Summer Culture Preview

What’s happening this season in TV, movies, music, art, theatre, and dance.

Shauna Lyon Goings On editor Whether you are one with the sun or in love with your A.C. unit, summer has plenty in store for you that doesn’t involve a small screen. New York City abounds with alfresco events—including a robust Little Island slate, pop divas at Governor’s Ball, and Gustavo Dudamel’s New York Philharmonic in parks across the boroughs—as well as plenty of shows offering protection from the elements, from the blockbuster (Vermeer, the ballerina Olga Smirnova, Brad Pitt in “F1 the Movie”) to the quirky (P. D. Q. Bach, LaRussell, Taylor Mac adapting Molière). Of course, you have permission to occasionally stay home, if only to check out the new TV shows by Lena Dunham or Raphael Bob-Waksberg (the creator of “BoJack Horseman),” or the latest season of “The Bear.” With the longer days and a sultry summer pace, there’s plenty of time to soak it all in. New Yorker subscribers enjoy access to our full seasonal cultural previews directly in their inbox. Thank you for your support. Jump to: Television | Art | Dance | Contemporary Music | Classical Music | Movies | The Theatre

Tech Billionaires, Hawaiian History, Murder Mysteries Many of the summer’s most anticipated TV projects hail from the medium’s leading auteurs and hitmakers. The season kicks off with “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong’s HBO movie “Mountainhead” (May 31), in which a quartet of tech billionaires—played by Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carrell, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith—watch the world burn down from an isolated, snowy retreat and question their roles and responsibilities in the crisis. That network’s former enfant terrible, Lena Dunham, makes the transition to Netflix with her latest series, “Too Much” (July 10). Dunham, whose series “Girls” has found a steady afterlife, is sure to generate chatter with a semi-autobiographical rom-com that stars the “Hacks” breakout Megan Stalter as a burned-out New Yorker who moves to London and quickly falls for a man she suspects she should run from. Also on Netflix, the “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg reunites with that series’ beloved production designer, Lisa Hanawalt, for their latest adult animated series, “Long Story Short” (Aug. 22). Since the end of “BoJack,” Bob-Waksberg co-created the underwatched Amazon drama “Undone,” about a woman who transports through time and different realities to explore her family history. The more comedic “Long Story Short” also tells a family saga by leaping back and forth between eras. On FX, the prolific showrunner Noah Hawley propels the audience nearly a century into the future with “Alien: Earth” (Aug. 12), a prequel series set in the “Alien” universe that imagines the first encounter between humanity and the titular extraterrestrials. Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in the D.C. superhero movies, joins the ranks of series creators with the ambitious historical drama “Chief of War” (Aug. 1). Momoa, who shares creator credits with Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, headlines this Apple TV+ miniseries, about Hawaii’s unification and colonization, playing Ka’iana, a real-life eighteenth-century warrior. On the cozier side, the streaming service attempts to recapture the magic of “Ted Lasso” with the Owen Wilson vehicle “Stick” (June 4). Wilson plays a Lasso-ian sportsman—a sweet, sad former pro-golfer—who finds a new calling in coaching an amateur (Peter Dager) with extraordinary promise but a tough home life. As feels right amid the heat and stickiness of summer, there’s no shortage of murder mysteries in the next few months. They come in an array of flavors. Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney play it serious as a mother and daughter bound by a secret in the Apple TV+ movie “Echo Valley” (June 13), while Shudder/AMC+ serves up killings with a wink in the satirical miniseries “Hell Motel” (June 17), in which true-crime aficionados keep turning up dead. It can vie with the fourth season of “The Bear” (June 25), on FX and Hulu, for the loudest screaming and the handiest knifework.—Inkoo Kang

