Here is a guide to the 2019-2020 Broadway season.
Note: All Broadway shows have been shut down as of March 12, 2020, in order to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. This means the schedule of openings, starting with “Six” on March 12th, is no longer accurate. It’s unclear what the new schedule will be, and is likely to remain unclear for some time. When that changes, so will this guide.
Update: “Hangmen” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” have both announced they will not resume production when Broadway returns.
Update: Frozen will not be returning.
Update: Mean Girls will not be returning.
Lin-Manuel is producing his hip-hop improv group on Broadway, and recording artists are becoming Broadway theater artists: This season, there will be a Bob Dylan musical, and albums by David Byrne and Alanis Morissette come to life. Also: a musical about Tina Turner; a stage adaptation of Moulin Rouge; a hit play from London about a group of gay men in New York; the return of West Side Story.
Below is a list of Broadway shows in the 2019-2020 season, with each title linked to the shows’ websites when available. This list is organized chronologically by opening date and only includes shows that as of now have an opening date and a theater. More is to come; much will be changed. This is regularly updated.
MAY
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Theater: Broadhurst
First preview: May 4
Opened: May 30
Closing: July 28
Playwright Terrence McNally
Director: Arin Arbus
Cast: Audra McDonald, Michel Shannon
Two middle-aged people have a one-night stand that might turn into more.
My review
JULY
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Theater: Al Hirschfeld
First Preview: June 28, 2019
Opening: July 25, 2019
Book by John Logan
Director: Alex Timbers
Cast: Aaron Tveit, Karen Olivo, Danny Burstein
Stage adaptation of Baz Luhrman’s 2001 Oscar-nominated movie musical about a poet entranced by a cabaret singer.
AUGUST
Sea Wall/A Life
Theater: Hudson
First Preview: July 26
Opening: August 8
Closing: September 29
Written by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne
Directed by Carrie Cracknell
Cast: Tom Sturridge & Jake Gyllenhaal
These two solo shows, originally presented Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, explore love and the human need to know the unknowable, as well as how sons become fathers and the transformative power of love.
SEPTEMBER
Betrayal
Theater: Bernard B. Jacobs
First Preview: August 14
Opening: September 5
Closing: December 8
Writer: Harold Pinter
Director: Jamie Lloyd
Cast: Zawe Ashton, Charlie Cox, Tom Hiddleston
The fourth Broadway production of Harold Pinter’s enigmatic play, just five years after the last revival.
Derren Brown: Secret
Theater: Cort
First Preview: September 6
Opening: September 15
Closing: January 4 2020
Mind reading, persuasion, and psychological illusion.
The Height of the Storm
Theater: MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman
First Preview: September 10
Opening: September 24
Written by Florian Zeller and translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jonathan Kent
Cast: Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins
For 50 years the lives of André and Madeleine have been filled with the everyday pleasures and unfathomable mysteries of an enduring marriage, until suddenly their life together begins to unravel, and this loving relationship is faced with the inevitability of change.
My review of the Height of the Storm
OCTOBER
The Great Society
Theater: Vivian Beaumont
First Preview: Sept 5
Opening: October 1
Closing: November 30, 2019
Writer: Robert Schenkkan
Director: Bill Rauch
Cast: Brian Cox as LJB, Marc Kudisch as the Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, Grantham Coleman as Martin Luther King Jr., and Richard Thomas as Hubert Humphrey
A Follow-up to Schenkkan’s play All The Way, this one follows President Lyndon B. Johnson during his presidency until March, 1968, when he announced that he would not seek re-election.
My review of The Great Society
Freestyle Love Supreme
Theater: Booth
First preview: September 13
Opening: October 2
Created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, and Anthony Veneziale
Directed by Thomas Kail
The hip-hop improv show comes to Broadway for a limited 16-week engagement after a sold-out run Off-Broadway earlier this year.
My review of Freestyle Love Supreme
Slave Play
Theater:John Golden
First Preview: Sept 10
Opening: Oct 6
Closing: Jan 5, 2020
Writer: Jeremy O.Harris
Director: Robert O’Hara
The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation — or so it initially seems, with three interracial couples engaging in sexual gamesmanship. My review of the play Off-Broadway
Linda Vista
Theater: Second Stage’s Helen Hayes
First Preview: September 19
Opening: October 10
Closing: November 10
Written by: Tracy Letts
Director: Dexter Bullard
Wheeler is a 50-year-old divorcee in the throes of a mid-life spiral. Just out of his ex-wife’s garage and into a place of his own, Wheeler starts on a path toward self-discovery—navigating blind dates, old friends, and new love.
