Things to do in New York this Friday
It’s time to punch out, wind down and start your weekend off right with the best things to do in New York this Friday
Don’t blow your weekend by spending Friday night on the couch—there are too many incredible things to do in New York this Friday. Whether you want to rage at one of the best parties in NYC or if you’re interested in checking out free comedy shows, you have unlimited options. That’s why we decided to make the planning process easier for you by selecting the very best events that are guaranteed to show you a good time. Forget road trips, the best way to spend your Friday night is right here in NYC.
RECOMMENDED: Full guide to things to do in NYC this weekend
Featured things to do this Friday
Accomplice
Tom and Betsy Salamon’s unique adventure—part interactive theater, part scavenger hunt, part walking tour—draws participants into an amusing web of puzzles and intrigue. You can choose between the three-hour New York tour, which takes participants through various historical and diverse neighborhoods of lower Manhattan, or the two-hour Village tour, which travels through quirky Greenwich Village on Saturdays. Groups of as many as ten are booked every half hour.
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Blood Manor
Garish zombies, monsters and other ghoulish creatures await in this 5,000-square-foot labyrinth of horrors, deemed too scary for children under 14 to enter without supervision. Pass through themed rooms such as the Vestibule of the Undead and the Banquet of Torture. It’s popular, so lines are likely to be long—consider shelling out for an “R.I.P.” express access ticket ($45).
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Hot Rabbit
This long-running girlcentric party goes down every Friday night at Boots and Saddle. DJs from NYC and beyond ensure that you'll never encounter the same scene twice, but you can rely on a cute mixed crowd and sexy go-go dancers to help you get in touch with your inner bunny.
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Groovy Groovy presents Bruce
Bristol, U.K.-based artist Bruce makes his NYC debut at DIY party Groovy Groovy. The young producer and DJ first gained recognition with “Just Getting Started” (his 2014 debut via Livity Sound's Dnuos Ytivil), and his latest EPs on Hessle Audio (Steals) and Idle Hands (The Trouble with Wilderness) are easily contenders for 2016's best releases. Receiving massive support from artists such as Hessle boss Ben UFO, Bruce continues to explore far beyond any pre-imposed genre conventions, instead meticulously picking apart sounds to create a unique framework. Discwoman cofounder and producer-DJ Umfang, Noods Radio and Bossa Nova Civic Club resident Shy Eyez, and Pop Quiz's Excalibur join the lineup, with support from Groovy Groovy residents Teleself, Akanbi and Yogic.
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Laura Benanti: Tales from Soprano Isle
The enchanting Benanti has captured Broadway's heart in shows from Into the Woods and Gypsy through Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and this year's She Loves Me. (She also stole NBC's The Sound of Music Live from right under Carrie Underwood's nose.) In her debut engagement at the Carlyle, she takes a humorous tour of her high-flying career to date.
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Shen Wei Dance Arts: Neither
A towering figure in contemporary dance, who choreographed for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Shen Wei now joins the Next Wave Festival with a commissioned work set to Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett's 1977 opera. (Beckett's text is only 16 lines long.) Shen Wei also designed the piece, in collaboration with lighting master Jennifer Tipton.
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Shamir + Waxahatchee + Mutual Benefit
This Housing Works benefit concert combines three buzzy indie powerhouses on this intriguingly heterogenous bill: indie-popper Shamir Bailey who raps and croons over undeniably infectious R&B-infused four-on-the-floor beats; Waxahatchee, the vulnerable and triumphant-yet--bittersweet indie-pop project of singer-songsmith Katie Crutchfield; and Jordan Lee's wistful, dreamy and amorphous orchestral folk collective Mutual Benefit. Proceeds go toward Housing Works' wraparound services and supportive programs for New Yorkers living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
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New York Comic Con
This glorious geek assembly brings in more than 151,000 visitors, beating San Diego Comic-Con and making NYCC the second-biggest event in the city. Wear a Batman T-shirt or a full cape-and-cowl at this packed pop culture mecca, where anyone can be a superhero.
