FREE in NYC (Summer 2016)

It's almost summer, so it's time to think about all the cool free things to do here. Start your list now...

Number one for me is Broadway in Bryant Park. Bring your lunch, and you can watch numbers from current Broadway shows on Thursdays from July through mid-August. As I am volunteering for the Whitney every Thursday afternoon, I won't be able to attend this year, but if you are in town, go, go, go!! Bryant Park also offers author talks (the list isn't posted yet, but in the past couple of years I've seen Candace Bushnell, Kevin Smith, Meghan McCain and Michael Ian Black, and Christopher McDougall), Wednesday night dance parties (May 4 - June 22), a book club, and lots of events for kids. Plus, you can play petanque, sunbathe on the lawn, bird watch, or just people-watch. And it's all free.

While you're in the area, stop by the New York Public Library and say hello to Patience and Fortitude, as well as the original Winnie The Pooh animals that belonged to Christopher Robin Milne.

New York is famous for its "free" Shakespeare in the Park. Free tickets are available day-of-show through four methods, including a virtual lottery. This year, the plays are Troilus and Cressida and an all-female rendition of The Taming of the Shrew. (We've seen the Donmar Warehouse do all-female Henry IV and Julius Caesar, and both were incredible. I'm not sure how they'll pull off a romance play, though. Cush Jumbo is an incredible actress, and Janet McTeer is playing Petruchio, so at least we'll have great talent giving it a go.) If you absolutely must see the show and aren't willing to risk the lines/lottery, you can reserve a seat by becoming a Summer Supporter. It will cost you $200, but your donation is tax-deductible.

Friday thru Sunday evenings at dusk, from May 7 to June 11, a group called Creative Time is presenting Duke Riley's Fly By Night in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. At the call of a whistle, thousands of pigeons with LED lights attached to their feet will swoop, glide and twirl in the evening sky. You have to register online, but it's free. 

If you're a movie buff, the City offers lots of outdoor options once the weather gets nice. A full list of movies showing in the NYC parks is available online here. You can also watch free movies on the flight deck of the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in the summer. (Top Gun on May 27th!!)

Last summer, I went to Lincoln Center Out of Doors for the first time to see the Mavericks. Orkesta Mendoza was the opening act, and they were terrific, but I could listen to Raul Malo sing for the rest of my life. It was hotter than the hinges of hell, but the show was great. And I managed to get myself a front-row spot right up along the barricades. Other acts last summer included Afropunk and Lyle Lovett and his Large Band. This season, you can see Patti Smith, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Darlene Love, as well as a tribute to Lou Reed.

Other free concert options include:

• City Winery has free concerts on Tuesdays. 
• Summerstage at Central Park offers a wide variety of free concerts through September. You will see me there on June 13 for the Barenaked Ladies / OMD / Howard Jones show (though that one's not free...)
• Madison Square Park Free concerts on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer
• Prospect Park Bandshell The Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival has lots of free concerts between June and August. This year's slate includes Ray LaMontagne and The Lumineers among many others.
• Bargemusic at Brooklyn Bridge Park
• There's a full summer concert list online compliments of DNA Info, though this also includes not-free options.

Outdoor movie viewing is also a fun, free option for the spring and summer nights. DNA Info has posted a full list of where, what and when.

If you're into stargazing, you can check out the night sky every Tuesday between April and October (weather permitting) on the High Line near the 14th Street entrance. Members of the Amateur Astronomers' Association bring their telescopes out at dusk and stay till just before the park closes. (That's 10pm in spring and fall, and 11pm in summer.) I've seen Venus, moon craters, the rings of Saturn, and a lunar eclipse, among other things.

The High Line also offers lots of free events for people of all ages in the spring, summer and early fall. The full schedule of events is available online here. Join one of the docents (maybe me!) for a free public tour on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings...And if you like, while you're on their website, you can read a post from the High Line blog about me. :)

Hudson River Park also has lots of fun summer events. Bigger events like the Hudson River Dance Festival and Hudson River Flicks, as well as fishing, kayaking, and nature walks.

Lots of museums have free or pay-what-you-wish days as well. Or come wander around the art galleries in Chelsea. Emerging and established artists show and sell their work in dozens of galleries in the neighborhood, and entry is always free. They're generally open Tuesdays-Saturdays, and the opening receptions are on Thursday nights. A couple I saw today:

A piece of the really creepy The Marionette Maker at Luhring Augustine

A mesmerizing video installation by Yorgo Alexopoulos at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery 

If this isn't enough for you, The Skint is a website that posts free and cheap things daily online. It won't help you to plan in advance, but if you wake up looking for something to do, check them out. (Free lecture at the Skyscraper Museum? Why not?) Or add yourself to their e-list to get daily and weekend updates.

Almost of the above are things I've had the chance to check out while I've been here. I'm sure I'm missing tons of other cool things. For a more complete list of free stuff (or kid stuff or must-see stuff, or hotel information or...) to do in NYC, visit NYCGO.

