There are certain conversations that simply belong in New York, and putting Gustavo Dudamel and Lin-Manuel Miranda together beneath the stars in Central Park feels like one of them.

On September 23, The Public Theater will bring back its Public Forum Duets with Public Forum Duet: Gustavo Dudamel & Lin-Manuel Miranda, a free, one-night-only event at the revitalized Delacorte Theater. The evening will combine conversation with live musical performances as two very different musical forces talk about music, life and, most intriguingly, what both mean in New York City.

Dudamel arrives at a fascinating moment in his relationship with the city. The celebrated conductor is the incoming Tang Music & Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic, bringing with him not simply an international reputation but a deeply held belief in music as something that should reach beyond the traditional walls of the concert hall.

Miranda hardly requires an introduction to a New York theater audience. The creator of Hamilton has become one of the city’s most recognizable artistic voices, but his connection to The Public makes this particular pairing especially appropriate. Hamilton began its New York life at The Public before moving to Broadway, making The Delacorte an unusually fitting place for Miranda to join a musician beginning his own major new chapter in the city.

What makes the evening particularly appealing, however, is the word duet.

The Public Forum series has long been built around the idea that conversation itself can be a form of performance. The Public describes the program as a place where “art, ideas, and action collide,” bringing artists, thinkers and public voices together to examine the larger questions moving through the culture.

Dudamel and Miranda should have plenty to discuss.

One comes from the world of orchestras, where hundreds of years of musical tradition meet the challenge of attracting the audiences of tomorrow. The other helped take American history, hip-hop, musical theater and immigration and turn them into one of the defining theatrical phenomena of the 21st century. Both have spent much of their careers challenging assumptions about who certain kinds of music belong to and who should be invited into the room.

New York has always been a city that absorbs musical languages and makes something new from them. Classical music, Broadway, jazz, salsa, hip-hop, opera and countless sounds carried here by generations of immigrants coexist within a few subway stops of one another. Yet arts institutions everywhere are confronting the same question: How do you honor tradition without allowing tradition to become a gatekeeper?

Dudamel and Miranda have approached that question from very different directions. Bringing them together isn’t simply an appealing celebrity pairing. It offers the possibility of a conversation about where music goes next—and who gets to come along.

Best of all, the evening remains rooted in one of The Public’s defining principles: access.

Free tickets will be distributed on September 23 in several ways. Distribution outside The Delacorte begins at noon; an in-person lottery will be held at noon in The Public Theater lobby at 425 Lafayette Street; the TodayTix digital lottery remains open until noon that day; and a standby line at The Delacorte can begin distributing available tickets as early as 6 p.m. Public Theater members can also reserve seats with an additional donation.

Public Forum Duet: Gustavo Dudamel & Lin-Manuel Miranda — tickets and information

There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about the whole proposition: gather New Yorkers in Central Park, put two extraordinary musical minds onstage, add live music and see where the conversation goes.

In a city increasingly divided into algorithms, audiences and carefully targeted demographics, perhaps there is still something radical about simply gathering together to listen.

On September 23, New York gets one hell of a duet.

How fitting it is that Micky Dolenz has chosen this month to release his latest recorded album, Timeless.  It hits the marketplace just in time to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the debut of The Monkees TV show that started it all.  And, it is a refreshing reminder of how pop music fans first fell in love with Micky’s voice, and 60 years later it is still as strong and distinctive as ever.

Although Timeless is only a six-song EP, it still provides living proof of how ageless Micky’s voice and energy is—right up to today.  This is the perfect platform to show off these half-dozen new Dolenz performances which seem to fit right into any era of Monkees music.  Produced by Sam Hollander, John Hughes, and Pete Donnelley, Timeless perfectly captures one of the most celebrated voices of rock & roll.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the Timeless release is the fact that it contains new music from several of the same songwriters who made The Monkees’ 2016 Good Times! album such an appealing hit.  These returning contributors include, Andy Partridge of XTC, and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, plus the addition of Paul Westerberg of The Replacements.  Also included here is the song “Waiting For Day,” which was written Vicki Peterson of The Bangles, and beautifully sung by Micky as a duet with his beloved sister Coco Dolenz.