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Sigur Rós
Icelandic band Sigur Rós maintains a seemingly unpiercable facade beyond its remote native land—blame it on the combo's brainy, loose dreamscapes, which turned unexpectedly turbulent and aggressive on its most recent effort, Kveikur. The group pared down in recent years to a trio after the departure of keyboardist Kjartan "Kjarri" Sveinsson, but you can expect the trim lineup to craft an enormously expansive, otherwordly experience nonetheless.
Read morePopular things to do this Friday
Waitress
Waitress: Theater review by David CoteOne’s sorely tempted to praise the delightful new musical Waitress using lots of bakery metaphors. After all, its hero is a pastry genius with relationship woes named Jenna (Jessie Mueller). She’s a perky Southern gal who can confect a mouthwatering Mermaid Marshmallow Pie but can’t measure the right ingredients for happiness. So, unable to resist, here I go: Fresh and delicious, Waitress has an excellent ratio of sweet to tart; supporting characters who provide crustiness (Dakin Matthews’s grumbly store owner) and flakiness (Christopher Fitzgerald’s loony admirer of another waitress); and cooked-to-perfection staging by Diane Paulus. The whole dish is—please forgive me—love at first bite.Based on the 2007 indie film by the late writer-director Adrienne Shelly, Waitress has been whipped (I’ll stop now) into an expertly constructed and emotionally satisfying tale of self-liberation in the face of limited options. Jessie Nelson’s broadly comic yet brooding book meshes wonderfully with a frisky, bright score by pop star Sara Bareilles, a seasoned songwriter who lets the Beatles and other Britpop influences shine through. Bareilles’s custom-built earworms address workplace pluck (“Opening Up”), first-date jitters (“When He Sees Me”), quirky, obsessive love (“Never Ever Getting Rid of Me”) and an eleventh-hour ballad of loss and regret (“She Used to Be Mine”), which will rip your heart out.That’s a nasty sounding operation, but you couldn’t fi
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Hot Rabbit
This long-running girlcentric party goes down every Friday night at Boots and Saddle. DJs from NYC and beyond ensure that you'll never encounter the same scene twice, but you can rely on a cute mixed crowd and sexy go-go dancers to help you get in touch with your inner bunny.
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Hamilton
Hamilton: Theater review by David Cote What is left to say? After Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s prodigious quill scratched out 12 volumes of nation-building fiscal and military policy; after Lin-Manuel Miranda turned that titanic achievement (via Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography) into the greatest American musical in decades; after every critic in town (including me) praised the Public Theater world premiere to high heaven; and after seeing this language-drunk, rhyme-crazy dynamo a second time, I can only marvel: We've used up all the damn words. Wait, here are three stragglers, straight from the heart: I love Hamilton. I love it like I love New York, or Broadway when it gets it right. And this is so right. A sublime conjunction of radio-ready hip-hop (as well as R&B, Britpop and trad showstoppers), under-dramatized American history and Miranda’s uniquely personal focus as a first-generation Puerto Rican and inexhaustible wordsmith, Hamilton hits multilevel culture buttons, hard. No wonder the show was anointed a sensation before even opening. Assuming you don’t know the basics, Hamilton is a (mostly) rapped-through biomusical about an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean who came to New York, served as secretary to General Washington, fought against the redcoats, authored most of the Federalist Papers defending the Constitution, founded the Treasury and the New York Post and even made time for an extramarital affair that he damage-controlled in a scandal-stanching pamp
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The Humans
The Humans: Theater review by Adam Feldman “Dontcha think it should cost less to be alive?” muses Erik (Reed Birney) to Richard (Arian Moayed) as they ready themselves for Thanksgiving dinner. He’s complaining about his expenses, but in Stephen Karam’s beautifully wrought The Humans, even the small talk has larger echoes. Erik and his wife, Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell, lovably stubborn), are a working-class couple in their early sixties; money is growing scarce, but the Blake family’s troubles hardly end there. Erik’s mother, Momo (Lauren Klein), is lost in the terminal stages of dementia, and his daughter, Aimee (Cassie Beck), is reeling from a year of deep medical, professional and romantic trauma. The costs of living pile up everywhere. Richard and Brigid (Sarah Steele), Erik’s other daughter, have just moved into a cavernous ground-floor duplex apartment in Chinatown—a chilly, indifferent space rendered well in David Zinn’s bi-level set—and the others have traveled up from Pennsylvania to spend the holiday with them. A nuanced group portrait of life in the shadow of disaster, The Humans unfurls in a single 95-minute scene, but it never feels static. As incarnated by a seamless ensemble cast that includes some of New York’s finest stage actors, expertly conducted for the Roundabout by director Joe Mantello, the Blakes constantly move around, adjusting their defenses. The testy warmth of their interaction seems genuine—often amusingly, sometimes painfully—and is rooted in h
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Something Rotten!
