“NYC Sound Tracks,” an eight-episode series on MSG and MSG.com that finds the most talented New York City subway performer, will be holding an open call for talent.  Auditions are on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 from Noon to 4pm at Foley Square (map) in Lower Manhattan.  Even if you have no musical talent to speak of, go down and cheer on your favorite performing artist.  For more information check out www.msg.com/soundtracks.

American Idol will be traveling across the United States and Puerto Rico this summer auditioning for its eighth season.  Auditions are being held on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 in East Rutherford, NJ at the IZOD Center at the Meadowland (map).  Auditions are a little different this year, you must pick up a wristband then return on a specific day for the audition.  For more information check out www.americanidol.com. 

And just to get the creative juices flowing, here is a video of some of New York’s most unique street and subway performers set to the music of Matt Pless.

Photo credit: flickr,

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

This summer marks the 13th annual year of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.  The avant garde production employs cardboard sets, minimal props, and plenty of contemporary aspects, including a wardrobe that looks like it just came out of Sex and the City.

The season begins next week with performances of Twelfth Night, and in mid-July, continues with performances of Henry V.  

Bring a chair (or come early and grab one that is provided) and be sneaky with how you hide your adult beverages! 

Location:  Ludlow Street at Broome Street (map)

Subway:  F, J, M, Z to Essex Street-Delancy Street

Dates and Time:  Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Twelfth Night: July 3-19, 2008 and Henry V: July 24-August 10, 2008.  8pm.

Cost: Free

Photo credit: flickr

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

Operatic partners, as well as husband and wife, soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna are frequent performers at the Met Opera and will perform popular arias and duets at the outdoor concert.

The concert will take place at Prospect Park in Brooklyn in the Long Meadow, which can accommodate up to 150,000 people, six jumbo screens will be strategically placed for better viewing. 

Bank of America is in its eighth year sponsoring this event and will offer 25,000 free pre-paid MetroCards on a first-come, first-served basis.  Any person that receives a free MetroCard will also be eligible for free prizes, once scanned at Prospect Park.  The prizes include tickets to a performance during the Metropolitan Opera’s upcoming season, or  grand prizes of a vacation package or a cash gift provided by the bank.  Stop by one of the five listed Bank of America branches beginning Monday, June 16, 2008 for your free MetroCard:

• Manhattan: 1515 Broadway, Times Square
• Brooklyn: 449 Myrtle Avenue
• Bronx: 299 East 204th Street
• Queens: 90-53 Sutphin Boulevard
• Staten Island: 2196 Forest Avenue

If you can’t make it to the opera, it will also be streamed via the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metopera.org.

Location:  Prospect Park, Brooklyn (map)

Subway:  F to 7th Avenue, enter park at Prospect Park West at 9th Street 

Date and Time:  Friday, June 20, 2008.  8pm

Cost:  Free 

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

Polish theater company TR Warszawa and director Grzegorz Jarzyna breathe new life into Shakespeare’s Macbeth with performances at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn.  This Shakespeare classic tragedy will be presented in an a two-story, open-air, column-free structure that was specially constructed for the event.  The production will be a true multi-media experience complete with video walls and English supertitles, as the play will be presented entirely in Polish.

For more information on Macbeth under the bridge, including a trailer, visit the St Ann’s Warehouse website. 

Location:  St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Brooklyn (map)

Subway:  F to York Street

Dates and Time: June 17th through June 29th.  9pm

Cost:  Reserved seating $35.  Available online or by phone (718) 254-8779 or (866) 811-4111 

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

The love story between Ennis and Jack isn’t over yet.  New York City Opera announced yesterday that they have commissioned American composer Charles Wuorinen to write an opera based on Annie Proulx’s short story “Brokeback Mountain.”  Proulx’s 1997 short story was made into a 2005 feature-length film and garnered multiple Academy Award nominations, including three wins.

The film, set in 1963, is an unlikely love story that follows the relationship of two ranch-hands, Ennis and Jack, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.    

