Fun Things to Do in NYC in January 2025

Comedy

‘The Ultimate Improv Show’

Jan. 24-25 at the Bell House, 149 Seventh Street, Brooklyn; thebellhouseny.com.

In the late 2000s, you could catch many of today’s top sitcom stars and character actors honing their skills at cheap (or free) improvisational shows in the basement of a Gristedes in Manhattan that the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater was calling home at the time.

The building that housed the venue was razed to make way for luxury condos, but you can still see those comics in Dan Black’s “The Ultimate Improv Show,” which is coming to New York this weekend. Joining Black at the Bell House are Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!” and “Wipeout”), D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”), Neil Casey, Jon Gabrus, Bobby Moynihan (“Saturday Night Live”), Brandon Scott Jones (“Ghosts”) and Paul Welsh (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”). They’ll be making up scenes inspired by stories from their guest monologuists: Joe Gatto from “Impractical Jokers” on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Abbi Jacobson from “Broad City” on Friday at 10 p.m., and Janeane Garofalo on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $30.25 on Live Nation. If these shows sell out, you can head to the UCB’s current home on 14th Street to catch the next great improvisers. SEAN L. McCARTHY

Pop & Rock

Ground Control Touring Presents: Third Annual Abortion Access Benefit

Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, Manhattan; mercuryeastpresents.com.

The packed bill of the Third Annual Abortion Access Benefit represents a compelling cross-section of New York’s music community, bringing scene veterans together with relative upstarts.

High energy and danceability are common ground for the fund-raiser’s performers. Among them are Guerilla Toss, which brings a punk spirit and surrealistic bent to frenetic noise pop; and Dazegxd, a producer from Canarsie, Brooklyn, whose catalog includes both blown-out rap beats and wafty, eclectic dance music. The psych-rock band Gift and the recent New York transplant Cherry Glazerr are also on the bill. Other artists, including members of the industrial pop trio Kassie Krut and the noise-rock group Model/Actriz, will take on D.J. duties.

Tickets are $25, with the option to make an additional donation, on Ticketmaster. Proceeds will be distributed to grass-roots reproductive justice efforts by the nonprofit Noise for Now. OLIVIA HORN

Jazz

Takuya Nakamura Presents Cosmic Jungle

Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. at Public Records, 233 Butler Street, Brooklyn; publicrecords.nyc.

As warm and alive as blood pulsing from the heart, the trumpet of Takuya Nakamura, a D.J. and multi-instrumentalist, snakes through his shifting electronic textures, his restless tangles of beats, his booming moments of dance-floor transcendence. Born in Tokyo and based in Brooklyn, Nakamura thrives in the fertile territory between the digital and organic, conjuring from his sequencers and turntables dub and jungle beats that skitter and build with a bracing human logic.

As Nakamura splices genres and approaches, informed by his work with innovators like George Russell (on the jazz side) and Helio Parallax (on the genre-free experimentation side), he achieves a heartening fusion. In a moment dominated by artificial intelligence and algorithms, his is future-minded beat music with an urgent wet-ware metabolism, especially when joined by collaborators like the ones he has assembled for this night of “Cosmic Jungle” jazz: Currency Audio on drums and J. Albert on electronics and guitar.

A D.J. set from Amita opens the show, which is sold out; you can join the wait list at dice.fm. ALAN SCHERSTUHL

A.K.C. Meet the Breeds

Jan. 25-26, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 429 11th Avenue, Manhattan; akc.org/meetthebreeds.

New York City is full of dogs and the children who love them. Getting the two together, however, isn’t always easy. Many apartment buildings don’t allow canine residents, and dog-walking owners may be too busy to stop for their pets’ adoring fans.

But A.K.C. Meet the Breeds encourages such encounters. Presented by the American Kennel Club, this annual event features examples of more than 150 dog breeds, from tiny Chihuahuas to massive Leonbergers, for enthusiasts to pet and play with. Although the furry ambassadors aren’t up for sale or adoption, each decorated booth provides information for families interested in pet ownership.

The festivities include demonstrations — dogs running agility courses, catching flying discs and performing stunts — as well as programs on veterinary care, obedience training and how to teach tricks. A kids’ zone will offer face painting, a scavenger hunt and an agility course for frisky little humans. (A full schedule is on the website.)

Tickets start at $10.

Children can also catch some cuddly creatures on the big screen this weekend during L’Alliance New York’s Animation First festival. A cat, for instance, stars in the prizewinning film “Flow,” and a mouse in the free feature “Yuku and the Himalayan Flower.” Information is at lallianceny.org. LAUREL GRAEBER

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Jan. 25-26 at 3 p.m. at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, 53-49 Reeves Avenue, Queens; nainichen.org.

