What to See and Do in New York This Spring — From Broadway to the Best Restaurants

Theatre

After a relatively quiet fall on Broadway, the spring season promises lots of new shows. Topping the list of must-sees is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” which stars Jeremy Strong in his first role post “Succession,” alongside Michael Imperoli and Victoria Pedretti. The show is from director Sam Gold, Tony winner for “Fun Home,” and playwright Amy Herzog, who returns to adapting Ibsen following last year’s triumph of “A Doll’s House” with Jessica Chastain. Performances begin Feb. 27.

Coming from the West End is the Olivier Award -nominated play “My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)” starring writer and performer Rob Madge, for 16 weeks only also starting Feb. 27. Meena Harris and Phenomenal Media, JJ Maley and George Strus have signed on as producers for the Broadway run, and Maley and Strus’ nonprofit organizations, Queer Arts Coalition and Breaking the Binary Theatre, respectively, will be leading the production’s training and community engagement efforts. The show follows a family and their son’s upbringing.

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Starting in March, “Suffs” arrives on Broadway following a sold-out, extended run at The Public Theater, and with the producing additions of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai. The show, which begins previews on March 26, takes place in 1913 and follows the suffragists and the women’s rights battle in America.

It wouldn’t be a new season on Broadway without a stage adaptation of a movie classic, and this year there’s the musical adaptation of “The Notebook.” Opening March 14, the show features music and lyrics by multiplatinum singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson.

Another adaptation arriving on Broadway is “Water for Elephants,” which brings circus acts and new music to the Broadway stage starting Feb. 24.

Dining

Looking for somewhere to eat after the show? Andrew Carmellini’s latest New York restaurant, Café Carmellini, opened inside the Fifth Avenue Hotel late last year and has earned rave reviews from critics and diners alike. The opulent dining room is prime for a special night out. One block over and south, the fashion crowd has flocked to Coqodaq, a fancy Korean fried chicken restaurant from the Cote team, that opened in mid-January. The team behind Don Angie — another favorite hard-to-come-by reservation — is expanding its portfolio with the opening of San Sabino next door in early March. The focus will be Italian American seafood. Also opening in March is Main Street Landing, a lounge and restaurant “experience” in DUMBO led by the Due West team. In Chinatown, former Contra chef Fidel Caballero recently opened Corima, featuring modern northern Mexican cuisine. Angelina Jolie recently opened Atelier Jolie, a café and arts space located in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s former NoHo studio. The café is partnered with EatOffBeat, which employs a team of refugee and immigrant chefs.

Art

“Giants: Art From the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” at the Brooklyn Museum, which opened Feb. 10, marks the first major exhibition of artwork from the couple’s private collection. Works featured are from notable contemporary artists such as Gordon Parks, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, Derrick Adams, Kehinde Wiley and Ebony G. Patterson. In Manhattan, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is debuting “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” on Feb. 25. Downtown it’s your last chance to catch Judy Chicago’s career retrospective at the New Museum, “Herstory,” which closes March 3. MoMA is staging a retrospective for video and performance artist Joan Jonas; “Good Night Good Morning” opens March 17. On March 29, the Whitney Biennial returns with “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” a survey of 71 American artists and collectives. Best known for his “decaying” sculptures, Daniel Arsham’s photography is the focus for the first time in an exhibition at Fotografiska, opening March 22. Jeffrey Deitch will debut five new sculptures by Frank Stella, which the gallery is hyping as the “most ambitious and most radical works being made by any artist today.” You’ll have to stop by and see for yourself.

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