Seven November nights worth leaving the house for after the sun disappears
November has one particularly rude habit.
The clocks change, the sun starts disappearing before dinner and suddenly 6:15 p.m. feels like an entirely reasonable bedtime. We cannot live like this.
There are still outfits to wear. Tickets to buy. Shows to see. People to meet somewhere that is not the kitchen. So consider this your anti-hibernation plan: one November night out in every town, from a Jane Austen sequel involving Napoleon to a Thanksgiving Eve spent watching people make percussion out of garbage cans.
Put on actual pants. We are leaving the house.
GO CLASSICAL | GREENWICH
Greenwich Symphony has a very solid argument against spending the entire first weekend of November on the couch.
Pianist Albert Cano-Smit joins the orchestra November 7 and 8 for a program featuring Grieg’s Piano Concerto alongside Strauss’s Don Juan and Borodin’s Symphony No. 2.
You do not need to know your Borodin from your Brahms before walking in.You simply need to appreciate the fact that an orchestra of professional musicians has done considerably more preparation for this evening than you have.
Dress up a little. Have dinner before or after. Remember that darkness at 4:30 does not mean the day is over.
FIND OUT WHY NAPOLEON IS AT PEMBERLEY | WESTPORT
Jane Austen famously did not write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice involving Napoleon Bonaparte moving into Mr. Darcy’s house. Ken Ludwig has corrected that oversight.
Westport Country Playhouse is hosting the world premiere of Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley through November 7.
The premise is wonderfully strange: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are married and settled at Pemberley when Napoleon himself arrives as an unexpected houseguest while awaiting exile.
Intrigue, romance and chaos follow. There are worse ways to spend a dark November night than finding out how Elizabeth Bennet handles Napoleon.
ROMANCE, BUT WITH AN OBOE | NEW CANAAN
New Canaan Chamber Music is leaning into the month with Romance in the Air on November 5 and 6. The program brings together flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, organ and piano, which is a considerably more sophisticated group text than most of us are managing this time of year.
The whole idea of chamber music works particularly well once November arrives. It is intimate. It is indoors. Nobody is asking you to stand outside holding a cider.
Just sit down and let people who know what they are doing handle the evening.
MAKE SOME NOISE ON THANKSGIVING EVE | STAMFORD
Thanksgiving Eve does not have to mean squeezing into the same bar you went to after high school. STOMP comes to The Palace on November 25 at 7 p.m., bringing eight performers and approximately every object in a utility closet onto the stage.
The international percussion show famously creates rhythm with brooms, garbage cans, matchboxes, wooden poles, hubcaps and other decidedly nontraditional instruments.
It is loud. It is weirdly mesmerizing. And it gives you something to do the night before Thanksgiving that does not involve asking your mother where she keeps the serving platters.
PREVIEW THE NUTCRACKER | DARIEN
Darien gets a little December in November.
Connecticut Ballet comes to Darien Library on November 20 for Nutcracker at Night, a live preview of its full holiday production ahead of December performances.
This is a particularly good compromise for anyone who likes the idea of The Nutcracker but is not necessarily prepared to commit an entire December afternoon to it just yet.
You get dancers. You get holiday atmosphere. You get to be home at a reasonable hour. November culture with excellent boundaries.
LET PIPPIN HAVE THE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS | WILTON
Feeling unsure about your purpose in life? Let somebody onstage handle that for the evening.
Wilton Playshop is staging Pippin from November 6 through 21, following the young prince on his search for an extraordinary life while a mysterious troupe of performers guides the story.
Stephen Schwartz’s musical has spectacle, comedy, big musical numbers and enough questions about ambition, fulfillment and what makes a life meaningful to make whatever happened in your inbox that day feel slightly less important.
Fair warning: it contains mature themes. This is not the children’s-prince version of the story.
WATCH PEOPLE DEFY GRAVITY | FAIRFIELD
For the night when dinner and a movie feels a little too predictable, head to the Quick Center.
French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi’s company brings Sol Invictus to Fairfield on November 18, a highly physical contemporary dance work built around movement, connection and the sheer athleticism of what the human body can do onstage.
This is the kind of performance where you leave thinking two things at once: That was incredible. I need to stretch more.
The sun is going to keep setting early. We cannot control that. We can, however, refuse to interpret darkness as a personal invitation to put pajamas on before dinner.