Are people who FaceTime while walking down the street literally insane?

The annual Flamenco Festival returns for its 25th edition, showcaing a wide range of variations on the Spanish form at a dozen New York venues (New York City Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, etc.) from February 25 through March 15. A delegation of over 80 participants from 16 companies, including singers, guitarists, dancers, and technicians, will present their latest creations across the Atlantic for this year's programming — artists such as Manuel Liñán, Eva Yerbabuena, Sara Baras, Olga Pericet, Andrés Marín, Rocío Márquez, Ángeles Toledano, Dani de Morón, Gerardo Núñez, and Antonio Rey, among many others, will headline the New York edition. Information and ticketing for all shows can be found on Flamenco Festival's Spanish-language website.

New York’s most debated staircase is ready for another comeback. Vessel, the towering honeycomb-shaped structure at Hudson Yards, will reopen to visitors on February 27, just in time for the late-winter thaw and the start of spring sightseeing season.

Starting Friday, the 150-foot-tall landmark will once again welcome guests daily from 11am to 7pm, offering panoramic views of the Hudson River, the West Side skyline and the ever-expanding Hudson Yards campus. Tickets are already on sale online, but locals get a perk: New York City residents can score free Thursday reservations with proof of ID, plus a limited batch of free day-of tickets released each week.

The talk in Clare Barron’s icky, tender, gorgeous You Got Older is sometimes so small it nearly vanishes completely. Alia Shawkat plays Mae, a youngish lawyer whose life is in ruins—she has lost her job, her apartment and her boyfriend in one fell swoop—and who has moved back to rural Washington to spend time with her father (Peter Friedman). Between awkward pauses in the play’s opening scene, they discuss gardening, toothbrushes, sleeping arrangements; what they don’t discuss is his recent cancer diagnosis. You Got Older is less about disease than about the unease that surrounds it, and it beautifully captures elusive things about avoidance: It’s about the denial of death, but also the denial of living.

The original Off Broadway production of Barron’s extraordinary play was one of my favorite shows of 2014, and this revival at A24’s Cherry Lane Theatre—impeccably directed, once again, by Anne Kauffman—is as funny and discomfiting as the original. I’ve gotten older, but the play hasn’t aged a day, and the new cast is terrific. (So are Arnulfo Maldonado’s scenic design, Isabella Byrd’s lighting and Daniel Kluger’s sound and music.) As her very name suggests—and as did the names of Shawkat’s characters Maeby in Arrested Development and Dory in Search Party—Mae is uncertain and lost, and Shawkat is a master explorer of confused interior landscapes. Her quizzical depression plays beautifully against Friedman’s understated understanding, and his desire to impart to her some kind of wisdom about living as he faces what may be the end; moments of real connection poke through the characters’ guilt and distraction. (“I’m always itching to go do something else even when I’m in the middle of having a nice moment,” Mae’s father admits.) Barron presses on tender bruises—loss, comfort, fear, concern—in ways that often leave you laughing with a strange pleasure of recognition. But if you find yourself in tears by the end, the play can handle that, too. It holds you in a bracing embrace, as close as it needs to—which is to say, too close.  

NYC kids are so cool, they even get their own film festival. Running through Sunday, March 16, the New York International Children's Festival is back for its 30th edition, taking over venues like the IFC Center, the School of Visual Arts and Scandinavia House with three weekends full of kid-friendly programming. Highlights on this year's lineu include the opening spotlight film, Disney and Pixar’s all-new animated comedy adventure Hoppers; the centerpiece screening of Remaining Native, a live-action doc about college-hopeful track superstar Ku Stevens; and the U.S. premiere of the award-winning animated short My Life in Versailles.

Can you believe Survivor has survived 50 seasons? The iconic show is back on February 25 and the Paley Center is celebrating the milestone. If you're a fan of Survivor, you won't want to miss "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Celebrating 50 Seasons of Survivor." Running now through May 31, the exhibit is an immersive, nostalgia-heavy tribute to the CBS juggernaut. It will feature some of the show's most memorable moments and will give visitors the chance to step into the winner-takes-all world of Survivor.