There are also several hints of classic Monkees audio references on Timeless.  The song “In The Center Of My Hears (There Is a Force Commonly Known As Love)” starts out with some of the same recorded “party patter” of voices that began “Don’t Call On Me” from The Monkees’ Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones album back in 1967.  Furthermore, Micky gives the same kind of command to his delivery on that song, similar to the group’s 1968 song “D.W. Washburn.”

Part of the beauty to this six-song EP of an album is that it contains something old, something new, and several songs sounding classically “Monkees.”  Without a doubt, the best part of all is the fact that Micky Dolenz sounds like he is having as much fun in the recording studio than the did circa 1966.  In other words, “Timeless” is the fitting title to this album, because that word describes Micky Dolenz to a tee.

Another reason that I am especially happy to see and hear this new EP from Dolenz, is that it is referenced and included in the new third version of the book I’m A Believer, by Micky Dolenz…and me!  As the co-writer on this hit book, I am thrilled to announce that a new 2006 commemorative edition of the book has just been released.  It contains a new updating chapter by me, and a newly updated Discography as well.  The book originally came out in 1993 from Hyperion Books.  Then it came out in 2004 from Cooper Square, with a new chapter from me.  This new 2026 version from Lyons Press gave me the platform to add still another chapter, and to report everything that has happened to the group since the second version came out.  Most notably the updated include the individual passing of Micky’s trio of Monkee brothers:  Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith.

Thankfully, we still have Micky Dolenz here with us. His energy and enthusiasm lives on in his Timeless EP, and in the book I wrote with him:  I’m A Believer.  I wish all of you Monkees fans out there a “Happy 60th Anniversary!”  Rock on, Micky Dolenz!  I know I will be celebrating it, in Timeless fashion!

The New York Pops is heading into its 2026–27 season with James Bond, Broadway stars, holiday glamour and the cinematic worlds of John Williams and Steven Spielberg. Under Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, the orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with five programs that move easily between Broadway, Hollywood and popular music—exactly the territory The New York Pops has made its own.

The season begins October 23 with 007: James Bond Forever, featuring Tony Award winner Lena Hall. Few film franchises have produced music as instantly recognizable as Bond, where the songs have become almost as important as the Aston Martins, villains and martinis. From Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones to Adele and Billie Eilish, Bond music has always demanded singers with personality, and Hall certainly has that. With a voice capable of moving from rock to Broadway without losing its edge, she is an inspired choice for an evening devoted to 007.

On November 20, Broadway takes center stage with One Night Only: An Evening with Denée Benton and Jordan Donica. Benton, the Tony-nominated star of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and Donica, whose Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera and Camelot, join The New York Pops for an evening built around two formidable voices. It is also the kind of pairing Carnegie Hall does particularly well: performers we know from the theatre given the room—and the orchestra—to show us something beyond the roles in which we first discovered them.

Christmas arrives December 18 and 19 with Sleigh Bells Ring, starring Tony Award winner Lindsay Mendez and Derek Klena. The Pops’ holiday concerts have become a New York tradition, and this year’s combination is particularly appealing. Mendez brings one of Broadway’s most distinctive voices and a wonderfully grounded sense of humor, while Klena has the soaring leading-man vocals the season practically demands. Add a full orchestra, Carnegie Hall dressed for Christmas and two nights just before the holiday, and this has all the makings of one of December’s lovelier escapes.

The new year introduces two powerhouse voices on February 5, 2027, with Introducing…Jimmie Herrod and Marisha Wallace. Herrod, who reached a huge national audience through America’s Got Talent, possesses a remarkable range, while Wallace has established herself as a force on both the West End and Broadway. The evening is part of The New York Pops’ Debut Series, placing the spotlight on artists ready for a major Carnegie Hall moment.

