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
Switch N' Play
Brooklyn's most subversive ensemble brings their outrageous brand of drag and burlesque to National Sawdust for their annual VAMP blowout. Witness gender-obliterating, hyper-inclusive comedy and stunts from the mischievous minds of Divina GranSparkle, K.James, Miss Malice, Nyx Nocturne, Pearl Harbor, Vigor Mortis, and Zoe Ziegfeld,alongside guest artists Vander Von Odd and Miscallaneous Dom Top.
"Harry Potter: A History of Magic"
Dive into the ancestors of the world’s most-beloved magical saga at this spectacular exhibition, which collects artifacts from the British Library, the New-York Historical Society and J.K. Rowling’s own archives. You’ll learn about the history of dragons, griffins and other essentials of Hogwarts lore, peer at rare notes and art from Rowling and illustrator Mary GrandPré, and view costumes from the current production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Brace yourself for a museum gift shop more packed than Honeydukes.
The Winter Show
History buffs can explore 60-plus installations at this vintage art and antiques fair, where you’ll find some luxurious and incredibly detailed housewares, furniture and artwork. The fair benefits the community-based organization East Side House Settlement, which works to bring quality education and resources to residents of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan.
Vogue Knitting LIVE!
Take your hobby to the next level at this high-fashion, high-intensity convention for thread fanatics. Attend classes on stitches, color patterns and mosaic knitting; catch runway shows; and buy yarns from around the world at the marketplace.
Dianna Agron
Best known for playing mean-girl cheerleader and teen mom Quinn on TV's Glee, Agron returns to the Carlyle with a set of songs made famous by female singers or female-fronted bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Donny McCaslin
For more than two decades, protean saxist and composer Donny McCaslin has relentlessly expanded his musical purview in a variety of ensemble settings: as a sideman, as the pilot of his own diverse groups and, more recently, as a collaborator on the late Bowie's final album, Blackstar. That investment in genres outside of jazz is visible on the tenorist’s recent work, including his latest, 2018's Blow. Here, McCaslin performs with bandmembers pianist Jason Lindner, drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Tim Lefebvre. Read our interview with Donny McCaslin.
"Punk Lust: Raw Provocation, 1971–1985"
For over a decade, the hot cultural miasma of punk erupted right out of New York City. It was an era of explosive rock & roll, swirling gender boundaries, fierce women and game-changing fashion—rooted in the sex work industry, counter-culture and iconic performance venues of ’70s NYC. Explore how the movement was born out of—and forever changed—cultural understandings of gender and sex work at this new exhibition, curated by cultural critic Carlo McCormick, artist Lissa Rivera and "punk professor" Vivien Goldman. At areas like "Art and Film," "Deconstructing Gender," "Sex/Work," "Fetish and Fashion" and "Rebellion and Provocation," you can see rare costumes, photographs, flyers, letters and films from icons of the era like Johnny Thunder, Malcolm McLaren and Sable Starr. NYC has certainly changed since the heyday of Blondie and Suicide. But there's no touching the city's immortal legacy as the birthplace of cultural rebellion.
Popular things to do this Friday
Breaking Surface
A man's relationship with his flighty artistic muse is the subject of this mystical dance-theater spectacle, which features aerialism, acrobatics and multiple evocations of water and air. Staged site-specifically at a secret Williamsburg location, the show is conceived and directed by 5th Wall Studio's Gwyneth Larsen and William Mulholland.
Zadig & Voltaire sample sale
Much like the clothes from this edgy brand, the discounts are usually fierce—we’re talking up to 80 percent off certain styles. In the past, we've nabbed handbags for $249 (were $498), T-shirts for $29.40 (formerly $98) and men's long-sleeved sweaters for $103.20 (instead of $258). During this sale, there are separate locations for men (104 Grand St, through Jan 20) and women (153 Mercer St, through Jan 27).
Never Before Never Again
Triskelion Arts presents its fifth annual festival of improvisation. Over the course of three weeks, a variety of companies from different wings of the arts—notably dance and music—invent works in real time; in addition to the performances, there are workshops and jams. Participating artists include the Lovelies, Site Project, Hannah Wendel & Artists, Sarah Chien, Nicole Wolcott & Guests and azumi O E + Sean Ali + Carlo Costa.
Gatz
Theater review by David Cote [Note: This is a review of the 2010 production of Gatz. The show returns in 2019 for an encore run at the Skirball Center, with its original cast.] “Since the introduction of printing, and the fatal development of the habit of reading amongst the middle and lower classes,” Oscar Wilde wrote in The Critic as Artist, “there has been a tendency in literature to appeal more and more to the eye, and less and less to the ear which…from the standpoint of pure art, it should seek to please.” An aesthete who elevated recitation over print, Wilde would have been quite flummoxed by Gatz, the jaw-dropping literary installation by Elevator Repair Service. This eight-hour-plus immersion—in which 13 actors read aloud every blessed word of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—is thoroughly aural, even musical. And yet, the production acts upon the eye, through a meticulously layered physical score buzzing around Scott Shepherd, our intensely listenable narrator. Shepherd reads beautifully; we watch him read; we listen; we imagine that we read along with him; and so Fitzgerald’s images are burned into our brains by an indirect circuit of seeing and hearing on intermeshed levels. After eight hours of this, our narrative-absorbing faculties have been so recalibrated that we forget where ERS’s frame ends and Fitzgerald’s picture begins. Directors John Collins and Steve Bodow and their ensemble created the piece and presented a work-in-progress in January 2005 in
Switch N' Play
Brooklyn's most subversive ensemble brings their outrageous brand of drag and burlesque to National Sawdust for their annual VAMP blowout. Witness gender-obliterating, hyper-inclusive comedy and stunts from the mischievous minds of Divina GranSparkle, K.James, Miss Malice, Nyx Nocturne, Pearl Harbor, Vigor Mortis, and Zoe Ziegfeld,alongside guest artists Vander Von Odd and Miscallaneous Dom Top.
