The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue (81st Street)
Sun, Tue.-Thurs 9:30 A.M. - 5:30 P.M.
Fri & Sat 9:30 A.M. - 8:45 P.M.
Closed Mondays
New York City is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of art museums and among this collection the Metropolitan stands out as perhaps the best. In addition to an extensive permanent collection of art that embraces ancient Greece and Rome, pre-columbian, medieval, renaissance, European and modern day masters, the Museum hosts a great number of traveling exhibits. Current exhibitions include:

Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century
Now through August 8, 2004.This whimsically curated exhibit focuses on the interplay between fashion styles and furniture of the late eighteenth century.

Childe Hassam, American Impressionist
Now through September 12, 2004
Quite often when we think of impressionist painters we think of the 19th Century French masters. Ranking among these masters, however, was Childe Hassam, an american painter who could trace his family to the early settlers of Boston. Making his home in both Boston and New York City Hassam’s subject included streets scenes depicting daily life in Boston, New York and Paris and later in life his renowned flag series which are highlighted in this exhibition. This is the first major retrospective of america’s finest impressionist since 1972 and includes oil paintings watercolors and pastels that depict his inimitable talent for creating enchanting effects through the use of light and color.

American Impressions
Now through September 5, 2004
This arrangement of prints, drawings and watercolors from the museum’s own collection includes such notables as Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and James McNeil Whistler. This exhibit has been prepared to coincide the the Hassam exhibit.

Painters of Reality: The Legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy
Now through August 15, 2004
This collection of 110 paintings from Italy’s northern region depicts the great respect for nature and portraiture found in the works of DaVinci and Caravaggio.

The Pierre & Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection
Through June 26, 2005. This ever growing museum has just been endowed with a priceless collection of more than 100 works from the collection of Pierre Matisse art dealer and son of Henri Matisse. The yearlong exhibition will be presented in two consecutive installations. The first will contain works by Henri Matisse as well as Butler, Carrington, Chagall Giacometti and Miró. The second installation will include works by younger painters and sculptors associated with Pierre Matisse

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The Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
(212) 769-5100
Frogs: A chorus of colors
Now through October 3, 2004
From vivid blues to orange and dazzling red, see the wild array of colors that exist in the frog kingdom. Learn about the varying species that exist in different corners of the globe and their unique survival skills. This museum is a great place to take kids.

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The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, New York 10128
Phone: 212.423.3200
Call for extended hours
Modigliani: Beyond the Myth (There will be a $4.00 per person surcharge for this exhibition.)
Now through September 19th, 2004
This is the first major exhibition of Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) in New York since 1951. Unlike the many foreign Jewish artists who lived in Paris during the early 1900s, Modigliani remained independent of any movement or style, and was known primarily for his reclining nudes and portraits with elegantly elongated features. Modigliani: Beyond the Myth shows the full range of the artist's works - painting, drawing and sculpture. More than 100 of Modigliani's works from collections in the United States, Europe, South America and Australia are featured in this retrospective. 

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Assassins
Winner of , 5 2004 Tony Awards:
Best Revival of a Musical
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical Michael Cerveris
Best Direction of a Musical Joe Mantello
Best Orchestrations Michael Starobin
Best Lighting Design Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer

Studio 54 254 West 54th Street. Performances from 31 Mar 2004. Closing 18 Jul 2004. Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300 or online at ww.roundabouttheatre.org. Pricing: $36.25 - $91.25. Show Run Time: One hour, 50 minutes, without intermission. A darkly comic musical exploring the minds of Presidential assassins and attemptors, among them John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinkley, and the lesser known Charles Guiteau, Samuel Byck and Squeaky Fromme. Some had very specific motivations, others' intentions were muddled. All changed the course of U.S. history, and, this musical suggests, added to our unsettling national obsession with celebrity.

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Dracula (Musical) Belasco Theatre 111 West 44th Street.
Dracula is a new musical vision of romance, terror and temptation based on the Bram Stoker classic novel. Set in Europe at the end of the Victorian Age, the production follows Dracula's lust for new blood and a small band of mortal men and women who must face his overwhelming seduction and mesmeric supernatural powers.

The Frogs
Alarmed at the state of the world, the Greek god Dionysos, accompanied by his slave Xanthias, travels to Hades to bring back a great playwright to help save mankind. Their perilous (and frog infested) adventure includes a war of the words between two of the English-speaking world's greatest writers - Shakespeare and Shaw. This production was famously performed in a swimming pool in 1974 by students of the Yale Drama School.

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Frozen
Winner of a 2004 Tony Awards:
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play Brían F. O'Byrne
One sunny evening, 10-year-old Rhona goes missing. Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope. Agnetha, an American academic comes to England to research her thesis, tentatively entitled "Serial Killing - a forgivable act?" They meet Ralph, a loner who is looking for some distraction. Drawn together by horrific circumstances, these three embark upon a long, dark journey.

The new Broadway musical, Avenue Q opens at the John Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th Street on August 31, 2004. Singing puppets and their human neighbors tackle life's most difficult issues - including love, sex, money and how to tell your roommate he's gay. This musical for adults takes place in New York City on Avenue Q, where diversity and freedom of expression is not only acceptable but also encouraged. 

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Golda’s Balcony moves from its critically acclaimed off-Broadway run to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street. This poignant and powerful one-woman biographical drama stars Tovah Feldshuh as Golda Meir one of the founding mothers of Israel. The play is an intimate look at the woman who, after a lifetime of public service, came out of retirement at age 70 to become Israel's fourth Prime Minister. The play opens in previews on October 4 with an official opening date of October 15.

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The new Broadway musical, The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman opens in previews at the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street on September 16 with an official opening date of October 16. The musical tells the funny yet heart-breaking story of real-life Australian entertainer Peter Allen, from his humble beginnings to international fame and celebrity. Featuring many of Allen's hit songs, including “I Go to Rio,” “I Honestly Love You” and “Arthur's Theme.”


Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel and Robert Morse star in the new Stephen Schwartz musical Wicked. This prequel to The Wizard of Oz tells the story of two girls in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood and the other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, the spellbinding musical takes a look at how these unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. The play opens in previews at the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street on October 7 with an official opening date of October 30. 

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The Broadway revival of the Bernstein/Comden/Green musical Wonderful Town opened at the Al Hirshfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues on November 4. Donna Murphy stars in the musical about two sisters from Ohio who arrive in New York and find life in the big city a lot more complicated than they ever imagined. The score features songs such as "Christopher Street," "My Darlin' Eileen" and "A Little Bit In Love." 


Bombay Dreams the new musical based on an idea by Shekhar Kapur and Andrew Lloyd Webber tells the story of a handsome young slum-dweller and his dreams of becoming a Bollywood movie star. With music by A R Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and a book by Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan, the show weaves together the glamour of the movies, heart-aching romance and epic spectacle. The musical opens in preview at the Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway at 53rd Street on March 29 with an official opening date of April 29.

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The highly anticipated new musical “Hairspray” opened August 15 at the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52nd Street and stars Marissa Jaret Winoku and Harvey Fierstein. This musical comedy is based on the John Waters’ 1988 film by the same title and tells the story of a plain-jane, Tracy Turnbald, who is going to do whatever it takes to dance her way onto TV’s most popular show.

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"Moving Out," the new Broadway musical based on the works of Contemporary composer and performer Billy Joel opens in previews October 30 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 West 46th Street with and official opening October 24. The musical features 24 classic Joel songs with a story line conceived, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp. This must see musical follows the lives of six lifelong friends through two turbulent decades. 

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