It’s a big city, with plenty to do, see, hear and watch. Here’s a sampling of cultural highlights this weekend and over the week ahead.
Dinner and a Show (Both May Be Acquaintances)
Hugh Panaro is the latest steward of the butcherly barber Sweeney Todd’s gleaming implements. He follows Norm Lewis, a Broadway fixture who himself replaced the British actor Jeremy Secomb in the role. This immersive Tooting Arts Club production, a transfer from London that’s been playing in New York since February, situates the action of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s well-loved and lyrically dexterous musical in a functioning pie shop. LOUIS LUCERO II
Read the full review.
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages, and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. The Grammar of Representation
Continuing through Sept. 16, this show reunites all 57 of Ms. Kalman’s illustrations for William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White’s classic guide to grammar and writing. Painted in opulent (gouache) hues and a quasi-naïve art-savvy style, and given titles — all from the book’s rules — that are alternately literal and elliptical, they combine aspects of Surrealism’s exquisite corpses, Conceptual Art’s deadpan humor and appropriation art’s repurposing of existing images. ROBERTA SMITH
Read the full review.
See a selection of mini-reviews of current exhibitions. Sounds to Think About and Dance To
On its recent album, “Everything Now, ” Arcade Fire uses pointedly ironic disco jams to diagnose ills of modern society (anxiety, inequality, celebrity) . At its best, the LP makes you think and dance in equal measure, and Arcade Fire’s arena tour, at the Garden at 7: 30 p.m. on Tuesday, should accomplish something similar. Expect highlights from a catalog reaching back more than a decade, performed with a sense of self-aware spectacle. SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
Patti Smith, Wiki, Bryson Tiller, and more pop and rock concerts. A Kiwi of Character
The New Zealand-born Ms. Campion resists easy classification, with a filmography that somehow comfortably encompasses austere yet offbeat period pieces (including the Palme d’ Or-winning “ The Piano, ” showing Sunday and Sept. 16, and her eclectically cast adaptation of “ The Portrait of a Lady, ” showing Friday and Sept. 17) as well as unrestrained eccentricity (“ Sweetie, ” screening Saturday, Monday and Sept. 16; and “ Holy Smoke, ” Sunday and next Friday) . This retrospective, which includes all of the director’s features and the early TV movie “ Two Friends ” (Tuesday and Thursday) , is a warm-up to the television run of “Top of the Lake: China Girl”; the first two episodes screen in a sneak preview on Saturday. BEN KENIGSBERG
Want more? See a guide to film series and screenings in New York. Laughs Coming From Odd Places
There are times when comedy approaches controlled chaos: the stand-up Gallagher, for example, with his watermelon-smashing, or any time comedians incorporate the requisite onstage bottle of water into their acts. This recurring show hosted by Jo Firestone is in a similar vein: Past installments have included a Liza Minnelli impression-a-thon, a summer boyfriend giveaway and a middle-school talent show. What’s next? Find out at 11 p.m. on Wednesday. KASIA PILAT
See who else is making New Yorkers laugh this week. Bridging Zimbabwe and America, With a Nod to Patti Smith
Ms. Chipaumire, born in Zimbabwe and living in New York, begins the first of three sonic explorations in a new work, “#Punk.” For this opening piece in the triptych, to be performed at 7: 30 p.m. on Thursday and next Friday, Ms. Chipaumire takes inspiration from Patti Smith and focuses on 1970s independent music, Americana and her time in Zimbabwe from the 1970s through the’ 90s. (The next two performance pieces will investigate pop and rumba.) Next Friday Ms. Chipaumire and the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula will participate in a post-performance talk moderated by the choreographer Ralph Lemon. GIA KOURLAS
See what’s happening around the city’s dance scene. A Modern-Music Weekend
It’s hard to think of contemporary music in New York without thinking of ICE, the collective that does so much for composers already recognized and those who will be shortly. This year’s OpenICE season begins with a weekend of festivities, including workshops for families and two concerts. At 8 p.m. on Friday, hear music by Suzanne Farrin, Matthias Pintscher and Misato Mochizuki, among others; at 8 p.m. on Saturday, there are pieces by Dai Fujikura, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Mario Diaz de Leon. DAVID ALLEN
See a list of mini-reviews for more current productions. Spirits of the Day and the Night
The artist and director Ralph Lee may present some rather dark work — consider his annual Procession of the Ghouls at Halloween — but he also fills his family productions with light. His latest, an adaptation of a Korean folk tale, explains how the luminous orbs in its title came to be. Featuring Mr. Lee’s signature masks and enormous puppets, the show, performed in the cathedral’s garden by his Mettawee Theater Company, relates the adventures of Kungsan and Myeoung, whose love is thwarted when a rival suitor tricks Kungsan. Stranded on an island, he finds his way back only after a crane rewards him for saving her chicks. Reunited through some subterfuge of their own, the couple finally become the sun and moon spirits. Written by Kristine Haruna Lee (not related to Mr. Lee) , with original music by Neal Kirkwood, the production itself will unfold under the stars, Friday through Sunday at 7: 30 p.m. (The rain location is Synod Hall.) LAUREL GRAEBER
Find more events for children and families. Make a Date for Feb. 2 Before It Stops Repeating Itself
Our chance to relive this stage adaptation of the mordant Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis movie comedy over and over and over again comes to an end on Sept. 17. Ben Brantley noted that the show, which has music and lyrics by Tim Minchin (“Matilda the Musical”) and stars Barrett Doss and Andy Karl, “reimagines a much-loved film about instant karma with such fertile and feverish theatrical imagination that you expect it to implode before your eyes.” ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Read the full review.
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages, and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close.
