There’s never a dull moment in the greatest city on the planet, including this last week of January, with FREE Broadway shows and concerts online, FREE museum admission, FREE financial seminars and trivia contests, and Holocaust Remembrance Day events so that we #NeverForget what hate and intolerance can do.
Get more NYC for less money with NYC on the Cheap. That’s out motto and we’re sticking to it.
Add these virtual and in-person events to your calendar for this week, Monday, Jan. 25 to Sunday, Jan. 31.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Friday, January 29, 2021
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Sunday, January 31, 2021
If you need a FREE Covid-19 test, find one by zip code or address on the official NYC location finder site, or text “COVID TEST” to 855-48.
If you want a FREE Covid-19 vaccination, check our guide on how to find out if your are eligible and find a site nearest you.
Alternate Side of the Street parking is back in effect. See our 2021 FREE parking calendar.
See more daily NYC events on our
Free & Cheap Events Calendar
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Ending Tuesday – New York Jewish Film Festival
The 30th New York Jewish Film Festival features documentaries, dramas and romcoms about the Jewish experience around the world, including about inter-racial friendship, food, immigration, hope, grief and resilience. In 2021, the festival is virtual.
As always, you do not have to be Jewish to enjoy international films with such universal themes, and in 2021 the entire schedule is available virtually, with each film available online for viewing for 72 hours.
Screenings and Q&A sessions with actors and producers, through Jan. 26.
Ending Monday
FREE Broadway Theater 101 Four-Part Online Class
Self-proclaimed Broadway Maven David Benkof has been examining eight of the best musicals in Broadway history, including My Fair Lady and Hair – two shows a week each Monday in January. Today is the last one in the series.
He looks at the lyrics and music to some of the most important numbers, as well as plot and how the show fits in with Broadway trends at the time, with a focus on Jewish producers, composers, performers and choreographers
Weekly schedule for this FREE class (subject to change):
Last week was – The Music Man and Gypsy
Today, Final Week – Noon and 8 pm ET Monday, January 25 – Hair and Grease
- Registration is required for each session.
- A hard maximum of 1,500 virtual seats is available for each session.
Broadway Cares: Theater Performances
See two Broadway shows online this week, as part of the Broadway Cares mission to keep Broadway alive while theaters are shut down, and help support members of the theater community not earning a paycheck right now.
These shows are FREE to watch online, but you are encouraged to donate to Broadway Cares.
Every dollar donated will help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses receive healthy meals, lifesaving medication, emergency financial assistance, housing, counseling and more.
Broadway Cares photo
8 pm Eastern on Tuesday, January 26
Two-time Emmy Award winner Bobby Cannavale and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei are set to star in a streamed reading of Jon Robin Baitz’s lauded and deeply stirring play Three Hotels.
The special evening, which benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, is produced by Tectonic Theater Project and directed by celebrated two-time Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman.
The free streamed reading, will include a special introduction by Baitz and Kaufman.
The play is a deeply human story that unfolds through monologues set in hotel rooms in Morocco, the Virgin Islands and Mexico, as a married couple reflect on their lives as players in the game of international business. It’s described as a tour-de-force of humor, tragedy and penetrating insight.
Broadway Cares image
8 pm Eastern on Friday, January 29
The world premiere of the English-language performance of Anjou: The Musical Horror Tale, a haunting and modern Mexican opera, is set to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The cast features Taylor Iman Jones, Bianca Marroquín, Julia Murney and Kristie Dale Sanders as Catherine de’ Medici; Caroline Bowman, Shereen Pimentel and Eva Tavares as Margot de Valois; Javier Muñoz as Charles IX; Roberto Araujo, Jonathan Burke, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Jelani Remy and Adam Roberts as Henry; Austin Colby as Arthur; and Nathan Cockroft, Kevin Curtis, Gabriel Hyman and Michael Perrie Jr. as Spirit/Mignon. Marroquín will also serve as the narrator.
Full information, including where to watch
FREE Digital Trivia Tuesdays
Test your trivia IQ at home with your friends and family, during the digital Trivia Tuesdays series sponsored by Brookfield Place.
Taking place Tuesday nights at 7pm.
Follow along on Zoom and enter your answers via Kahoot, as you compete for a variety of fun BFPL prizes with hosts The Union of Quizzers.
Plus, there is a theme nights on the last Tuesday of every month
Click here to register to play!
LINKS:
- Missed the most recent game? Test your knowledge to the questions asked HERE.
Wednesday – Holocaust Remembrance Day
You don’t have to be Jewish to commemorate the heroes who saved people whose only crime was being Jewish, inter-racial, a gypsy, mentally or physically challenged, or anti-Hitler, and the persecuted who survived.