“Ever since encountering Annie Proulx’s extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it, and it gives me great joy that Gerard Mortier and New York City Opera have given me the opportunity to do so,” Wuorinen, said in a statement.  The New York City Opera, not to be confused with the more traditional Metropolitan Opera, champions the work of American composers as approximately one-third of its works are by American composers. 

Anxious opera-goers will have to wait until spring 2013 for the premier of the new opera.  The Brokeback opera will mark Wuorinen’s second City Opera premiere, in October 2004 Wuorinen premiered “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” which was based on a Salman Rushdie novel.  The New York City Opera performs at the State Theater at Lincoln Center.  For more information on the City Opera visit www.nycopera.com.

Image: Newscom

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

There are a number of free events virtually everyday.  Highlights of the summer festival include:

• Otis Clay and Ryan Shaw June 11  Free
• Sonic Youth  July 4  Free
• Folk Music Festival on Governors Island  July 26  Free
• The Big River Project: The Music of Johnny Cash  July 26  Free
• Seaport Music Festival  August 8   Free
• Latin Giants of Jazz  September 3  Free

For more information, a full list of events, and to sign up for mobile alerts, check out the River to River event sight.    

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

It may not be the Globe Theatre, but Shakespeare has returned to Central Park in one of New York City’s favorite free summer events, Shakespeare in the Park. 

This year the Public Theater is performing Shakespeare’s classic tragedies, Hamlet.  Denmark’s Prince Hamlet sets out for revenge against his Uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, the King, and marries Hamlet’s mother in an attempt to take the throne.  Among the actors in Hamlet is Law & Order alum Sam Waterston.    

Free tickets are available on the day of the performance beginning at 1pm at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. There is a limit of 2 tickets per person.  Get there early as the line can quickly stretch around the park. 

If you can’t get to the theater, a limited number of tickets will be available on the day of each performance online.  Register anytime for the virtual line at PublicTheater.org and then log on between midnight and 1pm on the day of the performance you want to see and submit a request for up to two tickets. You must log-on again between 1-6pm to see if you have been selected to receive a pair of tickets. People are chosen at random, not in the order requests are received.  If you are chosen to receive tickets, the tickets will be held at The Delacorte Theater Box Office under the name that you used for registration. Pick-up will begin one hour prior to curtain. Tickets not picked up by 1/2 hour prior to curtain will be released to the stand-by line. Valid photo id of the person who registered is required. 

Location:  Delacorte Theater, Central Park (map).  Enter at West 81st Street & Central Park West -or- East 79th Street & Fifth Avenue.

Getting There: B, C to 81st Street-Museum of Natural History Station

Dates and Hours:  Through June 29, 2008.  Performances are Tuesday-Sunday at 8pm with the following exceptions: additional performances on on Monday, June 16th and Monday, June 23rd and there will be no performances on Wednesday, June 18th and Tuesday, June 24t.

Cost: Tickets are Free

Photo credit: flickr

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars has just crowned a new champion.  But if you’re going through withdrawals from Dancing With the Stars, why don’t you dance under the stars?

The dance that has been called a “three minute love affair” is returning to Central Park again this summer.  Central Park Tango, a free dance meeting, is set to begin next week, Saturday, June 7 with Hernan as the DJ.  

Central Park Tango began in 1995 with a handful of people and a boom box at Bethesda Fountain.  At the time it was called “Hit and Run Tango” because if the police came, everybody would run.  As the the number of participants grew, a permit became necessary and now, a fully permitted weekly event, Central Park Tango takes place at Literary Walk in Central Park.  There is also a free lesson at 7:30pm for newcomers. 

It may take two to tango, but according to Rick Castro, longtime organizer of Central Park Tango, most dancers come alone and what happens on the dance floor stays on the dance floor.  For more information visit Central Park Tango online or call the NYC Tango Hotline at 212-726-1111

Location:  At the Shakespeare Statue in Central Park, just off of E. 66th Street (map); or at the Dairy during times of rain.  

Dates:  Every Saturday rain or shine.  Begins June 7th through September 27th.

Time:  6-9pm.  Tango lesson at 7:30pm.

