12 THENEWYORKER,NOVEMBER29, 2021
“Christmas Spectacular Starring
the Radio City Rockettes”
The country’s leading precision dance
troupe, the leggy Rockettes, strut their stuff
once more at Radio City Music Hall. Sev-
eral times per day, the theatre is engulfed
in video projections and torrents of fake
snow, and, in one sweet passage, the stage is
transformed into a miniature skating rink.
(Through Jan. 2.)
Neapolitan Crèche
A spruce tree graces the entrance to the Me-
dieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan
Museum. Eighteenth-century terra-cotta
angels in silk robes deck its boughs; at
the tree’s base is an elaborate tableau of
Baroque figurines, representing both the
Nativity, in Bethlehem, and the bustle of
daily life in the Italian port city of Naples.
(Through Jan. 9.)
Holiday Train Show
Santa’s sleigh isn’t the only magical trans-
portation this time of year. At the New
York Botanical Garden, model trains chug
past some hundred and seventy-five New
York City landmarks—from the Statue of
Liberty to One World Trade Center—each
enchantingly re-created, at Lilliputian scale,
out of acorns, pine cones, twigs, and other
plant matter. To mark the Holiday Train
Show’s thirtieth anniversary, the nearly
half-mile-long track will be graced for the
first time by a model of the Garden’s own
LuEsther T. Mertz Library, a Renaissance
Revival building that was completed in 1901.
(Through Jan. 23.)
Origami Ornaments
In the nineteen-sixties, Alice Gray, an
entomologist at the American Museum of
Natural History, and an origami enthusiast,
decorated a small tree in her office with fold-
ed-paper insects.The festive practice caught
on, and, in 1971, it became a formal fixture
of the museum’s holiday season. The tree’s
theme each year aligns with a concurrent
exhibition; to celebrate this year’s golden
anniversary, the ornaments include gilt-paper
replicasof the geological marvels on view in
the recently renovated Halls of Gems and
Minerals. (Nov. 24-Jan. 2.)
“A Christmas Carol”
Beginning on Nov. 24, the Morgan Library &
Museum continues its long-standing tradition
of displaying the original manuscript of Charles
Dickens’s holiday classic “A Christmas Carol,”
first published in 1843. This year, in a gift for
ghost-story fans, the museum turns to page 5,
which contains Scrooge’s first mention of his
former business partner, Jacob Marley, who will
soon haunt the tale: “‘Mr. Marley has been dead
these seven years,’ Scrooge replied. ‘He died
seven years ago, this very night.’” A less spooky
mood will prevail on Sunday, Dec. 12, when the
Morgan hosts its Holiday Family Fair (2-4 p.m.),
featuring a screening of “The Muppet Christmas
Carol,” among other events. (Nov. 24-Jan. 9.)“George Balanchine’s
The Nutcracker”
New York City Ballet’s “Nutcracker” is back,
and so are the battalions of young dancers, all
vaccinated, who fill out its ranks. This is the
only production in the city in which one can
hear Tchaikovsky’s full, sparkling score played
live, and see such dancers as Sara Mearns, Tiler
Peck, and Megan Fairchild fly through the air as
the Sugarplum Fairy and Dewdrop. (DavidH.
Koch Theatre; Nov. 26-Jan. 2.)“SLEIGH at BAM”
If holiday sweetness has you longing for vinegar,
look no further than Kiki and Herb, the fero-
cious nonagenarian creations of Justin Vivian
Bond and Kenny Mellman. Since forming their
demented lounge act in San Francisco, in the late
eighties, the duo has become an undying fix-
ture of the downtown cabaret scene. At BAM’s
Harvey Theatre, the clawed diva Kiki DuRane
performs off-brand covers and spiked holiday
classics with her devoted accompanist, Herb.
(Nov. 30-Dec. 4.)Jingle Ball 2021
In the past decade, iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball has
become a modern tradition that invites mega-
stars to perform never-before-heard covers of
holiday favorites in sold-out arenas. Last year,
with COVID still raging, the show could be
experienced only online, but the festive extrav-
aganza returns to Madison Square Garden for- Pop music gets merry with performances
from the dance-pop diva Dua Lipa, the provo-
cateur Lil Nas X, the multi-hyphenate Doja Cat,
the singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, the pop-rock
trio the Jonas Brothers, the progressive country
star Kane Brown, and more. (Dec. 10.)“Messy Messiah”
Heartbeat Opera has moved its annual drag
show from Halloween to Christmas, and
it’s dialling up the audacity with an original
pastiche. A veritable smorgasbord of holiday
fare, the show serves up bite-size portions of
Handel’s beloved oratorio alongside bonbons
from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” and Strauss’s
“Die Fledermaus.” This broad sampling of
winter-themed selections extends far enough
to include “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It’s
either a skewering of the predictability of clas-
sical holiday programming or an embrace of
the comfort such productions represent—or
perhaps both. (Roulette; Dec. 16-17.)Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center
In 1993, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center started a holiday tradition with its pre-
sentation of Bach’s dazzling, uplifting Branden-
burg Concertos. Proof that absolute music has a
place in year-end celebrations, this collection of
concerti grossi bursts with moment-to-moment
buoyancy, born out of compositional invention
and lively solo writing. Bach expounded on the
typical form of a concerto grosso—in which
a small string contingent share soloist duties
against a larger band—by including brass and
woodwinds. The result is joyful, effervescent,
and, yes, festive. (Alice Tully Hall; Dec. 17, Dec.
19, and Dec. 21.)“Unsilent Night”
New Yorkers have been gathering for Phil
Kline’s “Unsilent Night” since 1992, but his
work is uniquely suited to these pandemic times.
The free, outdoor event began as a modern-day
update to carolling: instead of singing, partic-
ipants set off from Washington Square Park
carrying boom boxes, each blaring one of the
composition’s four instrumental parts, which
commingle in the winter air as an atmospheric
cloud of electronics and samples. Nowadays,
most carollers attach speakers to their smart-
phones, but Kline still loans out his vintage
Panasonic stereos to those who are susceptible
to nineties nostalgia. (Dec. 19.)