Copyright The New York Times
Thanksgiving Tradition My man Santa is among the marquee names at the 99th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which kicks off at 8:30 a.m. Watch in person at designated spots along the route, which runs from Central Park West near 77th Street to the Macy’s flagship store at Sixth Avenue and 34th Street. Or do what I do: Make someone in your family get bagels, park yourself on the couch and watch the parade on NBC or Peacock starting at 9 a.m. Jog It Off Melt away that pumpkin pie in the 10th annual New York City Turkey Trot half-marathon and 5K at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens (Nov. 29). Then reward yourself with doughnuts waiting for you at the finish line. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I would begin at the Broadhurst Theater with an 11 a.m. matinee of “Rob Lake Magic,” a kid-friendly show from the illusionist Rob Lake featuring the Broadway debuts of Kermit the Frog and his main squeeze, Miss Piggy. Then I would stick around Times Square for a twofer of new Broadway musicals: “The Queen of Versailles,” starring Kristin Chenoweth, at the St. James Theater, and a revival of “Chess,” with Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher, at the Imperial Theater. My nightcap? “Midnight Show,” a burlesque-act-meets-dance-party at the Slipper Room on the Lower East Side. Comedy The New York Comedy Festival (Nov. 7-16) is back with over 100 shows in clubs across the five boroughs. The who’s-who lineup includes Louis C.K., Margaret Cho, Morgan Jay and Alex Edelman. The “Strangers With Candy” reunion (Nov. 8) with Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris sounds like a hoot. Art Performa, New York City’s biennial performance art festival, returns with three weeks of out-there, interdisciplinary live spectacles and public art installations (Nov. 1-23). Highlights include Lina Lapelyte’s “The Speech (NYC),” with a cast of 100 cooing, howling and roaring children, and Lucinda Childs’s “Street Dance,” the choreographer’s 1964 site-specific work that turns a city sidewalk into an otherworldly stage. Film Fifty years ago, Albert and David Maysles startled (and uneasily amused) audiences with “Grey Gardens,” their cinéma vérité documentary about two relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, also named Edith, but known as “Little Edie” — and the decrepit East Hampton estate where they lived. On Nov. 23, the film has a homecoming of sorts: It is showing at the Maysles Documentary Center, a movie theater and nonprofit in Harlem that Albert Maysles founded in 1985. Fans of nonfiction films should also check out the hundreds of screenings and other events at DOC NYC, the annual documentary festival, at the IFC Center, the Village East and the SVA Theater in Manhattan (Nov. 12-20). Dance The Paul Taylor Dance Company’s fall season at Lincoln Center features premieres from Lauren Lovette and Robert Battle and the return of Taylor favorites “Company B” and “Esplanade” (Nov. 4-23). On Nov. 15 and 22, the company offers 75-minute “Family Express” matinees, tickets to which include a coupon for free class at the Taylor Center for Dance Education. Jazz The pianist Sean Mason is a Juilliard graduate and a vet of Broadway pit bands, and counts Branford and Wynton Marsalis as his champions. On Nov. 15, Mason brings his jazz quartet — with Felix Moseholm (bass), Anthony Hervey (trumpet) and Hank Allen-Barfield (drums) — to Columbia University’s Miller Theater for a night of original music and throwbacks. Classical Fort Greene Orchestra suggests you wear black to its performances of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, a dark, twisty work that premiered just days before the composer’s death in 1893. The concerts are on Nov. 20 and 22 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Take a Hike The 500-acre Storm King Arts Center, in the Hudson Valley town of New Windsor, N.Y., is best known as an outdoor museum-campus where arresting sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly, Lee Ufan and others dot the landscape like a giant’s toys. The center also hosts hikes, like on Nov. 15, when the geologist Kim Fendrich leads a three-hour tour focusing on the various geological features within the artworks and throughout the grounds. The hike is free with admission, but registration is required. Kids On Nov. 15, the Bronx Museum offers a free afternoon of art making with clay. The event is inspired by sculptures in “Ministry,” the museum’s exhibition devoted to the work of the artist-activist Rev. Joyce McDonald. If any classical work can keep young ones rapt it’s Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” On Nov. 22, it’s the centerpiece of “Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall …,” a free family-friendly concert presented by Musica Reginae Productions at Church-in-the-Gardens in Forest Hills, Queens.
