‘too big’
Through February 8 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street, Manhattan; lortel.org.
Wordplay can be fun, funny, even funny. But Gary Gilman takes it to another level that few other stand-ups can match. Anyone who saw his 2016 performance on “Conan,” in which he envisioned a documentary How States Got Their Abbreviations can confirm this.
Gilman’s awareness of himself and the world around him is also quite unparalleled, as seen in his specials. “The Great Depression” From 2019, and “Born on Third Base,” From 2023. For his new Off-Broadway show, “Grandiloquent,” he combines his talents to present a kind of Rosetta Stone that makes him tick as both a comedian and a person. Over the course of 75 minutes, he explores his love of language, examines his relationships with friends, family and strangers, and probes the anxiety that lies beneath it all.
For tickets, which start at $58, and showtimes for this five-week run, visit Theater website. Sean L. McCarthy
Pop and Rock
Pahua
January 10 at 8pm at the Public Records, 233 Butler Street, Brooklyn; publicrecords.nyc.
Throughout her career, singer and producer Paulina Sotomayor has fed an omnivorous, culture-spanning musical appetite. The Mexico City native learned to sing in the regional Mexican tradition of mariachi and performed with the folk rock band Jeffs del Desierto. He later teamed up with his brother Raul, a producer and percussionist, to create electronic dance music inspired by Colombian cumbia and the syncopated rhythms of Peruvian chicha. Now performing solo under the name. PahuaSotomayor synthesizes her influences into richly textured folktronka, anchoring rippling woodwinds and polyrhythmic percussion with thudding, dancefloor-ready beats.
At Friday’s performance sponsored by the nonprofit World Music Institute, Pahua will share a bill with Willie Sol, founder of the globally minded, funk-forward party series Funky Seshua. Tickets are $30.90. dice.fm. Olivia Horne
Jazz
Winter Jazz Fest
January 9-15 at various locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn; winterjazzfest.com.
Now in its 21st year, Bryce Rosenbloom’s Winter Jazz Fest has become a city-wide showcase and celebration as restless as the music itself. Simply put, there’s no way to catch them all, especially during this weekend’s marathon nights on Friday in Manhattan and Saturday in Brooklyn.
One ticket includes seats to numerous clubs, and entertainment on both nights. on Friday, Noble British tuba star Theon Cross hosts (10:45 p.m.) Performance space Featuring singer Michael Mayo (7:30 p.m.) and bassist and bandleader Linda May Han Oh (11 p.m.), and City Winery Favorites like Jenny Scheinman (5:15 pm) and Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band (10:15 pm) are the place to see. on Saturday, Lowe Labs Williamsburg features the cream of the downtown avant-garde, including Darius Jones (9:15 p.m.) and the Matthew Ship Trio (10:30 p.m.). Close to Music Hall of Williamsburgyou can grab crossover delights like Rising Sun (9 PM) and Makaya McCraven (Midnight).
Marathon passes are $85 per night and start at $155 for both nights. You can buy them, as well as stand-alone tickets to the other concerts of the Winter Jazz Fest festival Websitewhere there is more information about all performances. Allan Sherstol
‘Winter Wonder: The Northern Lights Express at Rockefeller Center’
Through January 19 at Hero, 610 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; hero-nyc.com.
Many families visiting Rockefeller Center recently have been watching from the top — 74 feet tall Christmas tree On display until Saturday. But the location also provides holiday charms underfoot.
HeroThe lower level of the center offers an event site. “Winter’s Wonder” A multimedia playspace that evokes a trip to the North Pole.
Open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 8 p.m., and on weekends from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., “Winter Wonder” offers ticket holders. Seats in the Northern Lights Expressa route decorated like a luxury train car, where the windows depict animated scenes of snowy scenery. Passengers disembark to pass through areas such as the sparkling Wishing Woods and Ice Caves, whose soft tips include audio folklore, animated illustrations and models of arctic animals.
Little ones can laugh in the snow bounce room or in the fake snowball pit in the Northern Lights section, where the Aurora Borealis is represented above.
Also hosts an installation gingerbread workshop, which invites children to decorate complimentary wooden ornaments or Hanukkah dreidels. Snowflake Saturday and Sunday11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with face painting and storytelling
Fixed tickets start at $19.96 on weekdays and $28.81 on weekends. Children 2 and under are free. Online reservations are advised. Laurel Graber
Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia
January 10-11 at 7:30 pm Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan; japansociety.org.
Japan Society’s short but reliably fast and often surprising contemporary dance festival is a wonderful way to kick off the year in dance. Since 1997, it has also been an important springboard for many East Asian artists, and this year’s program continues that mission with a lineup that includes a pair of US premieres and the company’s Includes an encore of recent debuts.
Taiwanese choreographer I-Ling Liu, who previously danced with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, presents the duet “… And, Or …,” which explores the many facets of relationships and their limits. . South Korean choreographer Dee Ho Lee, working with company C.Sense, brings “Trivial Perfection,” a mosaic-like piece, piece by piece, into a sprawling work that draws on modern dance, hip-hop, and the like. and martial arts
And Rory Mito from Japan contributes “Where We Were Born.” Performed by eight members of Mito’s company, it explains the infinite complexity of the body. Each night at 7:05 in the theater lobby, Mito continues her exploration of the symbolic layers of the human form with a 15-minute solo that is free and open to the public.