The Carnegie Hall season concludes March 5 with John Williams and Steven Spielberg: Movie Magic. This one barely needs explaining. Williams and Spielberg created one of the great director-composer partnerships in film history, producing music and images that became inseparable from one another. Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List—for generations, we have heard Williams’ music and immediately seen Spielberg’s worlds. Hearing those scores played by The New York Pops in Carnegie Hall should be glorious.

Deborah Cox

Before all of that, however, The New York Pops goes underground—quite literally. On October 5, Grammy and Tony-nominated singer Deborah Cox headlines the annual New York Pops Underground cabaret fundraiser at 54 Below. Cox, currently appearing on Broadway in Titanique as the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown and serving as a co-producer of the production, has built a career that crosses R&B, dance music and Broadway. Her extraordinary “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here” spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, while her dance career has produced 13 No. 1 hits on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.

The evening begins with a 6 p.m. reception followed by dinner, wine pairings and the 6:30 p.m. performance. Also appearing will be the PopsEd Alumni Ensemble, made up of young musicians who previously participated in The New York Pops’ Kids on Stage program. That connection is important: proceeds from the evening support PopsEd, the organization’s music-education programs, which have reached more than 100,000 New York City students since 1991.

What makes this Pops season particularly attractive is its range. Bond one month, Broadway the next, Christmas in December, emerging voices in February and Spielberg and Williams in March. It doesn’t require audiences to choose between popular culture and great musicianship. The New York Pops has long understood that the two were never mutually exclusive in the first place.

In a city where fall calendars become impossible almost overnight, consider this your warning: Carnegie Hall just gave us five dates worth putting on the calendar before Fashion Week makes us forget what month it is.

The New York Pops 2026–27 season and tickets

New York Pops Underground with Deborah Cox

From Rockefeller Center’s celebrated Christmas Tree to the decorated streets of Little Italy and the year-round Christmas world on Mulberry Street, New York is preparing to reaffirm its place as one of the world’s great Christmas cities in 2026.

There is a particular moment each year when Christmas begins to feel real in New York City. It comes before December, before many families have decorated their own trees, and before the busiest weeks of holiday travel have filled Manhattan. It is the arrival of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, one of the most recognizable seasonal traditions in the United States.

For 2026, that moment is still waiting for its official date. As of September 7, Rockefeller Center has not announced the arrival date, origin, dimensions, or lighting date of the 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Its official holiday information continues to advise visitors to check back later in the year for details. That uncertainty is part of the annual anticipation. Somewhere, a tree will be selected for a journey that will place it at the center of New York’s Christmas season.

The timing can nevertheless be understood through the long-established rhythm of the celebration. In 2025, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree arrived on November 8 after being cut on November 6. The 75-foot Norway spruce traveled from East Greenbush, New York, to Manhattan before crews raised it at Rockefeller Center. Its arrival effectively opened another chapter in the city’s holiday calendar.

When the 2026 tree finally arrives, expected during the traditional November period unless Rockefeller Center announces a change, it will represent far more than the installation of an exceptionally large evergreen. The arrival has become a public signal that New York is moving into its most elaborate season of decoration, shopping, entertainment and family traditions.

That importance begins with history. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree tradition reaches back to 1931, when workers constructing Rockefeller Center placed a modest Christmas tree at the site. The formal tree-lighting tradition followed in 1933. What started during a formative period in the development of Rockefeller Center gradually became an international symbol of Christmas in New York.

The Tree That Announces Christmas in New York

The scale has changed considerably since that first tree. Recent Rockefeller Center trees have been monumental evergreens requiring careful transportation, cranes, specialized crews and weeks of preparation. The 2025 Norway spruce stood 75 feet tall, measured approximately 45 feet across and weighed about 11 tons.

It was subsequently covered with more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights connected by approximately five miles of wire. Above it stood the Swarovski star designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, an approximately 900-pound creation containing three million crystals across 70 illuminated spikes.

Those numbers explain the physical scale of the attraction, but they do not fully explain its cultural importance. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree matters because people have incorporated it into their personal understanding of New York.

