Slick Rick, Barbieland and Disney on Ice: 17 things to do this weekend

By Joshua Encinias

There’s something for the kids and the kid in everyone this weekend across the borough.

On Friday, Disney on Ice returns to Barclays Center for a weekend of performances. If that’s too cute, on Saturday night, there’s a Studio Ghibli drag show at C’mon Everybody, and the House of Yes transforms into Barbieland.

If anime and plastics aren’t your thing, you could try one of the 62 Brooklyn restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, which is officially underway. Also, the Winter Artisans Market kicks off at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, or you can spend your Sunday morning bird watching at Green-Wood Cemetery.

If you’re looking for a live show, Slick Rick celebrates his 59th trip around the sun with his annual birthday bash at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday night. In terms of theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents “Our Class” and ‘The Voices in Your Head’ continues its successful run at St. Lydia’s.

Read more about these and a lot more in our weekend round up.

Friday, January 19

Disney on Ice Presents “Find Your Hero”
Various showtimes Friday through Sunday
It’s the dead of winter and your kids’ Christmas presents are long forgotten, so how are you keeping them entertained this weekend? Disney’s coming in clutch with Disney on Ice Presents “Find Your Hero” at Barclays Center. Wow your kids with characters from “Moana,” “Frozen,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Encanto.” 620 Atlantic Avenue. Tickets are $34 and up.

Restaurant Week hits Brooklyn
Various times and locations
Restaurant week is here and you can find deals on the best Brooklyn restaurants from Bay Ridge to Bushwick. Among the 62 restaurants participating this winter are Buttermilk Channel in Carrol Gardens, Esme in Greenpoint, and Bleu Fin Bar & Grill in Crown Heights. Check out the full list of restaurants and save the Top Ramen for next weekend.

The Exponential Festival
Times and venues vary
Exponential is a month-long Brooklyn-based theater festival dedicated to New York City-based emerging artists working in experimental performance. With an emphasis on inclusiveness and a diversity of artists, forms, and ideas, the festival is being held at locations throughout the borough, including the Brick, the Brick Aux, Jack, Target Margin Theater, Loading Dock Theatre, Cloud City and We Are Here. Highlights include Cristina Pitter’s “ixchel (we are still here, remember this medicine),” Emma Horwitz and Bailey Williams’s “Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods,” Banana Bag & Bodice’s “Hubris Always Gets You in the End,” Yuki Kawahisa’s “ten dreams of metamorphoses or me talk dirty someday” and Marissa Joyce Stamps’s “Being Up in Here and All the Other Businesses that Don’t Concern You OR When You See a Buncha Black People Running, What Do You Do?” Full lineup here.

‘Our Class’ at BAM
Performances now through February 4
“Our Class,” the award-winning play by Tadeusz Słobodzianek, will be performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music now through February 4. Featuring an ensemble of artists from around the world, “Our Class” is based on 10 classmates — five Jewish and five Catholic — as they grow up as playmates, friends and neighbors, then turn on one another with life and death consequences. Inspired by real-life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in the small village of Jedwabne, Poland, the play follows their lives from childhood through eight decades in a contemporary new production, directed by Jewish, Ukrainian-born director Igor Golyak. 321 Ashland Place. Tickets start at $59.

Gay Shame
7:30 p.m.
Gay Pride is but one month a year, but Gay Shame is all year round! Join Union Hall for this monthly queer standup comedy show, hosted by Sheria Mattis (Netflix Is A Joke, Semi-Woke Podcast) and Ely Kreimendahl (Funny Or Die, Shame Spiral Podcast), who kick off every show with a shameful queering of an iconic and canonical song or dance. This month’s it’s a number from “High School Musical.” Union Hall, 702 Union Street. $11.55

Slick Rick The Ruler w/ DJ Kaos and The Slickettes
8:30 p.m.
Celebrate Slick Rick’s birthday at his 13th annual birthday bash at Brooklyn Bowl this weekend. Originally from South Wimbledon, London, he moved with his family to The Bronx in 1975 where he met B-Weezy who taught him how to rap. Come out and party with The Ruler as he performs hits like “Children’s Story” and “La Di Da Di”. 61 Wythe Avenue. Tickets are $30.

