MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN

Relaunching in new premises on the southwest corner of Central Park, MAD is now twice the size and has room to house its entire permanent collection.

Pick of the shows in its exhibition spaces on the fourth and fifth floors is Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, in which 51 artists “repurpose and transform mass-produced objects into extraordinary works of art”. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds - look out for Paul Villinski’s vinyl butterflies, fashioned from old records, and Susie MacMurray’s spectacularly ornate ball gown, made from washing-up gloves.

When the creativity overwhelms you, nip to the ninth-floor restaurant for a drink and fine views over the park. 2 Columbus Circle; 00 1-212 299 7777, madmuseum.org ; open Wed-Sun, 11am to 6pm (to 9pm on Thu); £8

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ALL MY SONS

The cast for Arthur Miller’s All My Sons contains award-winning household names - John Lithgow , Dianne Wiest - but we’ll put good money on most of the early crowds being there to critique the haircut of Mrs Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes. Her Broadway debut has gone down well, and the show was the highest earner on Broadway in its opening week - while still in preview.

If the guy next to you is jumping up and down in his seat with excitement, it’s probably her husband. All My Sons runs until Jan 11 at the Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street; www.allmysonsonbroadway.com . Tickets cost £38 (standing from £15), through Telecharge; 212 239 6200, www.telecharge.com

THE HIGHLINE

New York’s newest and coolest green space - sorry, Central Park - is being built on a disused subway line that travels for 1½ miles, or 22 blocks, above Manhattan’s Lower West Side. Dating from the 1930s, the site has not been used as a rail route for nearly 30 years. Construction began in 2006 to turn it into a rare sliver of tranquillity just a few feet from the shouty, sweary, honking masses below. The first section is expected to open in December. www.thehighline.org

SANTOS PARTY HOUSE

As its name proclaims, this is a place where fun happens. The club/live venue/lounge, part-owned by the avant-garde rock star Andrew WK, opened recently with a particularly prodigious sound system and — for the first month or so at least — a regular line-up that included a Friday hip-hop night curated by the Tribe Called Quest rapper turned Hollywood actor Q-Tip. Annoyingly, he’s just called time on that little knees-up, but it serves as a good indication of the calibre of people Santos is attracting.

Worth checking out is Happy Feet, an everything-goes throwdown with the author, trainer freak and DJ Bobbito Garcia. Also in October is a Modular Records night that features the current flavour of London, Ladyhawke, singing live, and what’s termed a night of DJ activism with Arthur Baker, who has worked with New Order and Bob Dylan. 100 Lafayette Street; 00 1-212 714 4646, www.santospartyhouse.com

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