Generations have seen it in photographs, television broadcasts, films and family albums. Visitors have stood beneath it as children and returned years later with children of their own. New Yorkers pass through Rockefeller Center during ordinary working weeks and then watch the same urban space assume a completely different identity for the holidays.

The transformation is particularly effective because Rockefeller Center already possesses such a strong architectural identity. The tree rises above the famous skating rink while the surrounding buildings create a defined urban setting. The Channel Gardens and their Christmas angels establish the ceremonial approach toward the tree. Fifth Avenue and its holiday displays are nearby, while Radio City Music Hall and its seasonal programming extend the celebration through Midtown.

The result is one of the most concentrated Christmas experiences in the city. A visitor can encounter the Rockefeller Center tree, ice skating, decorated storefronts, illuminated façades, holiday shopping and major seasonal entertainment within a relatively compact part of Manhattan.

That concentration helps explain why the arrival of the tree receives such attention. New York does not wait until the lighting ceremony to become interested in it. The transportation and installation are events in themselves. Watching an enormous tree enter Manhattan and be raised into position reveals the considerable work behind an image that eventually appears effortless.

Why the 2026 Arrival Matters

The 2026 tree will join a tradition approaching a century of continuous cultural relevance. Its precise story will depend on the tree Rockefeller Center ultimately selects and the family or property from which it comes.

Rockefeller Center’s head gardener, Erik Pauze, has played a central role in finding the trees for decades. The search extends well beyond Manhattan, with potential candidates evaluated for size, shape, health and their ability to withstand transportation and installation.

The individual history of each selected tree has increasingly become part of the celebration. These are mature trees that have often stood beside homes and within communities for generations before being chosen for Rockefeller Plaza. Their journey converts something deeply local into something seen by millions.

The tradition also continues after the decorations are removed. Rockefeller Center states that the 2026 tree is planned to be donated to Habitat for Humanity after the season. The wood is milled, treated and used as lumber for home building, continuing a practice that gives the tree a practical purpose after its public display concludes.

That final chapter distinguishes the Rockefeller tree from a temporary decorative installation. Its life at the center of Manhattan is spectacular but relatively brief. The material eventually leaves Rockefeller Center and becomes part of homes built through Habitat for Humanity.

For New York, however, the arrival remains the beginning rather than the conclusion. Once the tree is standing in Rockefeller Plaza, the visual language of Christmas spreads across Manhattan with increasing intensity.

Fifth Avenue becomes one of the principal stages. Department stores and luxury retailers prepare elaborate windows and façades. Hotels install trees and floral displays in their lobbies. Restaurants introduce seasonal decorations. Public plazas gain lights, wreaths and oversized ornaments. Radio City Music Hall becomes inseparable from the annual Christmas Spectacular and the Rockettes.

Yet some of New York’s most appealing Christmas experiences occur beyond Midtown.

Little Italy Brings Christmas to Mulberry Street

Travel downtown to Little Italy and the holiday changes character.

Here, Christmas belongs to narrower streets, restaurants, storefronts and the neighborhood scale of Mulberry Street. Little Italy has long understood the importance of decoration as part of its identity, and during the holiday period the familiar blocks can become another destination for visitors seeking Christmas in Manhattan.

Lights and seasonal decorations across Little Italy bring the celebration closer to street level. Instead of encountering a single monumental centerpiece, visitors experience Christmas while walking past restaurants, cafés and businesses.

Mulberry Street is especially important because it already carries such a strong association with Italian-American New York. During Christmas, traditional neighborhood identity and contemporary tourism meet in the same few blocks.

For families, that combination can make Little Italy a natural extension of a Rockefeller Center visit. Midtown presents the grand public image of Christmas in New York. Little Italy offers a more intimate version built around food, shopping, decorated streets and neighborhood businesses.

And then there is a place where the calendar almost becomes irrelevant.

At 142 Mulberry Street, Christmas in New York, also known through listings as Christmas and City, maintains a year-round holiday world in the heart of Little Italy. The store is devoted to ornaments, decorations, artificial trees, gifts and New York-themed Christmas pieces.