Finally, check out my other blog posts if you're looking for my personal recommendations about what to do while you're in the City or my list of water-related amusements.

The King and I, Saint Faustina, and KC (Bruuuuuce!)

The week after Divine Mercy Sunday, some relics of Saint Faustina visited churches in the 5 boroughs. I tried to visit them at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, but they'd left for Staten Island. It's a beautiful church, though it's currently undergoing some renovation. The stained glass is gorgeous.

But on Wednesday, they came to (new) St. Patrick's Cathedral where I was able to catch up to them. The reliquary was designed and built by my brother's college roommate, Eric Winogradoff. 

After my visit to Saint Faustina, I had lunch with my friend Suki, and then it was off to Lincoln Center to see The King and I. I can't say enough about this show. It's the best musical I've seen so far, and my seat in the 3rd row was amazing. (Aside from the woman behind me whose phone rang 6 times before intermission, the 3-year-old in front of me who couldn't sit still and had to be taken out twice, and the grandmother to my left who felt it was her role to explain, audibly, every single action to her 10-year-old granddaughter. How do I get so lucky?) 

Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe were wonderful as Anna and the King. Their chemistry is undeniable, and the final scene had me sobbing. The costumes are incredible, and the sets...wow. The opening scene is so impressive--I've never seen anything like it! But the real surprise for me was Ruthie Ann Miles, who plays Lady Thiang. When she sang Something Wonderful, I was overwhelmed (and not a little choked up) by her gorgeous voice. Hopefully, she'll be staying in the role after Kelli O'Hara leaves the show. 

Thursday, Ed and I headed to KC to see The Boss. This is my second and his third time seeing The River tour, and it was our favorite. Candy's Room, No Surrender, Rosalita...Some of my favorite less-than-well-known songs made the encore. Thanks to our friends, Marc and Kirstin, we had a fabulous time!

My friend, Kristie, was in the front row and provided lots of good photos. 

When you're too far away, however, you take a photo of the Jumbotron, rather than the stage.

It's always fun to visit KC. We hit the trifecta, food-wise, while we were home. Jack Stack (the Poor Russ sandwich, of course), The Peanut (triple-decker BLT), and Winstead's (though for breakfast rather than a burger). I got to visit with my friend, MC, and her kids. Ed and I hung out on the porch at Tower Tavern with friends from Shook. And we spent a night at Kelly's with lots and lots of good friends.

Harlem, Sense and Sensibility, a UD friend, and Lincoln Center fun

I think I've mentioned before how much I love my Frommer's 24 Great Walks of New York book. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to head up to Harlem and check that one off my list. I actually did it backward, since I wanted to start with lunch at the Red Rooster, which I can highly recommend. The Crispy Bird sandwich is unreal. And humongous. Of course, I finished it...

Leaving the Red Rooster, I headed uptown toward City College, which is a gorgeous campus.

The architecture in Harlem is really incredible. It looks like it's gentrifying - lots of the brownstones are being gut renovated, by the look of them - so I'll be curious to see what happens in that neighborhood in the coming years. I saw some beautiful 1880s mansions in Hamilton Heights that, if memory serves, were designed by a guy named Adolph Hoak. 

And I stopped by the Grange, former home of Alexander Hamilton (City College in the background)

A lot more wandering around occurred as well, but the photos aren't that good. :) The walk is 2.3 miles (3.7K) and entertained me for several hours on a beautiful spring day.

Random shot of a multi-tasker in the subway. Yep, that's a hula hoop she's got going on. 

(I love New York!)

Wednesday, my friend Ken invited me to an open rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic. We spent 2.5 hours listening to the musicians rehearse de Falla and Massenet and take notes from the conductor for that evening's performance. It was great to see them at work, and in their civilian clothes.

Afterward, I sped down to the Village to see Bedlam Theatre's production of Sense and Sensibility in the Gym at Judson. It's a total romp, and I loved it. You can see behind the scenes as they're getting ready for the show.

The actors play multiple characters, scenery spins around, sometimes with the actors in tow, and if you're in the first row, be prepared: You're going to be part of the action. Ed and I had recently seen Jason O'Connell, the actor who plays Edward and Robert Ferrars, in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Pearl. He is unbelievable. And the transition of Samantha Steinmetz and Laura Baranik between the two characters each portray was a masterclass in the use of body language. They just extended the run through the beginning of October, so there's still time to get tickets. One odd thing: This is the only show I've ever seen where you get your Playbill on the way out, rather than on your way in.

After seeing Sense and Sensibility, I spent the afternoon and evening with a college friend and her college-hunting daughter. 

We toured the High Line, ate dinner at Malatesta in the Village, walked over to Washington Square Park then up to Union Square (with a stop at Baked by Melissa cupcakes, of course), on to Madison Square Park and finally, to Eataly. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next night, Ed and I met up with Nicole on her own.

