Gotham City #2: Groundhog Day Edition
“We needed this!” That’s one of the most common feedback comments we received from issue #1, so thank you. We know we are onto something! People are passing the newsletter on to friends because, let’s face it, nobody wants to hang out with boring people. Let them stay home watching NCIS Pittsburgh or whatever.
We dedicate this issue to Staten Island Chuck, who has kicked Punxatawny Phil’s butt in the weather prediction department with a better record of 21 out of 27. I don’t know what Staten Island Chuck does the other 364 days of the year to keep his score so impeccable. A deal with The Devil? No matter how the next six weeks turn out, we have excellent recommendations to get you through February and beyond!
We’d love to hear from you: whaddyawant@gothamcity.com
Love, The Gotham City Rollers = Drew, Jan, and Joel
“THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY”
Starring Sarah Snook
Music Box Theater
239 West 45th Street
Performances begin March 10, 2025
I was incredibly lucky to see the last London performance of this play and it was one of the best things I have seen in the last five years. Sarah Snook (Succession) takes on 26 roles in re-enacting Oscar Wilde’s classic novel. It is a complete tour-de-force show unlike anything I have ever seen, using lightning quick precision with movement, makeup, costumes, and… TV cameras. It starts small and then builds and builds and builds to an incredible crescendo.
WHY GO? If the Broadway production is as good as what I saw in London, it will not be like anything you have seen before. It is truly a marvel of creativity, acting, and directing. Sarah Snook deserves whatever awards she can get for this performance.
BINDLESTIFF OPEN VARIETY SHOW
March 4, April 1, and May 6
7 pm
Vorhees Theatre
New York City College of Technology
186 Jay Street in Brooklyn
Tickets are $17.85
The hippest circus in Brooklyn holds “open mic” nights six times a year to audition new acts. Lots of geeks, nerds, wonks, eccentrics, tattoos – and it is a total blast. You’ll be laughing, applauding and wowed as different jugglers, tightrope acts, vaudevillians, and indescribables come out one at a time to show off their skills. Added bonus: circus performers attend the show (and you’ll spot them easily).
WHY GO? It’s like the circus minus the stuff you hate: No animals. No clowns. Who knew that the guy teaching 10th grade geometry in your neighborhood can twist his body like a pretzel?
149th WESTMINSTER KENNEL CLUB DOG SHOW
February 8 = Canine Celebration at Jacob K. Javits Center
7:30 am - 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm - 7:00 pm
February 10 and 11 = Dog Show
8:00 am - 4:30 pm at Jacob K. Javits Center
7:30 pm - 11:00 pm at Madison Square Garden
Javits tickets are $35 (adults) and $15 (children)
MSG tickets are $63 (GA) to $127 (reserved seating) including Ticketmaster fees
Must love dogs? This is the place to be. Imagine going to a loud venue and instead of screaming and yelling for your favorite musician, you’re rooting for your favorite breed! Don’t get a dog inferiority complex when you see these adorable creatures do everything from discuss Super Bowl odds to give TEDx talks. Last year’s Best In Show was a 3½-year-old black female Miniature Poodle named Sage, who beat 2,500 other dogs.
WHY GO? This is the Academy Awards for dogs. You would have to be a sheltered hermit living inside a cold dark cave in the woods to not turn into a complete mush at the dog show.
“300 PAINTINGS”
Written by and starring Sam Kissajukian
Vineyard Theater
108 East 15th Street
Tickets are $37 to $106
Running through February 23rd
The Vineyard imported this autobiographical one-man show from Edinburgh’s Fringe festival to New York this past fall, it picked up an additional producer, and now it’s back for a second run. After Sydney-based Kissajukian burned out on his stand-up comedy career in 2021, he dove headfirst into painting while unknowingly rolling through a five-month bi-polar episode. An “anti-comedy” intersection of crashing art world lunacy without a net (probably the best parts in the show) and mental health is definitely worth seeing. Kissajukian’s paintings can be viewed after the show and you can chat up the man himself too.
WHY GO? It’s totally worth it to hear Kissajukian explain how he convinced an eccentric art dealer to sell his paintings for millions of dollars and somehow make zero money.