Something Rotten!: Theater review by David Cote Do you still, to this day, fondly remember that 1986 Taming of the Shrew episode of Moonlighting? Whenever blue, do you stream Shakespeare in Love or Blackadder II? Elizabethan fops and wenches forming a stagewide kick line cause a little flutter under the ruff? If you said “yes” to two or more, then hie thee posthaste to the St. James Theatre, where Something Rotten! has established itself as Broadway’s funniest, splashiest, slap-happiest musical comedy in at least 400 years. The premise of this cockamamy geeky delight—16th-century playwright brothers (Brian D'Arcy James and John Cariani) consult a soothsayer (Brad Oscar) and find themselves assembling a musical adaptation of Hamlet called Omelette!—could easily have led to a one-joke SNL sketch or addition to Harvard’s Hasty Pudding repertoire. Instead, tremendous care and showbiz savvy have gone into making a sophisticatedly silly rom-com that has it all: laugh-out-loud lyrics, catchy music, jaw-dropping sight gags and a powerhouse cast selling Bard-laced punch lines to the ecstatic balcony. “Welcome to the Renaissance,” croons the 1595 chorus at the top of the show, “where everything is new.” Novelty and fresh starts in life are indeed the appealing keynotes, which manages to put on a song-and-dance spectacle poking fun at Merrie Olde England clichés, while also sweetly celebrating the poets, nerds and artistic underdogs. Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell’s book may b
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The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking
[Note: The review below is for the version of The Imbible that played at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.] Remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? Great! Now imagine him as a bartender who is deeply interested in the history of ethanol alcohol, really likes wigs and costumes, and just joined a coed barbershop quartet. That description of Anthony Caporale’s The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking may sound far-out, but the show is both educational and entertaining. (It's also a fine showcase for a cappella classics arranged by Josh Ehrlich and performed by a gifted ensemble that includes the show's director, soprano Nicole DiMattei.) Mixing whimsy and information, Caporale makes the story of our relationship with alcohol remarkably compelling. And the show's lessons—on subjects like the drinks served at Prohibition-era speakeasies, the origin of the gin and tonic, and the difference between a cocktail and a mixed drink—can be washed down with complimentary, thematically appropriate beverages. As Caporale says, “Trust me, I get funnier with every sip.” That makes the show a must-see for anyone who enjoys free booze, which is probably nearly everyone. Click here for full TONY coverage of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.
