CONWELL COFFEE HALL opened its doors earlier this year on a narrow, nondescript Fidi street. A giant flag with its logo, a red Devil enjoying a cup of coffee in a letter C'with the slogan "The Taste of Success," stands outside.
The former bank (there's a plaque on the wall sharing the history of banking magnate J. G. Conwell) has been exceptionally maintained and restored, its ornate metalwork and marble columns complemented by rich leather and dark-wood furniture and a sweeping Diego Rivera-style mural. By day, baristas take orders from behind the tellers' counter, and customers can work on their laptops in cozy nooks or read by the light of imitation-vintage brass banker's lamps.
But Conwell Coffee Hall is a front. It's the first set piece in the latest experientialtheater project by Emursive, the production company behind Sleep No More, which has played at the McKittrick Hotel (itself an Emursive fabrication) in Chelsea since 2011. That show, a moody, speakeasy-inspired retelling of Macbeth in a vast, fully explorable multi-floor set, is closing later this year after multiple extensions and 13 years of introducing audiences to immersive theater. "When we started, that word wasn't in the Zeitgeist," Emursive partner and co-producer Jonathan
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin July 1-14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin July 1-14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
