Thanksgiving 2013, New York City Theater Recommendations

Posted on November 21, 2013

If you’re lucky enough to be celebrating Thanksgiving in New York City this year, say thanks that you’re in the greatest city in the world for going to the theater and do not let the long weekend pass without catching a show.

We offer our recommendations for you and your loved ones.

Got other suggestions? We would love to hear from you on our Facebook page.

Your favorite relatives	A musical adaption of the graphic memoir Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, it’s charming, sad, beautiful, and one of the best shows in New York City right now.	The ever-charming Michael Urie (TV: Ugly Betty) tells a made-up story about the real life shopping mall under Barbra Streisand’s home in the funny and brilliant Buyer and Cellar.	An electro-pop opera based on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace staged in a mock Russian supper club, complete with vodka and potato dumplings.
Family drama to cure family drama	An acerbic, raucous family comedy about two cousins fighting over a family heirloom, Bad Jews features Tracee Chimo in one of the most gorgeously realized comic performances of the season.	A war of words between Nina and her father, a civil rights revolutionary, Sunset Baby is a poetic play about simple familial struggles, the things we say to wound the ones we love, and the things we hide to protect them.	A grand, old-fashioned, feel good Broadway musical (drag queens included) about a family-run shoe factory that faces difficult times. Cyndi Lauper wrote the music.
Bored grandparents	Personal and political conversations with a liberal family in Rhinebeck, New York, a series of four plays from Tony Award winner Richard Nelson, simply and beautifully staged at The Public Theater.	Kooky, weary old folks living at a Jewish assisted living center entertain themselves by impersonating famous people. Based on an award winning story by Richard Abrons.	Billy Crystal’s one-man show about growing up in New York City. Need we say more? There are matinees on Wednesday and Saturday the week of Thanksgiving.
Angsty twenty-something cousins, nieces, and nephews	Grace is a young woman in the midst of a quarter-life crisis. To break the confines of her stagnant life she invokes an imaginary set of Olsen twins (yes, those Olsen twins). Together they examine the true meaning of modern love, happiness, success, and adulthood.	Legendary, gender-bending, performer Taylor Mac takes on Brecht with a stellar supporting cast including Lisa Kron and David Turner, indie-folk-rock accompaniment from César Alvarez with The Lisps, and visionary director Lear deBessonet.	A guided adventure through the Alice in Wonderland looking glass at a 3-floor institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Led by Alice, the Mad Hatter, and author Lewis Carroll, a limited audience of 15 is treated to a multi-sensory and multi-disciplinary performance.
Relatives you’re having trouble convincing not to see The Lion King for the 1,000th time	Celebrate the golden age of Jazz with a musical set at the legendary Cotton Club. After Midnight features classic numbers from Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Harold Arlen played by Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, plus a group of extremely gifted dancers, all under the artistic direction of Wynton Marsalis.	Julie Taymor, the endlessly inventive magician of the theater and director of The Lion King, contributes another spectacle to the New York stage with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are puppets. It’s a phantasmagoria of visual delight.	If your relatives will accept Disney and nothing but Disney, aim for Newsies. It’s got tremendously talented dancers, a positive strength-in-numbers message, an adorable lead (Corey Cott as Jack Kelly, the Christian Bale role in the movie), and music by Alan Menken.