing for Broadway (“Carousel”) and then for Hollywood (the upcoming Spielberg version of “West Side Story”), so it’s no surprise that he hasn’t been around his alma mater much of late. On Feb. 26, he returns with a new ballet, “Rotunda,” set to a commissioned score by Nico Muhly. (This will be their first collaboration for City Ballet, though Muhly has composed extensively for dance, notably for Benjamin Millepied.) “Rotunda” is the centerpiece of a program that opens with “In G Major,” a summery romp by Jerome Robbins, whose work is one of Peck’s greatest sources of inspiration. The flashy “DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse,” by Christopher Wheeldon, closes the evening.” (Marina Harss, NewYorker)

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5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Branford Marsalis Quartet
>> The Birdland Big Band
>> Eden Espinosa: Unplugged & Unplanned
>> RONALD K. BROWN/EVIDENCE
>> JON IRABAGON

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

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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Jazz at Lincoln Center (Feb.28–29)
Branford Marsalis Quartet
Rose Theater / 8PM, $70+
“The multi-Grammy Award–winning Branford Marsalis Quartet is a standard-bearer of modern instrumental jazz. In a concert season loaded with big ideas and premier collaborations, the story of tonight’s show is simply one of jazz’s longest-running bands playing extraordinary music like no one else.

The group will play music from the brand-new record, The Secrets Between the Shadow and the Soul, featuring new originals by Marsalis and members of the band, as well as a couple of upbeat selections by Keith Jarrett and Andrew Hill. Ask Marsalis what the album title means, and he’ll tell you, “There is no further explanation—it’s just a nice sound.”

We don’t need to know anything more to be excited for the return of the ever-evolving, always-superb Branford Marsalis Quartet.”

The Birdland Big Band
Birdland / 5PM, $30
“Come kick start your weekend with The Birdland Big Band! Now in their 20th year of residency! Every Friday, and for two headlining weeks a year, the “BBB” roars into action playing a thrilling and original mix of jazz, funk, Brazilian, Latin and world music for sold-out audiences. Featured weekly guest artists drop-in from television bands (David Letterman, Saturday Night Live) and pop music touring bands (Rob Thomas, Rod Stewart).

Come see for yourself why Time Out New York called the BBB, “a completely unique experience… there isn’t another band like this anywhere,” and yelp.com proclaims, “if you hear one band in NYC make sure this is it… and prepare to be blown away!”

Eden Espinosa: Unplugged & Unplanned
The Green Room 42 / 7PM, $27+
“The severely talented Broadway leading lady (Brooklyn, Wicked, Rent) brings her iron belt to the Green Room 42 for an intimate residency that promises songs from her two albums, pop and musical-theater favorites and even audience requests.” (TONY)

RONALD K. BROWN/EVIDENCE (Feb.25-Mar.1)
at the Joyce Theater / 8PM, $
“For decades, Brown has created profound choreography that grapples with life and faith, and his exuberant blend of contemporary and African dance can feel like physical prayer. He celebrates his company’s 35th anniversary with a program that includes “High Life” (2000), which begins with a depiction of a slave auction; “Grace” (2000), a work made for the Alvin Ailey company in which a woman in white welcomes people to heaven; and “Mercy,” the companion piece to “Grace,” which premiered last year and is set to music by Meshell Ndegeocello. Wednesday’s gala performance also includes an excerpt from “Open Door” with the Ailey dancers Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims.” (NYT-Brian Schaefer)

JON IRABAGON (Feb.25-29)
at the Stone / 8:30 p.m.; $20
“Among the most preternaturally gifted saxophonists working today, Irabagon puts few limits on his expression. He’s as likely to blow a startlingly swinging chorus over a jazz standard as he is to unleash a searing blast of sound over a dissolute, free-jazz backing. Here he presents five different projects in as many nights, including 3Dom Factor, an inside-outside group helmed by the elder drummer Barry Altschul, on Tuesday; and a quartet featuring Matt Mitchell on piano, Chris Lightcap on bass and Dan Weiss on drums, on Feb. 28.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC EventS
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

More smart stuff coming soon.

