The best things to do in NYC this weekend

Cheer for all the cute doggos in their Halloween finery during this year's 25th Annual Great PUPkin Dog Costume Contest on Saturday, October 28. Held every year by Fort Green Park Users and Pets Society since 1998, the event is held at the bottom of the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument stairs, where more than a hundred dogs run around in silly and creative costumes from RBG to hot dogs and more.

This year’s event on Saturday, October 28, is expected to welcome nearly 100 dogs sporting both topical and timeless costumes that make judging the event a challenging feat. While the competition has grown and evolved over the years, one thing hasn’t changed: It’s a dog-gone good time. 

It's free to watch the show.

We all have an inner party monster that likes to come out and play. And this Halloween, you’ll have the chance to unleash it at The McKittrick Hotel.

“Monster: A Halloween Party” invites the monster within you to enjoy a live spectacle at The McKittrick Hotel that will unfold as you explore a forbidden dreamscape filled with monsters, myths, and acts ranging from intimate to epic in scale, according to the venue.

As with every Halloween event at The McKittrick, you’re encouraged to dress as your inner monster (whatever that looks like) or in all black. You can get some inspiration on the hotel’s website (linked below).

The stage is set for monsters of all shapes and sizes—the show is produced by Emursive and conceptualized and directed by Conor Doyle and Oliver Sayer, the founders of immersive creation studio, One Hundred, as well as dance artist and choreographer, Marla Phelan, who was the associate choreographer/director for Fiddler on the Roof’s Broadway touring company. 

Book your tickets now for the most monstrous night of the year!

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine’s annual Halloween Extravaganza returns to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve on Friday, October 27 at the uptown house of prayer.

The long-standing Upper West Side tradition was born decades ago under the direction of Artist in Residence Ralph Lee, founder of the Mettawee River Theatre Company. This year, the cathedral honors that legacy with an evening featuring frightening Mettawee performers who will haunt the audience with tricks and treats. 

The evening will kick off with a screening of the classic 1921 silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene and screened with live organ accompaniment by Timothy Brumfield. Following the film will be the Procession of the Ghouls, where ghouls and goblins from the Mettawee River Theater Company will fill the cathedral to scare and delight audiences.

Two viewings will be offered at 7 and 10 pm for the Halloween Extravaganza, with $40 tickets available on the cathedral's website. 

Also on October 27 and 28, the cathedral's famous Crypt Crawls will make their grand return from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm and from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm, guiding visitors down into the rarely-seen depths of the Gothic building. You will hear stories of the entombed and learn the origins of Halloween as a Celtic New Year celebration and later transformation into All Hallows Eve. Grab tickets for the guided tour here.  

Step back in time for "Magic: Distilled Presents Smoke & Mirrors" at Great Jones Distilling Co., a spell-binding performance featuring top local magicians who perform Prohibition-era sleights of hand and sorcery while sipping on craft cocktails at Manhattan's first post-Prohibition whiskey distillery. 

Available in two seatings on October 27 (one from 7pm-8:30pm and a second from 9-10:30pm), the limited-time-only show will spotlight the mind-bending skills of lead illusionist Jeanette Andrews, who will be accompanied by magician and mentalist David Corsaro and Rachel Wax.

While the audience oohs and aahs over the magicians' tableside tricks and parlor magic, they can sip on new seasonal craft cocktails featuring Great Jones Distilling Co.’s limited Peated Scotch Cask Bourbon, stirred up by the bar's head mixologist Collin Frazier. (And if you want to make a real night of it, guests who opt to dine at the distillery's onsite restaurant The Grid will receive 20 percent off their dinner bill.)

Tickets to Magic: Distilled, which are priced at $100, include your reservation in the bar's Art Deco lounge, a complimentary whiskey tasting, the performance itself as well as two drinks from a select menu of cocktails, wine and beer.

Bringing home a pumpkin to decorate your apartment is always fun, but bringing home a free pumpkin is even better.

You can choose from thousands of free pumpkins at Pumpkin Point on Governors Island on October 21-22 and October 28-29. (A suggested donation is encouraged, just fyi.) 

In addition to picking your favorite pumpkin in the patch, the celebration also includes magic performances, a bubble show and pumpkin painting.

At this party, nobody can hear you scream...because of the noise-canceling headphones, of course. Don't miss this unforgettable silent disco and costume party at Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Queens. 

On Friday, October 27, join the folks between Quiet Events for a night of spine-tingling beats. There will be three different DJs battling for your attention: one playing pop and EDM mash-ups, a second playing '80s, '90s and 2000s throwbacks, and the third throwing it down with hip-hop, R&B and Latin flavors. (Though honestly, how can you choose? Switch off between all three!)

A ticket gets you access to the event, a pair of Quiet Events headphones, and glow-in-the-dark gear.

Make sure to pair your costume with dancing shoes for Rollingween, an annual Halloween event known for its impeccable soundtrack. Music includes Afrobeats, dancehall, hip-hop and Amapiano. 

Be sure to wear a costume—and compete for a $500 prize awarded for best dressed costume. As the event organizers say, "Don't kill the fun by not wearing something to be part of the vibe."

The party's hosted by Blacc Fire Entertainment at SOB's Nightclub in Lower Manhattan's Hudson Square neighborhod. Rollingween runs from 11pm-4am on Sunday, October 29.

Grab your garlic because a vampire masquerade is making its debut in NYC this fall, and it's going to be truly immersive. "Dreams of Dracula: An Immersive Masquerade Experience" will recreate the classic Dracula universe as a brand new vampire theatrical adventure.

The production opens on October 4 and runs through November 11 at Musica NYC in Hell's Kitchen. Gothic and Victorian costumes are "very much encouraged," event organizers say. Tickets start at $69 and are available for purchase here.

Putting a new spin on the Bram Stoker classic, this choose-your-own-adventure evening whisks visitors through two floors and six rooms across 25,000 square feet for a heady mix of immersive theater, dance and decadent masquerade.

Rooftop Cinema Club is screening rooftop movies this fall with a packed slate of films running all the way through October 31. 

Sip wine and eat vegan popcorn while watching classics like When Harry Met Sally, The Addams Family, Hocus Pocus and lots more this autumn. Tickets are on sale here.

October's lineup include scary screenings such as Rosemary’s Baby, Paranormal, The Exorcist, The Shining, American Psycho and other cult classics as well as family favorites like Coco and Monsters, Inc. That all leads up to All Hallow's Eve's screenings of Hocus Pocus and Halloween.

Movies from the early 2000s will get the spotlight on a massive, 30-foot-tall screen at Hudson Yards this fall—for free!

Backyard at Hudson Yards will showcase a selection of free outdoor film screenings, every Friday through the end of October. This year, the films will all be romcoms and fantasy movies from the 2000s, such as Miss Congeniality, What A Girl Wants, Practical Magic (technically 1998) and Corpse Bride.

The screenings will be shown on a 30-foot screening, meaning everyone will have a good seat in the Public Square & Gardens

Here’s the screening schedule:

●  October 27 – Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

Join an elite group this Halloween season: The League of Inebriation Technology (L.I.T.), a storied institution dedicated to studying the celebratory effects of alcohol. Get in on the fun at The Drunken Laboratory, a bar in Brooklyn where you’ll wear lab coats and goggles for a night of sipping drinks and doing science. 