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The Book of Mormon
If theater is your religion and the Broadway musical your sect, you've been woefully faith-challenged of late. Venturesome, boundary-pushing works such as Spring Awakening, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Next to Normal closed too soon. American Idiot was shamefully ignored at the Tonys and will be gone in three weeks. Meanwhile, that airborne infection Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark dominates headlines and rakes in millions, without even opening. Celebrities and corporate brands sell poor material, innovation gets shown the door, and crap floats to the top. It's enough to turn you heretic, to sing along with The Book of Mormon's Ugandan villagers: "Fuck you God in the ass, mouth and cunt-a, fuck you in the eye." Such deeply penetrating lyrics offer a smidgen of the manifold scato-theological joys to be had at this viciously hilarious treat crafted by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, of South Park fame, and composer-lyricist Robert Lopez, who cowrote Avenue Q. As you laugh your head off at perky Latter-day Saints tap-dancing while fiercely repressing gay tendencies deep in the African bush, you will be transported back ten years, when The Producers and Urinetown resurrected American musical comedy, imbuing time-tested conventions with metatheatrical irreverence and a healthy dose of bad-taste humor. Brimming with cheerful obscenity, sharp satire and catchy tunes, The Book of Mormon is a sick mystic revelation, the most exuberantly entertaining Broadway musical in years. The high
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The Color Purple
The Color Purple: Theater review by Adam Feldman Seeing The Color Purple on Broadway, a decade after its premiere, is like meeting an old friend who has gotten her life together since the last time you saw her. It seems more confident in itself, surer in its sexuality, and it’s lost a lot of weight; the cast of John Doyle’s revival and the theater in which it’s playing are 40 percent smaller than their 2005 equivalents. But the shrinking of this violet has not lessened its force. On the contrary, Doyle’s production intensifies The Color Purple and brings out its deeper hues. The musical blossoms into a classic.The Color Purple is not easy to get right. Adapted from Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, the show spans several decades in the early-20th-century life of Celie (the exceptional Cynthia Erivo), who rises through unspeakable adversity to find joy and self-respect. When we meet her, Celie is 14 years old and pregnant for the second time, having been raped by the man she believes to be her father; thinking her children are dead, she is married off to Mister (Isaiah Johnson), who beats her and forbids her from seeing her beloved sister, Nettie (Joaquina Kalukango). In adapting the book for the stage, Marsha Norman skips quickly past this harrowing start—which is understandable, given how it might play in a musical. But without that raw early pain, Celie’s evolution is at risk of seeming less compelling. In the 2005 production, starring LaChanze, Celie sometimes seemed like a side
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Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof: Theater review by David Cote Although the titans Zero Mostel, Jerome Robbins and Harold Prince are reflexively linked to this 1964 classic, there’s another, uncredited, father of Fiddler on the Roof. It’s Marc Chagall, the painter whose flying violinists inspired the title. During the development of Fiddler (when it was still called Tevye), director-choreographer Robbins approached Chagall to do the set and costumes. The artist couldn’t commit, but his spirit lingered. Now, in Bartlett Sher’s magnificent, life-affirming revival, the Chagallian gift of levitation extends not just to an airborne fiddler (in a purple coat straight out of Green Violinist) but also to the very buildings of Anatevka, which designer Michael Yeargan suspends in midair. The image is dreamy yet cautionary, evoking a feeling of carefree weightlessness but also serving as a reminder that our little lives can be uprooted and blown to the wind at any moment. Such rich ambivalence runs through much of Sher’s elegant and deeply satisfying staging, which might have taken a page from Wonder of Wonders, Alisa Solomon’s cultural history of Fiddler. She notes that “the show’s essential gesture is dialectical: It looks backward and forward, favors both individual and community needs…bewails and celebrates.” Sher devises a frame to underscore our distance from the musical—and its source, stories by Sholem Aleichem. A man (Danny Burstein) in a red parka walks onstage reading Tevye’s opening li
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Beautiful—The Carole King Musical
