13 Great Things to Do

Our biweekly guide to cultural events in New York City.

13 Great Things to Do, Through November 13 Photo: Joan Marcus/Emilio Madrid-Kuser/ArianaGrande/Instagram/Joan Marcus   Every issue, New York’s critics recommend the best cultural happenings in New York City. To continue receiving previews of our biweekly guide, subscribe to New York Magazine. subscribe today pop music 1. See Ariana Grande Charlie’s Angels next.   Pop supreme Ariana Grande’s Sweetener World Tour crisscrossed the globe this year bringing platinum singles like “Thank U, Next,” “No Tears Left to Cry,” and “7 Rings” to stages from New York to Norway. Grande swings back alongside Social House, with whom she collaborated on the late-summer hit “Boyfriend.” Barclays Center, November 12. Buy tickets here. — Craig Jenkins, Music Critic art 2. See Richard Serra The poetry of steel.   A troika of Richard Serra shows across three Gagosian galleries is an occasion to behold the profundities of steel and form in the hands of a living master of both. In Reverse Curve, a curving 99-foot-long, 13-foot-high slab leans in, then out, and comes on like a wave, a whale. Beauty stands in place of awe. The runny finish of the steel resembles red-velvet cake. It’s as sensuous to see as the poetry of material is to glean here. Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, through November 2; 555 West 24th Street, through December 7; 522 West 21st Street, through February 1. — Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic theater 3. See Slave Play “This might hurt.”   Jeremy O. Harris’s darkly funny play about sex and race in America has made it to Broadway with all its sense of provocation intact. There’s an explosive energy to this thought-provoking work, which freely references everything from psychotherapyspeak to Rihanna. Golden Theatre, through January 19. Buy tickets here. — Jackson McHenry, Staff Writer movies/festivals 4. Go to DOC NYC A nonfiction smorgasbord.   America’s largest documentary festival celebrates its tenth anniversary with its fattest-ever slate. You get profile docs, investigative docs, activist docs, music docs, and a handy showcase of year-end-awards contenders, along with appearances by some of nonfiction film’s biggest names. Opening night is Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band with Robertson in attendance. Closing night is The Capote Tapes, a hard look at the tell-all magnum opus that drove Truman Capote into social exile. Cinépolis Chelsea, IFC Center, and SVA Theatre, November 6 to 15. Buy tickets here. — David Edelstein, Senior Movie Critic movies 5. See The Insider On its 20th anniversary.   Of all the Best Picture noms from 2000’s Oscars, the only one that still seems to deserve the honor is Michael Mann’s riveting, ambitious, and prescient drama about Big Tobacco’s big lies and the cowardice of media execs in the face of corporate intimidation. Al Pacino plays 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, and a young Russell Crowe plays whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. MoMA, November 1. Reserve tickets here. — Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic theater 6. See Little Shop of Horrors Don’t feed the plants!   Maybe the closest you can get to a perfect musical comedy, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s B-movie farce about a man-eating plant gets a true-to-form revival Off Broadway. Jonathan Groff lends his pristine pipes to the nerdy Seymour, with Tammy Blanchard as Audrey and Christian Borle as the devious dentist. Westside Theatre, through January 19. Buy tickets here. — Jackson McHenry, Staff Writer art 7. See Hannah Wilke From raw to elegant.   The late Hannah Wilke was one of the most powerful artists of her time. In this show of “performalist” self-portraits, chewing-gum vulva sculptures, and pointed texts about the patriarchy and the ways she was discriminated against throughout her career, her longtime gallery has done a tremendous job of making sure no one forgets this. Wilke’s works are as relevant today as when she made them. Ronald Feldman Gallery, 31 Mercer Street, through November 30. — Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic theater 8. See For Colored Girls… A classic is back.   Ntozake Shange’s landmark “choreopoem,” which folds in dance and song, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf returns to the Public for the first time since it premiered in 1976. Obie winner Leah C. Gardiner directs, with choreography from recent Tony nominee Camille A. Brown. The Public Theater, through December 1. Buy tickets here. — Jackson McHenry, Staff Writer festivals 9. Go to New York Comedy Festival Stand up for stand-up.   The New York Comedy Festival, as always, is stacked this year. Your best bet for belly-busting laughs? Vulture’s Megh Wright recommends Decolonize Your Mind, Astronomy Club, Sarah Squirm, Seek Culture, the Exhibition with Joel Kim Booster and Nikki Glaser, and heavyweights like Jenny Slate, Stephen Colbert, and Nick Kroll. Various locations, November 4 to 10. — The Editors Plus: Notable New Releases   Read Girl, Woman, Other British writer Bernardine Evaristo’s novel tied with — go figure — Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments for this year’s Booker Prize just days after the Nobel Prize named two new laureates in literature. It’s always a welcome surprise when highbrow foundations look beyond the obvious, buzzy name, so take this opportunity to explore Evaristo’s award-winning writing, too. buy on amazon »   Watch The Morning Show Of all the Apple TV+ shows being released, this is the One With All the Buzz. A deep dive into a network morning-TV show where one of the beloved hosts has been fired for sexual harassment (sound familiar?), it wastes no time cutting right to the high stakes and high drama. Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, and Reese Witherspoon star. —Jen Chaney Apple TV+, November 1. read more »   See Motherless Brooklyn Edward Norton spent more than a decade nurturing this careful adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel about a wisecracking gumshoe (played by Norton) whose outbursts from Tourette’s syndrome fracture the movie’s syntax. It goes on a little long and yanks in a megalomaniacal Robert Moses figure (Alec Baldwin, inevitably evoking Trump as well), but the first three-quarters are rivetingly strange. —David Edelstein In theaters November 1. watch the trailer »   Read Rihanna Rihanna’s 15-pound visual autobiography could crush you and you’d let it. The large-format photo book traces her life and career from 2011 to 2018, touring, recording albums, dressing for the Met Gala, tattoo sessions, birthday parties, vacations on boats and in pools, plus a handful of baby and childhood photos. Before you start asking about her reggae album, occupy yourself with 504 pages of Rihanna building her empire. Phaidon Press. buy on amazon »   So, Jerry Saltz, What’s Your Favorite Show at the New MoMA? The Museum of Modern Art reopens after a summerlong expansion. “At the new, bigger, less doctrinaire MoMA, head to Gallery 516 on the fifth floor for the best single show: Amy Sillman’s ‘The Shape of Shape,’ a wild group exhibition of 75 works selected by the American painter from the museum’s collection. Leave it to an artist to get artworks from artists—like Henri Matisse, Christopher Wool, and Susan Rothenberg—to talk to one another and make fun, unexpected connections. Sillman breaks every rule to show that there are no rules except those we all lovingly make.”   unsubscribe   |   privacy notice   |   update preferences This email was sent to alluneed4u1.semail@blogger.com. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get this newsletter in your inbox. 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