Events this week — what's on, where, and how to get in.

& Juliet Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina St. Tuesday, April 21, 7:30 PM (opening night; runs through April 26) Tickets — pricing varies

Opening night is tonight. The touring production of & Juliet — the pop musical written by Schitt's Creek writer David West Read and built on the Max Martin catalog (Britney, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, Bon Jovi) — picks up at the end of Romeo and Juliet and asks what happens if Juliet skips the tomb and writes the rest of her life.

Six nights at the Landmark. We teased this one last week — now it's the week.

Syracuse Story Project — Pink Rock Culture Co-op, 201 E. Jefferson St., Tuesday 4/21, 6:30-8:30 PM. Live storytelling in the style of The Moth (the long-running radio show and podcast) — regular people, five minutes on a mic, true stories from their own lives. Tickets

CNY Artist Initiative: Gallery Talk with Ann Clarke — Everson Museum, 401 Harrison St., Wednesday 4/22, 12-1 PM in the Members' Council Gallery. Free with Pay-What-You-Wish admission; light refreshments follow. Clarke is the featured artist behind the Everson's Under the Canopy exhibition. A different kind of museum visit where you hear directly from the person who made the work. Details

Schiller Park Clean Up - Schiller Park (Enter at Rugby/Oak St., park by Schiller Pool), Saturday 4/25, 10 AM. Free (volunteer). Earth Day cleanup in one of the Northside's underused parks. Rain or shine, walk-in. Details

Clay & Café with Come Out Central New York — Everson Museum, Sunday 4/26. Two options: clay class 10:30 AM-12:30 PM (registration required) or café-only meetup 12:30-2:30 PM at the Louise Café. LGBTQ+ community gathering in partnership with Come Out Central New York and Syracuse Guerrilla Queer Events. Details

Mark Hummel & The Blues Survivors with Anson Funderburgh — The 443 Social Club, Tuesday 4/21, 7 PM. Sold out — waitlist still open. Grammy-nominated harmonica player with Funderburgh on guitar — a bill bigger than the 75-cap listening room. Waitlist

Night Zero feat. Rob Compa, Gubb, Adrian Tramontano, Leon Campos — Funk 'n Waffles, Thursday 4/23, 8 PM. Jam-scene side project: Rob Compa from Dopapod, Adrian Tramontano from Kung Fu, and Syracuse drummer Leon Campos. 200-cap room. Tickets

ESP feat. Kirsten Tegtmeyer - The Fitz (downstairs at Darling), Friday 4/24, 8:30-11:30 PM. Free, no cover. Free jazz in the speakeasy below Oh My Darling — every Friday and Saturday, walk in or book a table. Details

Root Shock — Funk 'n Waffles, Friday 4/24, 8 PM. Syracuse reggae-rock that's been working these rooms for years. Bring someone who says Syracuse doesn't have a scene. Tickets

Gary Girzadas - Beak & Skiff 1911 Tasting Room, Saturday 4/25, 2-4 PM. Free. Live acoustic at the orchard's tasting room. Short drive, long afternoon, always worth it. Details

Matthew & Gunnar Nelson — Sharkey's Bar & Grill (under the Burritt Motors Pavilion), Liverpool, Saturday 4/25, doors 6 PM, show runs to 10:30 PM. Tickets $40 standard / $125 high-top for two / $245 table of four with drinks. Gold Circle is sold out. The Nelson twins — sons of Ricky, grandsons of Ozzie and Harriet — with the 1990 No. 1 "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection." Tickets

Morris + The Hepcats - The Fitz, Saturday 4/25, 8:30-11:30 PM. Free, no cover. Saturday night free jazz. Pair it with a late dinner upstairs at Darling. RSVP

Coming Soon: Laura Jane Grace at Funk 'n Waffles (April 28) — Against Me!'s frontperson in a 200-cap room. John Legend at the Landmark (April 28) — same night, opposite end. Loren & LJ Barrigar at The 443 (April 30). Earth Crisis at Sharkey's (May 8) — foundational Syracuse hardcore, 30 years of Gomorrah's Season Ends.

One food or drink spot this week — what to order and where to find it.

A deeper look at one person, place, or project in Syracuse.

On Sunday at The Palace Theatre on James Street, 21 locally-made films rolled back-to-back from noon until around 9 PM — documentaries, music videos, shorts, and two films from director Joe Cunningham: Amariah, his Syracuse-shot short thriller, and American Claudius, his feature. Admission was free, donations encouraged. Between screenings, filmmakers came up for questions. It was called SASFest, and it was the first annual festival.

The organization behind it is Syracuse Actors Studio — Joe Cunningham and his wife, Laura Light Stisser, who co-founded SAS in 2024 to teach classes, run workshops, and produce work alongside local actors and filmmakers. "I wanted there to be no barrier of entry," Cunningham told Spectrum Local News. "Anybody can come to SAS as long as they have that dream." Stisser's frame was the people: "It's just showcasing the local people's work and accomplishments."