The bar's Haunted Laboratory experience includes a ghostly drink menu, haunted decor and scare actors for a truly immersive experience. Tickets are on sale now starting at $45; the experience in Bed-Stuy runs through Halloween night. 

During the event, guests will try to free the laboratory from the clutches of the supernatural. Plus, you’ll get to compete against each other—from performing exothermic reaction experiments that send heat erupting into the air, to competing in ghoulish trivia quizzes—for the chance to win free themed shots, merch or hangover kits. 

Back for its annual celebration of all things pumpkin (and your best opportunity to take a selfie with a scarecrow in NYC), New York Botanical Garden's is officially Fall-O-Ween open for the season.

The event includes hundreds of pumpkins and gourds on display, hands-on activities like mini pumpkin decorating, 3D pumpkin carving, food and beverage talks, tastings and more. Two family-friendly Spooky Garden Nights (Saturday, October 21 and Saturday, October 28) will also offer Halloween-themed entertainment including dancing skeletons, decorating trick-or-treat bags, live shadow puppets, plant potting ad more. 

Master pumpkin carver Adam Bierton will return to NYBG on select weekends to create his intricate and nature-inspired pumpkin carvings, and to host a master carver competition. At the “pumpkin patch” at NYBG Shop, guests can pick and purchase the perfect pumpkin to take home.

Four decades after its initial debut, the terrifying Halloween movie franchise is coming back to theaters this month just in time for the Halloween holiday. 

CineLife Entertainment will re-release Halloween (1978) and its sequels, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) in more than 300 theaters across the nation, including five in NYC. Screenings kick off on Thursday, October 5 and increase in frequency as Halloween approaches.  

In New York City, you can see the movies at 10 theaters: Rooftop Cinema Club in Midtown, Roxy Cinema in Tribeca, LOOK Dine In Cinema W. 57th in Hell's Kitchen, Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Skyline Drive-In in Greenpoint, Syndicated Bar Theater Kitchen in East Williamsburg, Linden Boulevard Multiplex Cinemas in Brooklyn, Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas in Queens, Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island, and Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers. Here's how to find a showing near you.

The premise for this haunted house is a terrifyingly simple one: "Nightmare Dollhouse" is a petrifying roadside attraction in the middle of nowhere that’s home to all of the world's scariest dolls (and we can think of plenty!).

"Nightmare Dollhouse" premieres at Teatro SEA at the Clemente at 107 Suffolk Street by Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on October 13. The limited engagement will run through October 31, with an official opening date of October 18.

"At first it may seem like a serious museum, but beware, the demonic and bloodcurdling lurk around every corner," reads the chilling official description. "The dolls have come to life and want to make you one of them! Can you escape with your soul intact, or will you succumb to the evil in the Nightmare Dollhouse?"

Tickets are available for purchase right here. Bonus: Ticketholders get access to a full bar.

Prepare to scream in horror. Blood Manor has returned to New York City through November 4, marking the haunted house's 20th season in the city. 

To celebrate two decades of terrifying New Yorkers, Blood Manor will present yet another theater-quality production. The space in Soho at 359 Broadway will include three new rooms, and brand-new costumes by designers from Abracadabra, Manhattan's iconic Halloween store. The multiroom immersive experience employs professional actors, set designers and makeup artists, and promises to leave visitors more afraid than ever in 2023. 

Blood Manor’s most infamous attractions will return for repeat visitors looking to relive their self-induced terrors, and the space will be revamped, and amplified to intensify the fear factor. Visitors will journey through dark, sinister corridors filled with twisted characters and jumpscares at every turn.

Witness an army of more than 7,000 glowing, intricately carved pumpkins at the annual Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. 

The annual pumpkin party is back in the Hudson Valley at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson for the 19th year, through November 19, as well as Old Bethpage Village Restoration in Old Bethpage, Long Island for the fourth year, through November 5.

Ogling pretty gourds isn’t the only draw. There are also "stargazing" opportunities inside the Pumpkin Planetarium, flying ghosts and a special appearance by Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman.

Tickets start at $37 for adults and $29 for children 3-17, and are free for children 2 and under.

Times Square is a nightmare for so many of us already (cue the unkempt Elmos and the smelly, zombie-like crowds), but now it's even more terrifying.

“Horrorwood Studios” has opened its freakish doors in Times Square at 300 West 43rd Street for a spooky season of “heart-pounding” immersive experiences from artistic directors Will Munro and Katie McGeoch (the duo has spent more than two decades as the heads of Six Flags’ Fright Fest). Dubbed “TerrorVision - Live Screaming Your Nightmares,” you’ll live out your Samara dreams and step through a flickering TV screen into a horrible scene.

Filled with 140 actors across 20,000 square feet, what could be the largest haunted house in NYC, you’ll enter under the guise that you’re behind the scenes at the filming of an upcoming TerrorVision Halloween episode.

Tickets cost $39 per person.

If you want your spooky celebrations to be more festive and less frightening, Halloween House is serving up a fear-free All Hallows Eve attraction at The Oculus this fall.

Running through Wednesday, November 1, Halloween House—which welcomed 100,000 visitors across its various locations last year—will take over the transportation and shopping hub at 185 Greenwich Street with an array of immersive, intricately designed themed rooms: a Glow in the Dark space, a mysterious Vampires' Lair, a Horror Movie Graveyard and an indoor pumpkin patch, among others. 

Unlike traditional haunted houses, the all-ages Halloween House "sets itself apart by delivering entertainment through meticulously detailed environments, devoid of actors, jump scares, and strobe lights," reads a press release. In terms of decorations, expect more ghouls and graveyards, not gross-out gore or ghastly characters.

You can get tickets at the Halloween House website; adult entry costs $40, while tickets for kids and under are set at $35. 

Spine-chilling pop-up bar series Black Lagoon is coming back this fall. 

The "adult Halloween celebration of your nightmares" from bar experts Kelsey Ramage and Erin Hayes will return with immersive Halloween pop-ups in cocktail bars across 19 cities this October, including here in New York at Pretty Ricky's (101 Rivington Street). The experience will feature a curated cocktail menu of eerie Halloween-themed drinks created by Ramage and Hayes, as well as transforming the hosting drinking dives into macabre dens festooned with frightfully fun decor. 

This spot really puts the BOO in booze.

Autumn brings some of the beautiful colors in nature with its crispy red leaves and bright orange pumpkins, so it's no surprise that Color Factory is going all out for the season as well.

The Soho immersive art museum presents Haunted Hues, a Halloween-themed takeover, running through November 1 with plenty of tricks and treats. Tickets start at $39 and are on sale here.

The experience will include a pumpkin patch with a Color Factory twist, fun giveaways and fresh seasonal treats. Plus, guests can add on a new scavenger hunt to search for hidden monsters throughout the venue.

Every year, The Rink at Rockefeller Center ushers in the holiday season by opening up to the public to skate under a golden Prometheus. Once peak season hits, there’s going to be a bit of a wait to get on the slick stuff. 

The Rink at Rockefeller Center is now open; tickets are on sale now.

The Rink was originally designed as a temporary attraction in 1936 to draw visitors to Rockefeller Center's outdoor plaza. By 1939, The Rink became a permanent fixture. Since then, it has evolved into one of the city’s most legendary landmarks and one of the most visited sites in Manhattan, hosting more than a quarter of a million skaters annually.