Caleb Hearon and Friends
10 p.m.
Caleb Hearon — in his words, “one of the youngest and most gorgeous comedians currently living/working” — invites his favorite comedians and musicians to put on a show at The Bell House. 149 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue).

Saturday, January 20

Brooklyn Pop-Up Winter Artisans Market
11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Stop by the Brooklyn Museum’s winter artisans market on Saturday morning. Presented in partnership with Brooklyn Pop-Up, this monthly weekend market features local vendors offering one-of-a-kind, handmade artwork, jewelry, fashion, and home goods. This event is free and open to the public.

Industry City Ice Rink
12 to 8 p.m., weekends through March 3
The IC Ice Rink in Industry City is open for the season and they’re fully equipped with a heating system to keep you toasty. Complete with an outdoor bar serving hot drinks and snacks, the rink is open from now until March 3. All tickets are available for a single entry at any time, on the day of your choice, and will grant you access to the rink for one session between 1.5 hours to 2 hours. Industry City Courtyard 5/6 at 51 35th Street. Tickets are $15 to $25.

Studi-Ho Ghibli
7:30 p.m.
Grab your neighbor Totoro for drag tribute show featuring your favorite Studio Ghibli characters at C’mon Everybody on Saturday night. You can kiki with Kiki, and if you really want to be trade of the season, do some Hayao Miyazaki drag on the dancefloor. 325 Franklin Avenue. Tickets are $25.

We’re All Going to Die (at Brooklyn Art Haus)
9:30 pm
After selling out their debut show, Jameer Pond and Ian Scott Goldstein are teaming up for even more death and comedy for their second installment of We’re All Gonna Die. Death is coming for us all. But you know what? Hosts Jameer and Ian are here to explore the concept of aging and dying in a funny and charming performance at Brooklyn Art Haus on Saturday night. 20-26 Marcy Avenue. Tickets are $20.

Barbieland at House of Yes
10 p.m.
House of Yes becomes Barbieland on Saturday night. Make your own make-believe and live your plastic fantasies on the dollhouse dance floor. Feel the pleasure of 100 percent pure plastic pink-on-pink perfection and be the doll you were born to be. It’s playtime! 2 Wyckoff Avenue. Tickets are $46.

Shitty Mozart
10 p.m.
Comedian Aaron Nemo’s answers the question none of us were asking: What would happen if someone made a botched clone of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Find out at Freddy’s in Park Slope. 627 Fifth Avenue. Free.

Sunday, January 21

Birding at Green-Wood Cemetery
7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Before Green-Wood Cemetery’s gates open to the general public, birding expert Rob Jett leads a peaceful early morning walking tour on Sunday to discover the many birds that call Green-Wood home. For some bird species that migrate south after the breeding season, Brooklyn is their Miami during the cold months. 500 25th Street. Tickets are $20 and $15 for members.

Celebrate Tu BiShvat at Brooklyn Children’s Museum
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Brooklyn Children’s Museum will host a day-long celebration of Tu BiShvat this Sunday in partnership with The Neighborhood. Tu BiShvat is the Jewish holiday commemorating “the new year of the trees.” Festivities will include an immersive theatre performance, a dance workshop, fruit tasting, seed planting, and storytime. Children and families of all backgrounds are invited to learn about the holiday and celebrate Brooklyn’s wondrous trees. 145 Brooklyn Avenue. Tickets are $15.

Mozart for Munchkins at The Old Stone House
11 a.m.
Immerse yourself in the rich tones of strings. Interactive and fun, this concert is perfect for all ages and is designed for families to engage and participate. The concert will feature strings and horns and will end with an “instrument petting zoo.” 336 3rd Street. $37 for 1 kid+adult.

‘The Voices in Your Head’ at St. Lydia’s
7:30 p.m
St. Lydia’s presents a new hourlong play, “The Voices in Your Head.” With performances through January 29, the dark comedy is about an idiosyncratic support group who gather to share a bizarre bond. Over a 60-minute meeting, eight New Yorkers of varying backgrounds exchange stories, escape the ridicule of the outside world and build an oasis, even as individual needs test the group’s stability. The play is presented by St. Lydia’s, Billy McEntee, and the independent theater collective Those Guilty Creatures. 304 Bond Street. Tickets are $31.