The concept feels particularly appropriate on Mulberry Street. New York has always been a city where specialized shops can become destinations in their own right, and a store dedicated to Christmas throughout the year turns the holiday into something visitors can enter even outside November and December.

Inside, the emphasis extends well beyond a conventional selection of ornaments. Christmas trees, decorative pieces, snow globes and seasonal merchandise create an immersive retail environment, while New York imagery connects the products directly to the city outside.

That connection is important. A New York Christmas ornament is more than generic holiday decoration when it incorporates the Statue of Liberty, a yellow taxi, the skyline or another recognizable city symbol. It becomes a souvenir tied to a specific trip and a particular Christmas memory.

For international visitors, especially, these objects allow the experience to travel home. The Rockefeller tree itself cannot be taken away, and the lights of Manhattan disappear once the trip ends. An ornament purchased on Mulberry Street can return to the family Christmas tree every December.

The year-round character of the Mulberry Street Christmas destination also says something interesting about New York’s relationship with the holiday. Christmas here has developed into an important part of the city’s cultural and tourism identity, extending beyond the weeks immediately surrounding December 25.

Why New York Remains a Great Christmas City

Calling New York one of the world’s great Christmas cities is supported by the extraordinary variety of experiences concentrated within it.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is central, but it does not stand alone. There is The Rink below it. There are the angels along the Channel Gardens. There is Radio City Music Hall nearby. Fifth Avenue adds major retail displays. Neighborhoods create their own traditions. Little Italy brings the season into its restaurants, shops and streets, while Mulberry Street can offer Christmas merchandise throughout the year.

The city also benefits from the fact that many of these traditions are genuinely old. Rockefeller Center’s tree originated in 1931. Its formal lighting tradition dates to 1933. These celebrations have survived enormous changes in New York while remaining recognizable from one generation to another.

That continuity matters in a city defined by constant redevelopment. Stores change, buildings rise, restaurants open and close, and neighborhoods evolve. The annual return of the Rockefeller tree provides a familiar point in the calendar.

Its arrival says that another New York Christmas is beginning.

For 2026, the suspense remains. Rockefeller Center has yet to disclose the tree that will occupy this famous position. Its hometown, dimensions, age and arrival date remain to be announced.

That makes September an early stage in the story. The decorations have not reached their full seasonal scale, and the Rockefeller tree has not made its journey to Manhattan. Yet the infrastructure of Christmas is already present in New York’s identity.

Little Italy provides a perfect example. Walk Mulberry Street and the relationship between New York and Christmas can be encountered even without waiting for the Rockefeller tree. A dedicated Christmas store keeps ornaments, decorated trees and seasonal objects on display throughout the year, while the neighborhood prepares for the period when holiday decoration becomes part of the larger street experience.

When November arrives and the Rockefeller Center tree eventually makes its entrance, the two sides of New York Christmas will begin to connect again.

There will be the monumental Christmas of Rockefeller Center, engineered on a scale appropriate for one of Manhattan’s most famous public spaces. Then there will be the neighborhood Christmas of Little Italy, experienced through storefronts, restaurants, lights and the familiar path along Mulberry Street.

Together they illustrate why Christmas in New York has such reach. The holiday is expressed through major institutions and small businesses, famous landmarks and neighborhood streets, carefully engineered installations and individual ornaments purchased as souvenirs.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree remains the clearest symbol of that season. Its annual arrival changes the city’s calendar because New Yorkers and visitors recognize what follows. Installation leads to decoration. Decoration leads to the lighting. The lighting opens the busiest weeks of the Christmas season.

In 2026, another tree will take its place in that sequence. Another group of visitors will see Rockefeller Center decorated for the first time. Others will return because seeing it has become part of their own family tradition.

Many will continue downtown afterward, trading the scale of Rockefeller Plaza for the streets of Little Italy. Mulberry Street will provide its own expression of the season, with restaurants, decorations, shops and a Christmas destination where ornaments and New York holiday souvenirs fill the interior.