The Winter Village at Bryant Park will return in all its holiday glory. On the grounds you can peruse more than 180 shopping and food kiosks—all at one of the best NYC parks. Expect loads of handmade, unique and New York City-specific gifts for your family and friends. Work up an appetite at the 17,000-square-foot ice-skating rink and then fill up at the rinkside pop-up restaurant called The Lodge for festive cocktails and hearty food.

Don't miss the Small Business Spotlight booth, which features local minority-owned business. 

The Winter Village is set to open on October 27, 2023 and will be open through March 3, 2024.

Following successful runs in Madrid, Milan, Paris and Rome, the Balloon Museum is officially set to take over Pier 36 in The Seaport this fall.

Set in and outside of the 80,000-square-foot space, the new cultural destination will make its debut on October 27 with a new exhibit titled “Let’s Fly,” scheduled to run through January 14, 2024. 

Visitors are encouraged to interact with the installation, touching and feeling the various pieces exhibited. In terms of actual pieces, you can expect a 4,000-square-foot ball pit, inflatable lava lamps and the sorts of infinity rooms that you'll itch to post about on Instagram.

Fall is here and so is Brooklyn Academy of Music's perennial festival of theater, dance, and opera. As any local culture vulture will tell you, when temperatures cool down, culture heats up in Brooklyn thanks to Next Wave. This is the 40th iteration of the fall arts festival brings cutting-edge sound, movement and drama to Kings County

Performances this fall will empower and elevate a diverse group of voices speaking to some of today's crucial issues, including immigration, assimilation, race, and food security.

Performances include Corps extrêmes from the jaw-dropping French aerialist and choreographer Rachid Ouramdane; Broken Chord—a stunning choral piece with dance from South Africa’s Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi; Trajal Harrell’s dazzling The Köln Concert, and many more. Events run from October thorugh December.

When the 50,000 runners cross the finish line at the annual New York City Marathon on November 5, they'll be joined in spirit by Joe Yancey Jr. and Ted Corbitt, two men who shaped the epic road race into what it is today. 

Remarkable Black athletes and coaches, Yancey and Corbitt helped break the color barrier and revolutionize long-distance running in the United States and across the globe. Just in time for the marathon, a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan will honor their legacies. 

The exhibit, titled "Running for Civil Rights: The New York Pioneer Club, 1936–1976,” will open on Friday, October 27, and run through February 25, 2024. It explores how the New York City Marathon grew out of decades of activism for racial justice.

When Jack Kliger, President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park City, and his team started working on a new kid-friendly exhibit about the Holocaust almost four years ago, they could not have imagined the chaotic world order that the show was eventually going to premiere in.

"Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark" tells the story of the Danish Rescue, when citizens of the European country came together to usher nearly 7,000 Jews to safety and away from concentration camps during World War II.

The show opens this Sunday, October 15, a week and a day after over 1,000 Israeli Jews were slaughtered, murdered and raped by Hamas militants in a surprise terrorist attack that has been referred to as "the 9/11 of Israel" by many outlets. 

Admire the work of 30 artists and vendors at "Dandyland," a queer erotic art and gift fair in Hell's Kitchen on Saturday, October 28. 

The event began as a social response to the backlash against queer forms of artistic expression. "I feel strongly about embracing the activist element that existing as a queer person requires—especially as an artist," event organizer Patrick McNaughton tells Time Out New York.

For this weekend's event, the theme takes on a Halloween vibe. While you can wear anything you want, zombie/undead attire is encouraged. Expect a drag host, live art and kink demos, a raffle, and plenty of other surprises. 

The event runs from 2-8pm on Boxers Hells Kitchen (9th Avenue near 50th Street). It's free to attend.

If you miss it this weekend, here are the upcoming event dates: November 18 with a pajama party theme and December 16 with a "glitter gala" theme.

Over its 35 years in New York City, NewFest has evolved, expanding to Brooklyn—screenings now take place at Nitehawk Prospect Park, BAM, SVA Theatre and The LGBT Center—adding a virtual streaming option as of 2020, and increasing the types of diversity in programming throughout the curated lineup.

The beloved fest returns is now back through Tuesday, October 24, for film debuts and screenings of celebrity-led projects, indie films, documentaries, international projects, shorts and more.  

General admission tickets go for $19.50 per screening. Festival passes start at $350 for a Silver Pass, which includes 10 general admission tickets, plus access to the festival lounge and 30% off additional tickets. A $95 virtual pass will allow access to screen a selection of films at home.

Celebrate Halloween at this literary cathouse, where patrons sneak away to sequestered locales for private poetry readings — for a price, of course. In addition to verse, the event offers burlesque and vaudeville performances, visual art, tarot readings and other wicked and titillating delights.

Painter Marc Chagall's lusciously vibrant works of art come to life in a new immersive experience at Hall des Lumières. Titled "Chagall, Paris-New York," the exhibition explores the prolific painter who defied labels. 

His works are projected in a larger-than-life scale, taking over walls, ceilings and even the floor of the ornate bank-turned-exhibition hall located at 49 Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan. “Chagall, Paris-New York” is now on view through 2024 with adult tickets starting at $30. In addition to the Chagall works, Hall des Lumières is also displaying works by Wassily Kandinsky. 

In his studio in Kyiv, an artist called Burenko paints poignant landscapes of lifeless homes. In the basement of an art-gallery-turned-bomb-shelter, Nikita Kadan creates disorienting charcoal drawings of desperate pleas. In the conflict zone, Dom Marker photographs life and loss. 

These works and many others produced in the active warzone in Ukraine are now on display in Manhattan's Hudson Square neighborhood as part of Sonya Gallery's latest exhibition. The show, which features contemporary Ukrainian artists, will benefit the non-profit Sunflower Network's efforts to build a hospital in Brody, Ukraine. 

Find Sonya Gallery at 555 Greenwich Street at the Charlton Street entrance. "Thousand Yard Stare: Ukraine 2023" runs through November 4. It's open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am-6pm.

More than a century ago, a fire broke out on the upper floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a garment company in Greenwich Village, killing 146 workers, many of them immigrant women. The building remained standing and only a small plaque dedicated to those who perished indicated the importance of this historic site.

But now, a powerful new memorial at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place honors the lives of those who perished there and reminds all that they did not die in vain. Instead, their deaths inspired a fight that continues today for worker rights and workplace safety. 

In addition to the monument, an installation called "Collective Ribbon" is also on view. Led by Casa Italiana at NYU, sewed together pieces of fabric related to the Triangle Fire. Collective Ribbon is on view at 24 West 12th Street through March 29, 2024. 

There's a reason Chamber Magic has remained a staple in NYC's magic scene for more than two decades: It dazzles, show after show, with tricks that'll still leave you awestruck days later. 

The charming Steve Cohen, billed as the Millionaires’ Magician, conjures high-class parlor magic in the marble-columned Madison Room at the swank Lotte New York Palace. Dress to be impressed (cocktail attire is required); tickets start at $125, with an option to pay more for meet-and-greet time and extra tricks with Cohen after the show. If you've come to see a classic-style magic act, you get what you pay for.

