Hello, Darlings! 🌞Summer is in full gay bloom, and New York is delivering exactly what it should: beach days, sweaty dance floors, rooftop sunsets, and just enough weekend chaos to make Monday feel impossible. We’ve rounded up the city’s best LGBTQ+ beach escapes, this weekend’s can’t-miss events, the latest Broadway and neighborhood news, plus a few giveaways to keep the good times rolling.

First up, The Setup is bringing its intimate underground-style stand-up show to Revision Lounge on Saturday, 8/15, with comedians whose credits include Netflix, HBO, and Comedy Central performing in a low-lit East Village room filled with brick walls, salvaged art, and bathtub couches. Enter to win a pair of tickets.

JUST ANNOUNCED

• The Fantasticks begins previews at the Hayes Theater on Thursday, 10/22, but this time the classic romance has been newly reimagined around a gay couple and their feuding mothers.

• Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s Songs From Bark of Millions takes over the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater in Central Park from Friday, 9/18, through Sunday, 9/20, in a free outdoor adaptation. The production features an electrifying selection of tracks from their 55 song rock opera meditation on queerness, honoring queer figures throughout history.

• The original Broadway revival cast of Falsettos is reuniting for one night only at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, 10/18. Andrew Rannells, Christian Borle, Stephanie J. Block, Betsy Wolfe, Brandon Uranowitz, Tracie Thoms, and more will return to celebrate the musical’s 10th anniversary in a benefit concert that’s likely to sell quickly.

🏖️ BEACH PLEASE! A GAY SUMMER GUIDE

Whether you’re looking for a legendary stretch of sand, a clothing-optional adventure, or the perfect place to end the day with a frozen drink and new friends, we’ve got you covered. Here’s where LGBTQ+ New Yorkers head when the city gets too hot to handle.

• JACOB RIIS PARK (BAY 1) @ QUEENS

• CHERRY GROVE @ SUFFOLK COUNTY

• FIRE ISLAND PINES @ SUFFOLK COUNTY

• GUNNISON BEACH @ SANDY HOOK, NJ

• CONEY ISLAND @ BROOKLYN

THIS WEEKEND

LOCALS ONLY

• Chelsea is getting a little of its old gay swagger back with Club Rawhide, a new dance-and-cruise spot at 250 West 26th Street. Inspired by the neighborhood’s ’90s nightlife heyday, the club mixes harness-heavy energy with a mini history lesson, including blown-up Michael Musto articles on its walls, chronicling Chelsea before Hell’s Kitchen became the default gayborhood.

• Broadway’s Rocky Horror Show is getting a major cast shake-up this fall. Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears will take over as Frank-N-Furter beginning in September, joined by Kevin McHale and Lorna Courtney, giving anyone who’s already seen the revival an excellent excuse to do the Time Warp again.

• Hell’s Kitchen quietly got a new neighborhood piano bar. Tucked behind a blue door inside the Romer Hotel, So & So’s Neighborhood Piano Bar is all singalongs, cocktails, and old-school New York charm.

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