{"id":1249,"date":"2026-08-07T18:46:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:46:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:46:57","slug":"the-modern-r-b-of-olivia-dean-and-baby-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1249","title":{"rendered":"The Modern R. & B. of Olivia Dean and Baby Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You\u2019re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we\u2019re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your inbox.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Many people consider virality<\/strong> to be synonymous with a kind of overnight celebrity for artists, but these days it is usually a mere spike along a more drawn-out stretch of unnoticed labor. Case in point: the British singer Olivia Dean.<\/strong> Since 2021, Dean has enjoyed several viral breakthroughs\u2014a clip of a show, at London\u2019s Jazz Caf\u00e9, that exploded across socials that year; another of a casual performance of the song \u201cDive,\u201d which made the rounds on TikTok in 2023\u2014all while climbing the usual rungs of the industry ladder: signing with Virgin E.M.I. before moving to Capitol UK, doing late-night shows, releasing a graciously received d\u00e9but, playing Glastonbury, securing home-town acclaim. Virality finally tipped over into ubiquity this year, with the hit single \u201cMan I Need,\u201d from the record \u201cThe Art of Loving,\u201d making Dean a sensation and paving the way to a Grammy for Best New Artist and to three Brit Awards, for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Pop Act.<\/p>\n

Read more Are Psychedelics Right-Wing Now?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Art of Loving\u201d pulls all the work of her journey into focus, embodying the charms of a carefree style that eases through a sentimental wonderland. Her songs have long evoked weightlessness, but \u201cThe Art of Loving\u201d finds its star growing into a warm vintage pop-R. & B. sound, its audience embracing the more assured performer at its center. On tour, with a stop at Madison Square Garden (Aug. 14-15 and 17-18), Dean is joined in concert by Baby Rose,<\/strong> a singer with a similarly old soul and timeless voice, whose new album, \u201cYEARNALISM<\/em>,\u201d traces desire along a pilgrimage across the R. & B. canon.\u2014Sheldon Pearce<\/em><\/p>\n

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About Town<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Off Broadway<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI must admit, a stroke at thirty wasn\u2019t in my five-year plan\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. or my ten-year plan or fifty-year plan,\u201d the eponymous star of \u201cCat Cohen: Broad Strokes\u201d<\/strong> deadpans in her new one-woman musical comedy, directed by Alex Timbers. The stroke, caused by a hole in her heart, is just one entry in the sprawling hypochondriacal catalogue raisonn\u00e9 that powers the show. Dressed, like a Renaissance duchess, in a sparkly lavender corset with puffy taffeta sleeves, the \u201cyoung for my grade\u201d raconteuse pinballs from topic to topic: her first migraine with a visual aura at twelve, the \u201cstroke of unluck\u201d that upended a summer trip to Europe, a parade of clinicians. Cohen\u2019s songs, co-written by David Dabbon, often play like impressions of impressions, but her physical comedy shines.\u2014Rhoda Feng (Lucille Lortel; through Sept. 25.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Dance<\/div>\n

In its forty-fifth iteration, the Battery Dance Festival<\/strong> holds on to its signature virtues: location (outdoors, with a backdrop of New York Harbor at sunset) and variety (a grab bag of local and international companies). It\u2019s like a neighborhood recital, with guests from around the world and the Statue of Liberty presiding. The varied programs, all free, include U.S. premi\u00e8res of work from Brazil, Romania, Spain, and Taiwan, and, per tradition, one evening is devoted to Indian dance. The host company, Battery Dance, turning fifty this year, presents new pieces by Sidra Bell and the former New York City Ballet star Jock Soto.\u2014Brian Seibert (Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Park; Aug. 10-16.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Off Broadway<\/div>\n

Benedict Lombe\u2019s two-hander romantic drama \u201cShifters\u201d<\/strong> begins\u2014if a show this gleefully indifferent to chronology can be said to begin anywhere\u2014at the wake for the beloved grandmother of Dre (Daniel Ezra), where he is blindsided by the arrival of Des (Heather Agyepong), a close friend who vanished from his life years earlier. Lombe then shuffles the chronology like a deck of tarot cards: at sixteen, the pair clock each other as the only Black students in their philosophy class; some time later, Des frantically searches for a missing painting she\u2019d made; in their thirties, after the wake, they sift through Nana\u2019s belongings while circling the life they failed to build together. Not every philosophical detour lands, but Agyepong and Ezra negotiate the play\u2019s hairpin turns with the effortless accord of a pair of figure skaters.\u2014R.F. (Cherry Lane; through Sept. 13.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Can Extreme Morning Sickness Be Cured?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dance<\/div>\n

In recent years, a small loft above a beauty-supply store in East Williamsburg has emerged as a hotbed of dance experimentation. This incubator is called Pageant,<\/strong> a community space run by young choreographers and artists, who present scrappy and adventurous work. A contemporary equivalent of SoHo lofts or East Village theatres in the eighties, it has now attracted the imprimatur of the Museum of Modern Art, which is hosting a daylong marathon of short pieces by many Pageant artists. Here\u2019s a chance to catch up on the scene in concentrated form, and without a trek to East Williamsburg.\u2014B.S. (MOMA\u2019s Kravis Studio; Aug. 21 and 30.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Movies<\/div>\n

Matt Johnson\u2019s \u201cTony\u201d<\/strong> is a charmingly superficial bildungsroman about how, in the summer of 1975, the brash and callow college student Anthony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa), who went by the titular nickname, found his culinary calling. The dramatic recipe involves equal parts literary ambition, risk-taking, and chutzpah, with a dash of substance abuse, cooked on the high heat of adolescent lust that brings Tony to Provincetown in pursuit of a schoolmate named Nancy (Emilia Jones). Misadventure and misbehavior leave him stranded on the porch of a sympathetic chef and restaurateur (Antonio Banderas), whose kitchen offers a tumult of volatile personalities and whose soulful wisdom confers a sense of adult responsibilities. If the movie plays like a just-so story, it also movingly suggests the caprices of chance in every seeming destiny.\u2014Richard Brody (In limited release; in wide release Aug. 21.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Jazz<\/div>\n

The Jazz Generations Initiative is an organization set on bridging generational and disciplinary divides by emphasizing the ways in which jazz is informed by its in-person community. Its New York chapter \u201cputs jazz in motion\u201d around the city by arranging various events, and in conjunction with those efforts the drummer and composer Savannah Harris, as part of J.G.I.\u2019s Continuum Fellowship, curated a show featuring the experimental soul artist KeiyaA,<\/strong> the saxophonist and bandleader Immanuel Wilkins,<\/strong> and the bassist and d.j. O\u0323mo\u0323 Igi<\/strong>. These musicians have different creative sensibilities, but, as the J.G.I. banner clearly understands, they exist along a shared artistic spectrum and are united in purpose.\u2014Sheldon Pearce (Public Records; Aug. 12.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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A New Yorker<\/em> Quiz<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s August already! To mark the occasion, we\u2019ve asked our critics to choose some of their favorite songs, books, and TV shows of the year\u2014so far. See if you can guess what they picked.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more A Mostly True History of Marco Rubio<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n