In The Neigh-borhood
Many of us popped our Champagne bottles and toasted to 2014 weeks ago, but members of New York’s Asian community are just getting the party started. The Chinese Lunar New Year arrives today, and the celebration lasts for 15 days — ending Valentine’s Day. As in years past, the Better Chinatown Society has organized a couple of New Year’s fetes, this time for the Year of the Horse. “People born in the Year of the Horse have high energy,” says the group’s Steven Tin. So prepare to party, today at Grand Street’s Sara Roosevelt Park for the Firecracker Festival (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and Sunday for the Chinese New Year Parade. There will be cultural performances, plus 18 floats and 15 antique cars in the parade, which begins at Mott and Hester streets at 1 p.m. Info: betterchinatown.com.
— Candace Amos
Brothers, Keepers
You know what they say: Two Wayans brothers are better than one.
Shawn and Marlon Wayans take to Carolines on Broadway Friday and Saturday nights. But don’t come expecting the humor of their ’90s sitcom — times have changed.
“It’s like a rock show. It’s high energy and big explosive laughs,” says Marlon. “Sometimes I just want to jump into the crowd and crowd surf and get passed around like a joint.”
Given that it’s Super Bowl weekend, there may even be some football humor — Marlon is a sports guy, and he’ll be cheering on the Broncos come Sunday.
“I got to root for Peyton Manning,” he says. “It’s hard to root against a guy with a head that big. He’s got to be smart.”
8:30 and 10 p.m., both nights. Tickets start at $60. 1626 Broadway; 212-757-4100, carolines.com.
— Gregory E. Miller
Super Soul
Football and gospel music aren’t the most obvious of bedfellows, but in this Super Bowl week, anything is possible. Friday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, these two disparate worlds will be united by Patti LaBelle when she headlines the Annual Super Bowl Gospel Celebration. “I don’t see it as bringing different worlds together, I see it as connecting people with people,” LaBelle says. “Music is the thing that everybody can benefit from no matter what sport you like.” The soul diva will be joined by other performers, including Natalie Grant and Mary Mary. Also on the bill is the NFL Players Choir, composed of players past and present — Ulish Booker is one who knows something about Super Bowls; he was on the Pittsburgh Steelers squad that won Super Bowl XL. Expect them to be calling out a different kind of Hail Mary for a change. 7:30 p.m. at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street; 212-465-6741, theateratmsg.com. Tickets start at $45.
— Hardeep Phull
All’s Welles That Ends Well
Orson Welles leveraged his faltering marriage to screen goddess Rita Hayworth into his penultimate directing gig for a major Hollywood studio, “The Lady From Shanghai’’ (1947). Columbia Pictures czar Harry Cohn was furious when he discovered that Welles had his top star dye her trademark red tresses blond for the part, and even angrier when this became her first flop as a star. Still, this byzantine tale of an Irish sailor (Welles) who gets mixed up with a femme fatale, her duplicitous husband (Everett Sloane) and his even sneakier legal partner (Glenn Anders) is one of the era’s great triumphs of style over coherence — and the much-imitated funhouse climax is not to be missed. Film Forum is showing a new digital restoration beginning Friday. Houston and Varick streets. Info: filmforum.org.
— Lou Lumenick
Greek To Him
The “New Combinations” evening at New York City Ballet not only showcases new ballets, but a new choreographer. Twenty-seven-year-old Englishman Liam Scarlett has been making a splash at London’s Royal Ballet since 2010’s “Asphodel Meadows.” Friday (at 8 p.m.) marks his New York debut with “Acheron.”
Both titles refer to the underworld. “People can just buy a Greek dictionary and they’re set for my titles,” Scarlett quips. There’s another connection: both are set to the music of French composer Francis Poulenc.
Scarlett’s works are evocative and dramatic, but despite the music and heavy title, the large-scale ballet to thundering organ music is abstract. “Hopefully everyone will find something in it, but I’m not too specific as to what,” he says.
At the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, through Feb. 11 Tickets start at $29. Info: nycballet.com.
— Leigh Witchel