Things to do on a Sunday in New York

A revival of Cats, at least in theory, might well give you paws. After a then-record 18-year run on Broadway—with a tagline, “NOW AND FOREVER,” that began to sound a bit like a threat—Andrew Lloyd Webber's synthtastic 1980s musical finally hung up its leotards and yak-hair wigs in 2000. Its comeback efforts since then have been less than overwhelming: a taxidermic 2016 revival, a widely mocked 2019 film. It seemed as though the show had been condemned to obsolescence, humbled and disavowed like its own once-grand Grizabella the Glamour Cat. But now along comes a thrilling reconception that not only rescues Cats from the oversize junkyard but lifts it, like Grizabella herself, to unexpected heights. After an already-legendary Off Broadway debut at the Perelman Arts Center in 2024, this production—under the chosen name Cats: The Jellicle Ball–has now re-inhabited Broadway, where it remains a categorical triumph. 

Is Cats good or bad? That’s a question without an answer. Cats is beyond good and bad. Cats is Cats. Cats is about cats competing to be sent into the ionosphere. Cats is about cats who sing light verse from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, an exercise in high silliness that sits at the classy end of an anthropomorphic-cat comedy genre that includes, at lower stations, New Yorker cartoons and I Can Has Cheezburger? memes. Cats is about Andrew Lloyd Webber writing a lot more melodies than he often does (to fit the requirements of Eliot’s meter) and producing many bangers right out of his hat. Cats is about human dancers performing feline, weirdly sexy moves. At its best, it’s ridiculous and kind of magical. At its worst, it’s just ridiculous. 

For the first time in five decades, a retrospective spotlighting the radical modern works and revolutionary readymades of Marcel Duchamp is coming to North America and, more specifically, New York’s Museum of Modern Art. On view from April 12 to August 22 in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Marcel Duchamp will feature nearly 300 pieces spanning six decades and all mediums, from his Cubist masterpiece Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) to his “portable museum,” The Box in a Valise. 

Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station has always been a bit of a shapeshifter. To commuters, it’s always been a Downtown Brooklyn workhorse. But to filmmakers, it’s played everything from Union Square to a fantasy realm. Now, as the station turns 90, Brooklyn Academy of Music is giving it top billing.

Running from April 9–16, “Hoyt-Schermerhorn: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors” is a weeklong film series dedicated entirely to movies shot in and around the station. Programmed by Adam Goldberg as part of BAM Film 2026, the lineup is both a birthday celebration and a cinematic scavenger hunt, where spotting a familiar tile or platform becomes part of the fun.

If you can’t make it to Augusta, New York is getting the next best thing—minus the azaleas, plus a ShackBurger. For four days this month, IBM will turn Madison Square Park into an immersive viewing hub for the Masters Tournament, complete with live broadcasts, an AI-powered golf simulator and a menu centered around golf’s most tradition-bound events.

Dubbed “Masters at Madison Square Park,” the pop-up will run from Thursday, April 9, through Sunday, April 12. Coverage will start as early as 7:30 am on opening day, with the space staying active through the final round on Sunday evening.

The biggest draw (beyond the obvious appeal of watching one of golf’s most iconic tournaments outdoors) is a simulator that lets visitors take a swing at a recreated hole from the Masters. The experience is powered by IBM’s WatsonX platform and will include “Hole Insights,” a data-heavy breakdown that mimics the analytics pros (and broadcasters) use during the tournament itself.

The Big Umbrella Festival at Lincoln Center returns with another year of programming aimed at neurodiverse audiences of all ages, from babies to adults. From immersive productions that take audiences on a journey to Antarctica to an ASL Baby Slam aimed at promoting language acquisition, the festival is teeming with events that welcome audiences across the Lincoln Center campus from April 10 through 26. Most shows are pay-what-you-wish, so families can feel free to map out their own singular experience.  

Jeremy Pinsly and his wife-slash-business partner Kayla Pinsly are officially debuting their new Greenpoint Comedy Club (66 Greenpoint Ave.) with an opening weekend celebration set for April 10 and 11 featuring comedy acts, music, food and more. The opening night performance on April 10 (featuring Alison Leiby, Usama Siddiquee, John F O'Donnell, Napoleon Emill and special guests) is sold out, but tickets are available for the April 11 showcase, featuring Daniel Simonsen, Jay Jurden, Rachel Williams and more. Go for the comedy, stay for the bar and communal vibes.

If your spring calendar is still looking a little… indoorsy so far, here’s a quick fix: take your movie night to the roof.

Rooftop Cinema Club has returned to midtown with a lineup focused on crowd-pleasers and date-night classics with just enough nostalgia. The concept is simple but effective: open-air (well, technically enclosed and heated for spring), skyline views, wireless headphones and a rotating schedule of films.

April’s theme, “Don’t judge a book by its movie,” brings a literary twist to the programming, with adaptations like Pride & Prejudice, The Great Gatsby (2013) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s anchoring the schedule. But if you’re less into period drama and more into emotional chaos or blockbuster escapism, there’s plenty of that too—The Notebook, Crazy Rich Asians and The Hunger Games are also in the lineup.

Smorgasburg returned the first weekend of April for its 16th season, bringing back more than 70 food vendors with one of the most globally diverse lineups the market has seen yet.

This year’s edition of the beloved open-air food market features 74 vendors across its two flagship locations (at Marsha P. Johnson State Park in Williamsburg, and at Breeze Hill in Prospect Park) this year. That includes 22 newcomers serving everything from Korean shaved ice and Fuzhounese dumplings to Mexico City-style tacos and Colombian grilled meats. 

Both markets will run weekly from 11 am to 6 pm through October.

Back to spotlight emerging, boundary-pushing new voices in cinema, the 55th annual New Directors/New Films festival will take over Lincoln Center from April 8 to 19. "With a focus on innovative cinema that sets the stage for the future of film," the 2026 lineup will screen 24 feature-length films and 10 shorts, including festival winners and favorites from Cannes, Sundance, Venice and more. Screenings will be held at FLC’s Walter Reade Theater and MoMA’s Titus theaters, and many of them will include post-movie Q&As with the filmmakers themselves. See the full schedule here.

Starting this Sunday, March 29, The Met is going all in Raphael, in what will be the first comprehensive exhibition of the great master in the U.S. “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” will be on view through June 28, pulling more than 170 of the Renaissance star’s works from museums and collections around the world. The show follows the artist’s entire career, from early days in Urbino (where he was born in 1483 to a painter-poet father) to his rise in Florence, where his peers were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and finally to his years in Rome as the go-to artist for the papal court.

There are heavyweights—like “The Alba Madonna,” which is on loan from the National Gallery of Art, and the Louvre’s “Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione,” considered one of the finest portraits of the High Renaissance—but the exhibition also sheds light on Raphael’s processes. Finished works are shown alongside preparatory drawings, sketches and studies, giving a glimpse into his obsessive dedication to composition, anatomy and emotion.