The exhibit celebrates 50 seasons with actual items from the show and plenty of behind-the-scenes photos. There will be authentic outfits worn by Jeff Probst and castaways, immunity idols and necklaces and a torch snuffer. View original sketches for logos, sets and props. There’s even a chance to snap a pic with the iconic torch and sit at a replica Tribal Council. While the museum hasn't revealed exactly which iconic wardrobe pieces will make an appearance, fans are hoping for the infamous Q skirt, Boston Rob Mariano’s Red Sox hat or perhaps Angelina Keeley’s jacket. In addition to the artifacts, the exhibit will include plenty of photos and videos spanning all fifty seasons, plus screenings of classic episodes in the Paley Museum’s Bennack Theater.

The celebration peaks on February 24 with a red-carpet event titled "The Tribe Has Spoken: An Evening with Jeff Probst and Survivor 50 Castaways." Attendees will get an extended sneak peek at the three-hour Survivor 50 premiere a full day before it airs, followed by a conversation with Probst and members of the new cast. Before the screening, there’s a reception featuring returning fan favorites Aubry Bracco, Cirie Fields, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Ozzy Lusth and Benjamin "Coach" Wade.

Over five weeks at venues like BAM, The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, New York City Center and more, the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival presents performances and public workshops exploring dance across generations, geographies and styles. International choreographers and dance companies featured range from seminal figures such as Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown to contemporary voices including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Benjamin Millepied, (LA)HORDE, Noé Soulier, Leïla Ka and Hervé Koubi. The seies will also include more than 20 public workshops taught by artists featured in the festival, held for the first time at the New York Center for Creativity & Dance.

New York’s pop-up pizza calendar just got a serious international upgrade. From February 24 through February 28, cult-favorite Tokyo pizzeria Seirinkan will temporarily swap Shibuya for the Bowery, taking over the kitchen at modern Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana for a five-night residency that blends neo-Neapolitan pizza with Lower Manhattan energy.

If you’re deep in the pizza rabbit hole, the name Susumu Kakinuma probably rings a bell. Widely considered the godfather of Japan’s Neapolitan pizza movement, the master pizzaiolo helped shape Tokyo’s hyper-precise pizza scene—and this marks his first time cooking in New York City. He will join Sake No Hana chefs Jason Hall and Yoshi Kojima behind the ovens, turning what’s normally a sleek Japanese dining room into a cross-cultural celebration of carbs.

Menu-wise, the focus will be tight and intentional. Seirinkan will serve three of its hallmark pizzas, including a Margherita, Marinara and a Bianco topped with fresh wasabi. Alongside the pies, small plates like octopus, roasted broccoli and snow beef tartare with Parmigiano Reggiano are on offer, alongside Sake No Hana staples like hamachi crudo, chicken wing yakitori and a rich wafu carbonara.

On June 30, 2015, Misty Copeland made history as the first Black American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre's 75-year history. That historic decade-long run came to an end when Copeland retired in 2025, and a new photography exhibit at the Leica Gallery New York — fittingly entitled "Ballet" — will feature never-before-seen photographs of the dancer in her final ABT performance. Running through March 29, the group show will display stunning snaps from photographers Henry Leutwyler, Diana Markosian and Kylie Shea and explore "the discipline, vulnerability, and transcendence of dance through three distinct photographic practices, united by a shared devotion to movement," per the gallery. A free opening reception will be held on February 19, followed by a moderated panel discussion with the artists on February 21 with special guest Misty Copeland.

Having won a Tony Award for Merrily We Roll Along, Daniel Radcliffe returns to make more magic in the Broadway premiere of Duncan Macmillan's interactive dark comedy about a British man who makes lists of the world's good things, at first to ease his mum's depression and later to temper his own. The show ran Off Broadway in 2014 with Jonny Donahoe, who also contributed to the script; this version is co-directed by Macmillan and Jeremy Herrin (Wolf Hall). It's theatrical candy cane: slim and sweet, tempered by sharpness and striped with bright nostalgia.

Dust off your popcorn instincts and your sense of wonder: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is officially returning to New York this winter. The “Greatest Show on Earth”—which now boasts a reimagined, all-human spectacle—will land in New York City for two short stints, first at Barclays Center from February 19–22, followed by UBS Arena from March 6–8. 

The two-hour show is powered by live music, DJ-driven transitions and constant movement across the arena floor. Acts come from around the world, including a Colombian acro-salsa troupe that turns dance battles into airborne events; a U.S.-based contortionist who treats flexibility like a superpower; and acrobatic bike and hoop-diving performers from China. You can expect aerial stunts, precision balance work and large ensemble moments.