concert crowd
Photograph: Shutterstock
Photograph: Shutterstock

The best concerts in NYC this week

Get set, go! We've rounded up the best gigs in the five boroughs during the next seven days

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Update: With the current ban on public gatherings of any size, many of the concerts  and events below may be postponed to a later date or canceled. 

As any NYC music fan will tell you, there are no off nights here. If you're game for going out, the city's guaranteed to have a gig for you, whether it's a pop blowout, a cozy country show, a set at a world-famous jazz club like the Village Vanguard or a raging metal bill. Our monthly concert calendars are your first stop for news on shows coming up, but this list of the best concerts in NYC is designed to help with your last-minute showgoing plans. Why not take a chance on a new name? Every gig you see below gets the Time Out New York stamp of approval.

RECOMMENDED: See our guide to concerts in NYC

  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Lower East Side
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
PJ Adzima, who currently plays the hopeful but hopelessly repressed Elder McKinley in Broadway's The Book of Mormon, hosts a neovaudevillian monthly variety show at the Slipper Room that proffers an eclectic mix of musical-theater, comedy, drag, circus and burlesque performances. A down-and-dirtier version of the show also plays there every week on Saturdays at midnight.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Part cabaret, part piano bar and part social set, Cast Party offers a chance to hear rising and established talents step up to the microphone (backed by the slap and tickle of Steve Doyle on bass and Billy Stritch at the ivories, plus the bang of Daniel Glass on drums). The waggish Caruso presides as host.
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • East Village
  • Recommended
He’s worked with Liza Minnelli, Kylie Minogue and just about every downtown act in NYC. Now composer, pianist and performer Lance Horne hosts his own wild night of singing, drinking and dancing, strip-teasing and bad behavior at the East Village nightlife hub Club Cumming. Expect advanced show-tune geekery and appearances by Broadway stars looking to get down by the piano. Plan to sleep in on Tuesday.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • Recommended
The longtime New York entertainer, drag performer and political activist Marti Gould Cummings hosts a new weekly late-night talk show at Red Eye, joined by different guests from the theater world each week and Yaz Fukuoka at the piano. The series kicks off this month with an impressive roster of interviewees: Broadway soprano Ali Ewoldt (April 2), songwriters Stephen Trask and Our Lady J (April 9), musical comedian Cat Cohen (April 16), silver-voiced leading lady Melissa Errico (April 23) and masked country star turned Cabaret emcee Orville Peck (April 30).
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 1 of 4
  • Recommended
Understudies, alternates and standbys get their moments in the sun in Stephen DeAngelis's longevous cabaret series, which began in 2003 and has so far shone a spotlight on more than 1,200 performers. The April edition features sometime Gypsy Rose lead Tryphena Wade, Kelly Belarmino, Andrew Montgomery Coleman, Sam Hartley, Hannah Kevitt, Jessi Kirtley, Michael Milkanin and Sunset Boulevardiers Emma Lloyd and Diego Andres Rodriguez. Rachel Dean is the musical director and accompanist.  
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Noho
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
Julia Mattison and Joel Waggoner's holiday show began as an online lark: they challeneged themselves to write a new song for each December day before Christmas. But it has since grown into a yearly live tradition, most recently at Joe's Pub. This year, popular demand has propelled the show into a longer run (eight shows) in a larger space at the Public (the Shiva Theater). Mattison and Waggoner are very gifted performers and musical comedians—she earned a Tony nomination earlier this year for co-writing the score to Death Becomes Her—so their yuletide originals and improvised carols have the potential to knock your stockings off. 
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Noho
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
Caustic wit, witchy charisma and fearless queer wisdom have made Justin Vivian Bond one of New York’s essential performers. Now the alt-cabaret star, trans icon and McArthur "Genius" Grantee returns to her frequent roost at Joe’s Pub for a two-week engagement with a solstice show to melt the hearts of snowflakes everywhere, joined by a five-piece band led by musical director David Sytkowski.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Midtown West
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Joe Iconis is a mainstay of local musical-theater songwriting, and he parties as well as he composes: His shows, stuffed with longtime friends and collaborators, have an exuberant sense of community. Now he returns to 54 Below with the 15th annual edition of his rollicking holiday show. In addition to the usual gang—which has swelled to almost 50 performers—he is joined here by Broadway treasure Annie Golden.
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  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Midtown East
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Jackie Beat has been doing Christmas shows for more than two decades: You can’t stop the Beat. Her classic carol parodies—such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Syphilis" and "Santa's Baby"—are hilarious, and her powerhouse vocals are impressive. But it's her improvisations and crowd work that demonstrate what a natural-born entertainer looks like in the spotlight.
  • Music
  • Cabaret and standards
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
When Forbidden Broadway alum Christine Pedi draws from her deep reservoir of celebrity vocal impressions, she shines brightly as a star in her own right. This month, she roasts holiday chestnuts by Liza Minnelli, Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews and more; her astonishing “12 Divas of Christmas” alone is worth the price of admission.
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