Cost:  Free

Photo credit: flickr; flickr

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

“Geometry in Motion” | MoMA   Tracing the transformation of the art object.  Through June 23.

“Darwin’s Garden” | The New York Botanical Garden  Explore the untold story of Darwin’s botanical influences, his research, and his contribution to our understanding of plants.  Through June 15. 

“Olafur Eliasson”  | MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center  This comprehensive two part exhibition features Eliasson’s art which depicts teh extremes of the landscape in his native Scandinavia.  Through June 30.  

“American in the ’60s & Marilyn Monroe” | Pop International Galleries  Lawrence Schiller’s iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Buster Keaton, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Muhammad Ali, Richard Nixon, and others.  Free. Through June 15.

“Flow” | Studio Museum in Harlem  An exhibition focusing on the international artists emerging from Africa.  Through June 29.

“Plague in Gotham! Cholera in 19th-Century New York” | New York Historical Society Illustrations of cholera victims, vintage maps, and more examining the cholera epidemics of 1832, 1849, and 1866.  Free. Through June 29.

“Out of This World: Shaker Design Past, Present, and Future” | Bard Graduate Center  More than 150 pieces of furniture that best show the Shaker influence.  Through June 15. 

“GlassLAB” | Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum  Glassmakers collaborate with contemporary designers.  Through June 3.

“Cuisine du Jour” | Lower East Side Tenement Museum  Poke your head into a multiethnic pantry to see how immigrant cooks maintain their heritage in the kitchen.  Through June 13.

Check out more exhibitions that are endings as well as Broadway shows that have their last curtain scheduled, after the jump…

“Monumental France; The Photographs of Edouard Baldus” | The New York Public Library: Humanities and Social Science Library  Over 40 works from architectural photographer Baldus.  Free.  Through June 28.  

“Sketches on Glass: Cliches-Verre from the New York Public Library” | The New York Public Library: Humanities and Social Science Library  Celebrating the art of the hybrid mix of printmaking and photography.  Free. Through June 28.  

“Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900″ | Brooklyn Museum  Ninety-five woodblock paintings from more than 15 Japanese masters of the craft. Through June 15.

 “John Milton at 400: A Life Beyond Life” | The New York Public Library: Humanities and Social Science Library  Celebrates this poet’s 400-year influence with portraits, prints, and artifacts.  Free.  Through June 14

“The Genius of Japanese Lacquer: Masterworks by Shibata Zeshin” | Japan Society An exhibition focusing on Zeshin’s use of unorthodox techniques on his lacquered boxes, sword mounts, and scrolls.  Through June 15.

“New York Story: Jerone Robbins and His World” | The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts  An exhibition dedicated to this West Side Story choreographer.  Free.  Through June 29.

“Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony Awards” | The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts A tribute to the Tony Awards features costumes, set designs, original cast recordings, and more.  Free.  Through June 14.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Broadhurst Theatre  A-list actors like Terrence Howard, James Earl Jones, and Phylicia Rashad make this Tennessee Williams classic a must-see.  Through June 15.

Curtains | Al Hirschfeld Theater  Davis Hyde Pierce stars in this murder mystery.  Through June 29.

Sunday in the Park with George | Studio 54  Based on the 1984 masterpiece, this show weaves elements of Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande into this musical.  Through June 29.   

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

Jerome Robbins is an Academy Award winning film director (West Side Story) and choreographer whose work has been seen from the stages of Broadway to the halls of the New York City Ballet. 

Robbins’ career in choreography stretched for nearly 40 years and the NYC Ballet will be featuring ten programs which are all Robbins, as well as others which showcase Robbins’ collaboration with other greats, like Leonard Bernstein.  The season also includes Balanchine classics such as Jewels, a limited return of Susan Stroman’s Double Feature, and a world premiere by Alexei Ratmansky.   

Location:  New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, map, 212-870-5570

Subway:  A, B, C, D to 59th Street-Lincoln Center; 1 to 66th Street-Lincoln Center

Dates:  Season starts today, April 29 and ends June 29; programs daily.

Photo Credit: flickr

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Post from: The New York City Traveler