August Doesn't Pause Here: The Week Ragtime Took Its Final Bow and Ferragosto Came to Little Italy
As Ragtime, Death of a Salesman, and the Joyce's Misty Copeland-curated ballet festival all close out the same weekend Ferragosto reaches Little Italy, Queens throws its own borough-wide dance finale and a black-metal band returns to Brooklyn after twelve years away.
New York spent this week doing the opposite of what Italy does every August 15. Ferragosto, the holiday that empties Italian cities for two weeks, lands on this roundup’s publish date — and instead of shutting down, the city ran openings and closings in the same breath. Ragtime takes its final Broadway bow this weekend, the Joyce’s ballet festival closes Sunday, and a rakugo performer said goodbye after seven years, while the Delacorte opened a new Shakespeare and a black-metal band returned to Brooklyn after twelve years away. If Rome stops, New York just reshuffles.
Highlight
The same Saturday Alessandra Belloni performs La Tarantella per la Madonna Nera for Ferragosto, Ragtime is one night from its final Vivian Beaumont performance, the Joyce’s Misty Copeland-curated Ballet Festival is one day from closing, and Queens caps ten weeks of borough-wide programming with its own dance finale — four institutions marking time on the one day this city usually takes off.
Theater
The Winter’s Tale officially opened August 11 at the Delacorte, closing the loop on last week’s preview — Raúl Esparza and Lily Rabe anchor a nearly-3.5-hour production several critics call one of the Public’s best in years, runtime notwithstanding. BroadwayWorld In Fort Greene, Brooklyn’s Bridge — a new musical about Emily Warren Roebling, who finished the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband fell ill — runs through August 23 inside The Space at Irondale, a former 1863 Sunday school. Brooklyn Paper Previews also began for Paranormal Activity: A New Story at the August Wilson, the horror franchise adapted for Broadway by Sleep No More director Felix Barrett. Broadway Direct
The closings outnumbered the openings. Death of a Salesman ended its 14-week limited run at the Winter Garden August 9, and Ragtime plays its final Broadway performance this weekend at the Vivian Beaumont after a post-Tony extension ran out. Deadline Off-Broadway, The Potluck — César Alvarez’s musical built from his own ties to the 1979 Greensboro Massacre — closed August 9 at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater the same night The Gin Game, with Debra Winger and Arliss Howard, wrapped its run inside Housing Works Bookstore. TheaterMania
Independent Film
Union County opened August 14 at IFC Center ahead of wider release, a Sundance premiere pairing Will Poulter and Noah Centineo with Annette Deao, a real Ohio drug-court counselor playing herself — Danny Strong moderated the opening-night Q&A. In Review Online At Film Forum, Robb Moss brought The Bend in the River, closing chapter of a documentary trilogy shot since 1978, back for Q&As with subject Barry Wasserman, following five river guides now in their 60s and 70s. Anthology Film Archives opened its Cuban Film Festival: Salvus with The Uncle’s Request, while MoMI counterprogrammed with CatVideoFest and Metrograph kept Deliverance on 35mm.
Music
Andrew Cyrille closed a Village Vanguard stand this week — the 86-year-old free-jazz drummer leading Bill Frisell and Cuban-born pianist David Virelles. Amsterdam News Mumford & Sons sold out three nights at Madison Square Garden behind February’s Prizefighter. mxdwn Out in Maspeth, clipping., SPELLLING, and Shabazz Palaces marked ten years of clipping.’s Splendor & Misery at Knockdown Center, hand-screened vinyl sold onsite only. BrooklynVegan Free at the Lena Horne Bandshell, Lyricist Lounge marked its 35th anniversary with Jadakiss headlining, and at Brooklyn Steel, Agalloch played its first New York show in twelve years. BrooklynVegan At the Italian American Museum, Alessandra Belloni marked Ferragosto itself with La Tarantella per la Madonna Nera, a folk pilgrimage tradition from Campania’s Black Madonna shrines. PoliticaMenteCorretto
Visual Arts & Other
Outside Manhattan, the Queensboro Dance Festival closed its thirteenth season with a pay-what-you-can finale at Queens Theatre today — twenty Queens-based companies spanning ballet, hip-hop, salsa, and flamenco, capping ten weeks of borough-wide programming. QNS The Joyce’s Ballet Festival, Misty Copeland’s first curatorial project since retiring from American Ballet Theatre, closes Sunday after showcasing Black, brown, and queer choreographers alongside dancers from four companies. In Downtown Brooklyn, Alex Strada’s Public Address — a DOT-fabricated street-sign installation carrying reflections from more than 300 shelter residents and frontline staff on housing insecurity — relocated to Columbus Park from its original Manhattan site. NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Art Haus opened Structural Collabs, twenty artists paired into ten duos exploring physical and emotional collapse, Brooklyn’s Lifestyle while at New World Stages, Katsura Sunshine closed out seven years of rakugo — traditional Japanese comic storytelling, performed for an English-speaking house — with his final New York performance. BroadwayWorld
Coming Up
- The Real Ivanov begins previews — Laura Strausfeld’s Chekhov adaptation, starring Sam Underwood, previews Aug 17 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater ahead of an Aug 25 opening. Theatrely
- Rooftop Films’ Closing Night — the org’s 30th-anniversary season wraps with new shorts at Green-Wood Cemetery, Aug 21. Rooftop Films
- Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats, ii — their first joint album since 2020’s UNLOCKED, out Aug 21 with JPEGMAFIA and Westside Gunn. BrooklynVegan
- Marina at Little Island — Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez’s Whitney Biennial-commissioned piece runs Aug 27–30. Gothamist
- IFC Center’s It Ends — Alexander Ullom’s existential road-horror opens Aug 21 with Q&As through Aug 23. Dread Central
Takeaway
Takeaway
Ferragosto exists because a country agreed, centuries ago, that August is for stopping. New York never made that agreement with itself — not this week, when a Tony-winning revival, a seven-year rakugo run, and a hand-curated ballet festival all closed the same weekend a Delacorte premiere and a twelve-years-gone metal band both opened. The city doesn’t pause so much as it turns over completely, and the turnover is the tradition: something is always closing here, bearable only because something else is always about to open.