Two shows are opening on Broadway in July — Young Jean Lee’s “Straight White Men,” which marks the Broadway debuts of Armie Hammer and Josh Charles, among others; and “Head Over Heels,” a new musical using the music of the Go-Gos with a plot from the 16th century.
Some dozen Off-Broadway offerings this month include a new play by Tracy Letts, a new musical by Stephen Trask, the composer of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and two intriguingly edgy adaptations of difficult films — Nazi-besotted “The Damned,” adapted by Ivo van Hove, and heroin besotted “Trainspotting,” adapted by a Scottish immersive theater company aptly named In Your Face.
Since it’s summer, there are also the summer theater festivals such as the New York Musical Festival, and such FREE theatrical concerts as the weekly Broadway in Bryant Park
The shows described below are organized chronologically by opening night, except the festivals, which are presented by their first day (most of them on July 9th.) Each title is linked to a relevant website for more information
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Color key: Broadway: Red. Off Broadway: Purple, blue or black. Off Off Broadway: Green. Theater festival: Orange
July 2
Hot Festival (Dixon Place)
Billed as the longest-running LGBTQ festival in the world, it is now in its 27th year celebrating queer culture
July 5
Borders (Next Door at NYTW)
This play by Henry Naylor, inspired by encounters with refugees,focuses on a British press photographer and a Syrian graffiti artist, whose paths cross in tragic circumstances.
She NYC
In its third year, the festival presents eight shows, all written by women, i
July 9
Planet Connections
New York’s eco-friendly/socially conscious not-for-profit arts festival, for its tenth anniversary, offers some 50 plays, musicals and staged readings.
New York Musical Festival
Some 300 new musicals have premiered at this festival (originally named the New York Musical Theater Festival) since 2004, including “Next to Normal,” “Altar Boyz” and “title of show”
Corkscrew Festival
In its second year, the festival will present five productions and four readings by “early-career artists”
Fresh Fruit Festival
The 16thseason of New York’s celebration of LGBTQ Arts and Culture
July 11
Gone Missing (City Center)
For ‘Gone Missing,” in 2003, The Civilians theater troupe interviewed people about the physical objects they’d lost—keys, a sapphire ring, a Gucci pump. They then set the responses to music.
This brief engagement at Off-Center Encores honors the work of its composer Michael Friedman, the Off-Center artistic director who died last summer at age 41.
For context, my piece in HowlRound from 2016 In Praise of The Civilians at Fifteen
July 12
Mary Page Marlowe (Second Stage )
Written by Tracy Letts (August: Osage County). Directed by Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves, Signature Plays). A seemingly ordinary accountant from Ohio has experienced pain and joy, success and failure — forgotten moments adding up to a memorable life. Six actresses, including Tatiana Maslany and Blair Brown, portray the title character at different stages of her life.
The Saintliness of Margery Kempe (Duke on 42nd )
A revival of the comedy by John Wulp based on the first English-language autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe, written in the 15th century by a woman who recounts her buying a brewery, but then deciding she wants to become a saint. Directed by Austin Pendleton
July 15
Fiddler on the Roof (Folksbiene at Museum of Jewish Heritage)
The musical translated (back) into Yiddish, with English and Russian supertitles. Joel Grey directs. The cast includes Jackie Hoffman.
Trainspotting Live (Roy Arias Stages)
Based on the novel and the 1996 film, ‘Trainspotting Live’ offers an immersive theatrical take on the story of Mark Renton and his friends, living through the Edinburgh heroin scene of the 80s. “The audience are literally part of the show, including the notorious “Worst Toilet in Scotland” scene.” A production of the Scottish company In Your Face Theatre
July 16
Fire in Dreamland (Public Theater)
Written by Rinne Groff. In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, a disillusioned do-gooder named Kate, meets Jaap, a charismatic European making a film about the 1911 fire that burned Coney Island’s Dreamland amusement park to ashes. Featuring Kyle Beltran, Enver Gjokaj, and Rebecca Naomi Jones
July 17
The Damned (Park Avenue Armory)
Ivo van Hove in collaboration with Comédie-Française adapts Luchino Visconti’s film about the disintegration of the wealthy Essenbeck family and their steel dynasty during the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933 in Germany. In French with English supertitles.
July 20
The Pattern at Pendarvis (HERE)
A fictionalized look at a life in the closet: Edgar Hellum, a closeted man in his nineties, did pioneering work in historic preservation in a small, mid-western town.
July 22
Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Stage 42)
A revival of the 1995 musical revue featuring the songs of Leiber and Stoller — “Stand by Me,” “I’m a Woman,” “Hound Dog,” “Fools Fall In Love,” “On Broadway,” “Yakety Yak,” etc. Directed and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse.
July 23
Straight White Men (Helen Hayes Theatre)
In this play by Young Jean Lee, the first play on Broadway by an Asian American woman, Ed and his three adult sons are forced on Christmas Eve to confront their own identities. The cast features Denis Arndt, Kate Bornstein, Josh Charles, Ty Defoe, Armie Hammer, Paul Schneider
July 24
This Ain’t No Disco (Atlantic)
Music and lyrics by Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Peter Yanowitz. Directed by Trip Cullman. The story of drifters and dreamers in the night world in 1979 New York of Studio 54 and Mudd Club
July 25
My Life On A Diet (Theatre at St. Clement’s)
Actress and writer Renee Taylor (Sylvia Fine in The Nanny) stars in a one-woman show based on her 1986 autobiography, including anecdotes about – and dieting advice from — such Hollywood legends as Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and Cary Grant
July 26
Head Over Heels (Hudson Theater)
Set to the music of the Go-Gos – “an unpredictable Elizabethan romp about a royal family that must prevent an oracle’s prophecy of doom” Jeff Whitty, the book writer for Avenue Q, adapted the plot from a 16th century prose work “The Arcadia” by Sir Philip Sidney. (Gives a new meaning to classic rock.)
July 27
Comfort Women (Playwrights Horizons)
A new production of the 2015 musical about Korean comfort women who were sold as sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII.
July 30
The House that Will Not Stand (NYTW)
By Marcus Gardley (X), directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (Pipeline). In the heat of summer in 1813, Louisiana passed from France to the United States. On the eve of the transfer, in a house in mourning, freedom hangs in the balance for a steely widow and her three eligible daughters, all free women of color. Inspired by Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba.
July 31
The Beyoncé (Adjusted Realists at ART/NY)
By Eliza Bent, based on The Fiancée, a short story by Anton Chekhov. “With her wedding around the corner, Nadia is terrified to discover that her heart doesn’t want what it obviously should want: a decent husband and a stable, small town family life. She instead fantasizes about running off to the bright lights of the big city, immersing in counterculture, and leaving her family to fend for their own little existences.”
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park)
A musical adaptation Conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub, with music and lyrics by Taub, directed by Oscar Eustis and Kewi-Armah, starring Nikki M. James as Viola
