Highlights this weekend include world premieres from Alvin Ailey set to live music and an immersive re-telling of “A Christmas Carol” in a New York City historic landmark.
Plus, Tony winner Amber Iman pays tribute to Nina Simone and Lincoln Center hosts a free opera.
Dance
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York City Center — 131 West 55th St., Manhattan (Midtown)
Through Jan. 5. Various times.
In the wake of the passing of artistic director emerita Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey kicked off its new season Wednesday with a gala event featuring honorary chairs Phylicia Rashad and Gayle King, plus performances by “Hamilton” star Leslie Odom, Jr. and Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.
Highlights of this year’s five-week engagement, called “Remembering Judith Jamison,” feature performances of her signature dance, “Cry”. The presentation also includes the world premieres of interim artistic director Matthew Rushing’s “Sacred Songs,” Hope Boykin’s “Finding Free,” Lar Lubovitch’s “Many Angels” and Jamar Roberts’ “Al-Andalus Blues” (pictured above).
The opening weekend’s programming has four performances with live music orchestrations and a family matinee on Saturday.
Tickets start at $42 (fees included).
Film
“Lake George”
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lower Manhattan — 28 Liberty St Suite SC301, Manhattan (Financial District)
Various times.
Tony and Emmy-nominee Carrie Coon, known for “The Gilded Age” and “The Leftovers,” stars opposite her “Fargo” co-star Shea Whigham in in this comedic neo-noir written and directed by Jeffrey Reiner.
The two actors make for an unlikely pair when a hit job goes awry. Whigham plays a hapless claims adjuster fresh out of prison after taking the fall for a crime boss. He’s charged with disposing of the crime boss’s disloyal ex, played by Coons. “Lake George” is a quiet pot boiler with a big payoff.
Tickets are $20.98.
Music
“Rebel With a Cause: The Artistry and Activism of Nina Simone”
The 92nd Street Y — 1395 Lexington Ave., Manhattan (Upper East Side)
Dec. 7 – Dec. 9, Various times.
Fresh off her Tony-nominated run in “Lempicka,” Amber Iman returns with a tribute to the revered singer-songwriter she portrayed in 2013’s “Soul Doctor.”
Reggie D. White helms the Jocelyn Bioh-scripted musical celebration of Nina Simone’s songbook ranging from the pop standards “I Put a Spell on You,” “Feeling Good” and “My Baby Just Cares for Me” to ballads like “Plain Gold Ring” and protest anthems like “Mississippi Goddam” and “Backlash Blues.”
“I’ve been carrying her with me ever since,” Iman said of Simone, who died in 2003. “She was put on this earth as an artist, to use her voice. I’m looking to build a conversation with Nina — about and around her. These songs feel timely and necessary, with a softness in her lyrics we don’t always acknowledge. Who she is as a Black woman has inspired, encouraged and challenged me and I hope it does that to the audience.”
Tickets start at $40.
Theater
“A Christmas Carol”
Merchant’s House Museum — 29 East 4th St., Manhattan (Lower East Side)
Through Dec. 29. Various times.
There’s no more enchanting way to enjoy Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale than John Kevin Jones’ popular retelling of it at New York City’s only 19th-century home that has preserved both its exterior and all its original, Victorian furnishings.
Jones, directed by Rhonda Dodd, takes on the role of the famed English author. who’s in New York City to share the ghostly story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his hard-won lessons about the past, present and future.
Throughout the 70-minute performance, Jones narrates and assumes the roles of the story’s characters while holding court in the Merchant’s House Museum’s parlor.
Tickets start at $50.
Art
“Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition”
Industry City’s ⅞ Building — 900 Third Ave., Brooklyn (Industry City)
Through Jan. 5. Weds – Sun,10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Fans of Italian Renaissance art don’t have to travel to the Vatican to see Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel up close. An exhibit featuring replicas of the ceiling frescoes has made its way to Brooklyn this season.
“This exhibition is like a sanctuary that transports you to a completely different world and Industry City is the best place to experience Michelangelo’s works from a new angle,” producer Martin Biallas said of the collection featuring 34 works depicting scenes drawn from the Bible’s Old Testament.
There’s also an app with free audio-guided tours in numerous languages offering up curated details for each iconic masterpiece from the captivating “The Creation of Adam” to “The Last Judgment.”
Tickets start at $22.
Opera
“La Carmencita”
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center — 1887 Broadway, Manhattan (Upper West Side)
Fri. Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.
The Opera Next Door‘s fresh take on Bizet’s “Carmen,” which began as a series of stoop concerts during the COVID-19 lockdown, comes to Lincoln Center this weekend. The Brooklyn-based opera company has a renewed focus and mission of bringing the art form to broader audiences.
With “La Carmencita,” Colombian soprano Sasha Gutiérrez, theater and opera director Rebecca Miller Kratzer, and Latin Grammy-winning bassist and composer Pedro Giraudo have breathed new life into “Carmen” with a modern, Latin American lens. Performed in a new Spanish translation with English subtitles, the opera is described as a “a reduced, tango adaptation set in a Buenos Aires café” where “passion, jealousy, fate, and hope unfold as Carmen takes control over her destiny.”
Free.
Free
Fifth Avenue Celebrates 200 Years
Fifth Ave. from 48th to 55th streets
Sun. Dec. 8, Noon – 6 p.m.
Now that the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is officially lit, it’s the perfect backdrop for a public birthday party on Fifth Avenue.
New Yorkers and visitors from around the world are invited to celebrate the famed retail corridor’s 200th anniversary with the pedestrian-only event featuring art installations, interactive pop-ups and performances including Juilliard Jazz’s Duke Ellington Ensemble, The Satin Dollz and the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Community Choir.
Free.
If you have an upcoming weekend event you’d like to submit for consideration in an upcoming roundup, please email: nycevents@nydailynews.com with the details. Consideration does not guarantee inclusion.