Sporting a tuxedo and bright rust hair, the magician delivers routines that he has buffed to a patent-leather gleam: In addition to his signature act—"Think-a-Drink," involving a kettle that pours liquids by request—highlights include a lulu of levitation trick and a card-trick finale that leaves you feeling like, well, a million bucks.

This is the best kind of meta doc: one where the artifice works to carry us along on the family’s journey, rather than overwhelm us with trickery. Four Daughters contains multitudes, too: it’s about young womanhood, protective mums, radicalisation, toxic patriarchies and the damaged wreaked by godawful men – all with a post-Arab Spring political edge.

Like a kind of cinematic Lego set, Ben Hania takes the building blocks of filmmaking and constructs from them something cathartic, affecting and original.

It opens in theaters on Friday, October 27.

There’s been a hundred and one hit-man movies, but the best of them – In Bruges, Collateral, Le Samourai, Ghost Dog et al – make a point of accompanying the blood, cable ties and plastic sheeting with something sage to say about the human condition. 

For a chunk of its entertaining runtime, David Fincher’s hyper-alert existential thriller, based on a French comic-book series written by Alexis Nolent (aka ‘Matz’), seems well on course to join that esteemed list. What’s not to love in finding out what happens when the man who made Seven sticks empathy into the spokes of a hitherto flawless instrument of death? Unfortunately, The Killer only fulfills part of that promise. Instead, it ends up satisfying itself with the soulless, circular arc of a genre movie, and an ending that feels depressingly like the springboard for a spin-off series.

It opens in theaters on Friday, October 27.

The Queens Craft Brigade hosts an exceptional community of makers exclusively from the borough of Queens. The independent, queer-owned market at Katch Astoria brings together talented makers exclusively from around the borough and has created monthly curated events featuring artwork, jewelry, fashion, crafts, and more.

Here's the schedule for the rest of 2023:

— October 28: Queens Witchcraft Brigade (Halloween Party)
— November 25: Small Business Saturday
— December 9: Holiday Market

Merrily We Roll Along is the femme fatale of Stephen Sondheim musicals, beautiful and troubled; people keep thinking they can fix it, rescue it, save it from itself and make it their own. In the decades since its disastrous 1981 premiere on Broadway, where it lasted just two weeks, the show has been revised and revived many times (including by the York in 1994, Encores! in 2012 and Fiasco in 2019).

The challenges of Merrily are built into its core in a way that no production can fully overcome. But director Maria Friedman’s revival does a superb job—the best we've ever seen—of overlooking them, the way one might forgive the foibles of an old friend.  

Here's why our theatre critic gave this performance four stars.

The first-ever public beachfront in Manhattan is now open. Gansevoort Peninsula, a 5.5-acre park, includes an actual beach with sand, umbrellas, and a misting zone, plus a large sports field, dog runs and a picnic area. To be clear, though, the destination is a sunbathing beach, and swimming will not be permitted on site.

While the timing of the $73 million project isn’t quite ideal given the cooler temps, we can’t wait to explore this new landmark next summer.

He's one of our most famous New Yorkers—and now legendary director Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing, Crooklyn, The 25th Hour) is getting his own immersive installation at the Brooklyn Museum this fall.

Running from October 6-February 4, 2024, "Spike Lee: Creative Sources" will delve into the world, works and influences of the acclaimed director who, though born in Atlanta, Georgia, was raised and revered as one of New York's own, particularly in the borough of Brooklyn. 

The exhibit will feature more than 300 works from Lee's personal collection, "items that have been touchpoints for Lee and the topics he explores on-screen," the museum said.

They say comedy is a Boys' Club, so join head to Club Cumming for this aptly named comedy show. 

Nico Carney and Conor Janda, "famously pillars of masculinity," promise a night of laughs with an event featuring Dave Mizzoni, Alexa Loftus, Julia Zhen, and Julia Shiplett. "The boys are joined by their rough and tough friends for a night of subverting expectations of what it means to be 'a boys' club," event organizers say. The queer-centered show is on Friday, October 27.

In New York City, it can be hard to find an apartment with a nice bathtub you'd actually want to soak in. Heck, it can be hard to find an apartment where the shower isn't in a closet in the living room (ahem, this $1.25 million StreetEasy listing).

But now cosmetics company LUSH is solving that very New York problem with a new book-a-bath service just launched this week. In addition to indulgent baths, LUSH Spa Lexington also offers massage treatments and facials, creating a calming oasis near hectic midtown. Find the newly opened spa on the Upper East Side at Lexington Avenue and East 61st Street.

Given the fact that LUSH invented the bath bomb, they’re pros when it comes to bathing. For the book-a-bath experience, head through the store and climb the stairs to the spa. Inside a petite pink-and-white bathroom, a clawfoot tub beckons. Before your bath, a staff member will prepare the water with a Snow Fairy bath bomb, which creates glittery pastel pink water. Plus, they’ll offer a fresh face mask tailored for your skin, a curated playlist and a cup of vegan hot chocolate. 

When genius meets genius, there’s often an explosion of creativity and inspiration but sometimes it leaves relationships in shambles. Enter Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas—two of modern art’s biggest players—who were actual "frenemies" to the very end.

In fact, the relationship was so fraught that Manet once ripped a beautiful Degas painting in half!

Drama among artists is what we live for, so this fall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new exhibition, "Manet/Degas" will be the one to see. On view now, it is the first art show to put the French impressionists’ relationship on blast and expose the sort of dialogue they had together through their art. 

Across 160 paintings and works on paper, "Manet/Degas" unfolds a tale of two wealthy French artists who were undeniably inspired by each other but just couldn’t keep it together.

If scrolling through social media to see pictures of cute dogs and hilarious cats is a favorite pastime of yours, then this new exhibit at Fotografiska is a must-see. Titled "Best in Show," the exhibition explores the role of furry and feathered friends in our culture through more than 100 incredible photographs. 

Photos show dogs in a variety of situations, like getting baths, posing, partying, shaking their heads and even dressing up in fancy “cones of shame.” Cats, rats, bunnies, birds, reptiles, turtles and fish get their moment in the spotlight, too, at this exhibition on view in the Flatiron District through January 2024. 

The show showcases works by 25 renowned photographers. That includes William Wegman's famed Weimaraner portraits, pictures by Sophie Gamand of dogs taking baths and images by the world's first professional cat photographer Walter Chandoha. From candid photos of pets at home to posh portraits of pups at the Westminster Dog Show, each image explores the unbreakable bond between humans and their pets.

For three months in the summer of 1921, Pablo Picasso worked out of a makeshift garage studio in Fontainebleau, France, where he created both cubist and classical masterpieces. Now, for the first time since then, the works are reunited in a sprawling new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. 

MoMA's "Picasso in Fontainebleau," on view through February 17, is the latest show in NYC presented as part of the international Picasso celebration marking 50 years since his death.

A garage space measuring in at 20 by 10 feet served as Picasso's studio that summer. Using the exact dimensions, MoMA created a room with the garage's footprint, so museum-goers can step inside and imagine creating such large paintings in a small space. 

In that garage, Picasso created the cubist "Three Musicians" with colorful geometric shapes as well as the classical "Three Women at the Spring" with references to Greco-Roman antiquity. For the first time in more than a century, MoMA has reunited these works.

