PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELMO / INTERVIEW BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Neither an ever-changing Chelsea nor a pop-up global pandemic have managed to lodge the beloved Elmo from its longtime moorings at 156 Seventh Ave. The restaurant and lounge has been a welcoming watering hole and exceptionl eatery for nearly a quarter century now. News of […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Barracuda–the innovative gay lounge on West 22nd Street whose brand of drag entertainment spawned countless imitators–is closing its doors after three successful decades. As of March 23, it joins the ranks of other belated local watering holes (including Splash, Rawhide, and Champs) whose combined presence made Chelsea the go-to, bar-hopping gayborhood […]
BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | The comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy convention Cosmic Con has been around for a few years, having taken place in Queens. This year it moved to Chelsea at West 18th Street’s Metropolitan Pavilion for a two-day event (Feb. 15-16) that gave attendees a smaller but more intimate version of the bigger […]
BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | The subway ride home from New York Comic Con (NYCC) is always an adventure. The 7 train leaves from Hudson Yards, half a block from the Javits Center. Most of the people who board the train there are coming straight from the con. I sat down on the subway bench in […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Like an embarrassing itch, Broadway jukebox musicals just won’t seem to go away. Whether they tell the life story of the musical artist whose hits they use (like The Cher Showand Tina) or they string those songs together to construct a fictional, unrelated narrative (like Mamma Mia! or The Heart of […]
Theamatically tied to—and indeed, inspired by—November 17-20’s New York Comic Con (NYCC), the new show from singer, adult content creator, perpetually perceptive writer, continuously compelling live presence, and RuPaul’s Drag Race legend Honey Davenport has its world premiere performance at 9:30pm, Saturday, November 19, at West 42nd Street’s legend-in-its-own-right Laurie Beechman Theatre. Billed as “a […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | I vividly remember seeing films with my parents when I was a kid and becoming confused when a harsh word was said by an actor and the entire audience reacted by shrieking in horror. I’d turn to my mother and whisper, “What did that word mean?” and she’d weirdly refuse to […]
Actor, writer, comedian, and consistently hilarious gay wit Alec Mapa (as seen on Ugly Betty, Frasier, and RuPaul’s Drag Race) is returning to West 42nd Street’s legendary Laurie Beechman Theatre with the debut of his solo performance Ha! Penis! It’s a fitting setting for the show’s world premiere, with the Beechman (currently scheduled to shutter […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Laurels from countless luminaries began pouring in this summer, after word came down that Laurie Beechman Theatre (407 W. 42nd St.) would close for good come the end of August. Thankfully, the legendary downstairs performance space got a reprieve through October, as has the ground-level West Bank Cafe that sits above […]
BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | In years past, New York’s anime conventions had to tiptoe around the behemoth of New York Comic Con (NYCC). Anime NYC usually arrived in November, scavenging the nerd carcasses after NYCC had eaten the lion’s share of geeky wallets. But this year, Anime NYC dared to take the first bite from […]