This Week’s Picks: Surrender to The Wiz Live!, Enroll in School of Rock and See Queen Lesli Go Broad!

Hey, you, trying to squeeze back into your work pants. Forget about it! You’re wearing those off-brand sweats to work until New Year’s. Fancy up your wardrobe when you hit the town, especially this week, which features two Broadway debuts, Lesli Margherita’s new solo concert and winter fun in Lincoln Square. Breathe in for this week’s picks!


Visit Broad City
November 30 at Birdland
Lesli Margherita takes a break from her day job at Dames at Sea to tackle her latest solo project, which is so on-the-nose she can probably breathe through it. Our favorite queen takes to the cabaret stage in Broad, an evening that salutes the “controversial women of yesteryear.” Think Mae West, Sophie Tucker, and lots of hot-under-the-collar gems spanning from the 1920s to the 1940s. Click for tickets!


Celebrate Winter’s Eve with Laura Benanti
November 30 at Lincoln Square
We could be a stickler and remind you that winter doesn’t begin until December 21, but that means Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square, emceed by the kick-ass Laura Benanti, would be delayed. And we can’t squeeze all that free fun into Christmas week; that would ruin our travel plans, which would upset mom, who rescheduled her tango lesson to pick us up at the airport. And she hates driving at night. So, yeah, that works.


See The Wiz Live! on Your TV
December 3 on NBC
Take your Tweeting thumbs out of their holsters, kids! Once again, NBC dives into their version of live theater, as it mounts an honest-to-goodness live production of The Wiz. The star-studded cast, which doesn’t have a whiff of nepotism this year, boasts Queen Latifah, David Alan Grier, Amber Riley and Mary J. Blige. Eighteen-year-old Shanice Williams, who emerged from hundreds of applicants, stars as Dorothy.


Clear the Runway for China Doll
Opens December 4 on at the Schoenfeld Theatre
David Mamet’s latest effort, China Doll, features a billionaire, his young assistant and a phone. Al Pacino, in a daring performance, plays the phone, Bellsy. Wait, sorry, he plays Mickey Ross, a tycoon about to jet off to semiretirement and marriage—until he gets one last phone call. Pacino and Mamet made wonderful, profane music together in the movie adaption of Glengarry Glen Ross, so we’re excited to see what happens here. Click for tickets!


Enroll in School of Rock
Opens December 6 at Winter Garden Theatre
When you see Andrew Lloyd Webber associated with a project you have a certain idea of what you’re getting, and it isn’t about the grim lives of dour, musically inept Welsh coal miners. You will get School of Rock, his big and bouncy interpretation of the 2003 movie about guitar zero Dewey (Alex Brightman) who becomes a guitar hero to a class of fifth graders when he impersonates their substitute teacher. Click for tickets!