Long before Pablo Picasso's works made it to major American museums, an art collector in Brooklyn identified the artist's talents and believed his works should be displayed. In fact, he wanted to hang Picasso's works on his very own walls. 

In 1910, Hamilton Easter Field commissioned Picasso to adorn a room in his Brooklyn Heights home with murals, but Picasso didn't finish the works before Field died. Now, for the first time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is bringing together six paintings linked to the commission. "Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn" is now on view through January 14, 2024.

"It's an important aspect of Picasso's work that has been not researched on that level, has been not known before we embarked on this project," The Met's director Max Hollein said. "I hope the exhibition will be as revelatory to our audience as it has been to us."

The annual New York Film Festival dates back to 1963 when it established a mission of bringing the best work from around the world to Lincoln Center.

Excitement is already in the air for this year’s 61st edition, thanks to the August announcement of this year’s main slate lineup which will include Cannes prizewinners Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days, and lots more.

An annual treat that shows off the city’s cinematic good taste in a classy way, the New York Film Festival hosts many fantastic movie screenings and events that you won’t want to miss. The festival runs through October 15.

Head to a beloved West Village music shop for a banging musical comedy blowout every month. This variety show mixes music, comedy and characters with apperances by Stephen Sihelnik (NY Comedy Festival), Natan Badalov (Adult Swim), Alexander Payne (Netflix) and surprise guests.

Fun fact: The event's set in New York's oldest continually-run music and record store, Music Inn World Instruments. It's been in operation since 1958 and has been heavily featured in the first two seasons of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

Show up early, save a seat and BYOB: You're in for a party. Upcoming events are on Fridays Fridays, October 20, October 27 (Halloween theme), November 3, November 17, December 1 and December 15.

Gabe Mollica begins his one-man show with a declaration: “I turned 30, and it occurred to me that I don’t have any friends.” Sure, the comedian explains, there are guys he grew up with and bros he’s befriended through the years. But what about the kind of close friends you can talk about the Big Stuff with? When his mother faced a health crisis, he began to notice a dearth in that department.

Mollica weaves humor with vulnerability throughout the delightful Solo: A Show About Friendship. See it at Connelly Theater Upstairs with dates through October 28. 

Stephen Sondheim's highly anticipated final musical finally has an opening date and cast.

"Here We Are" the new musical from legendary American composer Stephen Sondheim and David Ives will has made its debut in The Shed’s Griffin Theater (545 W. 30th Street). Following the previews, the official opening night will be held on Sunday, October 22, for a limited engagement of 15 weeks only.  

The musical features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by Tony Award nominee David Ives, and is inspired by two films, "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and "The Exterminating Angel," by Luis Buñuel. Formerly named "Square One" this is play has the final music and lyrics Sondheim wrote before his passed away in November 2021.

Tickets to "Here We Are" are on sale here.

For the first time, a New York museum will present a comprehensive survey of work by feminist artist Judy Chicago. "Judy Chicago: Herstory" will span the artist's 60-year career across painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, textiles, photography, stained glass, needlepoint, and printmaking.

"Herstory" will trace the entirety of Chicago’s practice from her 1960s experiments in Minimalism and her revolutionary feminist art of the 1970s to her narrative series of the 1980s and 1990s in which she expanded her focus to confront environmental disaster, birth and creation, masculinity, and mortality. Contextualizing her feminist methodology within the many art movements in which she participated—and from whose histories she has frequently been erased—"Herstory" will showcase Chicago’s tremendous impact on American art and highlight her critical role as a cultural historian claiming space for women artists previously omitted from the canon.

See the show from October 12-January 14, 2024.

Southern wives' tales, folklore and fables—these are the works that inspired BK Adams' upcoming exhibition at the Claire Oliver Gallery in Harlem. 

"Five Miles" is a collection of 10 large-scale multimedia pieces that explore complex biographical and allegorical stories. Recurring characters, such as a lion and a blue horse, appear throughout Adams' artwork alongside pieces of nature to depict scenes of encouragement and inspiration.

The exhibition is on display through November 4. More details are available here. 

Explore the power of books at this new Grolier Club exhibition, "The Best-Read Army in the World." The show tells the story of how the U.S. military fought against propaganda and promoted free thought by disseminating more than one billion books, magazines, and newspapers to 16 million American troops worldwide, partnering with the U.S. publishing industry to create pocket-sized paperback books called "Armed Services Editions," as well as petite issues of newspapers and popular magazines.

See 225 pieces, including miniature books and periodicals, photographs, posters, artwork, propaganda leaflets, and letters. Highlights include rare prototypes for troop-friendly publications, a bundle of Armed Services Editions in its original packaging, a U.S. army librarian uniform, and a display on World War II-era book bans.

"The Best-Read Army in the World" is on view at the Upper East Side club through December 30, 2023; it's free to visit.

A new exhibition that celebrates Jewish comics is coming to the Center for Jewish History this fall. JewCE! The Museum and Laboratory of the Jewish Comics Experience will showcase the work of renowned Jewish comics writers and artists, including original artwork, historical artifacts, interactive installations that explore Jewish themes and narratives in comics and more. 

Guests will also be able to try their hand at character creation, storyboarding and iconography as part of the Laboratory portion of the exhibit.

The exhibition is open from October 9 through December 2023. It will also be presented alongside “JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience,” a Jewish comic book convention happening November 11-12.

Free tickets to the exhibition are available here.

The Frick will showcase an unprecedented display of Barkley L. Hendricks paintings drawn from private and public collections. Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017) revolutionized contemporary portraiture with his vivid depictions of Black subjects that emphasize the dignity and individuality of his sitters. Beginning in the late 1960s, his work drew from and challenged the traditions of European art. The exhibition is quite full circle as The Frick Collection—with its iconic portraits by Rembrandt, Bronzino, Van Dyck, and others—was one of his favorite museums.

This exhibition celebrates and explores the remarkable work of this pioneering American painter. “Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick” is on view through January 7, 2024.

Known for her rhythmic looped-wire sculptures, groundbreaking artist Rush Asawa will get the spotlight at The Whitney this fall in a fresh new way. Asawa dedicated herself to daily drawing exercises, which served as the connective tissue―or through line―of her creative process and fueled her commitment to art.

But until now, her drawing hasn't gotten much attention. In fact, "Ruth Asawa Through Line" is the first exhibition to examine the sculptor's oeuvre through the lens of her lifelong drawing practice. Through drawing, Asawa explored her surroundings and turned everyday encounters into moments of profound beauty, endowing ordinary objects with new aesthetic possibilities.

"Ruth Asawa Through Line" will run through January 15, 2024.

American Impressionism is back at the National Arts Club this fall.

"In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870–1940" will highlight the work of important figures in the American Impressionism movement from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, including Childe Hassam, George Inness and John Sloan. Thirteen of the featured artists were once Artist Life Members of the NAC, making the exhibition a celebration of both the famed movement and the NAC's own history.

Over 130 pieces are on display through November 22 at the NAC's Tilden House in Gramercy Park for free.

Can cow manure be turned into casings for loudspeakers and lamps? MoMA’s latest exhibition says “yes.”

“Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design” is now open on the museum’s street-level gallery. The exhibit explores the ways designers can repurpose the materials around us to extend their life cycle and promote environmental preservation. Approximately 80 pieces will be on display, including bricks made from crop waste and fungi mycelium and panels made from corn husks. 