Vermeer’s Ladies, Hilma af Klint’s Botanicals Summer is generally a quiet time in the art world, so it makes sense that the highlights of the season are more low-key gems than splashy blockbusters. Foremost among them is the Drawing Center’s “In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney” (opening May 30), a survey of the work of a great but still underappreciated artist. You may know of the African American modernist through his longtime friendship with James Baldwin, who once wrote, “I learned about light from Beauford Delaney.” Indeed, the artist’s portraits, landscapes, and abstractions are luminous and buoyant with color—a technical feat as much as an emotional one, as Delaney struggled with poverty, racism, mental illness, and his own homosexuality. This exhibition should go some way toward giving him his due. The Jewish Museum also revisits a contemporary forebear, with “Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity” (May 23). Shahn, a Lithuanian Jew who grew up in Brooklyn, was a lifelong socially committed artist; his best-known work is a series of gouache paintings dramatizing the fate of the Italian-immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. This retrospective celebrates the breadth of Shahn’s vision by adding his rarely seen posters, prints, and photographs. Part of what makes Shahn fascinating—and ripe for this moment—is the way he turned his relentless quest for justice into a brushy, almost delicate style that was wholly his own. From the Jewish Museum, it’s a short walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the annual, much-discussed Costume Institute exhibition is on view. This year’s edition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” takes a long historical look at Black dandyism, with objects ranging from Frederick Douglass’s tailcoat to the fashion journalist André Leon Talley’s caftans. While you’re at the Met, stop by “Lorna Simpson: Source Notes.” You may have seen her pioneering photography-and-text pieces, which focus on the emotional experiences of Black women, but this is the first survey of Simpson’s more recent paintings. Further down Fifth Avenue, the recently renovated Frick Collection is mounting a big exhibition that’s actually quite small—the first outing in the museum’s new special-exhibitions gallery. “Vermeer’s Love Letters” (June 18) features just three paintings by the Old Master, all depicting ladies with their maids and with letters of some kind. It’s a portal to the domestic lives and social relationships of women in the seventeenth century, which are recurrent themes in Vermeer’s œuvre. There’s another intimate powerhouse of a show at the Museum of Modern Art. “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” displays a never-before-seen portfolio of forty-six botanical drawings by the Swedish pioneer of abstraction, whose fame has continued to grow since a groundbreaking 2018 survey of her work at the Guggenheim. These delicate watercolors feature careful studies accompanied by geometric diagrams and written notes. Viewers who know af Klint for her iconic mystical paintings will discover a different dimension of her practice. For those seeking a more contemporary take on nature—and a rather more fraught one—the International Center of Photography has “Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration” (June 19), a survey of the photographer’s often awe-inspiring large-format pictures that document humanity’s impact on the Earth. On the hottest days, when you can’t bring yourself to look too closely or think too hard, head to the Brooklyn Museum for “Christian Marclay: Doors” (June 13). A multimedia artist and composer, Marclay sparked a cultural craze when his film “The Clock” débuted, in 2010; it mesmerized huge crowds with clips of clocks taken from movies and TV and masterfully edited into a twenty-four-hour, real-time montage. “Doors” only runs for an hour, on a loop, but does something similar with its subject, making meaning from pop culture’s transitional moments by turning them into the main attraction.—Jillian Steinhauer

Ballet Luminaries, Alfresco Dance Parties In the summer, we tout the joys of outdoor dance. It is, indeed, magical to watch the sun sink over the Hudson while getting your groove on at a d.j.-led dance party on Little Island (Aug. 1-12); or to hold one’s tango partner close under the giant disco ball dangling above Lincoln Center Plaza, for one of many themed social-dance events during Summer for the City (July 11-Aug. 9). But, let’s be honest, most great dance happens indoors, in temperature-controlled spaces far from mosquitoes. American Ballet Theatre moves into the Metropolitan Opera House (June 10-July 19), bringing big ballet spectacles like “Swan Lake” and “Giselle.” A good reason to revisit the latter is a rare appearance by the guest artist Olga Smirnova (June 21), an extraordinary ballerina, formerly of the Bolshoi, who took a principled stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now based at the Dutch National Ballet. Another highlight is Christopher Wheeldon’s elegant précis of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (July 1-5), in which a horrific deed is expiated, and a daughter is lost and then found. The Joyce’s summer season includes the Paul Taylor Dance Company (June 17-22), reviving an intriguing pair of early works that have been reconstructed using archival video and notes. They include “Tablet,” from 1960, with colorful costumes (and face paint) by Ellsworth Kelly, for which Pina Bausch was in the original cast. The Mark Morris Dance Group (July 15-26) brings two new dances—including “You’ve Got to Be Modernistic,” set to music by the piano innovator James P. Johnson, reinterpreted by the jazz pianist Ethan Iverson—and “The Muir” (2010), a suite of bittersweet vignettes set to Scottish songs adapted by Beethoven, such as the naïf “Sally in Our Alley.” The Joyce’s summer closes with a program of short works by Jerome Robbins (Aug. 12-17), curated by the New York City Ballet luminary Tiler Peck and danced by members of A.B.T., N.Y.C.B., and the Paris Opera. Peck herself becomes the first woman to perform the solo “A Suite of Dances,” which was created in 1994, for none other than Baryshnikov. The country’s oldest summer dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, returns to the Berkshires (June 25-Aug. 24) with a packed schedule that includes visits by Indigenous Enterprise (dancing outdoors! on July 10), a young troupe vibrantly bringing the ancient dances of Native American nations into the twenty-first century; and the mesmerizing “Touch of RED,” by Shamel Pitts (Aug. 6-10), a sexually fraught pas de deux for two men that draws from boxing, club dance, krump, and Fred and Ginger. It will be performed at the newly rebuilt Doris Duke Theatre, the original structure of which was lost in 2020 to a fire.—Marina Harss

