A Virtual Visit to New York City: Part 1 - The Arts

The city I love is suffering once again – although unfortunately this time not alone – but rather with the rest of the world. Coronavirus has stolen what many of us have taken for granted and slowly shut it all down for the foreseeable future. However - as we all practice social distancing in the wake of the pandemic - I am encouraged to see so much positivity emerging. Perusing social media, watching television and even talking with friends, relatives and coworkers I’m consistently amazed and humbled by how creative some of you are at helping to pass the time, lighten some of the sadness of the situation and plain and simple make the best of a tragic worldwide event.

One of my favorite ways to spread a little positivity out into the world is through my writing. However - as I type this blog from the safety of my sunroom in the suburbs, I count back and realize that I have been homebound for 26 days and have not written more than a few Facebook posts here and there. Furthermore - every day of those 26 I have been getting a pop-up calendar reminder that says Monthly Blog Due. And every day when it appeared, I immediately clicked Snooze for One Day - even though I love to write – especially about New York City.

For some reason - when it came time for this month’s blog entry - I kept putting off writing it. And don’t let me fool you – I know what that “some reason” was. It was because I honestly felt that I would be hard pressed to find a relevant topic to discuss - with everything being shut down in the Big Apple. And that was quite depressing to me.

Alas – since here you are reading April 2020’s blog now - you can probably guess – that I am extremely happy to report that I was oh so wrong about that! Going through numerous emails from our fabulous vendors I realized that there is a heck of a lot happening. It quickly became apparent that once again the city that doesn’t sleep has found a way to keep us entertained 24/7.

And so my dear travel advisor friends – I have finally stopped hitting Snooze to that annoying little pop up and have taken it upon myself to create a list that you can use for your own personal entertainment, to brush up on your New York City expertise or to share with your clients who may have had to postpone their visits.

I invite you to join me in getting everyone excited about re-discovering New York City once we have overcome COVID-19 (and nursed our country back to health) by reading and sharing what I have uncovered. Now sit back, relax and enjoy your virtual visit to New York City!

Broadway

Broadway has kept the lights burning brightly virtually since they were forced to go dark over a month ago. From Andrew Lloyd Weber streaming all of his musicals on YouTube via his The Show Must Go On! Series to daily Living Room Concerts by BroadwayWorld featuring Broadway performers from - you guessed it – their living rooms. But that’s not all – there’s also Stars in the House hosted by SiriusXM's Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley which can be viewed on YouTube daily at 2:00pm and 8:00pm EST (in honor of typical Broadway show times) and supports The Actors Fund and it’s services.  Bonus - you can also listen to it on Sirius XM daily at 9:00am EST should you miss it online. Finally, if you act fast you can get a free seven-day trial of BroadwayHD which can be streamed on any and all of your favorite devices. With on-demand digital streaming you can watch, sing along and heck - even dance - to all your favorite musicals for free - and without ads!

Opera

If opera is more your style New York City has not forgotten you! The Metropolitan Opera is live streaming encore performances from its Live in HD series for free during the pandemic. These productions are available on their website as well as through various other platforms. In addition - they also just announced a Starry “At Home” Concert to be broadcast on Saturday, April 25^th as a part of their fundraising campaign to support the company. The concert - featuring over 40 artists performing from their homes - is set to start at 1:00pm EST and last approximately three hours. It will be available to live stream on their website until Sunday evening - and although they are not billing it as a fundraising telethon – any donations will protect the company’s future.

Ballet

Are you a ballet fan with children at home? The American Ballet Theater has you covered as well! Join them online for their new project - ABTKids Daily. Content is updated every Monday and is designed to give you a weeks’ worth of lessons to share with them with daily themes such as Meet a Dancer Monday and Teaching Artist Tuesday. Over at the New York City Ballet make sure you check out its new inspired virtual collaboration. It is a separate-but-together performance of a short excerpt from Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing and is guaranteed to make you smile! You can find it on Facebook Watch. And speaking of the New York City Ballet – one of its principal dancers - Tiler Peck - has chosen Instagram as her platform to teach online ballet classes. You can find her there daily at 1:00pm EST.

Museums

One thing New York City has plenty of are museums. And thanks to a partnership with Google Arts and Culture they also have plenty of ways to visit those museums virtually. From the Guggenheim to The Cloisters at the Met – to the American Museum of Natural History to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) – they are all just a mouse click away.  And that is just a handful of the more popular ones you can stroll through from the comfort of your couch (and ultimately decide which you would like to visit in person once we are able to travel again). Over at the New York Transit Museum there are online discussions throughout the week to take part in. Topics are hosted by different museum employees and range from sustainability to navigation and everything in between. (Note: You must register as limited spots are available for each discussion. Admission is free but there is an option to donate.) And for the little ones both the Children's Museum of the Arts  and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan are going virtual. The former with live classes and activities via Zoom and the latter with downloadable activity sheets for each day of the week.

Well that wraps up today’s trip – but only because of space limitations for this blog entry. I am delighted to inform you that this is just the first leg of our cyber tour - so be sure not to miss the next departure - because more virtual New York City content is coming your way!