From the bright lights of Broadway to the revered stages at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, from the high kicks of the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall to the cutting-edge works performed at BAM, New York City continues to be one of the most diverse and heavily textured urban cultural centers in the world. As author Tom Wolfe wrote: ’Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.’
The principal entertainment districts are the Theater District in the Broadway/42nd Street/Times Square area and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West
Side. Most Broadway theaters are located in the blocks just east or west of Broadway, between 41st Street and 53rd Street. Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theaters are sprinkled throughout Manhattan, with a concentration in the East and West Villages, Chelsea and several in the 40s and 50s west of the Broadway theater district. The
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 64th Street (tel: (212) 875 5456; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is America’s first and largest performing arts complex, containing many venues. It is also the home of the
Metropolitan Opera (website:
www.metopera.org), the
New York City Opera (website:
www.nycopera.com), the
New York City Ballet (website:
www.nycballet.com), and the
New York Philharmonic (website:
www.newyorkphilharmonic.org), among others.
New York continues to grow and, as well as these established attractions, offers something new each day. Times Square is one of the prominent areas to receive attention.
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, 234 West 42nd Street (tel: 1 800 246 8872; website:
www.nycwax.com), which includes a movie complex, the
New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, owned by Disney, as well as a number of similar renovations of historic theaters, such as the
New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street (tel: (646) 223 3020; website:
www.newvictory.org) and the
Academy/Apollo (see
Theater below), have ensured that New York remains the cultural capital of the USA.
Tickets are available for purchase through
Telecharge (tel: (212) 239 6200
or 1 800 545 2559; website:
www.telecharge.com), which handles Broadway, Off-Broadway and some concerts.
Ticketmaster (tel: (212) 307 7171; website:
www.ticketmaster.com), also offers Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as tickets to Madison Square Garden and Radio City. Reduced-priced tickets of up to half-price plus a small surcharge for same-day Broadway and Off-Broadway are available for purchase at the TKTS booth, just outside the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 46th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue (open Mon-Sat 1500-2000, also Wed and Sat 1000-1400, Sun 1100 until 1930) and at the TKTS booth at South Street Seaport (open Mon-Fri 1100-1800, Sat 1100-1900; website for both locations:
www.tdf.org/tkts). Cash or travelers cheques only.
Information on cultural events in the city is available online (website:
www.nycvisit.com).
Time Out New York (website:
www.timeoutny.com) also is a good source of information published weekly and sold at newsagents and kiosks.
Music: The
Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 64th Street (tel: (212) 875 5456; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is the permanent home of the
New York Philharmonic (tel: (212) 875 5656; website:
www.newyorkphilharmonic.org) and a temporary one to visiting orchestras and soloists. The
Time Warner Building is the home of
Jazz at Lincoln Center, 33 West 60th Street, 11th Floor (tel: (212) 258 9800; website:
www.jalc.org). Though designed specifically as a jazz venue, it can also accommodate other art forms.
Avery Fisher also hosts the very popular annual
Mostly Mozart festival (tel: (212) 875 5443; website:
www.lincolncenter.org/programs/mozart_home.asp?ws=) in August. The
Alice Tully Hall, also in the Lincoln Center (tel: (212) 875 5050; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is a smaller venue for chamber orchestras, string quartets and instrumentalists. The greatest names from all schools of music, from Tchaikovsky and Toscanini to Gershwin and Billie Holiday, have performed at
Carnegie Hall, 154 West 57th Street, at Seventh Avenue (tel: (212) 247 7800; website:
www.carnegiehall.org), which boasts an astonishing and eclectic repertoire at moderate prices. Other leading venues that draw the world’s top performers include
Kaufman Concert Hall, 129 East 67th Street (tel: (212) 501 3303; website:
www.ekcc.org), and
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx (tel: (718) 960 8833; website:
www.lehmancenter.org).
Known as the
Met, the
Metropolitan Opera House, in the Lincoln Center (tel: (212) 362 6000; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is New York’s premiere opera venue and home to the
Metropolitan Opera (website:
www.metopera.org), from September to late April. The
New York State Theater, also in Lincoln Center (tel: (212) 870 5570; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is where the
New York City Opera (tel: (212) 870 5570; website:
www.nycopera.com) perform. Its wide and adventurous program varies wildly in quality (sometimes startlingly innovative, occasionally mediocre) but seats go for less than half the Met’s prices. Other venues include the
Julliard School, 155 West 65th Street, at Broadway (tel: (212) 799 5000; website:
www.juilliard.edu), where talented students perform with a famous conductor, usually for low prices.
Theater: Theater venues in the city are referred to as Broadway, Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway - groupings that represent a descending order of ticket price, production polish, elegance and comfort and an ascending order of innovation, experimentation, and theater for the sake of art rather than cash. Off-Broadway is still the place for theater punters to see the works of the world’s most innovative playwrights - social and political drama, satire, ethnic plays and repertory ... in short, anything that Broadway would not consider a guaranteed money spinner. Lower operating costs also mean that Off-Broadway often serves as a forum to try out what sometimes ends up as a big Broadway production. Off-Off-Broadway is New York’s fringe. Unlike Off-Broadway, Off-Off doesn’t have to use professional actors and shows range from shoestring productions of the classics to outrageous and experimental performance art.
Manhattan Theater Club performs at the Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, and Stages I and II at City Center, 131 West 55th Street (tel: (212) 581 1212; website:
www.mtc-nyc.org), produces some of the finest new plays in American theater.