Pop Savants, Rhiannon Giddens, Weird Al Summer gets a jump start with the 2025 edition of the Governors Ball (June 6-8), led by the ascendant rap auteur Tyler, the Creator; the gutsy pop-rock savant Olivia Rodrigo; and the Irish soul man Hozier. The season gets in full swing the following week with the jazz harpist Brandee Younger at Blue Note (June 9); the chamber-pop innovator Perfume Genius on his “Glory” tour, at Brooklyn Paramount (June 10); and the dance-music vet Crystal Waters, at 3 Dollar Bill (June 12). Tyler, the Creator, with four solo shows in July—two at Madison Square Garden (14-15) and two at Barclays Center (17‑18)—leads an assorted cast of performers through both arenas. At M.S.G.: the comedy musician Weird Al Yankovic (July 12); the belligerent rap duo Run the Jewels (July 16); the glitter-pop prima donna Kesha (July 23); rock legends the Who (Aug. 30); and Lady Gaga, a star reborn with the gloriously messy March album, “Mayhem” (Aug. 22-23, 26-27). At Barclays: the tumbling sing-song rapper Lil Baby, on his “WHAM” tour (June 18); the R. & B. singer Keyshia Cole (July 12); the reconceptualized Linkin Park, looking to escape the shadow of the late singer Chester Bennington (July 29); and the Afrobeats trailblazer Davido (July 31). Artists new and old settle into more intimate venues. U.S. Girls, the art-pop project of the musician Meghan Remy, celebrates the upcoming album “Scratch It,” out June 20, at Bowery Ballroom (June 25). At Le Poisson Rouge, on June 27, the prolific lyricist Boldy James samples his trove of recently released LPs—six this year alone—and, a day later, fixtures of hip-hop’s mixtape economy Jeezy and the d.j. Drama take on the historic Apollo Theatre. One of the defining New York City bands of the two-thousands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, returns home for a trio of shows celebrating twenty-five years with reimagined versions of fan favorites (Beacon Theatre; July 28-30). In Brooklyn, the misfits of alternative and indie scenes reign. The alt-rocker Sabrina Teitelbaum, who performs as Blondshell, crashes in with the new album “If You Asked for a Picture,” at Brooklyn Steel (June 20). At Pioneer Works, noise music extends to its poles: the droning of Godspeed You! Black Emperor (June 25-26) and the experimental sounds of Deerhoof (June 28). On July 15 and 16, Kurt Vile opens for the Pixies at Brooklyn Paramount. Over at Market Hotel, the buoyant Bay Area rapper LaRussell continues his mission to “make rap fun again” (July 27). The season’s outdoor shows are no less bracing. The roots revivalist Rhiannon Giddens headlines a free concert for Central Park’s SummerStage (June 25). On July 18, the Canadian dream-pop band Men I Trust unveils music from two new albums, “Equus Asinus” and “Equus Caballus,” at Prospect Park Bandshell. A slew of ambitious rock pairings hit the Rooftop at Pier 17: Primus with special guest Ty Segall (July 21); Drive-By Truckers and Deer Tick, on the “Charm & Decadence” tour (July 25); and co-headliners Guster and the Mountain Goats (July 31). And across two sets at Under the K Bridge Park (Aug. 1-2), the English d.j. and producer Jamie xx runs through the 2024 album “In Waves,” his first in nearly a decade.—Sheldon Pearce