That journey from Rockefeller Center to Little Italy captures the range that makes Christmas in New York distinctive. One destination delivers an internationally recognized civic tradition. The other places the holiday inside one of Manhattan’s historic neighborhoods.

The eventual announcement of the 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will provide the details everyone is waiting for. Until Rockefeller Center officially releases them, any specific 2026 arrival date would be premature. Based on the established annual schedule, attention will turn increasingly toward November, when the great evergreen traditionally enters Manhattan and preparation begins for its lighting.

When it happens, the arrival will represent another continuation of a New York tradition that began with construction workers and a modest tree in 1931. Nearly a century later, the event commands international attention while retaining an uncomplicated central idea: placing a Christmas tree in the middle of the city for people to enjoy together.

From the immense spruce at Rockefeller Center to the smallest ornament on Mulberry Street, New York gives Christmas room to exist at every scale. That combination of history, public celebration, neighborhood character, retail creativity and family tradition is why the city remains one of the defining destinations of the Christmas season.

Labor Day has become the unofficial farewell to summer—a final long weekend of beaches, barbecues and the terrible realization that September has arrived. But underneath the holiday is something considerably more important: the people who built, cleaned, taught, carried, cooked, stitched, drove, served and kept this country moving. American music has always told their stories, and musical theatre has done it particularly well. So before we say goodbye to summer, T2C turns up the volume with ten songs about work, money, ambition, exhaustion, dignity and that glorious fantasy every worker has entertained at least once: telling the boss exactly where the job can go.

1. “I Hear America Singing” — Working
This is where I would begin. Stephen Schwartz’s musical adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Working is built around the voices of ordinary American workers, and this number makes labor itself the American chorus. Different jobs, different lives, different dreams—but together they create the sound of a country.

2. “9 to 5” — Dolly Parton or in my version the musical
Nearly half a century later, that opening typewriter rhythm still means business. Parton made workplace inequality funny, furious and irresistibly catchy. It also made its way to Broadway, so Dolly gets to belong to both sides of our playlist.

3. “A Shtetl Iz Amereke” — Ragtime
For the immigrant worker, America promised possibility—but possibility came with a price. Tateh arrives believing in that promise and discovers the grinding reality of factory labor. Ragtime understands that the American Dream and the American workplace have always had a complicated relationship.

4. “She Works Hard for the Money” — Donna Summer
Summer’s anthem was inspired by a real woman she encountered working as a restroom attendant late at night. Beneath the irresistible beat is something Labor Day ought to remember: dignity belongs to the worker regardless of the job.

5. “The Factory Girls/Come Up to My Office” — Parade
This takes the playlist somewhere darker. Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s musical places us inside an industrialized Atlanta where young women work in a pencil factory, reminding us that American labor history includes exploitation, dangerous workplaces and workers with very little power.

6. “Sixteen Tons” — Tennessee Ernie Ford
“I owe my soul to the company store” may be one of the most economical descriptions of worker exploitation ever put into a song. Coal, debt and a system designed to make sure the worker can never quite get ahead.

7. “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” — Americana
And here’s our Broadway history lesson. E.Y. Harburg and Jay Gorney’s Depression-era masterpiece originated in the 1932 Broadway revue Americana. Its worker helped build the railroads, buildings and country—and then found himself discarded when the economy collapsed. More than 90 years later, it still hurts.

8. “Take This Job and Shove It” — Johnny Paycheck
After all that exploitation, somebody was eventually going to quit. There is nothing subtle about this one, which is precisely why it belongs here.

9. “Brotherhood of Man” — How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Now we get wicked. Frank Loesser’s great corporate satire turns the workplace hierarchy into musical comedy as everybody scrambles up the ladder while pretending they’re all one happy corporate family. Broadway knew about office politics long before anyone invented LinkedIn.

10. “Bang the Drum All Day” — Todd Rundgren
And after celebrating the American worker, documenting exploitation, surviving the factory, climbing the corporate ladder and contemplating resignation, there is really only one sensible way to spend Labor Day.

Don’t work.

Turn up the music.

You’ve earned the day off.