Fall Preview

“There are about four perfect days in New York every year,” Garrison Keillor once said, “and all of them are in October.” Mr. Lake Wobegon was, of course, exaggerating, but point taken: The city does put its best foot forward in the fall. And with those best days come the very best of just about everything else. Theater stages fill up with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Al Pacino, and Patti LuPone, not to mention Pee-wee Herman. Josh Brolin shows up in two of the New Yorkiest movies imaginable—the sequel to Wall Street and the 41st(!) film directed by Woody Allen. The Whitney Museum lays out a smorgasbord of Edward Hopper. Martin Scorsese transports us all to a meticulous reproduction of Prohibition-era Atlantic City in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Mario Batali piles up the prosciutto three stories high at his massive new alimentari. If there’s any problem with such a cultural supermarket, it’s that one often doesn’t know what to take down the checkout aisle. To simplify matters this year, we’ve zeroed in on what we’re calling “The Twenty,” the books and recordings and concerts and exhibits we’re most eagerly anticipating. That said, we’ve surely left something good out, and if any late-breaking cultural news comes along after we go to press, you can count on Kanye West to tweet about it.

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