Powerhouse Baritones, Orchestras in the Park Three months of free and low-cost programming claps back at the idea that anyone with the money, or the sense, flees New York in the summer. At Lincoln Center, a takeover by the American Modern Opera Company leads off with “The Comet/Poppea,” a startling mash-up of Monteverdi’s 1643 Roman drama and a 1920 sci-fi short by W. E. B. Du Bois, starring the bass-baritone Davóne Tines and the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, with new music by the composer George Lewis (June 18-21). In the same precincts, Karen Kamensek conducts the Lincoln Center Festival Orchestra in a program that includes Golijov’s “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra,” sung by Gabriella Reyes (Aug. 1-2); and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider reunites with the composer and kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor to perform his “Silent City” (Aug. 7-9). Outdoor concerts make up in ambiance what they lack in acoustics. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in Central Park, host a series of punchy midsize ensembles, starting with the Knights (June 10); the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, makes its annual rounds, playing in Central, Van Cortlandt, Prospect, and Cunningham parks (June 4-6, 7). At Little Island, Roomful of Teeth premières “The Lights,” a new setting of Ben Lerner poems by Matt Aucoin (Aug. 2-3). The Time:Spans festival brings new-music mainstays including the violinist Miranda Cuckson (Aug. 11) and the flautist Claire Chase (Aug. 19) to the DiMenna Center; and the Chamber Music Society presents six twenty-dollar concerts at Alice Tully Hall (July). Still, it’s nice to get out of town. Those who prefer their Baroque opera straight up might head to Caramoor, in Westchester, for “Pimpinone & Ino” (June 29)—a pairing, by the Boston Early Music Festival, of an opera and a cantata by Telemann—or for Capella Mediterranea’s semi-staged “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” (July 12). The Bard Music Festival showcases the neoclassical Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (Aug. 8-17), and the Glimmerglass Festival premières “The House on Mango Street,” adapted by Derek Bermel and Sandra Cisneros from Cisneros’s much-loved novel (opens July 18). At the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, the powerhouse baritone Bryn Terfel sings Scarpia in a concert performance of “Tosca” (July 19), and Emanuel Ax premières John Williams’s first piano concerto (July 26). But, if you think travel’s a drag, the “Schleptet” by P. D. Q. Bach—the comic alter ego of the late composer Peter Schickele, who will be remembered in a memorial concert at the Society for Ethical Culture (June 2)—may be just the thing.—Fergus McIntosh

Action Sequels, the Chill of Alienation Summer’s usual action-franchise sequels come in a range of formats, including a spinoff that builds its marketing into the title: “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” (June 6), starring Ana de Armas as a dancer who trains to be an assassin and joins the underground network in which the franchise hero (Keanu Reeves) also serves. Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McShane, and the late Lance Reddick (in his final role) co-star. There’s a new Clark Kent en route, played by David Corenswet, in James Gunn’s “Superman” (July 11), co-starring Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as the villainous Lex Luthor. “Jurassic World Rebirth” (July 2), directed by Gareth Edwards, stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey, and involves a pharmaceutical company’s secret machinations to acquire dinosaur DNA. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach headline “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (July 25), directed by Matt Shakman. Sequels arrive in other genres, too; zombie films are represented by “28 Years Later” (June 20), about the apocalyptic results of a lab-leaked virus; it stars Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and reunites the director Danny Boyle and the screenwriter Alex Garland, from the first film in the cycle. In “M3GAN 2.0” (June 27), the first installment’s A.I.-equipped doll with a violent streak is now harnessed for military uses; Allison Williams and Violet McGraw return in the lead roles, and Gerard Johnstone again directs. Comedy is represented with “The Naked Gun” (Aug. 1)—back after thirty-one years—directed by Akiva Schaffer and starring Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank -Drebin, Jr., the son of the earlier entries’ hapless detective. “Freakier Friday” (Aug. 8), directed by Nisha Ganatra, brings back Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan for a body-switching plot that now involves a third generation, portrayed by Julia Butters. High-stakes competition makes for high drama in “F1 the Movie” (June 27), directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Brad Pitt as a Formula One driver who is forced out of action by a grave accident and is recruited to train a younger driver (Damson Idris). Albert Serra’s documentary “Afternoons of Solitude” (June 27) follows the Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey over the course of three years of corridas. “Wild Diamond” (July 11), the first feature directed by Agathe Riedinger, stars Malou Khebizi as a young woman in a small French town who struggles fiercely to be cast in a reality-TV show. The summer of love is heralded by Celine Song’s second feature, “Materialists” (June 13), a romantic comedy, starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, about a matchmaker who is torn between a rich man and a poor one. Johnson returns in “Splitsville” (Aug. 22), the story of two married couples, one facing divorce, the other practicing polyamory; it’s directed by Michael Angelo Covino, who co-stars with his co-screenwriter, Kyle Marvin, and Adria Arjona. “Oh, Hi!” (July 25) is also a rom-com, directed by Sophie Brooks, about a couple (Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman) whose weekend road trip veers into breakup territory and leads to an act of revenge. Chills of alienation thread through upcoming releases, as in Neo Sora’s dystopian drama “Happyend” (June 20), set in Tokyo in the near future, in which the friendship between two high-school students is put to the test by the threat of an earthquake and a repressive regime of surveillance. Eva Victor wrote, directed, and stars in “Sorry, Baby” (June 27), a drama about a professor who is attempting to cope with the trauma of a sexual assault that occurred at the college where she studied and where she teaches; Naomi Ackie co-stars. “Eddington” (July 18), directed by Ari Aster, is set in mid-2020, in a New Mexico town where a liberal mayor (Pedro Pascal) and a conservative sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) clash amid conflicting views of the COVID pandemic and the murder of George Floyd; Emma Stone and Austin Butler co-star.—Richard Brody