The Rose Tattoo
Theater: Roundabout’s American Airlines
First Preview: September 19
Opening: October 15
Written by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Trip Cullm
Cast: Marisa Tomei
A revival of the play about Serafina, a widow, who rekindles her desire for love, lust, and life in the arms of a fiery suitor
The Lightning Thief
Longacre Theater
First preview: September 20
Opening: October 16
Closing: January 5, 2020
Book by Joe Tracz; Music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki. Adapted from the book, “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan
Directed by Stephen Brackett
Cast: Chris McCarrell as Percy Jackson
My review of The Lightning Thief
The Sound Inside
Theater: Studio 54
First Preview: Sept 14
Opening: Oct 17
Writer: Adam Rapp
Director: David Cromer
Cast: Mary-Louise Parker
A brilliant Ivy League professor, a mysterious student and a troubling favor.
David Byrne’s American Utopia
Theater: Hudson
First Preview: October 4
Opening night: October 20
Director: Alex Timbers
A stage adaptation of David Byrne’s 2018 album,
NOVEMBER
Tina
Theater: Lunt-Fontanne
Previews Begin: October 12
Opening Night: November 7
Book by Katori Hall
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Musical about the life of Tina Turner currently on the West End.
Slava’s Snowshow
Theater: Stephen Sondheim
First preview: November 11
Opening night: November 13
Closing: January 5
Created by Slava Polunin
The return to Broadway of a master clown’s surreal take on the world.
The Inheritance
Theatre: Barrymore
First Preview: September 27
Opening Night: November 17
Written by Mathew Lopez
Directed by Stephen Daldry and designed by Bob Crowley
Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Play, this queer-themed, two-part play is loosely inspired by E. M. Forster’s Howards End. Set in New York City a generation after the HIV/AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s, the play follows a group of gay men as they struggle to connect to the past and maintain a sense of history.
A Christmas Carol
Lyceum
First preview: November 7
Opening: November 20
Closing: January 10, 2020
Written by Jack Thorne; Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
Directed by Matthew Warchus
Cast: Campbell Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge
My review of A Christmas Carol
The Illusionists: Magic of the Holidays
Theater: Neil Simon
Opening: November 29
Closing: January 5
Directed by Neil Dorward
The return of the magic acts of seven illusionists.
DECEMBER
Jagged Little Pill
Theater: Broadhurst
First Preview: November 3
Opening: December 5
Written by Diablo Cody
Director: Diane Paulus
Cast: Elizabeth Stanley, Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding, Derek Klena, Sean Allan Krill, and Lauren Patten
Using the songs from the eponymous Alanis Morissette album (plus new material), this musical tells the story of a multi-generation, multiracial suburban family grappling with a series of distressing events.
My review of A Jagged Little Pill
JANUARY
My Name is Lucy Barton
MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater
First Preview: January 6, 2020
Opening:January 15, 2020
Closing: February 29, 2020
Written by Elizabeth Strout. Adapted by Rona Munro
Directed by Richard Eyre
Cast: Laura Linney
In this solo play adapted from the best-selling novel, Laura Linney plays Lucy Barton, a woman who wakes after an operation to find – much to her surprise – her mother at the foot of her bed. They haven’t seen each other in years.
My review of My Name is Lucy Barton
A Soldier’s Play
Roundabout’s American Airlines Theater
First preview: December 27, 2019
Opening: January 21, 2020
Written by Charles Fuller
Directed by Kenny Leon
Cast: David Alan Grier, Blair Underwood
The first Broadway production of the play that premiered in 1981 at the Negro Ensemble Company (which co-starred a little known Denzel Washington) about a black soldier in 1944 who is charged with investigation the murder of a black Sergeant on a Louisiana Army base.
Grand Horizons
Theater: Second Stage’s Helen Hayes
First Preview: December 20
Opening: January 23, 2020
Written by Bess Wohl
Director: Leigh Silverman
Cast: Priscilla Lopez, Maulik Pancholy, Ashley Park, Thomas Sadoski, Michael Urie
Bill and Nancy have spent 50 full years as husband and wife. But just as they settle comfortably into their new home in Grand Horizons, the unthinkable happens: Nancy suddenly wants out. As their two adult sons struggle to cope with the shocking news, they are forced to question everything they assumed about the people they thought they knew best.
FEBRUARY
West Side Story
Theater: Broadway Theater
First Preview: Dec 10, 2019
Opening: Feb 20, 2020
Writers: Book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Director: Ivo van Hove
Cast: 23 in all, with Isaac Powell as Tony and Shereen Pimental as Maria
The fifth Broadway production of the musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, transposed to warring street gangs in 1950s New York. Belgium avant-garde theater artist van Hove has cut the intermission and the song “I Feel Pretty” and added many videos.
MARCH
Girl From the North Country
Theater: Belasco
First Preview: February 7, 2020
Opening: March 5, 2020
Written and directed by Conor McPherson
Music and lyrics by Bob Dylan
Set in 1934 at a guesthouse in the heartland of America, a group of travelers pass in and out of each other’s lives, and share stories that awaken each other with passion, fury and, beauty. This originated at the Public Theater. My review.
Six
Brooks Atkinson
First preview: February 13
Opening: March 12
Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss;
Pop-concert musical featuring the six wives of Henry VIII.