The exhibition, curated by Paola Antonelli, will be on display until July 7, 2024.

In a year where NYC has seen no snow, sweltering days and wildfire smoke, the Poster House's fall exhibition feels staggeringly relevant. The exhibit "We Tried to Warn You! Environmental Crisis Posters, 1970–2020" features 33 works that have shaped the worldwide public debate on environmental issues including clean energy, endangered species, and air and water quality. 

Ranging in style from whimsical to apocalyptic, the works examine international awareness campaigns and federal advertisements that aimed to address environmental crises as they evolved from regional problems to a global disaster. Exhibited works mark important events and movements, including the first Earth Day in 1970, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States a few years later, and the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. 

Artists whose posters are exhibited include: Amos Kennedy, Robert Rauschenberg, Per Arnoldi, Tom Eckersley, Freidensreich Hundertwasser, Hans Erni and Milton Glaser, among others. This exhibition is supported by the Simons Foundation. The show runs until February 25, 2024.

Wild Captives, the nation’s first female- and LGBTQ-owned archery studio, is now open. It's a place where everyone can "be their own superhero." The studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers empowering and fun hour-long introduction to archery classes every weekend for $45/person. 

Each intro class includes a chance to learn about different parts of the bow and safety requirements. After the lesson, each participant gets a chance to shoot the bow trying to pop a balloon pinned onto the bullseye. Intro-to-archery classes are available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bookable online for anyone over age 12.

At this new experience in Lower Manhattan, shattering plates, throwing glasses at the wall and smashing laptops isn't just OK—it's encouraged. 

Live Axe's Rage Room, allows visitors to take a crowbar to a printer,  pulverize glassware, shout, stomp and truly let it all out.

The Rage Room is located beneath Live Axe, a popular axe-throwing spot that’s been open since 2020. Before you get to go wild, you’ll meet your “rage captain” who will interview you about what makes you tick, from relationship issues to work problems to political drama. Then, you’ll suit up into head-to-toe gear, including a helmet, eye protection and gloves to make sure you’re safe. (Be sure to wear close-toed shoes and long pants for the experience.)

Here's our first look at the experience.

If you think you’ve seen everything Barbie-fied, here’s a new expression of our universal love for Barbie: A Barbie corn maze. Yes, the Northeastern fall tradition is going full-on Barbie at Happy Day Farm this fall, as part of the Manalapan, New Jersey farm’s annual Fall Festival. 

The corn maze is 10 acres with two parts: a short, 15-25 minute path, as well as a larger part for maze enthusiasts, which can take about 45 minutes to 1 hour to rove through, or longer if you’re eager for a perfect Instagram moment in the Barbie corn maze. 

The Barbie corn maze is now open at Happy Day Farm’s Fall Festival which runs through October 30. 

From The Marcy Houses to the biggest stages in the world, Jay-Z has always represented Brooklyn. Now Brooklyn is radiating that love back to him with a major, free exhibition called The Book of HOV on view at Brooklyn Public Library.

The exhibit chronicles the journey and impact of Shawn Carter through thousands of archived objects, including original recording masters, never-before-seen photos, iconic stage wear, prestigious awards and videos. Roc Nation created the exhibit as a surprise to the renowned hip-hop star as the city celebrates 50 years of the genre that started right here in New York City. See it at Brooklyn's Central Library along Grand Army Plaza during regular library hours through December 4, Jay-Z's birthday. 

"Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery" is now open at The Met. This presentation of Pueblo Indian pottery is the first community-curated Native American exhibition in the history of The Met. The exhibition showcases more than 100 historical and modern clay works dating from the 11th century to the present day. 

"It offers a critical understanding of Pueblo pottery," Met Director Max Hollein said.  

America’s first Black popular music icon is getting his due with a massive new center that houses a 60,000-piece collection and a venue for live music, lectures and screenings.

NYC’s Louis Armstrong House Museum has now opened its new facility, the Louis Armstrong Center—and it’s a big deal!

The space acts as a permanent home for the 60,000-piece Louis Armstrong Archive (the world’s largest for a jazz musician containing photos, recordings, manuscripts, letters & mementos) and a 75-seat venue for performances, lectures, films, and educational experiences.

The Center and the historic house are now open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays. Tickets can be purchased at louisarmstronghouse.org. Tours have limited capacity, so book in advance.

Trees are getting center stage in a new exhibition combining art and science at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “Power of Trees,” which features six site-specific sculptures by local artists runs through October 22. Here's what to expect at the show.

It’s hard to get good food on the cheap, but for seven years, Queens Night Market has prided itself on offering the city’s best eats for just $5-6. The foodie festival runs on Saturday nights through the fall at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

There will also be other items sale besides food, including vintage apparel, hand-poured candles, travel photography, crochet toys, stationery, small batch soap, henna, vintage brooches, international handcrafts, NYC-themed apparel, gourmet dog treats, handmade jewelry, ceramics and local art.

Remember when NASA published those first images from the Webb telescope and blew everyone's minds? 

Well, now you can admire never-before-seen visuals captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in this new immersive art experience at ARTECHOUSE in Chelsea. “Beyond the Light” runs all through November 5 with adult general admission starting at $25.

The phrase “women’s work” is often used derisively to indicate labor that’s seen as “less than,” but a new exhibit at New-York Historical Society reclaims that phrase. Aptly titled "Women's Work," the show chronicles the history of women's contributions to labor and how those efforts are both inherently political and essential to American society. 

The exhibit features dozens of objects in the museum's collection from indenture documents to medical kits to military uniforms. With items ranging from the 1740s to today, the show celebrates the strides society has made in equality while not shying away from highlighting the gender-based inequalities that persist today.

It's on view thorugh August 18, 2024. 

For more than 50 years, El Museo del Barrio has been curating a complex and culturally diverse collection. Now, for the first time in more than two decades, the museum will present its most ambitious presentation of that permanent collection with 500 artworks, including more than 100 new acquisitions. 

The exhibition called "Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección" is now open and will remain on view through March 10, 2024 with different pieces rotating in and out. El Museo del Barrio, located in the city's East Harlem neighborhood known as "El Barrio," is the nation's leading Latinx and Latin American cultural institution. 

See it at at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood. Adult admission is $9.

If you're not a paint-and-sip kind of person, try Act & Sip, a beer-fueled acting workshop in an Off-Broadway Theater with expert instructors. They pair students off with partners and hand over the pages to a scene from a well-known iconic NYC sitcom or movie, offering tips along the way to help performers conquer stage fright and discover their inner actor.

This event is perfect for bachelorette parties, after-work outings, or just a fun night with friends to get on stage with a little help from liquid courage. You don't need any experience, but you must be 21 or older and BYOB.

Muggles, take note: You won’t need to travel through Platform 9¾ to get to Hogwarts. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is right here in New York City for a limited time.

The touring show, “Harry Potter: The Exhibition,” is now open in Herald Square, and it’s going transport you. Through the use of dramatic lighting, set design, interactive technology and even scent, the exhibit will make you feel like you are actually there—in Hagrid’s hut, in potions class, dining in the Great Hall, learning how to fight the dark arts, fighting the Battle of Hogwarts and more.