Beautiful—The Carole King Musical shares several virtues with its titular singer-songwriter, among them humility, earnestness and dedication to craft. If Douglas McGrath’s book never achieves the dramatic grit or comic zip of Jersey Boys, at least director Marc Bruni’s production avoids being a brain-dead, self-satisfied hit parade à la Berry Gordy’s Motown. Still, it does seem that stretches of Broadway’s newest jukebox musical consist of situations such as this: “Carole, you’ve got to write us a hit!” “I’ve written something.” “It’s a hit!” Yes, Beautiful loves its diligent, long-suffering pop genius, and invites you to do the same. It’s quite an easy task when you have the phenomenal Jessie Mueller in the lead. The effortlessly appealing star cut her teeth on Broadway flops (the mis-reconceived On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) and in supporting parts (The Mystery of Edwin Drood). Now she’s ready to carry a show. As Brooklyn-raised King, who started churning out teenybopper tunes at 1650 Broadway in the late ’50s, Mueller exudes warmth and common sense, playing up King’s old-fashioned modesty and insecurity without becoming a doormat or cipher. And when she wraps her rich, burnished voice around those hits—“So Far Away,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “It’s Too Late”—they feel as fresh as the day King penned them. McGrath’s deft, wry book tracks its hero’s tortured first marriage to lyricist-partner Gerry Goffin (Jake Epstein) and their friendly rivalry with anothe
Read moreFree things to do this Friday
Hot Rabbit
This long-running girlcentric party goes down every Friday night at Boots and Saddle. DJs from NYC and beyond ensure that you'll never encounter the same scene twice, but you can rely on a cute mixed crowd and sexy go-go dancers to help you get in touch with your inner bunny.
Read moreNolita Market
This flea reopens in March, and though the list of sellers at this under-the-radar market is small, the variety of budget-friendly finds is massive. Expect to see loot like dainty pendant necklaces ($30) from Cameo Sisters and graphic tees ($34) from Dangerous Breed. But you’ll want to revisit the flea each month to scope out new additions from interchangable vendors.
Read moreLesbo-a-GoGo
Gay ladies pack the upstairs dance floor at Stonewall for this Friday night party featuring cheap drinks with visiting guests rotating on the decks.
Read moreLinda Loves Bingo!
For some reason, drag and bingo just work together, especially when a high-voltage queen like Linda Simpson is running the show. Head to this weekly happy hour game for a wild twist on the classic game show, with dollar store prizes, game-related drink specials, and appearances from burlesque and drag stars.
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Prelude 2016
This totally free, utterly unmissable festival at the CUNY Graduate Center showcases snippets from upcoming avant-garde work, offering the theatrical and dance equivalent of a "coming attractions" series. Curators—Tom Sellar and Antje Oegel have assembled a typically diverse bunch of art-makers, including Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Sibyl Kempson, David Levine, Big Dance Theater, Kate Benson, I Am a Boys Choir, the Living Theater and Built for Collapse.
Read moreTitus Andronicus
The young punks in Titus Andronicus are wise beyond their years: Singer Patrick Stickles and his band craft meaningful, epic records with an abundance of cultural references and even more bite. Their decade-spanning catalogue of work culminated last year with the ambitious release of a 30-plus–song rock opera in five acts, theatrically titled The Most Lamentable Tragedy.
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Oktoberfest at Bierhaus NYC
Oktoberfest technically ends on October 16, but there are two extra weeks of suds-soaked festivities at this midtown beer hall, including keg tapping with special guests and its annual bratwurst-eating championship. In addition to the wieners, find slow-roasted pork shank, sauerkraut and soft pretzels imported from Germany. The salty snacks will complement five Hofbräu drafts, like Dunkel and Hefe Weizen all of which can be ordered two liters at a time in “Das Boot.”
Read moreI Don't Get It
Matt Schwartzer and Gary Levitt host a revolving door of comedians (like Josh Gondelman, Phoebe Robinson and Myq Kaplan) at this free weekly show nestled in a rock & roll bar.
Read moreMovies to see this Friday
The Magnificent Seven
Occasional man-of-action Denzel Washington hits the prairie, along with his Training Day costar Ethan Hawke, for this rousing spin on an iconic Western.
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Queen of Katwe
Teenage cast members and 12 Years a Slave’s magnetic Lupita Nyong’o light up Mira Nair’s uplifting, sympathetic story of a Ugandan chess champion.
