The New York Story

Colin Quinn is not mourning New York City so much as he is calling it soft. On a stage styled like a nostalgic Greenwich Village alleyway, he traces how centuries of miserable immigrants combined to form the aggressive New York attitude—and how modern gentrification and forced positivity are threatening to dilute it. Filmed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan and directed by Jerry Seinfeld, the special adapted material from Quinn’s book The Coloring Book. Coming on the heels of his turn in the movie Trainwreck and his previous historical solo shows, this performance focuses his skeptical lens entirely on his hometown. He riffs on the British taking over from the Dutch, explains how Jewish real estate choices revived abandoned buildings, and laments that the site of Nathan Hale’s hanging now houses a Starbucks. There is also an enduring bit about the mutual disrespect between New York pedestrians and drivers, with people on foot treating the streets like their personal living rooms while cars halt in submissive panic.