SAS is grassroots — a free monthly meet-up, open to actors at every experience level — and it's growing into something with more ambition. Cunningham said the goal is to make Syracuse "the new Sundance."

There is a real tailwind. Governor Hochul extended the New York State film tax credit through 2034 — up to 40% credits, $700 million a year. Spectrum's "Hollywood to home" piece ran the same weekend, mapping upstate New York's rise as a production hub. SAS is the local edge of that bigger shift.

Stisser called the festival "a baby" — the plan is for SASFest to grow into something bigger. Twenty-one films in year one is the start.

If you want to follow the next one: SAS is on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. To volunteer or get involved, email Laura at [email protected].

Coverage from Spectrum Local News and the Eventbrite list

Construction and development around the city, in plain English.

Last week, we covered the Detour Summer — 20 miles of city road work, plus I-81 Phase 2 arriving at street level. Here's the first piece visible on the ground.

NYSDOT closed a stretch of Van Buren Street this week to build a roundabout between Almond and Henry streets. The project runs six months, through November, per regional director Betsy Parmley. Two other closures come with it: Almond Street between Taylor and Van Buren, and Irving Avenue running one-way southbound from the Crouse Hospital parking garage down to Waverly Place.

Why Van Buren and why now: the roundabout was originally planned near Dr. King Elementary School. Community protests pushed NYSDOT to relocate it. Van Buren was the replacement — a point where the state can slow northbound traffic and tie downtown to University Hill. Parmley called it "a complex contract" whose purpose is "to increase safety for pedestrians and drivers."

If your daily drive cuts through this corridor, NYSDOT has published three detour routes using Adams, Irving, and Harrison. For real-time alerts on the broader $2.25B I-81 teardown, the state runs the I-81 Connect app.

For two years, this project lived inside renderings. Starting this week, it lives inside traffic cones.

Coverage from Central Current.

One neighborhood at a time — what's there, what's changing.

Last week, we started the downtown series on the 200 block of E. Water Street. Walk one block west and one block north from there, and you're in Clinton Square — 25 years this year as Syracuse's public gathering space.

The blocks surrounding Clinton Square are home to a few more of our downtown favorites – more on those below.

For most of its history, the square was an intersection. Erie Boulevard and Salina Street crossed right through it. Between 1997 and 1999, 122 motor-vehicle accidents happened here. The 2001 redesign closed the square to through traffic and dropped in the 4-to-6-inch reflecting pool that drains for summer events and freezes into an ice rink for winter. That's the Clinton Square most of us now know.

We've been walking it more this spring. We've been getting over to Orange Network CNY — a weekly business networking group that meets in the basement of the Atrium Building at 2 Clinton Square.

A few of our favorites right around Clinton Square:

Apizza Regionale for seasonal pizzas and cocktails. Glazed & Confused at 211 N. Clinton for artisan donuts and local drip coffee — two blocks north. And Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on W. Willow, which anchors the whole downtown food map a block off the square.

And a couple we’re looking forward to checking out soon:

Byblos for Lebanese kebabs, pitas, and pastries. The Cake Bar for Vietnamese-inspired coffee and desserts.

We're going to feature businesses in and around Clinton Square across the week on our Instagram. If there's a spot on the square you want us to hit, hit reply.

Local sports — what just happened and what's next.

Syracuse Crunch vs. Cleveland Monsters — AHL North Division Semifinals. The Crunch finished second in the North. Cleveland finished first. Best-of-five starts Friday.

Game 1: Friday, April 24, 7 PM at Cleveland. Game 2: Sunday, April 26, 4 PM at Cleveland. Game 3 (first home game): Friday, May 1, 7 PM at Upstate Medical University Arena. Games 4 and 5 at home May 3 and May 9, if necessary. Crunch playoff schedule

Jakob Pelletier took home the AHL Sollenberger Trophy as the regular-season points leader — the first Crunch player ever to win the award.

Joey Spallina passed Mikey Powell's all-time SU lacrosse points record on Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome. Point 309 was an assist to Michael Leo in the first quarter against Colgate. Powell's record has been sacred territory in SU lacrosse for two decades. Spallina finished with seven points; the Orange won 14-7. Daily Orange

A local pet looking for a home.

Your space — reply and join the conversation.

Last week we asked where you'd take an out-of-towner first. We got our first real recommendation back — and it's a good one.

Angela wrote in to recommend Brian's Landing in Jamesville — great food, cocktails, live bands on the weekend, and known for brunch. Small room, but that's the point. We haven't been yet; it's on the short list for a future Tab.

This week's question: what's another little-known live music venue we should know about — the kind of small, neighborly spot like Brian's Landing? Hit reply. Best answers run next week.

One photo from the week — from us, or from you.

Every Tuesday, in your inbox.

Join the club.

— Matt & Cary