There are FREE films and discussions online on Wednesday so you #NeverForget.
Remember this: The Lesson of Jan Karski, starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn
Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band
Full information here to register for links.
Ballet Hispanico photo courtesy Lincoln Center
Wednesday – FREE Ballet Performance
Ballet Hispanico 50th Anniversary Celebration
Ballet Hispánico, the nation’s renowned Latinx dance organization, based here in NYC, continues its 50th Anniversary Celebration with a series of FREE online showings of repertory pieces, including performances from the 80s and 90s by signature choreographers George Faison and Alberto Alonso.
Ballet Hispánico Watch Party Series on Wednesdays, January 27 and February 10, at 7pm
Jan. 27
¡Si Señor! ¡Es Mi Son (1994) !by Alberto Alonso, followed by a conversation with former Company member Donald Roman Lopez and other special guests.
February 10 at 7pm
Café America (1990) by George Faison, including post-event conversation with the choreographer himself.
Full information about the ballets, dancers and where to watch.
Ice Skating in NYC
FREE Ice Skating in Bryant Park
New this year is that reservations are required for skating sessions.
Ice Skating in Rockefeller Center
The iconic rink has opened for the season. Reservations are now required for skating sessions.
NYC Museums & Attractions Open Include:
Note: The Museum of the City of New York is closed through Mid-February for emergency building repairs
- National September 11 Museum at the 9/11 Memorial
- New York Aquarium at Coney Island
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
- American Museum of Natural History
- The Guggenheim
- New York Historical Society
- The Rubin Museum of Art
- The Museum of Jewish Heritage
- Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum
- All museums and attractions have advance ticketing requirements for social distancing, and mask-wearing requirements.
- See the full list here.
See more daily NYC events
on our new
Free & Cheap Events Calendar
Ongoing Events
Carnegie Hall Fridays
Each week for the the forseable future, Carnegie Hall is streaming a concert from its archived recordings.
Watch each week’s livestream from Friday 3am through Monday at 3 AM
Metropolitan Opera Live Streams
Every night of the week, the world-famous Met Opera is streaming a different performance from its repetoire of recorded performances, including operas by Puccini, Verdi and Mozart, and legendary stars including Luciano Pavarotti and Renée Fleming.
Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day.
The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.The streams are also available through the Met Opera on Demand apps for Apple, Amazon, and Roku devices and Samsung Smart TV.
During this extraordinary and difficult time, the Met hopes to brighten the lives of our audience members even while our stage is dark. Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day. The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.
The streams are also available through the Met Opera on Demand apps for Apple, Amazon, and Roku devices and Samsung Smart TV. To access them without logging in, click “Browse and Preview” in the apps for connected TV, and “Explore the App” on tablets and mobile devices.
Met Stars Live in Concert
If you enjoy the Nightly Opera Streams, be sure not to miss our acclaimed pay-per-view concert series, presenting opera’s greatest stars performing live via satellite from striking locations across Europe and the U.S.
Support the Met and Protect its Future
Hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in daily to our free performance streams, and many of them have kindly been asking how they can help the Met during this economically perilous time. In response, we have added a “Donate Now” button below. We thank you for your help.
Or, donate by text message: Text METOPERA to 44321 in the U.S. or 1-917-999-0700 for other countries. Standard text messaging rates apply.
Week 46
The Antiheroes
Monday, January 25
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Starring Hibla Gerzmava, Malin Byström, Serena Malfi, Paul Appleby, Simon Keenlyside, Adam Plachetka, Matthew Rose, and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From October 22, 2016.
Tuesday, January 26
Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
Starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Susanne Resmark, Juan Diego Flórez, Stéphane Degout, and Michele Pertusi, conducted by Maurizio Benini. From April 9, 2011.
Wednesday, January 27
Gounod’s Faust
Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Jonas Kaufmann, and René Pape, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 10, 2011.
Thursday, January 28
Verdi’s Falstaff
Starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Paolo Fanale, Ambrogio Maestri, and Franco Vassallo, conducted by James Levine. From December 14, 2013.
Friday, January 29
Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer
Starring Anja Kampe, Mihoko Fujimura, Sergey Skorokhodov, David Portillo, Evgeny Nikitin, and Franz-Josef Selig, conducted by Valery Gergiev. From March 10, 2020.
Saturday, January 30
Verdi’s Rigoletto
Starring Diana Damrau, Oksana Volkova, Piotr Beczała, Željko Lučić, and Štefan Kocán, conducted by Michele Mariotti. From February 16, 2013.
Sunday, January 31
Verdi’sMacbeth
Starring Maria Guleghina, Dimitri Pittas, Željko Lučić, and John Relyea, conducted by James Levine. From January 12, 2008.
Supplementary content—including synopses, articles, and more—is available here.
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