The Broadway season is over, but there is plenty of theater opening in May in New York, the city that never lets you sleep.
Below is a list of theater opening in May, 2014, organized chronologically by opening date.
Color key: Broadway: Red. (None this month) Off Broadway: Black or Blue or Purple. Off Off Broadway: Green.
Dutchman (National Black Theatre and The Classical Theatre of Harlem), Opening May 3
Amira Baraka’s last play written as LeRoi Jones.
The Rivals (Pearl Theatre Company), Opening May 4
“Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s classic romantic romp returns to The Pearl for the hilarious story of Lydia Languish who is… languishing.”
17 Orchard Point (The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row), Opening May 4
Lydia (Tony winner Michele Pawk) lives by her motto, “leave your baggage at the door, or it will end up on your face.” A decade after fleeing Cleveland, she returns.
An Octoroon (Soho Rep.), Opening May 4
“1859: A famous Irishman writes a play about America. It’s a huge hit!
2014: An American tries to write his own version. Does anyone still care?”
The City of Conversation (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater), Opening May 5
“In this play spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, five-time Tony® nominee Jan Maxwell plays savvy and elegant Hester Ferris, the doyenne of Georgetown dinner parties whose influence in liberal politics is legendary.”
Sea Marks (Irish Repertory Theatre), Opening May 5
“Sea Marks is the story of two people falling in love. He is a rough-hewn fisherman, living by the sea, on a remote island off the West of Ireland. She lives in Liverpool where she works in a book publishing house ”
Playing with Grown Ups (KPS Productions in association with the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh at 59E59 Theaters), Opening May 6
“Late thirties, careers under their belts and a new baby just arrived. Isn’t that what everybody wants? A wry, provocative look at what it is to be a woman today.”
*The Few (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Opening May 8
Four years ago Bryan abandoned his labor of love, a newspaper for truckers. Now he’s returned–with no word of where he’s been–and things have changed. His former lover is filled with rage, his new coworker is filled with incessant adoration, and his paper is filled with personal ads.
A Loss of Roses (Peccadillo Theater Company at Theatre at St. Clements), Opening May 12
Dolores (The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre), Opening May 14
Honor Bound (St. Luke’s Theatre), Opening May 14
“The play is set in a Connecticut suburb of New York in 1992 where an arrogant and ambitious young female reporter, Lisa Miller, interning at the local newspaper, attempts to publicly discredit an antagonist, the physician, Jack Conti, finding evidence that he had deserted to Canada twenty years earlier during the Vietnam War. ”
Boogie Stomp! (The Chain Theatre), Opening May 15
Under My Skin (Little Shubert), Opening May 15
No-No Boy (Pan Asian Rep at the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row), Opening May 15
Shortly after World War II, “draft resister Ichiro Yamada as he returns to Seattle following his release from prison.”
Los Monólogos de la Vagina (Westside Theatre), Opening May 18
Too Much Sun (Vineyard Theatre), Opening May 18
Linda Lavin in new Nicky Silver play
“Audrey Langham – a celebrated actress – unravels completely while preparing for a new production of MEDEA. With nowhere else to go, she descends upon her married daughter for a summer by the sea. She is not, however, greeted with confetti and champagne. Her arrival sets off a chain of events alternately hilarious and harrowing.”
Halfway Through the Story of Our Life (Throes Theater at Access Theater), Opening May 22
“A dark comedy inspired by Spalding Grey”
American Hero (Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series), Opening May 22
“At a toasted subs franchise in the local mall, three up and coming “sandwich artists” — a teenager, a single mom, and a downsized refugee from corporate banking — are perfecting the mustard to cheese ratio according to the company manual. But when their shot at the American dream is interrupted by a series of strange events, they become unlikely allies in a post-recession world .”
A Fable (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater at Cherry Lane Theatre), Opening May 22
“the epic adventure of Jonny, an idealist spurred on by love to right a long-forgotten wrong. Follow his encounters with a whole cast of characters – colorful and corrupt, lucky and ill-fated – as they each grope their way through a landscape of nationwide strife and corporate greed. ”
The Essential Straight & Narrow (The New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater), Opening May 24
“The latest from the Drama Desk-nominated The Mad Ones: a lo-fi ode to the Kodachrome 1970s, rock and roll antics, and the mystical American Southwest. “
Mein Uncle (3 Voices Theatre at The Robert Moss Theater), Opening May 29
The Merchant of Venice (The Shakespeare Forum at The Gym at Judson), Opening May 29