Tickets are $43. Japan Society website. Brian Shaffer
The movie
AI From ‘Metropolis’ to ‘Ex Machina’
January 3-23 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, Manhattan; filmforum.org.
The movie forum series AI from “Metropolis” to “Ex Machina” is subtitled “… or How the Movies Have Bene Warning us for nearly 100.” It’s true: In Fritz Lang’s 1927 “Metropolis” (out Jan. 20), a meandering robot impersonating Maria (both played by Brigitte Helm) showed early on how circuitry could deceive the masses. is On the other hand, what’s more impressive in Steven Spielberg’s “AI” from 2001 (Thursday and Jan. 23) is how much David (Haley Joel Osment), of all circuits, yearns to be human.
And did you know that the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle opens as a thank you for IBM’s help? In Walter Lang’s “Desk Set” (Tues. and Wed.) from 1957, Tracy plays an engineer who plans to add computers to the research department where Hepburn’s character works. He soon discovers that he’s not too bad at doing the math himself. Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Nora and her sisters’ parents) wrote the script. Ben Königsberg
Last chance
‘stereophonic’
Through Jan. 12 at the Golden Theatre, Manhattan; stereophonicplay.com. Running time: 3 hours 10 minutes.
David Adjimi’s Yearning Rock drama With songs by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire, Playwrights Horizons was the hands-down golden ticket during its Off-Broadway run. He has now won five Tonys, including Best Play and Best Direction. Set inside a pair of California recording studios in the mid-1970s, it follows a British-American band on the cusp of fame through the delicate, drawn-out, drug- and sex-fueled process of making their new album. is underway At just over three hours, the play is practically epic in length, but every moment of Daniel Avkin’s drum-tight production, which Moved with its flawless original cast.is worth the time. Read the review.
Critic’s Choice
‘Oh Mary’
Through June 28 at the Lyceum Theatre, Manhattan; ohmaryplay.com. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Channeling the soul of downtown in a charmingly provocative, edgy style Charles Ludlam and his ridiculous theatrical company, this comedy by Cole School. (“Difficult People”) debuted as a fast Broadway hit. Escola stars as a sultry, stage-struck Mary Todd Lincoln—a very loose cannon largely ignored by her husband (Conrad Ricamora), the president, who is otherwise variously sexually abusive and annoying. Engaged in civil war. Read the review.
Critic’s Choice
‘Hell’s Kitchen’
at the Shubert Theatre, Manhattan; hellskitchen.com. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.
Alicia KeysHis own coming-of-age is the inspiration for this jukebox musical, which won two Tonys. Filled with Keys songs, including “Girl on Fire,” “fallen” and “Empire State of Mind,” the story of a 17-year-old girl (Maliha Joy Moonwinner for Best Actress) in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, growing up as an artist. Directed by Michael Griff, the show has a book by Christopher Diaz and choreography by Camille A. Brown. Read the review.
‘outsiders’
at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Manhattan; outdoorrsmusical.com. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes.
Who are the rival gangs in a musical that aren’t the Sharks and the Jets? Here they are the Greasers and the Sox, driven by class animosity just as they were in SE Hinton’s 1967 young-adult novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film. Tulsa, Okla. Set in a version of, where the boys are named Ponyboy and Sodapop, This new adaptation is a show with A rain storm Have you heard? It won four Tonys, including Best Musical and Best Direction for Dania Taimur. With a book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine, it features music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Levine. Read the review.
Critic’s Choice
‘Egon Shelley: Living Scenes’
Through January 13 at the New Gallery, 1048 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; neuegalerie.org.
This stirring, fascinating show of nearly 60 works introduces us to a long-hidden part of Shelley’s career. At a time when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in its final years, he turned to landscape as if to reconstruct a disintegrating world. It is telling that he envisions his landscapes in sharply defined horizontal bars that give the sky, the earth, and the Danube an unwavering, marble-like solidity. The world before him looked nothing like Cézanne’s Arcadian bath scenes or Matisse’s views of sunny hotel rooms in Nice. He did not support the modernist belief that artists could create a new world and saw historical change as a sign of progress. The world that was to come was dark, unsatisfying, and Shiel deserves credit for refusing to pretend otherwise. Read the review.
Critic’s Choice
‘Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All She Meant’
Through Jan. 19 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway; brooklynmuseum.org.
This sweeping and moving memoir, which traces the remarkable life and career of Elizabeth Catlett, puts her radical politics front and center. There are other ways to frame the artist and activist — for example, that she never really made it out of the mainstream art world — but organizers go for the essence, without focusing on her mission. As she understands it. Throughout his work, we see raised eyes and fists, mothers raising children, depictions of heroes like Sojourner Truth or Frederick Douglass; But also sharp angles, volumetric contrasts, terrible negative spaces. Read the review.
‘Sienna: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350’.
Through January 26 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; metmuseum.org.
This spectacular glow-in-the-dark exhibition is a visual spectacle of pure 24-karat beauty and multi-faceted intellectual revolution. Either way, we’ll be lucky if the season brings us anything close to that. It is also rare in other ways. As a major survey of early Italian religious art, this is the kind of show we used to see routinely in our major museums, but rarely do now. Read the review.