Best things to do in spring in NYC

The Orchid Show at The New York Botanical Garden will transport visitors into a dreamy kaleidoscope of colors with designs by floral designer Jeff Leatham this spring. In 2020, Leatham's display was cut short due to the pandemic and in 2021, the Orchid Show had a limited run. But in 2022, it'll be back in full swing.

The luxurious Italian wellness spa opening on Governors Island that we've all been waiting for opens in March! QC NY has relaxation rooms (each with its own meticulously curated personality, scent, and music), themed saunas, Vichy showers, infrared beds, foot baths, hydro jets, steam baths and other amazingly lush experiences set across three historic Army Barrack buildings on the island. It's the perfect time to warm up your bones after a cold winter.

The bedazzling and uncanny theater installation Sleep No More is finally back after two years. Your sense of space and depth—already compromised by the half mask that audience members must don—is further blurred as you wend through more than 90 discrete spaces, ranging from a cloistral chapel to a vast ballroom floor. Directors Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle, of the U.K. troupe Punchdrunk, have orchestrated a true astonishment, turning six warehouse floors and approximately 100,000 square feet into a purgatorial maze that blends images from the Scottish play with ones derived from Hitchcock movies—all liberally doused in a distinctly Stanley Kubrick eau de dislocated menace.

The Force is strong with Star Wars fans at Fever's latest exhibition called "The Fans Strike Back," a showing of 600 items all made by those who love the iconic space opera. Opening March 24, the exhibit claims to be the largest Star Wars Fan exhibit with collectibles and figurines, life-size figures and famous costumes, more than 50 one-of-a-kind sculptures, armor, lightsabers, blasters, helmets, masks and more. While everything on view isn't officially licensed, visitors still get the full Star Wars experience. It is all fan-made which makes it even more impressive—fans' passion and love for the Star Wars universe is made evident through these items.

Paradise Square is a square peg of a Broadway musical, and it spends much of its time in different round holes. On one hand, this ambitious but amorphous show is a wide-ranging historical period piece  about life and strife in Lower Manhattan’s violent Five Points district during the Civil War, as experienced by clashing groups of New Yorkers: white people, Black people, immigrants from places like Ireland and Germany. On another hand, it is a melodrama about couples and families torn apart by slavery, war and mustache-twirling villains. On yet another hand, or perhaps a foot, it is a Mickey-and-Judy story about a struggling local business that tries to keep its creditors at bay by mounting…a dance-off! As Paradise Square tries to juggle its weighty subject matter on these various appendages, you can sense it straining to keep its balance. 

New York City is full of free art that you don't even have to go to a museum to see. Sculptures, murals, and photographs can be found in its parks, sidewalks and on its buildings! Spring is the perfect time to find these gems at places such as the High Line, Central Park, Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens.

Women’s History Month in NYC means it’s time to attend some incredible panels, movie screenings, parties and more hosted by badass females that are making New York a better place to be. Many of these lady-led affairs are considered the best NYC events in March, so get your tickets, blast your favorite feminist songs and go to show your support for women everywhere. You can also get involved by volunteering at women's shelters or donating to nonprofits like Planned Parenthood. 

St. Patrick's Day in NYC is shaping up to be quite a celebration this year with the return of the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade! Epic parties and events promising live music and Irish fare will be back, bringing Irish pride to the streets of Manhattan, passing venerable New York attractions, including the beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

Nearly 20 years after its Tony-winning run in 2003, Take Me Out has returned to Broadway at Second Stage’s up-close-and-personal Helen Hayes Theater. Directed by Scott Ellis, it remains provocative, intelligent and engaging. Greenberg likes big words, big themes and messy complications. The civility and open-endedness of baseball—not to mention the sheer volume of stats—have always attracted contemplation, and Take Me Out enjoys tossing its ideas around. “Baseball is a perfect metaphor for hope in a Democratic society,” says Mason in one of several delightful flights of narration. “And baseball is better than Democracy—or at least than Democracy as it’s practiced in this country—because unlike Democracy, baseball acknowledges loss.” 

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is hosting its first global survey exhibition dedicated to the use of clothing as a medium of visual art, March 12 to August 14. The work of 35 international contemporary artists, from established names to emerging voices, will be on display, and you'll see how they made or altered clothing for expressive purposes via sculpture, installation, and performance art to transform dress into a critical tool for exploring issues of subjectivity, identity, and difference.