“DRAWN FROM THE NEW YORKER: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION”
Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street
Wednesdays through Saturdays 11:00 am - 5 pm
Through March 12th
Tickets: Adults $15, Seniors and students $10, Children under 10 free
In this small gem of a townhouse museum, the Society’s centerpiece exhibition honors 100 years of The New Yorker through the lens of its famous cartoons, including notable covers. Cartoonist and writer Lisa Donnelly, who helped curate the exhibit, will co-host a talk on February 13th at 6:30 pm about the magazine’s long cartoon history. She’ll be joined by fellow cartoonist Michael Maslin, whose Inkspill blog is devoted to New Yorker cartoonists.
WHY GO? The New Yorker’s cartoons may be as great as the rest of the magazine because they are so damn clever, funny, and topical. Cartooning at its best in an under-the-radar UES museum.
GET ON THESE FOODIE EVENT MAILING LISTS
“Gastronauts”
The self-proclaimed monthly “club for adventurous eaters” is back after a lengthy post-Covid break. There is no membership fee, just a willingness to eat local ethnic food that pushes the culinary envelope. Why, it was just in December when they ventured to Flushing for a night of spicy Sichuan food, featuring pickled chicken feet, mapo pork blood and brains, green pepper tripe, and other delicacies.
“Duos & Dumplings”
On a more mainstream note, the 2025 Duos & Dumplings house concert series in Ditmas Park has kicked off! Married couple Chris and Yoon host a different musical duo performance at their spacious apartment on a Saturday afternoon. One hour later, the best collection of assorted home-made dumplings of all kinds is ready to be served in the kitchen. Great music, great food, meet new friends. Tickets are $30 each, all money going to the musicians. Email to get on the mailing list: chrisandyoon@gmail.com.
RUN, DON’T WALK
Arguably the country’s best gypsy jazz guitarist, Stephane Wrembel, plays the small Brooklyn venue Barbes on Sunday night, February 16th at 8 pm. $20!
Fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg, who shot Dylan’s iconic Blonde On Blonde cover, occasionally detoured into directing compelling gritty films. As part of a MoMA retrospective, they are showing Al Pacino’s film debut (The Panic In Needle Park) and his 1973 cult road movie classic, Scarecrow starring Pacino and Gene Hackman.
The Losers Lounge just added a seventh “tribute to Yacht Rock” at City Winery for Monday, February 24th at 8 pm after its Joe’s Pub run sold out. You can never have enough Toto in your life!
On his free-wheeling podcast Tetragrammaton, creativity guru/legendary music producer Rick Rubin posted terrific interviews with the “troublemaker” of The Beach Boys, Mike Love, and the great actor Al Pacino.
State-of-the-art Paris Theater is showing two romantic film classics on Valentine’s Day evening – Casablanca (6:15 pm) and Amelie (8:45 pm).
International Center of Photography (ICP) has a new exhibition devoted to famous NYC 30s-40s street photographer Weegee, known for his sensationalistic crime scenes and celebrity sightings.
The Outsider Art Fair, which showcases the work of self-taught artists, is back at the Metropolitan Pavilion from February 27th to March 2nd.
This Wednesday, Salon 21 opens its “Soft Spaces: Femininity, Culture and Comfort” joint exhibition with artists Mia Dunn and Charlotte Hailstone, turning the space into “a dreamworld merging adulthood with the essence of girlhood, drawing from nostalgia, culture, and the feminine experience.”
The Museum of The Moving Image’s “Snubbed Forever: Great Actors. No Nominations” runs through March 9th, featuring Dog Day Afternoon, Barton Fink, Rosemary’s Baby, The Quiet Man, An Officer And A Gentleman, and more.
Symphony Space’s Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Contest is now taking entries. Guest judge is best-selling author Ottessa Moshfegh.
ONE-WORD DINING REVIEWS
SEA, Foul Witch, HenHouse = YES
Aqua New York = NO
RECOMMENDED: Best midtown cocktail bar with small bites and great music that takes reservations = Agency Of Record
LUNAR YEAR RECOMMENDATION: Phoenix Palace at 85 Bowery. The two of us ordered chilled tofu, salt & pepper cuttlefish, and chili crab noodles. Check out the Chinese movie theater decor too! (LNY ends on 2/12)
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
To commemorate the passing of satirical cartoonist and screenwriter Jules Feiffer, this is Munro, a charming animation he wrote and created the storyboards for that won the Academy Award. Plot: a 4-year-old boy is accidentally recruited into the Army. Theaters showed it before the main feature of Breakfast At Tiffany’s in 1961!