"Harry Potter: A History of Magic"
Dive into the ancestors of the world’s most-beloved magical saga at this spectacular exhibition, which collects artifacts from the British Library, the New-York Historical Society and J.K. Rowling’s own archives. You’ll learn about the history of dragons, griffins and other essentials of Hogwarts lore, peer at rare notes and art from Rowling and illustrator Mary GrandPré, and view costumes from the current production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Brace yourself for a museum gift shop more packed than Honeydukes.
The Winter Show
History buffs can explore 60-plus installations at this vintage art and antiques fair, where you’ll find some luxurious and incredibly detailed housewares, furniture and artwork. The fair benefits the community-based organization East Side House Settlement, which works to bring quality education and resources to residents of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan.
L-E-V: Love Chapter 2
The Israeli troupe, the brainchild of longtime Batsheva Dance Company member Sharon Eyal and rave producer Gai Behar, returns to New York—the only North American destination on its 2019 world tour—with a full-length piece about love and disconnection, set to techno beats by DJ Ori Lichtik.
Get Reel
At their monthly show, scream queens Max Wittert and Joe Castle Baker invite comedians to provide live, totally bananas voice overs for movie clips. January's "Recon" edition brings sexy sister spy duo Anananastasia (Castle Baker) and Versachki (Wittert) to Brooklyn for their most disastrous mission ever. They're joined by fellow agents Farah Brook, Matt Barats, Irene Morales, Mary Houlihan and Sydnee Washington.
Vogue Knitting LIVE!
Take your hobby to the next level at this high-fashion, high-intensity convention for thread fanatics. Attend classes on stitches, color patterns and mosaic knitting; catch runway shows; and buy yarns from around the world at the marketplace.
Free things to do this Friday
Bitches Brew
Halyard's brings you jokes from a bunch of very funny ladies at this free show brought to you by Naomi Karavani, Melissa Stokoski, Shelby Taylor and Erica Spera.
The Courtroom
Waterwell travels to various locations in the city with a free dramatic reenactment of real-life deportation proceedings, built from court-transcript texts assembled by Arian Moayed. The company's newly appointed artistic director, Lee Sunday Evans (Dance Nation), directs a cast that includes Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek and Ruthie Ann Miles.
Side Ponytail
This free weekly getdown from Carolyn Busa, Julia Shiplett, Ben Wasserman and Emily Winter is a reliable night for solid laughs and surprise stars in Crown Heights.
"Crusader: Martin Luther King Jr."
This exhibition at the Schomburg Center features intimate, lesser-known photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including photos of his pilgrimage to India, his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance in Norway and other moments of travel, rest and celebration throughout his life. The exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the first biography of King, Dr. L.D. Reddick's Crusader Without Violence.
Movies to see this Friday
Vice
Utterly transformed via a small phalanx of makeup artists, Christian Bale anchors Adam McKay's biopic of Dick Cheney
On the Basis of Sex
Felicity Jones stars in this impressively brainy dramatization of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s rise to legal prominence
Cold War
Pawel Pawlikowski’s epic love story is an achingly romantic and melancholic joy
If Beale Street Could Talk
Barry Jenkins follows up Moonlight with more evidence of his emotional gifts
Mary Poppins Returns
Emily Blunt is hypnotically charming in this big-hearted contact high
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Nutso yet often inspired, this animated Spidey reboot is worth shelving your Spider-fatigue for
Suspiria
Luca Guadagnino's creative and creepy spin on the horror classic finds moves of its own
Burning
Unfolding with grace and precision, Lee Chang-dong’s slowburn Korean mystery is beautifully executed
Shirkers
Sandi Tan reckons with the indie film she almost made as a teen—and the man who stole it
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
It's a powerhouse acting showcase for Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant
Concerts to see this Friday
Dianna Agron
Best known for playing mean-girl cheerleader and teen mom Quinn on TV's Glee, Agron returns to the Carlyle with a set of songs made famous by female singers or female-fronted bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Donny McCaslin
For more than two decades, protean saxist and composer Donny McCaslin has relentlessly expanded his musical purview in a variety of ensemble settings: as a sideman, as the pilot of his own diverse groups and, more recently, as a collaborator on the late Bowie's final album, Blackstar. That investment in genres outside of jazz is visible on the tenorist’s recent work, including his latest, 2018's Blow. Here, McCaslin performs with bandmembers pianist Jason Lindner, drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Tim Lefebvre. Read our interview with Donny McCaslin.
Vijay Iyer
Trailblazing pianist Vijay Iyer, one of his generation's brightest jazz luminaries, explores jazz, pop and electronica vanguards with equal curiosity. You can hear the eclecticism throughout his impressively prolific portfolio the past few years: chamber works, a multimedia collaboration, a curatorial position as Musical Director of the Ojai Music Festival… Here he settles into a roomy residency with the fiery sextet featured on his 2017 album Far From Over (save for new additions bassist Nick Dunston bass and acclaimed drummer Tyshawn Sorey) on Jan 24–26, as well as in a smaller trio format Jan 22 and 23.