On Tuesday, I headed up to Lincoln Center to buy a ticket to see the King and I. While I was up there, I stopped by the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts to see a Shakespeare exhibition I'd read about. This year marks the 400th year of his death, so he's all over New York. But first, I discovered an exhibition about Mozart's The Magic Flute, complete with costumes from the last 200 years. 

An early costume for the Queen of the Night (I wish I'd noted by whom and from when)

Here are a couple by Julie Taymor (of Lion King fame):

The Queen of the Night with Papageno and Papagena

Pamina, Sarastro, and Tamino

Here's Marc Chagall's take

Maurice Sendak's 1981 set design for the Houston Grand Opera

And Sir Gerald Scarfe (I've never heard of him, but I liked the giraffe and the baboon mask)

These greet you as you enter the exhibition (also Sir Gerald Scarfe). I love the lion heads.

There's so much more to see, so be sure to stop by if you're interested in opera, set design, costumes, the Masons, or just The Magic Flute in general.

Once through that, I headed to the lower level to see Shakespeare's Star Turn in America. 

Playbills from the 1700s, costumes from the early 20th century, handwritten script notes by Katherine Hepburn and Edwin Booth, as well as sets, props, scenes, videos are all available for you to examine. Three Beatrice costumes from Shakespeare in Central Park 

(L: Blythe Danner's, C: Lily Rabe's, R: Can't remember, but so pretty!)

Here's Ming Cho Lee's set design for Much Ado About Nothing from 1972. 

Indianapolis Art and Theatre

In mid-March, I took a quick trip to Indianapolis to visit family.  While I was there, Mom and I decided to check out the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Sheila and Chris are members, but Mom had never visited. They have an incredible collection. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and didn't see nearly all of it. It's on my to-do list for next time, as well. I asked the guy at the ticket counter what I shouldn't miss, and he sent us in the direction of the Van Goghs. Personally, I think you should go straight to the Caravaggio (there are fewer than a dozen in the US) and go from there. A few highlights:

Mom with a matching Sol LeWitt

Gorgeous Tiffany window created in memory of President Benjamin Harrison by his wife

Erwin Wurm's One Minute Forever (Yogurt Cup), which made me laugh out loud. 

The Caravaggio (Sleeping Cupid)

My favorite painting at the Frick Collection is Bellini's St. Francis of Assisi. The IMA had a visiting exhibition on Bellini and his studio that included this painting of the Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist. It seems so modern to me (probably because of the rainbow-colored angels)--it's hard for me to believe it was painted in the late 15th Century. I love how Bellini signs his paintings. This one looks like an unfolded piece of paper he affixed to the base.

This Francis Criss painting of Greenwich Village (including the Jefferson Market) made me smile. I walk around there all the time, and I've been up in that clock tower. (Thank you Open House New York!) 

One thing I think the Indianapolis Museum of Art does better than any museum I've ever visited is the wall cards. You don't just get the artist's name and years, with the title of the work, and you don't get an art historian's thesis on the piece that makes you feel like an idiot. You get several bullet points that help you to understand better what the artist was trying to do. They don't assume you know anything about art, and they don't talk down to you. For example, here is what they tell the observer about City Landscape above:

1. In this composition, Criss distills the structures of Lower Manhattan into basic geometric shapes and overlapping planes of color.

2. The architectural mishmash of an Art Deco prison (NY Women's House of Detention), a Victorian Gothic courthouse (Jefferson Market), and a pre-war Greenwich Village apartment building provide inspiration for City Landscape. Bisecting the scene is the Sixth Avenue El, an elevated railway razed the same year Criss painted the image. 

3. This approach, reducing views of the world into relationships of form and color, was taken up by many progressive artists of the Modernist era.

Usually, I feel like the wall cards are kind of high brow in their language and their tone. For example, at the Nelson in KC, I read this:  The sculpture..."acknowledges the power of human imagination and technological innovation...Its organic tree-like form also speaks profoundly to the dendritic (branching) structures of nature." Here, however, instead of art feeling like something that's only for intellectuals, this feels like something that is for everyone. You learn what to look for, what you're seeing, and how it might connect with other things you'll be seeing on your visit. I loved it.

The real reason for my visit, though, was my nephew, Henry's, starring role in the 8th grade presentation of Peter Pan. He was incredible, if I do say it myself. :) Disney has created a series of junior versions of plays that are perfect for younger kids. The play lasted about 70 minutes but covered all the basic plot points. My sister was the choreographer; she's the queen of 'simple but entertaining' dancing. The kids did a great job! A high school girlfriend brought her two sons to see the show, so I got to catch up with her as well. It was a terrific night!

Flying to Neverland

Getting a talking-to from Tinkerbell

Flying!

The star with his very proud aunt (You'd think his mother would know by now how not to cut off heads in photos...)