New York August Events 2024: Drag Shows, Discussions, Afterparties, Dates & Ticket Prices (November Updated)

Back to the Future the Musical is an extraordinary event taking place at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York. From now on, immerse yourself in this captivating experience. “Back to the Future: The Musical” is an extraordinary stage adaptation of the beloved 1985 sci-fi masterpiece “Back to the Future”. Transporting audiences through time, this captivating production follows the thrilling journey of Marty McFly. With the aid of a remarkable DeLorean time machine, invented by his ingenious friend, Marty ventures from the year 1985 to the enchanting era of 1955. Along this extraordinary odyssey, he encounters his own parents during their teenage years, facing the pivotal task of ensuring their destined love and unity, ultimately safeguarding his very existence in the future. Experience the awe-inspiring magic of the theater “Back to the Future: The Musical” Secure your tickets on Trip.com now for an unforgettable journey through time and witness the enthralling attractions that await.

In the heart of New York City, the Richard Rodgers Theatre proudly presents the musical “Hamilton”. This highly anticipated event will captivate audiences from now on. Experience the captivating story of Hamilton, an extraordinary musical that delves into the life of a remarkable Founding Father. With an insatiable hunger for success and a relentless ambition, Hamilton defies all odds to leave an indelible mark on the new nation. From his humble beginnings as an orphan to becoming George Washington's trusted right-hand man, Hamilton's journey takes him from rebel to war hero. Amidst his rise to power, he becomes entangled in the first-ever sex scandal of the country, all while serving as the head of the Treasury and instilling faith in the American economy. Immerse yourself in the rich history and captivating storytelling of this critically acclaimed musical. Don’t miss the opportunity to witness this extraordinary musical “Hamilton” live on stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City. Get your tickets now on Trip.com for an unforgettable journey into the world of Hamilton.

The Lion King Show is an exceptional event that takes place in the vibrant city of New York. Held at the renowned Minskoff Theatre, this show promises an unforgettable experience for all attendees. From now on, immerse yourself in the mesmerizing world of The Lion King. Based on the 1994 Disney film and the original book by Roger and Erin, the musical won an Oscar for the song Can You Feel the Love Tonight. This remarkable production showcases the timeless tale of Simba, the young lion prince, as he embarks on a journey of self-discovery and courage. This visual feast successfully blends animals, puppets and real people seamlessly and is loved by audiences of all ages. Don’t miss out on this extraordinary event, Trip.com offers a wide range of ticketing options. Immerse yourself in the enchanting atmosphere of the Minskoff Theatre and witness the magic unfold before your eyes. Whether you are a fan of the original animated film or a newcomer to the story, this show guarantees to leave you in awe.

Enter a world of splendor and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur and glory! A world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment. Pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular spectacular... Welcome to Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage, remixed in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. A theatrical celebration of truth, beauty, freedom and—above all—LOVE, Moulin Rouge! is more than a musical; it is a state of mind.

Go far beyond our own blue planet and marvel at the latest discoveries about our cosmic neighbors. Immersive visualizations of distant worlds. Groundbreaking space missions. Breathtaking scenes depicting the evolution of our solar system.

The reopened galleries dedicated to European Paintings from 1300 to 1800 highlight fresh narratives and dialogues among more than 700 works of art from the Museum’s world-famous holdings. The newly reconfigured galleries—which include recently acquired paintings and prestigious loans, as well as select sculptures and decorative art—will showcase the interconnectedness of cultures, materials, and moments across The Met collection. The chronologically arranged galleries will feature longstanding strengths of the collection—such as masterpieces by Jan van Eyck, Caravaggio, and Poussin; the most extensive collection of 17th-century Dutch art in the western hemisphere; and the finest holdings of El Greco and Goya outside Spain—while also giving renewed attention to women artists, exploring Europe’s complex relationships with New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru, and looking more deeply into histories of class, gender, race, and religion. The reopening of the suite of 45 galleries at the top of the Great Hall staircase follows a five-year project to replace the skylights. This monumental infrastructure project improves the quality of light and enhances the viewing experience for a new look at this renowned collection. Major support for Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800 is provided by Candace K. and Frederick W. Beinecke.

