Rachel McAdams of Slings and Arrows and Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos making their Broadway debuts; a new quirky musical from the team behind “A Band’s Visit,” a new play by Paula Vogel starring Jessica Lange, two works each by Amy Herzog and Itamar Moses: Below are ten shows opening in the Spring that excite me enough, or at least make me curious enough, that I don’t want to miss them, for reasons I enumerate below. That doesn’t mean I’ll wind up liking them – not even those that I’ve seen (and enjoyed) in previous productions or venues. I won’t know if I’ll consider these “must see” shows until I see them.
The shows are organized chronologically according to opening date, with the titles linked to the show’s website.
Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy
What: Sarah Gancher’s scary satire is inspired by the real-life trolls of Russia’s Internet Research Agency, whose job was to manipulate social media in order to sabotage the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. One of the comic conceits is that the workers treat it like any other job, with conventional office dynamics and petty intrigue.
Where: Vineyard Theater
When: January 25, 2024 – February 25, 2024. Opens February 8
Why: This is one of the best plays I saw during the pandemic, and, not incidentally, during the last Presidential election (my review) – with groundbreaking use of digital theater — and I’m intrigued how they will stage it in person. The new five-member cast includes only one of the original performers, Haskell King, plus six-time Broadway veteran Christine Lahti and Hadi Tabbal (English, The Vagrant Trilogy)
Update: My review.
Between Two Knees
What: Eight decades in the life of one indigenous family from the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee to the American Indian Movement occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973.
Where: Perelman Performing Arts Center (PACNYC)
When: February 3 – 24. Opens February 13
Why: The show is created by the 1491s, an intertribal Indigenous sketch comedy troupe whose founding member Sterlin Harjo is one-half the duo that created one of my favorite recent TV series, “Reservation Dogs.” It sounds (based on reports from previous regional productions) like a jarring satire about genocide — funny, sad, pointed, in-your-face —a taste of which is evident in its 73-word “content advisory,” which begins “Between Two Knees contains depictions and graphic details of violence against Native peoples” and ends listing “Vaudeville; prophecies; surprise revelations; loud rapping; 31 wigs; over 300 props; Disney princesses; mime wolves; a bison; a rapture; and a really big explosion.”
Update: My review.
The Ally
What: When college professor Asaf (Josh Radnor) is asked by a student to sign a social justice manifesto, what seems at first like a simple choice instead embroils him in an increasingly complex web of conflicting agendas that challenge his allegiances as a progressive, a husband, an artist, an academic, an American, an atheist, and a Jew.
Where: Public Theater
When: February 15 to March 10. Opens February 27.
Why: This couldn’t sound more timely, given the current controversy on campuses. It is written by Itamar Moses, Tony-winner librettist for “The Band’s Visit” (which leads me to Dead Outlaw below)
Update: My review
Illinoise
What: A musical based on Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 concept album Illinois, which portrays the state’s people, landscapes, and history, complete with UFOs, zombies, and predatory wasps.
Where: Park Avenue Armory
When: March 2 – 23. Opens March 7
Why: Theater at the Park Avenue Armory is almost always an event, in part because of the cavernous architecture, but I’m drawn to this nervy-sounding adaptation because of Stevens’ two principal collaborators: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole) and Tony-winning choreographer and director Justin Peck (Carousel, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.)
Update: My review. It’s transferring to Broadway, opening April 24th. My resurrected review.
Dead Outlaw
What: A new musical based on the bizarre true story of Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw who was killed by a Western posse, then gained new employment as a mummified side-show attraction, his body winding up after decades in a house-of-horrors ride at an amusement park in Southern California.
Where: Audible’s Minetta Lane Theater
When: February 28 – April 7. Opens March 10.
Why: Put together by the same trio who scored with “The Band’s Visit” — composer David Yazbek, librettist Itamar Moses, and director David Cromer.
Update: My review
An Enemy of the People
What: Amy Herzog’s adaptation of the play by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Sam Gold (her husband), about a small-town doctor (Jeremy Strong) who tries to warn the town that their spa is poisoned, but the people in power including his brother (Michael Imperioli) try to destroy him.
Where: Circle in the Square Theater
When: February 27 – June 16. Opens March 18
Why: Amy Herzog did such an impressive job in adapting Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (see also “Mary Jane” below), and yes, this is the first gig for Jeremy Strong after “Succession,” and I’ve just once again binge-watched The Sopranos in honor of its 25th anniversary, so am curious about Michael Imperioli, making his Broadway debut. (For the record, I don’t expect to be as blown away by this adaptation as The Enemy of the People in 2021 at the Park Avenue Armory.)
Update: My review.
Suffs
What: Shaina Taub’s sung-through musical that tells the sweeping story of the final seven-year push to win American women the right to vote, culminating in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
Where: Music Box Theater on Broadway
When: Begins previews March 26. Opens April 18
Why: This got mixed reviews Off-Broadway, but I saw it later than most critics — after we learned of the ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade – and I loved it, finding it not just timely, but inspiring, instructive, entertaining and well-performed by a first-rate cast of women (not all of whom are making the move to Broadway.)
Update:My review of Suffs on Broadway
Mary Jane
What: The day-to-day life of a single mother who takes care of her disabled two-year-old son Alex, who was born prematurely and wasn’t expected to live more than a few days
Where: MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Broadway
When: April 2 – June 2. Opens April 23
Why: Rachel McAdams is making her Broadway debut (though theater lovers already love her for her starring role in the series Slings & Arrows.) This delicate play by Amy Herzog, as I said in my review of the 2017 Off-Broadway production (with a different cast), exerts a quiet, warm but firm grip on audience emotions as we gradually come to understand just how much it takes for Mary Jane to remain both diligent and hopeful.
Update: My Broadway review
Mother Play
What: It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis (Jessica Lange) is supervising her teenage children, Carl (Jim Parsons) and Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger), as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path
Where: Second Stage’s Hayes Theater on Broadway
When: April 2 to June 16. Opens April 25
Why: Jessica Lange! Jim Parsons! Celia Keenan-Bolger! In a new play by Paula Vogel, a smart, passionate and compassionate playwright ( “How I Learned to Drive,” “Indecent,” “Baltimore Waltz”)
Update: My review
Orlando
What: An adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel about a young man whom we first see serving as courtier to Queen Elizabeth, then lives through many centuries, becoming a 20th century woman trying to sort out her existence.
Where: Signature
When: April 2 – May 12. Opens April 21.
Why: Written in 1928, Woolf’s novel has been taken up by the transgender community, with a new movie out “Orlando, My Political Biography” by transgender filmmaker Paul B. Preciado, and this play, directed by Will Davis, (the new, transgender artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) and starring the gender fluid extraordinary theater artist Taylor Mac. That alone would draw me in, but it’s also written by Sarah Ruhl, the always inventive playwright who first tried her hand at this adaptation in 2010.
Update: My review
There are many more shows that will potentially delight. Check out my Broadway Spring 2024 Preview Guide. as well as my current monthly calendar of New York theater openings
