Events to check out for the weekend of June 28-30 include free activities, such as a Brooklyn block party hosted by Oscar winner Spike Lee, some Shakespeare in the Park (but not in Central Park) and a screening of Disney’s latest live-action remake, “The Little Mermaid.”
There’s also a dance performance series celebrating the queerness of avant-garde movement from Japan, and new stage works honoring the legend of a Broadway trailblazer, a concert celebrating a beloved Broadway composer’s best work and a downtown throwdown with a new Broadway “diva.”
Free
“Public Pops Up”
The Peninsula in Prospect Park — Well House Drive, Brooklyn (Flatbush)
Sat. June 29, 5:30 pm
This summer’s GO PUBLIC! A Festival of Free Shakespeare in the Park initiative will kick off with The Public Theater Mobile Unit’s Bilingual musical adaptation of “The Comedy of Errors” conceived by director Rebecca Martinez and accentuated with contemporary Latin American rhythms composed by Argentinian-American musician Julian Mesri.
The event will also include live music from composer, songwriter and NYU Prof. Michael Thurber, food trucks and other family friendly fare — all culminating with a sunset screening of the Kenny Leon’s 2019 all-Black revival of the beloved bard’s “Much Ado About Nothing” starring Grantham Coleman and 2024 Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks.
Free.
Music
“Alex Newell and the Gospel of a Diva”
Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre — 18 Minetta Lane, Manhattan (Greenwich Village)
Through June 29.
The first openly nonbinary performer to win a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical is ready to blaze a new trail with their latest star turn. The vocal powerhouse will take center stage for a concert helmed by Zhailon Levingston (whose Broadway credits include “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” and “Chicken & Biscuits.” For the solo outing, the “Glee” breakout wil share untold stories from alongside a selection of their favorite tunes — popularized by divas, of course.
Tickets start at $45.
Dance
“Queer Butoh”
The Brick — 579 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn (Greenpoint)
Through June 29. Various times.
The performance series celebrating queerness — using the post World War II Japanese dance style known as butoh — returns to New York City for its eighth year. The limited engagement kicked off with Vangeline Theater‘s “The Slowest Wave” — infusing neuroscience in a theme of waves to symbolize female sensuality.
Also, movement artists Shuning Huang and Eilish Henderson take on “Garden of Ruins,” described as “a work-in-progress butoh duet grounded in eco-somatics and lesbian intimacy as a perceptive, eternal, glistening web.”
Dancemakers Madelyn Sher and Erica Lee Schwartz pair up for “Dandelions,” a duet simulating the moment of asexual transference after emerging from the body of a seed and birthed to the lineage of an anonymous microspecies.
Anástasis will perform “Anima Transfiguratio,” a solo work exploring the transfigurations of the vital breath that engenders all life.
Tickets start at $20.
Theater
“ROBESOИ”
Little Island — Pier 55 in Hudson River Park at W. 13th St., Manhattan (Meatpacking District)
Through June 29 Various times.
Renowned bass-baritone Davóne Tines co-creates and performs a new work about the life and music of Paul Robeson — the trailblazing renaissance man who became the first African-American to play Othello on Broadway.
In an attempt to understand Robeson through his own words, the artist promises to “wildly reimagine Robeson’s repertoire as the soundtrack to a fever dream journey” he co-created and directed by Little Island’s artistic lead Zack Winokur.
Promising to take audience members from the stage of Carnegie Hall to a Moscow hotel room, Tines will pay homage to a “spiritual ancestor,” with whom he found a connection to at his most vulnerable time — and not because of the “The Emperor Jones” star’s remarkable achievements.
Tickets are $25.
Concert
“A Little Night Music In Concert”
David Geffen Hall — 10 Lincoln Plaza, Manhattan (Upper West Side)
Through June 29. Various times.
The best of the best are gathering to perform one of Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved musicals — for four performances only. The powerful voices of Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo joins opera great Susan Graham, Oscar nominated screen and stage veteran Marsha Mason and others to bring the 1973 Best Musical Tony Award winner to the concert stage. Adapted by John Doyle, and directed by lifelong Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick, each performance will feature brand-new orchestrations performed by the 53-piece Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Tickets start at $99.
Film
halle bailey the little mermaid
“Movies Under the Stars: ‘The Little Mermaid'”
Lemon Creek Park — Bayview Ave. and Johnston Terrace, Staten Island (Richmond County)
June 28. 9 p.m.
Halle Bailey‘s trailblazing star turn in Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” is the featured attraction for this week’s outdoor park screening the whole family can enjoy. Directed by Rob Marshall, the movie — which grossed over $550 million globally — also stars “Mike & Molly” star Melissa McCarthy as villainous sea witch Ursula who tricks her young mermaid niece into trading her voice for human legs so she can discover a whole new world above water.
Free.
Outdoors
“35th Anniversary Do The Right Thing Block Party”
Do The Right Thing Way — Stuyvesant Ave. between Lexington Ave. & Quincy St., Brooklyn (Bedford Stuyvesant)
June 30. Noon.
No one does a Brooklyn block party like Spike Lee does a Brooklyn block party. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker, who has regularly thrown outdoor jams to honor the memory of his musical heroes Michael Jackson and Prince, will celebrate the 45th anniversary of his seminal film — in the same neighborhood it was based.
The Atlanta-born Brooklyn transplant took on a starring role in “Do The Right Thing,” which scored two 1990 Oscar nominations and was entered into the National Film Registry in 1999. Featuring a potent soundtrack delivered by Public Enemy, the film starred Rosie Perez, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, Danny Aiello, Jon Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson and Ossie Davis — set on a summer day on one single block of Bedford-Stuyvesant. DJ Spinna will return again as Lee’s resident turntablist for a fun-filled day where Brooklyn pride will be on full display.
Free.
If you have an upcoming weekend event you’d like to submit for consideration in an upcoming roundup, please email: nycevents@nydailynews.com with the details. Consideration does not guarantee inclusion.