Tickets are on sale now through October and start at $29 for adults. 

Union Square even more fun right now with a pop-up from popular Lower Manhattan brewery Torch & Crown. The brewery's brought its beloved brews to Union Square with a seasonal location running through November.

Torch & Crown has set up shop in the historic Union Square Pavilion with a variety of hand-crafted drafts. A few stand-outs on the menu include Almost Famous, a smooth, bright, aromatic hazy IPA packed with peach and grapefruit notes, and Share House, an easy-drinking crisp ale.

On a typical visit to the Museum of Modern Art, crowds surround the most precious paintings, and it can be tough to squeeze your way in for a photo, let alone to admire the artwork’s brushstrokes. But now, thanks to these new exclusive tours by GetYourGuide, you can get in before the museum opens for a guided tour of amazing artwork. 

The new MoMA Before Hours Tour with Art Expert is available now; tickets are on sale here for $99/person. Few New York City experiences compare to the absolute thrill of gazing at famed works of art uninterrupted for as long as you like.  

With a full restaurant, craft cocktails, comfy reclining seats and even more bells and whistles, this new movie theater in Hell's Kitchen elevates the movie-going experience. LOOK Dine-in Cinemas is now open in VIA 57 West, the pyramid-shaped building located at West 57th Street and 11th Avenue. 

With a 15-year lease, LOOK's operating in a 25,000-square-foot venue that used to house Landmark cinema until it closed in 2020. This is the company's first New York City location. At this fancy theater, you can relax in a heated seat while ordering dinner directly to your seat in the theater. 

Many museums start with some kind of orientation, like a map or remarks from a docent. But not The House of Cannabis (a.k.a. THC NYC), the new weed museum now open in Soho. Instead, this museum starts, quite fittingly, with a trippy “Disorientation Room.”

While the museum boasts plenty of mind-bending multi-sensory bells and whistles, it also showcases art, highlights science and confronts the social justice issues baked into cannabis prosecution. The museum, the first of its kind at this scale, packs every inch of its four-story, 25,000-square-foot space at 427 Broadway with fascinating facts and delightful immersive experiences fit to entertain both tokers and non-smokers alike. Tickets ($35/adult) are on sale here.

Smorgasburg is the food bazaar spectacular that New Yorkers flock to year after year. Founded by Brooklyn Flea’s Eric Demby and Jonathan Butler, the culinary extravaganza typically spotlights about 100 vendors across its locations. Smorg has three spots in 2023, two in Brooklyn (in Williamsburg and Prospect Park) and one at the World Trade Center. 

Find your latest read at The Free Black Women’s Library, a new free library in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood, which also serves as a social art project, a reading room, a co-working space and a community gathering center. The library "celebrates the brilliance, diversity and imagination of Black women and Black non-binary authors." All 5,000 books in the library's collection are written by Black women and non-binary authors.

Here's how it works: Anybody can visit the space to read, work or hang out. If you want to take a book home, simply bring a book written by a Black woman or Black non-binary author, and you can trade. Whether you decide to bring the book back after you're done reading or keep it for your collection is up to you.

The library is currently open four days per week (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) at 226 Marcus Garvey Boulevard. In addition to offering a space to read or work, the library has also hosts a book club, art shows and workshops on topics like writing, drawing, poetry, painting and sewing. All are welcome. 

A new exhibit at The Rubin Museum of Art opening this spring will explore the concept of death and the afterlife through the art of Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity. See 58 object spanning 12 centuries in this new show. 

"Death Is Not the End" features prints, oil paintings, bone ornaments, thangka paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, and ritual objects, inviting "contemplation on the universal human condition of impermanence and the desire to continue to exist," as the museum described.

The exhibition focuses on three major themes: The Human Condition, or the shared understanding of our mortality in this world; States In-Between, or the concepts of limbo, purgatory, and bardo; and (After)life, focusing on resurrection, ideas of transformation, and heaven.

"Death Is Not the End" is on view through January 14, 2024.

The name really says it all: Make bonsai in a bar! These teeny tiny trees are the definition of "happy little trees." 

The pros from Bonsai Bar will teach you the fundamental skills and techniques behind the art of bonsai while you sip your drink and have some fun with your friends. The teachers will also help you as you pot, prune and design your very own bonsai tree. 

Bonsai Bar events pop up all over the city at locations like Brooklyn Brewery, the Bronx Brewery and SingleCut Beersmiths Queens Taproom.

Peek inside this new, teeny-tiny shop in Harlem to find some fun gifts for someone on your list or for yourself.

MoonLab 42 measures in at just under 5 feet wide, but the store manages to house zines, books, records, incense, prints, candles, decorative objects, ceramics, jewelry, accessories, clothing and more. “It feels like a Mary Poppins bag,” Ruso Margishvili, the concept store’s co-owner tells us.

On a typical tour of Manhattan, the big tourist attractions—Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park—get all the attention. But on these new walking tours by a local author, you'll see fascinating historical sites that you won't find in a typical guidebook. 

K. Krombie's Purefinder tours, "Death in New York," "The Psychiatric History of New York" and "Hell Gate," explore the city's darker side through meticulously researched and theatrically presented historical narratives.

Each tour covers about 2.5 miles in about two-and-a-half hours. “Death in New York” and “The Psychiatric History of New York” are offered weekly, while “Hell Gate” is offered twice per month. Tours cost $32-$34 per person; you can book one here.

From amazing costumes to Broadway history to fun photo opps, this long-awaited new museum is a must-see for theater buffs.  

You can expect the new museum to highlight over 500 individual productions from the 1700s all the way to the present. 

Among the standout offerings will also be a special exhibit dubbed "The Making of a Broadway Show," which honors the on- and off-stage community that helps bring plays and musicals to life multiple times a week. 

This is the only stand-up comedy show in a Brooklyn Boathouse, boasting some of the best local talent for free on the shore of the Gowanus Canal. Cuba Libre BYOB but beer, seltzers and non-alcoholic beverages are available for donation. Go see it every Friday night; check the group's Instagram for the weekly lineup.

After two years of outdoor play, Carreau Club, the nation’s first pétanque bar has expanded with an indoor location with more space to get your game on while sipping a drink.

The new indoor venue is now open at Brooklyn's Industry City, just in time for chillier fall temperatures. For the uninitiated, pétanque (pronounced puh-TONK) is a bocce-ball style French boules sport gaining popularity in the U.S., starting here in NYC.

Carreau Club operates primarily as a walk-in pétanque club and reservations are not required. But you can book a court in advance for a single party or multiple courts for larger groups. Reservations cost $50/court/hour.

AirOtic Soiree is bringing the heat to Hell's Kitchen with a 21+ cabaret-style performane showcasing incredible aerial acrobatics in a titillating, sensual style. The show takes audiences through an intense story of love, passion, sexuality and eroticism through an immersive circus and cabaret experience including extravagant costumes, seductive choreography and circus artistry. 

During the show, dine on dinner and decadent dessert towers curated by celebrity chef Saul Montiel. Before and after the performance, cocktails will be available for purchase.

See it at HK Hall, a historic venue with striking decor in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, with performances through 2023. 