This porcelain head, a self-portrait, is glazed in shades of blue and covered with metallic droplets called “silver mist,” or gintekisai. The term, like the secret technique that produces the effect, was invented by ceramicist Kondō Takahiro (born 1958). Based in Kyoto, Japan, he carries on a legacy of innovation in ceramic art. For the last one hundred years, Kondō Takahiro and his father Kondō Hiroshi (1936–2012), grandfather Kondō Yūzō (1902–1985), and uncle Kondō Yutaka (1932–1983) have broken free of centuries-old traditions to pursue original, individual expression. Porcelains in the Mist brings together sixty-one pieces that celebrate the Kondō family’s innovations and talents. Their early creations range from freehand-painted vases to pure-white jars. Most of the works on view are by Takahiro, who often pairs his “mist,” which he describes as “water born from fire,” with dramatic shapes and textures. Several of these powerful porcelains reflect his personal responses to monumental events, particularly the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan. Museum Spotlights are intimate installations of noteworthy collection works, recent acquisitions, and loans, presented to encourage deeper conversations about art, history, and justice. Porcelains in the Mist: The Kondō Family of Ceramicists is organized by the Brooklyn Museum based on the exhibition Transcendent Clay/Kondo: A Century of Japanese Ceramic Art, originally presented by the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, and guest curated by Joe Earle. The Brooklyn Museum’s presentation is organized by Joan Cummins, Lisa and Bernard Selz Senior Curator, Asian Art. We are grateful to Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, whose generosity and enthusiasm made this exhibition possible.

Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Bartlett Sher’s towering staging also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.

In 1996, the musical "Chicago" began to perform on Broadway and was a great success. So far, "Chicago" has performed in 261 cities around the world. Its main song "Jazz Spring and Autumn" has been adapted into five languages and released worldwide. Currently, "Chicago" is one of the longest-running musicals still on Broadway along with "Les Miserables," "Ghost of the Opera," and "Beauty and the Beast." Since its inception, "Chicago" has won more than 50 important awards for its superb artistic quality and exquisite production and performance. These include Tony, Grammy, Oliver and Helpman awards. The film of the same name based on it was nominated for 13 Oscars and finally won 6 awards including Best Picture.

From the MINDS that brought The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong to Broadway comes the hilarious new comedy by Mischief!

What’s your fantasy? Ana knows that everybody has one—her especially, and she’d do anything to make it come true. And when she meets Jonah, a sweet and caring student at her boarding school, everything she’s ever wanted is finally falling into place. Except Jonah, like everything else in this moving world premiere play from Rachel Bonds, is not all that he seems. A singularly haunting and heart-racing coming-of-age tale that will keep you guessing until its final twisting moments, Jonah is about the true cost of survival, and the lengths some will travel to feel just a little less alone in the world. Danya Taymor directs.

Hamilton is the story of the unlikely Founding Father determined to make his mark on the new nation as hungry and ambitious as he is. From orphan to Washington's right-hand man, rebel to war hero, a loving husband caught in the country's first sex scandal, to the Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy. George Washington, Eliza Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton's lifelong friend/foil Aaron Burr all make their mark in this astonishing new musical exploration of a political mastermind.

From a young age, acclaimed Pop artist David Hockney (British, b. 1937) cemented his reputation as one of the most innovative and experimental artists of his generation. Hockney/Origins: Early Works from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson Collection examines the early period of Hockney’s career in depth, from his time as a student at the Royal College of Art in London during the early 1960s to his formative years in the 1970s.

Eminent American composer John Adams returns to the Met after a decade-long hiatus for the company premiere of his acclaimed opera-oratorio, which incorporates sacred and secular texts in English, Spanish, and Latin, from biblical times to the present day, in an extraordinarily dramatic retelling of the Nativity. El Niño brings together three of contemporary opera’s fiercest champions, all of whom make highly anticipated company debuts: Marin Alsop, one of the great conductors of our time, who has led more than 200 new-music premieres; soprano Julia Bullock, a leading voice on and off stage; and pathbreaking bass-baritone Davóne Tines. Radiant mezzo-sopranos J’Nai Bridges and Daniela Mack take turns completing the principal trio.

Based on the 1994 Disney film and the original book by Roger and Erin, the musical won an Oscar for the song CanYouFeeltheLoveTonight, with other music produced by Hans Zimmer, Lai Bo, Mark Macina and Jay Rifkin . Directed by famous director Julie Taimer, this visual feast successfully blends animals, puppets and real people seamlessly and is loved by audiences of all ages.