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Blair Witch
Did they really? How could they possibly reboot it? With a crafty director in The Guest’s Adam Wingard and much attention paid to scaring you silly, that’s how.
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Bridget Jones's Baby
Renée Zellweger is back in her signature role, still lovably awkward and—this time—surprisingly magnetic to the opposite sex.
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Kubo and the Two Strings
A mature and gorgeous stop-motion–animated film about feudal Japan and a family’s mythical legacy? Summer should always be this smart.
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Kate Plays Christine
In this hypnotic doc-fiction hybrid, we follow actor Kate Lyn Sheil, who takes a deep plunge into the troubled life of ’70s Florida news reporter Christine Chubbuck.
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Morris from America
A widowed African-American dad and his 13-year-old kid carve out a life in Germany in this consistently fresh comedy
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Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
When the legendary Werner Herzog turns on his documentary camera and begins asking if the internet itself can dream, you go to find out
Read moreConcerts to see this Friday
Groovy Groovy presents Bruce
Bristol, U.K.-based artist Bruce makes his NYC debut at DIY party Groovy Groovy. The young producer and DJ first gained recognition with “Just Getting Started” (his 2014 debut via Livity Sound's Dnuos Ytivil), and his latest EPs on Hessle Audio (Steals) and Idle Hands (The Trouble with Wilderness) are easily contenders for 2016's best releases. Receiving massive support from artists such as Hessle boss Ben UFO, Bruce continues to explore far beyond any pre-imposed genre conventions, instead meticulously picking apart sounds to create a unique framework. Discwoman cofounder and producer-DJ Umfang, Noods Radio and Bossa Nova Civic Club resident Shy Eyez, and Pop Quiz's Excalibur join the lineup, with support from Groovy Groovy residents Teleself, Akanbi and Yogic.
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Laura Benanti: Tales from Soprano Isle
The enchanting Benanti has captured Broadway's heart in shows from Into the Woods and Gypsy through Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and this year's She Loves Me. (She also stole NBC's The Sound of Music Live from right under Carrie Underwood's nose.) In her debut engagement at the Carlyle, she takes a humorous tour of her high-flying career to date.
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Shamir + Waxahatchee + Mutual Benefit
This Housing Works benefit concert combines three buzzy indie powerhouses on this intriguingly heterogenous bill: indie-popper Shamir Bailey who raps and croons over undeniably infectious R&B-infused four-on-the-floor beats; Waxahatchee, the vulnerable and triumphant-yet--bittersweet indie-pop project of singer-songsmith Katie Crutchfield; and Jordan Lee's wistful, dreamy and amorphous orchestral folk collective Mutual Benefit. Proceeds go toward Housing Works' wraparound services and supportive programs for New Yorkers living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
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Sigur Rós
Icelandic band Sigur Rós maintains a seemingly unpiercable facade beyond its remote native land—blame it on the combo's brainy, loose dreamscapes, which turned unexpectedly turbulent and aggressive on its most recent effort, Kveikur. The group pared down in recent years to a trio after the departure of keyboardist Kjartan "Kjarri" Sveinsson, but you can expect the trim lineup to craft an enormously expansive, otherwordly experience nonetheless.
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Tammy Faye Starlite: Holy War 2016—The New Regime
After triumphant ventures into the worlds of Nico and Marianne Faithfull, satirical songstress Starlite returns to her old alter-ego stomping grounds as a barnstorming, crop-burning, earth-salting evangelist country singer. Be warned: There's not much she won't say or sing.
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The Sharon Needles Halloween Special
Spooky, arty, controversial RuPaul's Drag Race winner Sharon Needles brings her signature acid wit and creepy aesthetic to NYC for a pre-Halloween show.
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The lower east side festival of the arts does not have a show on Friday. It's on Saturday.
You say kayak on the Hudson on Friday, but it says it's ONLY available on SATURDAYS in August!!!!!! Please fix!!!!