The New York Public Library dug through its expansive and centuries-spanning archive to stage an impressive free exhibition filled with cultural artifacts. "The Polonsky Exhibition of New York Public Library’s Treasures" spans 4,000 years of history and includes a wide range of history-making pieces, including the only surviving letter from Christoper Columbus announcing his “discovery” of the Americas to King Ferdinand’s court and the first Gutenberg Bible brought over to the Americas.

New treasures were just added to the exhibit this fall, including a signed, first edition copy of "Passing" by Nella Larsen, a selection of manuscript pages from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, and a miniature early 19th-century Qur’an, produced in Turkey.

Part visual splendor, part olfactory wonder and part ooey-gooey sensory fun, Sloomoo Institute’s slime museum re-opened this fall after a renovation. This captivating playground welcomes all ages to its home in SoHo—or “SooHoo,” in Sloomoo parlance (see what they did there?).

Here are five things not to miss at Sloomoo, including a chance to get slimed and a DIY slime making activity.

Have some fun this weekend and go check out Gamehaus, a giant new arcade and beer hall just opened in Long Island City. This 5,000-square-foot multifunctional space features a dozen large-screen TVs, classic video games and loads of beers.

Classice arcade games include Atari Pong, Ms. Pacman, Jurassic Park, Pop-a-Shot and Skee Ball. 

A new nightlife venue called Deluxx Fluxx has taken over the former Studio at Webster Hall location, a 4,200-square-foot space beneath the famed music venue in the East Village, inspired by early arcades, punk rock, hip-hop and graffiti culture.

The venue brings "an immersive visual and audial art space and arcade" that promises to reinvigorate the artist-centric venues that defined New York City nightlife in the early 2000s. Part interactive art project and part performance venue, expect live entertainment, DJs, pinball machines, "artfully weird" video games, custom video work, costumed performers, floor-to-ceiling blacklight art interiors and a day-glo design palette. Some of the arcade games offer their own New York City flair, like Crown Heights King where pigeons battle to be the king of the neighborhood.

Here's more about the nightlife venue.

Still working on that screenplay? Say goodbye to writer's block (hopefully) at Soho's newest coffee shop and creative space.

The Lost Draft, a newly opened film-inspired multipurpose space at 398 Broome Street (between Mulberry Street and Cleveland Place) promises to be a refuge for those eager to finally get those creative ideas on paper. Or on screen. 

Stop procrastinating and start writing, because The Lost Draft is open seven days a week from 7am-9pm, offering plenty of time to be creative. Here's our full story on the new cafe.

A bucolic 1920s English country golf club is on its way to NYC's concrete jungle! But with a twist. Swingers NoMad, a "crazy mini-golf course" and entertainment complex straight from London brought with it three nine-hole golf courses across 23,000 square feet under 20-foot-high ceilings.

"Crazy golf" is a British spin on mini-golf, but it's for a 21-and-over audience since craft cocktails are served by caddies on the course, and at Swingers NoMad, there will be six cocktail bars with signature classic cocktails from London and D.C., as well as 12 cocktails created specifically for Swingers NoMad, private rooms you can rent, an opulent clubhouse and four gourmet street food vendors—Sauce Pizzeria, Miznon, Fonda and Mah Ze Dahr Bakery.

Brooklyn vinyl lovers are in luck because the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library has just opened a Vinyl Lending Library to its cardholders, giving them access to 400 albums spanning genres (hip-hop, pop, classical, country, show tunes and more) that they can listen to on-site as well as borrow for up to three weeks. You just need your library card. Listening stations can be found on the first floor.

The latest entrant to the speakeasy-theme scene, this Times Square spot offers a sexy 1980s vibe. The Woo Woo aims to evoke that last decade before widespread internet, its surrounding neighborhood of Times Square in those same, pre-Disney days, sex shops and, the reason for the season, speakeasies.

These themes are executed with a combination of graffiti that reasonably approximates the style of the time, vintage nude mags and video tapes, rouge neon, throwback punk show posters and the whole password thing. Drinks include odes to the era like the Donkey Kong cocktail and a Prince-inspired tipple with a butterfly pea flower “purple rain” ice cube. They’re also doing a cotton candy-topped cosmo and snacks like sliders and spring rolls. The sex shop elements are ornamental at the moment, but may turn retail in the future. 

The Brooklyn Flea is undoubtedly one of the most popular flea markets to hit in NYC if you're looking for the best selection of throwback wares and records, which you certainly wouldn’t find in just any vintage clothing store or record store in the city.

The food selection is also top-notch since the creators also operate one of the city’s best food markets: Smorgasburg. 

The Brooklyn Flea DUMBO is now open for the season. Brooklyn Flea also operates in Chelsea year-round on Saturdays and Sundays, 8am-5pm, and the new Hester Flea on Saturdays, 11am-6pm.

It's not every day that a new nightclub opens in New York City, especially one that harkens back to an old sort of New York—when nightclubs were the city's premiere destinations for some after-hours fun. That's why Daphne, a new subterranean spot under Hotel 50 Bowery in Chinatown, is so special. 

Upon entering the massive 2,500-square-foot space, patrons are pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful silk pink flower installation by art studio Floratorium. Dazzling disco balls also permeate the premises, calling back to a time when the dance club you frequented was just as important as where your apartment was located. 

Kitsby, a dessert shop in Brooklyn, has a new menu item that will surely entice you to visit Williamsburg, where the shop is located. Dubbed The Kit, the signature offering is a tray of bites that represents "second generation baking." Consider it Kitsby's very own Asian American spin on afternoon tea. 

The tray, which costs $38 per person or $70 for two people, comes with ten sweet and savory pastries. These include a black sesame financier, a five-spice shortbread, an asiago lop cheong roule, a mocha mousse cake plus a slew of other bite-sized treats. You'll also get to choose one entrée to go with your order. 

Every Saturday night, two piano men battle it out to prove who is truly the master of all 88 keys, with a playlist decided entirely by the audience. Whether you’re in the mood for Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera or current chart toppers, these pianists are up for the challenge. But they expect you to do your part by singing along, but from home. Grab a ticket and request songs in advance.

Bring your dog to the AKC Museum of the Dog at these special after-hours events called Furry Fridays hosted on select Fridays. Tickets are $20 per person and $5 per dog.

The Museum of the Dog has more than 180 sculptures and paintings of four-legged furballs as well as a “Meet the Breeds” table, which provides info on all 193 AKC recognized dog breeds, and other interactive fun.

In the micro category of subway bars–pour houses adjacent to the otherwise dry MTA–Nothing Really Matters is the latest from Adrien Gallo, whose previous endeavors included Double Happiness and Grand Banks.

It’s located between the entrance and the turnstile in the downtown-bound 1 train station at 50th Street and Broadway. The facade is adorned in signs for the newsstand and barbershop that previously operated in the station’s small retail areas. An illustrated haircut legend is still on display. Trash is strewn about. It looks like a subway station from 1984’s Ghostbusters. 

Inside, the long oak bar is backed by rows of bottles lit from below, illuminated like a boozy skyline snapshot. There’s a disco ball in the corner and the bathroom is covered in glitter wallpaper. Cocktails like the Empire State (vodka, maple, spiced apple, lemon), Knickerbocker bramble (bourbon, rosemary-blueberry compote, lemon) and the Time Out (Jamaican hibiscus, ginger, soda) are named in nods to New York. Classics, low- and no-ABV options are all on the menu.