This exhibition presents a selection of prints by the artist, illustrator, and children’s book author Wanda Gág (1893–1946). These works record the world as Gág experienced it: a place where landscapes move rhythmically and inanimate objects hum with life. Although she also painted, the graphic arts offered her the most effective method for expressing this unique vision. Born in Minnesota to immigrants from German Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), Gág arrived in New York in 1917 to study at the Art Students League, where she became a fixture of the city’s modernist art scene. Adhering neither to abstraction nor social realism—the dominant artistic movements at the time—Gág forged her own approach to figuration. Over the course of her career, she found modest success selling her prints and produced several popular children’s books, examples of which are presented in the show. Gág was also a prolific writer about her life and work, and excerpts from her letters and diaries accompany the prints on view. Drawn entirely from the Whitney’s collection, the works in this exhibition span roughly two decades, ranging from the mid-1920s to the year before Gág's death. Together, these still lifes, landscapes, and interiors illuminate what the artist called “Wanda Gág world,” demonstrating her fervent quest to capture the feeling and movement of life as she saw it. Wanda Gág’s World is co-curated by Roxanne Smith, Senior Curatorial Assistant, and Scout Hutchinson, Curatorial Fellow.

See stunning jewelry pieces that trace the history of hip-hop from the 1980s to today. Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry celebrates hip-hop’s cultural influence through exquisite jewelry worn by some of its iconic stars. Highlights include Slick Rick’s dazzling crown, Notorious BIG’s legendary gold “Jesus piece,” a diamond-encrusted Roc-A-Fella medallion from the record label co-founded by Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj’s sparkling “Barbie” pendant, and pieces from Erykah Badu, A$AP Rocky, Joey Bada$$, FERG and Tyler, the Creator, among others. Building on New York City’s celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary as a global phenomenon, Ice Cold will highlight the evolution of hip-hop jewelry over the past fifty years, starting with the oversized gold chains adopted by rap pioneers in the 1980s, all the way to the 1990s, when emcees turned business moguls wore record label pendants sparkling with diamonds and platinum.

Exploring the intersection of art making and play, Cas Holman designs innovative toys and tools that inspire participatory imagination. Prototyping Play experiments with the different modes of intuitive and child-directed free play in an art museum environment by extending the body’s movements with uniquely crafted elements and prompts. Released in two phases, Holman’s open-ended playthings and playspaces foster collaboration, inventive thinking, and interactivity. Prototyping Play invites artists of all ages to create, exchange, cooperate, and leave your mark through these new devices. Tracing Play (launching May 19, 2024): Drawing Tools and Drawing Pads invite collective acts of drawing. The awkwardly shaped, human-sized Drawing Tools are equipped with large-scale crayons which challenge users to collaborate in figuring out how to use them. The fun is in the creative process. You can make marks using these tools on the Drawing Pads, or Tyvek paper surfaces, where your drawings will inspire future markmakers. Alternatively, you can collaborate with markmakers who visited the exhibition beforehand. Critter Party (launching July 2024): For this playscape, Holman has created different elements: the Mama Critter, Baby Critters, and Thingies. The arched Critters invite various types of interaction and opportunities for transformation, while the add-on objects, or Thingies, offer the possibility to adapt each structure with new narratives and identities. Encouraging crawling, sliding, building, storytelling, pretending, and more, the assorted sizes of Critters demonstrate how scale can change our relationship with shapes and spaces. Each critter, as well as the open-ended, reconfigurable Thingies, accommodate various types of play, depending on the desired sensory and social engagements. Here, Holman creates inclusive environments where many different types and ways of playing can coexist together. Prototyping Play will activate the Skylight Gallery as the Queens Museum prepares for a children’s museum that encourages intergenerational learning experiences. This playscape will further the Museum’s knowledge of its audiences and facilitates test thinking for future family programming. Prototyping Play is curated by Lauren Haynes, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs, and Kimaada Le Gendre, Director of Education.