According to the Chinese calendar, the new year begins on Wednesday and is governed by the zodiac sign of the wood snake, which represents traits such as resourcefulness, intelligence and calm. As it has for years, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will celebrate with a series of family-friendly performances comprising works that exemplify its acclaimed blend of cultural traditions and modern dance.

The lineup includes “Tiger and Water Lillies,” incorporating contemporary ballet; “Unfolding,” which honors the ties between Chinese and Korean people; and “Lion in the City,” inspired by the traditional Lion Dance, a staple of Lunar New Year celebrations, here flavored with hip-hop. The company will also introduce “Dances of the Golden Snake,” a festive new work by Ying Shi embodying the joyful spirit of this year’s exalted animal.

Additional performances will be at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Feb. 1 and 2, and at the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture in the Bronx on Feb. 11 and 16. Tickets for this weekend are $20 through kupferbergcenter.org. BRIAN SCHAEFER

Last Chance

‘Cult of Love’

Through Feb. 2 at the Helen Hayes Theater, Manhattan; 2st.com. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

Second Stage leans right into holiday-season angst with this dramedy by Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”) about a dysfunctional clan gathering for Christmas in Connecticut at the home of their parents (David Rasche and Mare Winningham), where the only harmony is in the carol singing. Trip Cullman, who staged the play last winter at Berkeley Rep, directs a strong cast that includes Zachary Quinto and Shailene Woodley. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Oh, Mary’

Through June 28 at the Lyceum Theater, Manhattan; ohmaryplay.com. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Channeling the deliriously outrageous, emphatically queer downtown spirit of Charles Ludlam and his Ridiculous Theatrical Company, this comedy by Cole Escola (“Difficult People”) began as a fizzy Off Broadway hit. Escola stars as a sozzled, stage-struck Mary Todd Lincoln — a very loose cannon largely ignored by her husband (Conrad Ricamora), the president, who is otherwise occupied with assorted sexual exploits and the bothersome Civil War. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Gypsy’

At the Majestic Theater, Manhattan; gypsybway.com. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes.

Grabbing the baton first handed off by Ethel Merman, Audra McDonald plays the formidable Momma Rose in the fifth Broadway revival of Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s exalted 1959 musical about a vaudeville stage mother and her daughters: June, the favorite child, and Louise, who becomes the burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Directed by George C. Wolfe, with choreography by Camille A. Brown, the cast includes Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, Jordan Tyson and Lesli Margherita. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Hell’s Kitchen’

At the Shubert Theater, Manhattan; hellskitchen.com. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.

Alicia Keys’s own coming-of-age is the inspiration for this jukebox musical, which won two Tonys. Studded with Keys’s songs, including “Girl on Fire,” “Fallin’” and “Empire State of Mind,” it’s the story of a 17-year-old girl (Maleah Joi Moon, last year’s winner for best actress) in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, growing into an artist. Directed by Michael Greif, the show has a book by Kristoffer Diaz and choreography by Camille A. Brown. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350’

Through Jan. 26 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; metmuseum.org.

This magnificent glow-in-the-dark exhibition is a visual event of pure 24-karat beauty and a multileveled scholarly coup. On both counts, we’ll be lucky if the season brings us anything like its equal. It is rare in other ways too. As a major survey of early Italian religious art, it’s a kind of show we once saw routinely in our big museums, but now rarely do. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Edges of Ailey’

Through Feb. 9 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, Manhattan; whitney.org.

A major institutional tribute to the American choreographer and performer Alvin Ailey (1931-89), this show is also a relatively rare example of a traditionally object-intensive art museum giving full-scale treatment to the ephemeral medium of dance. But if you anticipated, as I did, that this would mean a display of documentary photographs, some archival materials (costumes, stage designs), and — best — extensive examples of dance on film, you’ve got a surprise in store. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Flight Into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876-Now’

Through Feb. 17 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; metmuseum.org.

This unusual and audacious exhibition spotlights a propensity in American culture hiding in plain sight: the attachment, among Black artists, musicians and intellectuals, to ancient Egyptian culture, myth and spirituality. Rambling across a century and a half, with nearly 200 artworks, it explores the colonial roots of modern Egyptology, the Pharaonic motifs of the Harlem Renaissance, the Egyptian iconography of Black Power and other movements of the 1960s and ’70s, and sphinxes and pyramids in the work of everyone from Kara Walker to Richard Pryor. Read the review.