New York Mini-Reviews 2025 p5: Wrap Up

Epilogue

Did I do anything else other than theatre? Of course I did! Admittedly mainly because there were still plenty of hours to fill in a day and there aren’t matinees on Tuesdays, Fridays and Mondays but still…

Like everyone else, I hit the galleries and museums. Apart from stopping by the usual ones like the Guggenheim, MoMA and The Met, I checked out some smaller ones I’d never been to before. Sadly my favourite museum, The Frick Collection, hadn’t reopened yet (that renovation is astonishing).

I especially liked The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum which was small but had some stunning pieces. There was a multi-disciplinary installation about ‘Home’ at the time that was fascinating.

I also visited the Neue Galerie for the first time, and finally saw Gustav Klimt’s stunning ‘The Woman in Gold’ with my own eyes. It’s more impressive in person and much larger than imagined. Plus they had an exhibition of the Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) in Weimar Germany which looked at the art movements around the time of the rise of Nazism which, you know, timely…

One of the best things was visiting the mind-blowing Luna Luna exhibition at The Shed (hey, Sydney Festival – bring this to Sydney!). A forgotten art fairground with works by the likes of Salvador Dali, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and many more. They have a fascinating podcast which is worth listening to to get the whole story.

I stopped by the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center (a bit small and sterile TBH, full of corporate sponsors that may not age well) and finally saw Keith Haring’s ‘Once Upon a Time Mural’ in the bathroom at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (it’s NSFW so no photos here).

I caught a fashion exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology, lots of dresses from Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford, Mary Katrantzou etc alongside historical pieces and collectors items (like a feathered table owned by photographer Bill Cunningham) and I flirted with the idea of getting new glasses from my stapple Cubitts (but couldn’t decide on the colour – also the exchange rate was diabolically bad).

Made the obligatory stop at The Strand bookstore…

And I ate a lot of croissants. New York is also in the middle of croissant wars between amazing bakeries (it’s like Lune vs APB magnified). And giant doughnuts. So many giant, ridiculous doughnuts.

I drank a lot of coffee from St Kilda Coffee on W44th (saw Philipa Soo there one day) and generally enjoyed the sunny but cold weather. I stayed at The Pod Times Square which was a) vaguely affordable and b) perfectly positioned in the theatre district and right by the Times Sq/42nd Subway so I could catch the subway to/from JFK instead of paying for a very expensive taxi/Uber.

I don’t know when I’ll go back next, we’ll see how all the politics and exchange rates shake out but it might be a while.