Close to Home is an installation that honors the domestic space as a custodian of cultural and spiritual traditions by providing support and comfort to forge appreciation for heritage and their continuity. Modeled after Nsenga Knight’s family residences from their past six years living in Cairo, Egypt, the installation’s eclectic atmosphere reflects the historic and cosmopolitan. While furnished in various materials and styles, old and new, this family home is also adorned with artifacts from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as well as artworks by Knight, including paintings, prints, videos, and wallpaper. A Brooklyn-born Afro-Caribbean American Muslim artist, Knight researched the Queens Museum’s 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair Archives with a focus on the representations of the then-newly postcolonial Islamic African and Caribbean nations. The historical trajectory of these nations and their influence on Black Americans has emerged as the central focus of her exhibition. Knight presents this exhibition as both a home and a forum for “Peace Through Understanding,” echoing the theme of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. She extends this concept into the exterior section of the installation. Hovering above are words initially spoken by martial arts masters at the SWAM Academy of Modern Martial Arts in South Jamaica, Queens. Transcribed by Knight word-by-word, these “poems” encapsulate their wisdom about self defense, spirituality, and ethical integrity imparted at the renowned Black Muslim-owned dojo. The act of safe-keeping and hope for peace extends to the toy paragliders in the exhibition. These airborne devices carry complex yet arbitrary layers of symbolism related to the Museum’s building history. The New York City Building housed the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 when they passed Resolution 181 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. By juxtaposing SWAM poetry with paragliders and parachutes, Knight considers how to position peace and safety amidst conflict and oppression. Food culture also played a pivotal role in the World’s Fair. Close to Home will host a scheduled series of social gatherings by serving tea and coffee in this installation. With this act of hospitality, Knight calls on viewers to consider the power of sensorial and experiential engagement to foster understanding, connection, and appreciation among people from various corners of the world. Close to Home is curated by Hitomi Iwasaki, Director of Exhibitions/Curator. Nsenga Knight (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1981) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. She earned an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Howard University. She has exhibited her work internationally, including: Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2022); Drawing Center, New York, NY (2017, 2016); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2015); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2011); among others. Knight is a recipient of grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2019), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council (2007). She was an artist-in-residence at BRICworkspace, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Film/Video Arts Center, New York, NY (2005) among others. She lives and works in New York.

In 9999, Cameron A. Granger uses the framework of video games and magic to imagine an alternative method of liberation for Black communities from the compounding effects of racist urban planning. In early role playing video games, due to low computer processing capacity, 9,999 was the numerical damage limit done to a character that could be registered on screen. Yet sometimes, additional damage continued to accrue off-screen – incapacitating, yet unseen. Granger takes this concept of the concealed yet relentless harm, and applies it to the cumulative corrosion of segregative design, environmental racism, and gentrification. To make sense of the convoluted legacies of systemic injustice, Granger visualizes the wounds left by structural violence through “black holes” that rip the city’s fabric. His films, prints, and sculptures create a video game-like narrative that provides puzzles, tips, and charms that aid in deciphering these black holes. In diagnosing the root cause of the issue, Granger proposes that the black holes are the result of a spell cast by nefarious, hidden forces. To break the curse, he speculates what might be possible if the black holes could be used as portals to share knowledge. Seeking answers, Granger turns to stage magicians, root workers, and conjurers. His work references Black magicians such as Henry “Box” Brown (1815-1897) whose performances alluded to his 1849 self-emancipation via mail, and Benjamin Rucker aka Black Herman (1892-1934) whose magic acts and conjuring remedies built a massive following in the 1920s among Black communities. Granger also draws on the practice of conjuring, invoking remedies for locating harm’s source, protecting, and healing. Additionally, he calls upon the Haitian folklore of zombies, originally mythologized as the spirits of enslaved laborers trapped to haunt plantations in their afterlife. Granger reconceptualizes their spirits as a unified force reemerging from the grave to aid in liberation. Sourcing wisdom from Black forebears whose knowledge helped their communities self-emancipate, heal, and thrive, Granger offers a collective vision of empowered futurity. In a dimly lit gallery that mimics the digital landscape of a video game, Granger creates a narrative where memories of and knowledge from Black ancestors provide clues, methods, and tools that once pieced together, may reveal the key to break free. Cameron A. Granger: 9999 is curated by Sarah Cho, Assistant Curator.

