For us city dwellers, outdoor concerts — especially free outdoor concerts — are a summer staple. They are “wonderful and fun,” Anthony Tommasini wrote in his review of Wednesday’s Philharmonic performance in Central Park. “That’s what has made the New York Philharmonic’s free Concerts in the Parks so popular for 54 years.” (He also reviewed the first of the Metropolitan Opera’s Summer Recital Series, running through June 19.) The Philharmonic’s series heads next to Prospect Park in Brooklyn on Friday. The Met Opera’s series has a date at Williamsbridge Oval in the Bronx on Saturday. Full list of concerts: nyphil.org, metopera.org.
[Read Anthony Tommasini’s New York Philharmonic and Met Opera review.]
Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea
Lorna Simpson
“Dark times, to me, mean dark paintings,” Lorna Simpson said of her recent works now on view in Chelsea. The overall mood is blue: “Blue like glaciers in polar night. Blue like a frigid ocean. Blue like premonition, blue like the blues,” Siddhartha Mitter writes in his profile of the artist. “Darkening” is on view through July 26 at Hauser & Wirth, 548 West 22nd Street, Manhattan; hauserwirth.com.
Some “serious trouble is afoot” in Jim Jarmusch’s “shaggy-dog zombie movie,” A.O. Scott writes in his review. Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny play cops who have to deal with the situation; a bunch of other interesting people, including Tilda Swinton, roundup an all-star lineup.
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
Alvin Ailey
“The theme of inspiration and education is there from the start,” Brian Seibert writes of Darrell Grand Moultrie’s “Ounce of Faith.” The dance had its world premiere on Wednesday as part of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s weeklong residency at Lincoln Center. Through Sunday at the David H. Koch Theater; alvinailey.org.
If you liked “The Wire,” you may want to check out “City on a Hill,” a new Showtime’s series that explores race, crime, city government and family melodrama. The setting is Boston in the early 1990s, and Kevin Bacon is a cocky F.B.I. agent. The series “has attracted a lot of talent, and the results are tangible in the early episodes,” Mike Hale wrote in his review.
[Read Mike Hale’s “City on a Hill” review.]