Walt Disney Theatrical Productions (website:
www.disney.go.com/disneyonbroadway) brings the magic of Disney to life on the Broadway stage with plays like
The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and
Mary Poppins. For a more ethnic flavor, Harlem’s
Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street (tel: (212) 531 5300; website:
www.apollotheater.com), has celebrated the legacy and culture of African-American music and entertainment since 1934.
Dance: New York has five major ballet companies as well as dozens of contemporary troupes and the official dance season runs from September to January and April to June.
Metropolitan Opera House, in the Lincoln Center (tel: (212) 362 6000; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is the home of the renowned
American Ballet Theater (tel: (212) 362 6000; website:
www.abt.org), which performs the classics from early May into July.
New York State Theater, also in the Lincoln Center (tel: (212) 870 5570; website:
www.lincolncenter.org), is home to the revered
New York City Ballet (website:
www.nycballet.com), which performs more contemporary ballet for a nine-week season each spring.
Universally known as
BAM,
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Street, between Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn (tel: (718) 636 4100; website:
www.bam.org), is America’s oldest performing arts academy and one of the busiest and most daring producers in New York. During autumn, BAM’s
Next Wave Festival showcases the hottest international attractions in avant-garde dance and music. Winter brings visiting artists, while, each spring, BAM hosts the annual
DanceAfrica Festival, America’s largest showcase for African and African-American dance and culture takes place annually on the last weekend in May.
The most eminent and celebrated troupes in modern dance perform at
City Center, 131 West 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues (tel: (212) 247 0430; website:
www.citycenter.org). Big-name companies include
Merce Cunningham Dance Company (tel: (212) 255 8240; website:
www.merce.org),
Paul Taylor Dance Company (tel: (212) 431 5562; website:
www.ptdc.org),
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (tel: (212) 405 9000; website:
www.alvinailey.org),
Joffrey Ballet (tel: (212) 254 8520; website:
www.joffreyballetschool.com) and
Dance Theater of Harlem (tel: (212) 690 2800; website:
www.dancetheaterofharlem.com).
Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street at Washington Street, the home of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, stages performances by emerging modern choreographers.
Film: A movie center second only to Tinseltown itself, New York has hundreds of modern cinema complexes and arthouse cinemas. Cinemas worth visiting include
AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13, Broadway at 68th Street (tel: (212) 336 5000/20; website:
www.enjoytheshow.com), which is more a theme park than a multiplex, and
The Ziegfeld, 141 West 54th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues (tel: (212) 307 1862; website:
www.clearviewcinemas.com), which often holds glitzy premieres and is the grandest picture palace in town - once home to the Ziegfeld Follies. Arthouse movies are screened at
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston Street (tel: (212) 995 2000; website:
www.angelikafilmcenter.com/newyork),
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, 1886 Broadway (tel: (212) 757 2280; website:
http://lincolnplaza.moviefone.com), and
Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues (tel: (212) 255 8800; website:
www.quadcinema.com). General information, show times and advanced tickets are available from
Moviefone (tel: (212) 777 FILM (3456); website:
www.moviefone.com).
New York has been portrayed through celluloid in a number of ways, ranging from the ridiculous yet enduring images of
King Kong, swinging from the Empire State Building, in the 1933 classic starring Fay Wray and the 2005 version, to the psychological horrors of Martin Scorsese’s
Taxi Driver (1976). In the latter, Robert De Niro plays the part of a mentally isolated New York cabbie and Vietnam vet, driven to violence by the decadence of the city. It is New York decadence of a slightly different nature that Alan Rudolph explores in
Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), which looks at New York literary life and society during the 1920s. More recently, films shot in NYC have included
One Fine Day (1996),
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996),
Everyone Says I Love You (1996),
The Devil’s Advocate (1997),
Gangs of New York (2002),
Spiderman 1 and 2 (2002 and 2004 respectively),
The Day After Tomorrow (2004),
Prime with Meryl Streep (2005) and
Inside Man with Denzel Washington (2006).
NYC has also been the backdrop for some very popular TV shows such as
Saturday Night Live,
NYPD Blue, Sex and the City and the
Late Show with David Letterman.
Literary Notes: The vibrant city of New York has spawned some of America’s most celebrated writers and provided the backdrop and inspiration for countless best-selling novels and hit movies. Washington Square, at Fifth Avenue and Waverley Place, was home to the 19th-century aristocracy and provided the inspiration for the classic study of the American upper classes,
Washington Square (1881), by New Yorker Henry James. Bohemian Greenwich Village has long been the favored haunt of America’s literati. The Chelsea Hotel, on West 23rd Street, is something of a writers’ emporium. Here Arthur Miller penned
After the Fall (1964) and William Burroughs worked on
Naked Lunch (1959). New Yorker Arthur Miller is celebrated as America’s greatest living playwright, whose numerous works have delighted Broadway and international audiences for decades. His knowledge of the Brooklyn waterfront helped to form his characters in his play
A View From the Bridge (1955) and powerful reflections upon his home town are revealed in
The Price (1968). New York’s most famous contemporary novelist is Paul Auster, who won international acclaim for
The New York Trilogy (1987), a book comprising three novellas (
City of Glass, Ghosts and
The Locked Room) all set in New York. Edwin G Burrows and Mike Wallace’s
Gotham (2001) is one of the most illuminating and readable histories of New York. One of the most striking works from the flurry of post-11 September 2001 publications is
September 11: A Testimony (2001), assembled by press agency Reuters, with some of the most dramatic World Trade Center photographic images.
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Related New York City Content
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
Related New York Content
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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