In Buenos Vecinos, which translates to “good neighbors,” Catalina Schliebener Muñoz confronts the impact of two Walt Disney animated films: Saludos Amigos (1942) and Los Tres Caballeros (1944). Both films emerged from Disney’s state-sponsored research trips to South and Central American nations as part of The Good Neighbor Policy, which sought to discourage Nazi influence and improve the United States’ public image in Latin America following its numerous military invasions throughout the early 20th century. Disney and his team of artists toured Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Mexico to generate visual motifs and storylines for recognizable characters like Donald Duck and Goofy, as well to create new characters, songs, and dances based on local customs and archetypes. Schliebener Muñoz examines how these films functioned as a form of soft power, enlisting children’s media towards the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States. Through installation, collage, sculpture, and murals, the artist subverts reductive and exoticized representations of Latin American cultures in the films to center its secondary characters and rebellious underdogs. Schliebener Muñoz also contends with Disney’s depictions of gender, sexuality, race, and Indigeneity by appropriating and fragmenting the films’ imagery to create critical narratives of resistance. Acknowledging the capacity of stories to shape value systems, the exhibition employs mirroring, queer coding, ambiguity, and humor to challenge the imposed boundaries between the real and fictional, natural and synthetic, spectacular and grotesque. As World War II gave way to the Cold War, the United States abandoned Pan-American unity to support coups and dictatorships in many of the countries depicted in Disney’s films. Schliebener Muñoz incorporates archival materials that address the aftermath of The Good Neighbor Policy, U.S. interventionism, and imperialist ideology through the history of the Queens Museum’s site. This building hosted the former United Nations, where decisions ranged from the 1947 partition of Palestine to the creation of UNICEF, and is also located on the grounds of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair where Disney premiered the “it’s a small world” attraction. For Schliebener Muñoz, this context becomes integral to understanding the legacy of Disney’s films alongside hostile foreign policies, and how the imagination of children became a vehicle for the projection of American innocence and exceptionalism on the global stage. Buenos Vecinos is curated by Lindsey Berfond, Assistant Curator and Studio Program Manager.

Follow Australian Green Sea Turtle Bunji as she embarks on her first solo journey across the high seas and the incredible animals she encounters along the way. In A Turtle Odyssey, narrated by Academy Award winner Russell Crowe, explore the amazing life of a sea turtle from hatchling to adult, and the great migrations undertaken by generations before her. As Bunji leaves her Great Barrier Reef habitat and swims hundreds of miles, she encounters many marine animals—including humpback whales, parrot fish, and even a great white shark—as well as threats to her survival, like plastic waste.

“I think of myself, standing in a world that is never standing still,” the artistRobert Frankonce wrote. “I’m still in there fighting, alive because I believe in what I’m trying to do now.”Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue—the artist’s first solo exhibition at MoMA—provides a new perspective on his expansive body of work by exploring the six vibrant decades of Frank’s career following the 1958 publication of his landmarkphotobook,The Americans. Coinciding with the centennial of Frank’s birth, the exhibition will explore his restless experimentation across mediums including photography, film, and books, as well as his dialogues with other artists and his communities. It will include some 200 works made over 60 years until the artist’s death in 2019, many drawn from MoMA’s extensive collection, as well as materials that have never before been exhibited. The exhibition borrows its title from Frank’s poignant 1980 film, in which the artist reflects on the individuals who have shaped his outlook. Like much of his work, the film is set in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he and his wife, the artist June Leaf, moved in 1970. In the film, Leaf looks at the camera and asks Frank, “Why do you make these pictures?” In an introduction to the film’s screening, he answered: “Because I am alive.” Organized by Lucy Gallun, Curator, with Kaitlin Booher, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, and Casey Li, 12 Month Intern, Department of Photography

Prepare to participate in the Crown Heights 5K Run / Walk in Brooklyn, a engaging event set to take place on August 18, 2024, at Lincoln Terrace / Arthur S. Somers Park. This event promises a day filled with activity and camaraderie, open to individuals of all fitness levels, from seasoned runners to those seeking a leisurely stroll. Support will be extended to the Crown Heights families of Fallen First Responders through funds raised during the event. Join fellow community members as you hit the pavement and enjoy the outdoors while promoting wellness and unity. The race will culminate at Brower Park. Secure your spot for this enriching experience for a ticket price of $30. Mark your calendar and be part of this meaningful initiative to connect with others and contribute to the community.