The Minutes
Cort
First preview: February 25
Opening: March 15
Written by Tracy Letts
Closing: June 14
Letts’ most political work to date is a dark comedy about a town council meeting in the fictional town of Big Cherry that turns ominous.
Cancelled: Hangmen
John Golden Theater
First preview: February 28
Opening: March 19
Closing: July 18
A dark comedy by Martin McDonagh about a retired executioner who now presides over a pub, visited by a mysterious gentleman.
Company
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater
First Preview: March 2
Opening: March 22
Music by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth
Cast: Patti LuPone, Katrina Lenk
The fifth production of the musical about a single 35-year-old with married friends, this one is “re-gendered” so that the protagonist is now a woman, Bobbie.
The Lehman Trilogy
Nederlander
First preview: March 7
Opening: March 26
Written by Stefano Massini
Directed by Sam Mendes
Cast: Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, Ben Miles
The history of the rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers over 164 years, starting with the arrival of the three Lehman brothers from Bavaria in the mid nineteenth century. My review of The Lehman Trilogy when it was at Park Avenue Armory in April.
Diana
Longacre
First preview: March 2
Opening date: March 31
Book by Joe DiPietro; Music and lyrics by David Bryan
Directed by Christopher Ashley
Cast: Jeanna de Waal as Princess Diana, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles,
Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles, Judy Kaye as Queen Elizabeth
APRIL
Mrs. Doubtfire
Stephen Sondheim Theatre
First Preview: March 09
Opening Date: April 5, 2020
Cast: Rob McClure
A new musical based on the Robin Williams 1993 movie. When out-of-work actor Daniel Hillard loses custody of his kids in a divorce, he disguises himself as Scottish nanny Euphegenia Doubtfire in a desperate attempt to stay in their lives
Moved to the Fall Caroline, or Change
Roundabout’s Studio 54
First preview: March 13
Opening: April 7
Book and lyrics by Tony Kushner
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Directed by Michael Longhurst
Cast: Sharon D. Clarke
An import of a West End production of the 2003 musical about Caroline, an African-American maid whose world of 1963 Louisiana ripples with change both large and small
Canceled Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Booth
First preview: March 3
Opening: April 9
Closing: August 2
Written by Edward Albee
Directed by Joe Mantello
Cast: Rupert Everett, Laurie Metcalf, Patsy Ferran, Russell Tovey
The fifth Broadway production of Albee’s 1962 play about George and Martha, a middle-aged history professor and his wife, who bicker in front of new colleague Nick and his young wife Honey, as the liquor flows.
Plaza Suite
Hudson Theater
First preview: March 13
Opening: April 13
Closing: July 12
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by John Benjamin Hickey
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker
In this first revival of Simon’s 1968 comedy, Broderick and Parker (married in real life) perform as three couples in three one-act plays all taking place in the same suite in the Plaza Hotel.
American Buffalo
Circle in the Square Theater
First preview: March 24
Opening: April 14
Written by David Mamet
Directed by Neil Pepe
Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, Darren Criss
The fourth Broadway production of Mamet’s rat-a-tat play about three low-level crooks conjuring up a get-rich-quick scheme
Flying Over Sunset
Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont
First preview: March 12
Opening: April 16
Book by James Lapine, music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Michael Korie
Director: James Lapine
Cast:Carmen Cusack, Harry Hadden-Paton and Tony Yazbeck
Cary Grant, Clare Boothe Luce and Aldous Huxley all revealed during their lifetimes that they had taken LSD. This new musical imagines their gathering together to get high.
Sing Street
Theater: Lyceum
First preview: March 26
Opening: April 19
Book by Enda Walsh
Music and lyrics by Gary Clark and John Carney
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
A stage musical based on the sweet, funny “happy-sad” 2016 Irish movie by writer/director John Carney about a teenager named Conor growing up in Dublin during the economically depressed but musically vibrant 1980s, who forms a band to impress a girl name Raphina. A transfer from Off-Broadway. My review of Sing Street at New York Theatre Workshop
Birthday Candles
Theater: Roundabout’s American Airlines
First Preview: April 2
Opening: April 21
Written by Noah Haidle
Director: Vivienne Benesch
Cast: Debra Messing, Andre Braugher, Enrico Colantoni
Messing portrays a woman whose birthdays we see her celebrate, from her age 17 to 101.
How I Learned to Drive
MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater
First preview: March 27
Opening:April 22
Written by Paula Vogel
Directed by Mark Brokaw
Cast: David Morse and Mary-Louise Parker
The revival of playwright Paul Vogel’s Pulitzer-winning 1997 play about a charismatic child molester and the niece who recalls him with ambivalence. The play marks Vogel’s second show on Broadway (after Indecent), and features the original Off-Broadway stars.
Take Me Out
Theater: Second Stage’s Helen Hayes
First Preview: March 31
Opening: April 23
Written by Richard Greenberg
Director: Scott Ellis
Cast: Jessie Williams and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
A revival of the Tony-winning play about the coming out of a gay baseball player.
