By Tracy Zwick
New York’s football teams got off to a scratchy start, but it’s early! Jets and Giants fans will be reserving the 1:00 p.m. slot this Sunday for watching and hoping. As a Bears fan, I can relate! I’ll be tuned in Sunday night as Chicago looks for its offense in Texas where they’re 6½ -point underdogs. This leaves plenty of time for theater, books, and baseball.
Let’s Weekend!
September 13 – 16, 2024
McNeal at Lincoln Center Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street; use link for dates, times, and tickets; running time 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission
I’ve been trying my luck with the digital lottery for this play about an acclaimed writer with an A.I. obsession and a difficult family life. Starring Oscar-winner Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) in his Broadway debut, and written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar, it’s running through November 24th. Lottery tickets are about $48 each. If you have to pay full price they range from around $190 to nearly $400.
“Idlewild” Paperback Release and Discussion: Strand Book Store, 3rd Floor Rare Books Room, 828 Broadway and 12th Street; Friday Sept.13, 7:00 p.m.; free
This paperback release and conversation with the author isn’t at our UWS Strand location on Columbus and 82nd Street! But it’s UWS-related. James Frankie Thomas, the author, is a grandchild of Dakota-dwelling composer Leonard Bernstein. Thomas attended the Quaker Friends Seminary School downtown and has written a prep school novel set in a Quaker school in lower Manhattan. I love a campus novel – think “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt and “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. This one caught my eye because it updates those genre staples. “Idlewild” involves Fay and Nell, queer besties in high school whose friendship collapses when they meet a couple of queer boys in a theater production. Told both in 2002 and 2018, the characters reflect on 9/11 and their life-altering friendship. Thomas’s mother, Jamie Bernstein, wrote a memoir a few years ago in which she addressed her father’s storied omnisexuality, and the family has a long history with exclusive, blue-blood educational institutions. I’m interested in how 37-year-old first-time novelist Thomas treats a cloistered campus and paints a young trans man and his milieu.
Central Park Woodland Walk: The Ramble, Sunday, September 15, at 2:00 p.m., 90 minutes, $30 with discounts for seniors, Central Park Conservancy members, and students; RSVP required
The forecast is currently calling for perfect weather all weekend, so get outdoors! If I weren’t planning on running about 30 miles in my peak marathon-training mode this weekend (and if it didn’t conflict with football), I’d go on this guided exploration of one of the prettiest, wildest parts of the park: the Ramble. Designed as an idyll for urban explorers, the maze-like Ramble is just steps away from Central Park’s west side entrances. The walk will be led by Conservancy guides, and kids under 12 are free with their paid adult.
New York Philharmonic: Sunday at 2:00 p.m., Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, tickets start around $169
Now that conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has taken his final bows with the San Francisco Symphony amid an ongoing battle with brain cancer, and while New York is waiting for Gustavo Dudamel to take over in the 2025-26 season, Thomas will open the NY Phil’s season this weekend. He’ll do it with esteemed pianist Emanuel Ax as the soloist in Mozart’s 3-movement Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major, one of the composer’s warmest and most lyrical works. The concert will also include Mahler’s monumental 5th symphony with his famous Adagietto, which was composed as a coded love letter to Mahler’s wife, Alma.
Mets v. Nationals, Monday, September 16th, 7:10pm; tickets from $15
The weather’s perfect, seats are cheap and the Mets are battling for a spot in the playoffs! Weren’t we just on the 7 to get to the U.S. Open? Remember how easy it was? Transfer at 42nd Street and head to Citi Field. The Nationals aren’t in the postseason chase, but they can play spoiler. So take yourself out to the ballgame! Let’s Go Mets!
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We can walk in CP without paying.
There is a free birding group that meets at the boathouse 7:30a and 9a Mondays (I know there are more days), and goes to the bramble as well, its the best place to bird. Great group and the people who lead it are very nice and welcoming to newbies.
I, too, am a football fan, BUT will tape my favorites so as to enjoy this beautiful time of the year in New York City! I am intrigued by McNeal as a fan of Robert Downey, Jr. Your enthusiasm makes this my number 1 pick, but submit that I am interested in any other suggestions (you have not steered me wrong with any of your recommendations). A walk through Central Park and to see the leaves change sounds like the perfect transition to my favorite season-Autumn. Once again, Tracy, you are getting me off my bum and out enjoying the city!
The cost for the walk is a donation to the non-profit Central Park Conservancy.
A new movie The Critic with Ian McKellan (also Leslie Manville, Mark Strong) just opened….probably won’t last long in theaters.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13457790/
Maybe not, but it will be available on at least 3 streaming platforms after the theatrical run, which will give more people the opportunity to see it. : )
The NY Philharmonic opens on Sunday with Emmanuel Ax performing Mozart and Mahler’s Fifth symphony.
Nice weather for a ferry ride.
Staten Island or NYC Ferry.
https://www.ferry.nyc/
Great roundup! Even if I stay home it’s great to know what some options are 🙂
Don’t forget Columbus Open Streets resumes on Sunday!
Make sure to get out and enjoy the neighborhood, I know I will.
UWS Dad,
Perhaps I am missing something?
I don’t understand?
You’ve commented about the primacy of mass transit including wanting to boo Governor Hochul due to the CP pause.
You’ve commented enthusiastically about new affordable housing for the elderly.
But you support open streets even though it forces bus detours?
(And Central Park is one block away!)
Essential mass transit that is a necessity for elderly, people with health or mobility difficulties?
Yesterday on the bus ended up helping a neighbor who uses a walker.
It is so difficult – I don’t know how he manages.
He’d not be able to go a few extra blocks to get a rerouted bus.
BTW I am also a parent so fully familiar with all the areas kids can play in the neighborhood.
Thanks for the warning. Glad I got all of my appts out of the way last weekend. ; )
Great weekend recommendations, as always!
The Bramble?
Not.
Correct name is The Ramble