Live performances - not Broadway
 

I live here and it always amazes me to think about the number of places and spaces where people gather in this town to view a live performance of some sort - music, drama, readings, lectures, etc.

All the while, visitors are worried about which Broadway show to see for the umpteenth time.

Was I the only person in this part of Fodor's Universe to attend one of the best concerts of this century? Pete Seeger's 90th birthday? Here was the performance list...

www.seeger90.com

Review later - must catch a bus - in the meantime - let's give folks an idea of where they can go beyond Broadway

If you check out the web site of the New York Philharmonic (or their season program) you will note that they have "Open Rehearsals" - certain weekdays mornings at 10am. Admission is something like $14 - and you sit in the best seats in the house - orchestra or we take the first tier center for a great view of the entire orchestra. You get the entire concert that they will perform that evening including the guest soloist. These seats are about $90 in the evening.

Look forward to hearing your review of the concert. Quite a list of performers.

All of the jazz clubs in NYC generally have great performances. I recently went to Dizzy's Coca Cola in the Time Warner building for a Mon. upstarts show. Price was $20/person plus a drink. In addition to terrific music, you have the added benefit of a lovely twinkly NYC view.

And all of them played sometimes together sometimes in groups and we all sang and sang. Joan Baez singing Where have all the Flowers Gone and Joan and Ruby Dee leading We Shall Overcome and Pete leading the group for Amazing Grace and several other songs and Tom Paxton and Tom Chapin and Oscar the Grouch singing Garbage Garbage Garbage and Arlo and Emmy Lou Harris and Richie Havens and on and on and on AND MSG got the sound right.....

I never felt I had to leave because it was too loud. It was all just right! I'm sure there will be some kind of PBS doc on it they were filming all over the place.

SILENT FILM SCREENINGS with Live Music
9 PM | $5 suggested donation
at Middle Collegiate Church | Second Ave bet 6th and 7th Sts

Join Grammy-nominated organist and artist-in-residence Cameron Carpenter every Thursday in May 2009 as he creates his own soundtrack for these landmark films.

May 7
Modern Times
Directed by Charlie Chaplin

May 14
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Directed by Robert Wiene

May 21
Different from the Others
Directed by Richard Oswald

May 28
Koyannisqatsi
Directed by Godfrey Reggio

I love Middle Collegiate. I've only been there once. We had a second Passover seder followed by a Maundy Thursday gospel service. Reverend Jacqui is great! I love silent movies with live music but I may not be awake this week. Will get there one of these days.

I was at the seder/celebration as well.

Sue, I get your point and I agree that NYC has more of everything in live performances than anywhere, but here's one thing to consider. Every major city has major concerts and other lectures. A particular concert is really no different in NYC than it might be in somewhere else except that often in other cities they will be in smaller venues so you may be closer up that somewhere like Madison Square Garden. But while Broadway shows go on the road, they are rarely if ever quite the quality and full scale caliber of their counterpart of their Broadway original.

One thing you can do in New York that you can't do ANYWHERE else in the US is see an actual Broadway show. There really is a difference.

Well you sort of get the point. The diversity here - music, dance, performance, lectures at cultural institutions, bars, book stores - the numbers of people who gather each evening and the numbers of spaces they gather in are endless.

You are RIGHT about Broadway but I've been reading boards like this for years and the number of people who come to town to see the SAME show again and again amazes me. Or, the agony over finding the perfect seat.

My father did community theater when I was growing up. We came to Broadway shows from the time I was in elementary school and I first saw Broadway from the last row in the 2nd balcony or first balcony if there was no second balcony in the theater. It was only much later that I discovered the orchestra and front Mezz and while I have seen different revivals of the same musical over my lifetime, I've never seen the same production twice.

Sue is on to something noting how too many tourists flock to the same few shows - mostly mediocre musicals again and again and forever when there is so much of really great quality available. (and all the torture of where to sit - hey - everybody in that theater sees the same show). Can't totally agree with Neo re concerts being the same no matter where you attend them. Carnegie Hall is an experience visitors (and locals) should take advantage of - superb acoustics with world class artists and orchestras - also the new Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center - a magnificent new addition for great music. OK - Avery Fisher Hall - less than a great space for a musical event and the guy who designed that balcony/tier seating where you have to crane your neck to see the stage should be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in that position.

Well, yes, jroth, you are onto something as well. I love attending a special event or concert at Carnegie Hall -- or the things like Encores at City Center -- or a concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Have done all. And I even forgave the designer when I saw Kristen Chenowith do Candide there -- craning my neck never bothered me as I was so enthralled. I also do really cheap dress rehearsals during the day there of some of their concerts. You can find them online.

I was really referring to seeing a concert as part of a tour by a particular performer -- who normally will perform in New York at a major venue -- and do the same concert throughout the country. Kind of a different thing.

And it is also amazing how many really cheap or free things there are to do in New York. I've attended a couple of staged readings which were free at The Drama Bookshop in their basement "theatre", one time winning a door price of a huge collection of Jim Brickman cds and videos (who's Jim Brickman?, I had to ask).

My "local" health club has lectures and performances almost every night of the year. If you are planning a 5th Ave museum day you might want to check what is on here on the day you will be here:

http://www.92y.org/calendar/calendar...rop=cal-events

Also, places like the Met have evening performances after Museum hours:

http://www.metmuseum.org/calendar/in...ink=calendar_l

And lectures at the Museum of the City of New York
http://www.mcny.org/public-programs/

Great food choices between 96-97th on Madison catering to folks who work and visit Mt Sinai Hospital.

Madison between 96 and 86th - Upscale local restaurants for an upscale neighborhood

Lex and 3rd between 96 and 79th -- more local choices

2nd Ave in the Low 90s needs your business on the East side of the street - They are really getting hurt by 2nd Ave subway construction.

Note to NEO - the concert was not a one person concert - the star power lineup is probably not going on the road together.

One of the most enjoyable concerts I've attended in NYC was actually the Nightlife Awards. It's a once a year event honoring Cabaret artists . . . singers, comedians, jazz artists, and the like.

At the event, all the awards are already known, so the evening is basically the person who won performing for 5-10 minutes. What you get is a series of those who are considered the best doing their one best song or bit--showstopper after showstopper--then they get off the stage. No lengthy speeches of any kind. It takes place on a Monday night, so lots Broadway people act as presenters.

Last years winners:

http://broadwayworld.com/article/200..._More_20090105

we'd love to see some Comedy shows - are there any good comedy clubs you'd recommend?

Comedy clubs are hard to recommend, do you like Carrot Top, Andrew Dice Clay, or Lewis Black?

How many cities in the world fill up magazines with listings of cultural events from the utterly bizarre to the most sophisticated.

The city is much larger than a world class symphony and Broadway. It is a small revivial or performance art or an arcane musical group, nightly gallery openings, and readings by world class authors. They are not unusual events but daily occurances.

According to the League of American Theatres and Producers, 65% of Broadway show goers are tourists. They are missing the riches that NY offers.

NY is actors who are first starting out and those who rely on their name, musicans with great skill and those without any talent, artists with vision and those who are puzzled by crayons. It is all those things that make the cultural scene exciting.