Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Review

America's oldest performing arts center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), presented its first show in 1861. Today it has a much-deserved reputation for the unusual and the unexpected, presented in grand-scale stagings. The most contemporary dance, music, opera, and cross-media productions mingle here with an array of classics. A restored Renaissance Revival palace built in 1908—the 2,100-seat Howard Gilman Opera House— and the 874-seat Harvey Theater, an updated 1904 theater a block away at 651 Fulton Street, are BAM's primary performance spaces. Every fall the Next Wave Festival fills the house with crackling energy and events that highlight a global mix of remarkable artists. The holidays bring a run of American Ballet Theatre's 2010-debuted Nutcracker, and with springtime comes a top-notch roster of international theater companies (such as Ireland's renowned Abbey) in repertory. Year-round you can catch a movie at the four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas, which offers BAMcinématek, an eclectic repertory series (from Kurosawa's Samurai to Hungarians in Hollywood), as well as first-run indies, documentaries, and foreign-language films. Or, hit the industrial-glam BAMcafé (718/623-7811 reservations) for Between the Lines, a synapse-sparking lecture series on Thursday night; it becomes a cabaret venue on Friday and Saturday nights. BAM gets kudos for its down-to-earth range of ticket prices; $25 to $60 is typical.