april date ideas
OPENING DAY at YANKEE STADIUM (April 5) - In collaboration with the New York Transit Museum, a vintage 1917 IRT Lo-V train will depart Grand Central Station for Yankee Stadium, to celebrate the Yankees season kick off against the Toronto Blue Jays.
LA RONDINE at THE MET OPERA (April 13, 16, 20) - “Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his highly anticipated company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess.” I believe that the best operas are always about courtesans, and I want to see them all. The 1920s-era set and costuming look especially enticing.
DOUBT: A PARABLE on BROADWAY (through April 21) - John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama returns to Broadway. “The fireworks begin as the exacting principal of a Bronx Catholic school—feared by students and colleagues alike—suspects improper relations between a charismatic priest and a student. She’s forced to wrestle with what’s fact, what’s fiction, and just how far she’ll go to expose what she sees as the truth. As the New York Post says, “It keeps the audience guessing and second-guessing through the play’s famous final line.””
THE ORCHID SHOW: FLORALS IN FASHION at the NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN (through April 22) - This year’s orchid show focuses on wearable creations crafted from flowers.
HANAMI NIGHTS at the BROOKLYN BOTANICAL GARDEN (April 23-25) - “Find a spot on Cherry Esplanade to enjoy the cherry blossoms, lit up for maximum effect, and savor the spring vibe with family and friends. Stroll in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and along Cherry Walk, try your hand at origami, and view a curated display of bonsai in the Lillian and Amy Goldman Atrium. The evenings feature live performances, a bar selling Japanese beer and sake, and pop-up food menus curated with Sunrise Mart.”
FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES (April 12, 17, 20, 24, 27, May 2) - The first opera by an African-American composer to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera since its founding in 1883. “Terence Blanchard’s stirring drama returns following its landmark company premiere in 2021, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green starring as Charles, a young man faced with a fateful decision.” I was so sad to have missed this when it premiered at the Met in 2021, and am delighted they’ve brought it back, it would be a shame to miss it again.
THE GREAT GATSBY (opens April 25) - Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada star in the stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless novel.
WHORE’S EYE VIEW (April 25, May 2, May 9) - Whore’s Eye View is a mad dash through 10,000 years of history from a sex worker’s perspective. Equal parts history lecture, stand up comedy, and personal storytelling, Kaytlin Bailey masterfully unpacks the age-old stigma surrounding the oldest profession. Weaving history, comedic storytelling, and the wisdom of lived experience, Kaytlin artfully unpacks the complex, age-old stigma underpinning a status quo designed to keep women in their place. Kaytlin’s eye opening message is a compassionate, clarion call, a crash course in history, and a game changing roadmap for progress that can be sustained once and for all.
STILL on BROADWAY (through May 18) - “Thirty years ago, Helen and Mark broke up, but they never completely forgot about each other. When they meet for dinner to catch up, the flame is rekindled... but Mark is running for Congress, and Helen has a secret that could derail his bid. Lost love is revisited and an avocado goes flying in Lia Romeo's whirlwind New York premiere comedy about getting older, political divisions, and roads not taken.”
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE on BROADWAY (through June 23) - “Set in a small Norwegian spa town, Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People is about Doctor Thomas Stockmann, a man of principles who discovers that the spa’s water is poisoned. He naively expects the mayor to greet the truth with gratitude, but the town’s political machine will brook no threat to its prosperity, even if it means letting thousands of people be sickened. Doctor Stockmann becomes a whistleblower, and the public campaign against him mounts, setting up a moral battle between a lone truth teller and a society desperate for self-preservation.” Jeremy Strong plays the lead in this staging, and I (like every New Yorker I know) loved Succession so this is a no-brainer.
PATRIOTS on BROADWAY (through June 23) - Peter Morgan’s Olivier Award-nominated play arrives on Broadway for a limited run. “In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the new Russia belongs to its oligarchs—and no one is more powerful than billionaire Boris Berezovsky. When an eventual successor to President Boris Yeltsin is needed, Berezovsky turns to the little-known deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin. But soon Putin's ruthless rise threatens Berezovsky's reign, setting off a riveting, near-Shakespearean confrontation between the two powerful, fatally flawed men.”
WHITNEY BIENNIAL (through August 11) - The eighty-first edition of the Whitney Biennial—the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States—features seventy-one artists and collectives grappling with many of today’s most pressing issues. This Biennial is like being inside a “dissonant chorus," as participating artist Ligia Lewis described it, a provocative yet intimate experience of distinct and disparate voices that collectively probe the cracks and fissures of the unfolding moment.
TENEMENT MUSEUM - The Tenement Museum tells the stories of working class tenement residents who moved to New York City and other parts of the country. Their work helped build the city and nation and their stories help us understand our history. I’ve lived in New York for almost a decade and still haven’t been here, I’m told that April is a great time to visit as the museum isn’t air conditioned and gets quite warm in the summer!
BEATRIX POTTER: DRAWN TO NATURE at the MORGAN LIBRARY - Another place I’ve still never been, the photos of J. Pierpont Morgan’s library are breathtaking and I’d love to visit in person. There also happens to be an exhibit on Beatrix Potter, the beloved children’s author and illustrator, curated in collaboration with the V&A in London.