The Delacorte Returns, Tennessee on Ice When people refer to the theatre “season,” they usually mean the combined fall-winter-spring, when most Tony Award-eligible productions open. But there’s a secret, better season: summer. The fairest months still boast their share of Hollywood glitz, and so Jean Smart stars in Jamie Wax’s “Call Me Izzy,” at Studio 54 (previews begin May 24); John Krasinski plays “Angry Alan,” in Penelope Skinner’s dissection of getting lost online, at the Seaview Studio (May 23); and Helena Bonham Carter’s disembodied voice narrates the immersive “Viola’s Room,” at the Shed (June 17). Summer is primarily precious, though, for its playwrights. Donald Margulies’s marital meditation “Lunar Eclipse” comes to Second Stage (through June 22); Taylor Mac converts Molière’s “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” into “Prosperous Fools,” at Theatre for a New Audience (June 1); Jordan Tannahill débuts a metatheatrical queer-futurist manifesto, “Prince Faggot” (Playwrights Horizons; May 30); Abby Rosebrock’s twisted rom-com “Lowcountry” occupies the Atlantic (June 4); Emmanuelle Mattana’s high-school-debate satire “Trophy Boys” pops up at MCC (June 5); and Charles Randolph-Wright’s Afghanistan romance “Duke and Roya” plays the Lortel (June 10). New-play connoisseurs never miss Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks festival, which includes Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s “Not Not Jane’s,” (June 2) and Ro Reddick’s “Cold War Choir Practice” (June 19). July is quiet, apart from Crystal Skillman’s gonzo magic play “Open” at the WP (July 8), but August has Sophie McIntosh’s abuse drama “Road Kills” at the Paradise Factory (Aug. 15) and Romina Paula’s “The Whole of Time” at the Brick (Aug. 22). Musicals mostly skip the dog days. But Ken Davenport and AnnMarie Milazzo mount their bio-musical of Joy Mangano, the inventor of a self-wringing mop, “Joy,” at the Laura Pels (June 21); Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s “Heathers,” from 2014, returns (New World Stages; June 22); and, on Broadway, the unkillable ABBA jukebox lark “Mamma Mia!” returns to the Winter Garden (Aug. 2). “Here,” as someone Swedish once sang, “I go again.” Outside, you have more options. Little Island’s gorgeous amphitheatre hosts a number of buzzy productions, including Kate Tarker’s new take on John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” “The Counterfeit Opera” (May 29-June 15), Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s “The Gospel at Colonus” (July 8-26), and a communal musical celebration called “The Tune-Up,” by Suzan-Lori Parks (July 30-Aug. 3). The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park resumes in the newly renovated Delacorte, which hosts “Twelfth Night,” starring the swoon-worthy Lupita Nyong’o and Sandra Oh, directed by Saheem Ali. Other alfresco offerings include Will Power’s reworking of a Trojan War tale, “Memnon,” for the Classical Theatre of Harlem, in Marcus Garvey Park (July 5-27), and the brand-new performing-arts series Sugar, Sugar!, in Brooklyn’s Domino Park (June 4-28), which hosts the thrilling experimental artists Nile Harris, Lena Engelstein, Lisa Fagan, and Tiresias. The nearby Hudson Valley Shakespeare—a jaunt on the Metro-North to Garrison, New York—rotates Thornton Wilder’s jolly farce (and “Hello, Dolly!” inspiration) “The Matchmaker” and Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” (June 6-Aug. 3); Dave Malloy’s song cycle about technological addiction “Octet” ends their summer on a meditative note (Aug. 11-Sept. 7). A slightly longer trip will get you to Massachusetts for the Williamstown Theatre Festival (July 17-Aug. 3), which presents Pamela Anderson in Tennessee Williams’s surreal “Camino Real”; William Jackson Harper and Chris Messina in Williams’s prison drama “Not About Nightingales”; a new piece from the festival’s creative director, Jeremy O. Harris, called “Spirit of the People”; and the director Will Davis’s tribute to Williams, choreographed for ice-skaters. Maybe save that last one for the summer’s hottest day—and sit as close to the rink as possible.—Helen Shaw

Carving digital initials Rich man, poor man, Canadian Obscure islands