Below is a calendar of selected theater opening* this month in New York, including two Broadway shows that are both transfers from Off-Broadway.
The bulk of theatrical fare in January long has come from theater festivals, which this year are experiencing such a resurgence that I’ve created a separate post previewing this month’s seven festivals, two of which are brand new, one of which has been reimagined and reinvigorated after a near-death experience.
So, check out January Theater Festivals Make a Comeback 2024
The festival shows generally have shorter runs (usually just a handful of performances) and cheaper tickets. They tend to have shorter running times too, but some are just as long, and many are just as satisfying, as the shows below.
The calendar is organized chronologically by opening date*, or first performance, but we must consider the dates subject to change, because, yes, COVID-19 is still around, and unpredictable.
Each title below is linked to a relevant website.
Color key: Broadway: Red 🟥. Off Broadway: Blue 🟦. Off Off Broadway: Green 🟩.
Digital or Hybrid Theater: Yellow 🟨 Theater festival: Orange 🟧. Immersive: Silver ⬜️ .
Puppetry: Brown 🟫 Opera: Purple🟪
January 7, 2024
🟩⬜️The Whole of Time (Torn Page)
inspired by The Glass Menagerie, this show takes its characters in a very different direction. Just 22 seats per performance.
January 8
🟩🟫Ernies Secret Life (Dixon Place)
Ever-changing puppetry dramatizes the story of a man fearing something has happened to his son who builds a canoe and secretly sets off to find him. What he finds instead is himself.
January 9
🟥Prayer for the French Republic (MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater)
Written by Joshua Harmon and directed by David Cromer, this Off-Broadway transfer tells the story of two eras of antisemitism. In 1944, a Jewish couple in Paris desperately awaits news of their missing family. More than 70 years later, the couple’s great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same question as their ancestors: “Are we safe?” My review of the play Off-Broadway.
Dec 19 – Feb 18
🟩The Canary (The Chain) An ambitious advertising copywriter works on a mystery campaign that is “the biggest chunk of bullshit this country has ever seen.)
January 11
🟩Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (The Performing Garage)
The newest collaboration between The Wooster Group and Eric Berryman, reciting bawdy verse from the Black oral tradition, set to cinematic soundtracks and live drums.
Jan 11 – Feb 3
January 12
🟦⬜️Fun with Panic Attacks (Intar)
“Floppy explores her life’s journey with anxiety as she invites you to take off your shoes, lie down on the floor, and check in to see if you are holding your breath. Psychological funhouse meets choose-how-immersive-you-want-it-to-be theatrical event.”
January 13
El Otro Oz (Atlantic)
A revival of TheaterworksUSA’s children’s musical inspired by the Wizard of Oz, with salsa, merengue, and Mexican folk music.
January 20
🟩Pride House (TOSOS at Flea Theater)
In this play by Chris Weikel, Beatrice Farrar has invited a dozen of her colorful theater friends to her summer home in the then little known beach Cherry Grove on Fire Island – on the eve of the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Jan 18 – Feb 10
January 24
🎶Once Upon a Mattress (Encores at City Center)
Sutton Foster is Princess Winnifred in this concert version of the musical by Mary Rodgers that made Carol Burnett a star.
January 24- Feb 4
January 25
🟩Aristotle Thinks Again (La MaMa)
A dance-theater piece featuring an original text by Chuck Mee that explores “Greek tragedies, post-apocalyptic possibilities, how awful people are, and how awesome it can be to exist on the planet.” The piece is the first of a two-part series called the Humanismo Project, which, according to La MaMa’s artistic director Mia Yoo, “examines our current era of uncertainty, isolation and public unrest by looking to ancient stories to imagine more vibrant futures.“
January 25–February 4, 2024
🟦White Rose The Musical (Theatre Row)
A musical based upon a true story of a small group of university students in Nazi Germany who secretly met to write, print, and distribute leaflets exposing Hitler’s lies.
January 17 – April 2
🟦Job (Connelly Theater)
The return of the play by Max Wolf Friedlich about a confrontation between a suspended tech worker and a counselor. My review
January 19 – March 3, 2024
January 28
🟥Days of Wine and Roses (Studio 54)
Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James star in this Broadway transfer of Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s
stage adaptation of the sad, dark story (first a play, then a film) about a couple who fall in love with alcohol – originally a 1958 teleplay starring Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie, then a 1962 film with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. I raved about it Off-Broadway.
January 6 – April 28
*Opening Night
This selection of plays in this month is organized chronologically by opening night, but includes the dates when a show’s run starts and ends (when available.)
Opening night is usually not the same as the first performance on Broadway and Off-Broadway. There is usually a “preview period” that can last days or weeks, sometimes months. But professional reviews are forbidden from being published until opening night, which is why I organize this calendar by opening night (when it exists and when I can find it) rather than first performance, as a way to support the continuing relevance of theater reviewing. (Shows that begin previews in January but don’t open until February will be featured in next month’s calendar.) Check out my essay: Broadway Opening Night. What It Means. How It’s Changed. 7 Facts to Clear Up The Confusion and Crystallize the Outrage.
What Is Broadway 🟥, Off Broadway 🟦 and Off-Off Broadway🟩?
Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway. (There is a more sophisticated definition, having to do with contracts, and more elaborate distinctions, having to do with ticket prices, number and location of theaters, length of runs, willingness to take artistic risks, etc.)
(Lincoln Center has separate Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theaters. Several of the city’s performing arts centers, such as The Shed, Little Island, Park Avenue Armory, NYU Skirball, and now PAC NYC at the World Trade Center site technically exist outside Broadway/Off-Broadway/Off-Off Broadway classifications; I list them as Off-Broadway, even though most have more than 500 seats.)