Continuing Events

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COMING SOON (WFUV)

2/28 Widespread Panic, Beacon Theatre
2/28 Hall & Oates, Squeeze, KT Tunstall, MSG
2/29 Widespread Panic, Beacon Theatre
2/29 Allen Stone, Brooklyn Steel
2/29 Martin Sexton, The Appel Room
3/1 Widespread Panic, Beacon Theatre
3/1 Lou Reed Birthday Celebration, Bowery Electric
3/2 Dan Luke and the Raid, Baby’s All Right
3/2 Widespread Panic, Beacon Theatre
3/2 Iyla, Rough Trade
3/3 Puck, Elsewhere
3/3 Eric Johnson, Sony Hall
3/3 Chelsea Cutler, Terminal 5
3/4 Noah Cyrus, Bowery Ballroom
3/4 Macy Gray, Brooklyn Bowl
3/4 Heart Bones, Knitting Factory Brooklyn
3/4 Orville Peck, MoMA
3/4 Wye Oak, Music Hall of Williamsburg
3/4 Sun Ra Arkestra, The Town Hall
3/5 Jeanines, Alphaville
3/5 Bandits on the Run, Baby’s All Right
3/5 Silversun Pickups, Brooklyn Steel

♦ 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
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s WestSide
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museums,
and also to see their expanded reviews of exhibitions)

‘AUSCHWITZ. NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY’
at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (through Aug. 30).

“Killing as a communal business, made widely lucrative by the Third Reich, permeates this traveling exhibition about the largest German death camp, Auschwitz, whose yawning gatehouse, with its converging rail tracks, has become emblematic of the Holocaust. Well timed, during a worldwide surge of anti-Semitism, the harrowing installation strives, successfully, for fresh relevance. The exhibition illuminates the topography of evil, the deliberate designing of a hell on earth by fanatical racists and compliant architects and provisioners, while also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival in a place where, as Primo Levi learned, “there is no why.” (Ralph Blumenthal, NYT)

‘Worlds Beyond Earth’
at the American Museum of Natural History. (thru Dec.31, 2024)

“The museum’s first space show in six years takes viewers on a tour of our solar system from the comfort of their seats in the Hayden Planetarium. Narrated by Lupita Nyong’o, the film explores the nature of the planets and moons in our solar system and the conditions that make life on Earth possible.” (NYT)   amnh.org.

‘T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR’
American Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 9, 2020).

“Everyone’s favorite 18,000-pound prehistoric killer gets the star treatment in this eye-opening exhibition, which presents the latest scientific research on T. rex and also introduces many other tyrannosaurs, some discovered only this century in China and Mongolia. T. rex evolved mainly during the Cretaceous Period to have keen eyes, spindly arms and massive conical teeth, which could bear down on prey with the force of a U-Haul truck; the dinosaur could even swallow whole bones, as affirmed here by a kid-friendly display of fossilized excrement. The show mixes 66-million-year-old teeth with the latest 3-D prints of dino bones, and also presents new models of T. rex as a baby, a juvenile and a full-grown annihilator. Turns out this most savage beast was covered with — believe it! — a soft coat of beige or white feathers.” (Farago-NYT)

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In the Company of Harold Prince

A prince with no heir.
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (through March 31)

“Losing Hal Prince this year meant the end of an era. No other producer-director will ever again have Prince’s string of stupendous hits; no one man will ever again become so closely identified with Broadway stagecraft. He worked on everything, from West Side Story to The Phantom of the Opera, from Cabaret to Sweeney Todd, and if not everything he touched turned to gold — nonetheless, he did have the golden touch. This exhibition at the NYPL is a dragon’s hoard of scripts, photographs, set models, and even re-creations of his paperwork. Study it closely and you might become the next great theatrical mind … if not a Prince, then possibly a really talented duchess.” (Vulture, NY Magazine-H.S.)

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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 02/26 and 02/24.

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