Below is a selection of theater opening* in April. It’s an overwhelming number of shows — fourteen just on Broadway, twelve of them in the week leading up to the April 25th cut-off date for Tony eligibility; if that’s not a modern record, it’s surely close. But there is even more opening beyond Broadway – more than one every single day of the month, if you include the several theater festivals teeming with new work
The calendar is organized chronologically by opening date*, or (if no official opening) first performance, but we must consider the dates subject to change, because, yes, COVID-19 is still around, and unpredictable (as is theater in general.)
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 and/or Site Specific: Silver ⬜️ .
Puppetry: Brown 🟫
Opera: Purple🟪
Concert: 🎶
Out of town 🇺🇸
April 2
🟦Fish (Working Theater and Keen Company at Theater Row)
A play by Kia Corthron that depicts a struggling urban public school through the experiences of Tree, who is just trying her best to get through senior year and Ms. Harris, the new English teacher, who has grown embittered over budget cuts and standardized testing
March 21 – April 20
🟦Travels, (Ars Nova)
A travelogue set to music by James Harrison Monaco, reimaging oral traditions for the 21st century
March 20 – April 20
April 3
🟧🟨New York City Fringe Festival
Forty-seven shows over 19 days chosen by lottery, in three venues –UNDER St. Marks, The Wild Project and the 14Y Theater – plus two site specific works. Nine of the 47 shows debut tonight. Most have as many as five performances, including one livestreamed. More info here.
April 3 – 21
April 7
🟩🟫The Four Lives (La MaMa)
The 30th large-scale puppet production by Theodora Skipitares is inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, whose teachings maintained that each soul experiences four lives: vegetable, mineral, animal and human.
April 4 -21
April 11
🟥The Outsiders (Bernard Jacobs Theater)
First preview: March 16
Book by Adam Rapp with Justin Levine
Music and lyrics by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justin Levine
Directed by Danya Taylor
A new musical based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and the movie by Francis Ford Coppola: In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1967, the hardened hearts and aching souls of Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade and their chosen family of ‘outsiders’ are in a fight for survival and a quest for purpose in a world that may never accept them.
April 14
🟥Lempicka (Longacre)
First preview: March 19
Book, lyrics, and original concept by Carson Kreitzer, book and music by Matt Gould, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Cast: Eden Espinosa
A musical about the life and times of the peripatetic artist Tamara de Lempicka, who is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly stylized paintings of nudes.
🟩🟨Medea (La MaMa)
A refugee’s reality is shattered when she learns of her and her children’s looming exile. Both in-person and online
April 11 – 21
April 15
🟧Red Bull 20th Anniversary Festival (Red Bull at Sheen Center)
A monthlong festival of classics (Euripides, Shakespeare, Aphra Behn), and new works in conversation with those classics, plus podcast interviews with Santino Fontana and Patrick Page. Tonight: Jacob Ming-Trent’s epic poem “How Shakespeare Saved My Life.”
April 15 – May 12
April 16
🟦Sally and Tom (Public Theater)
In this play by Suzan-Lori Parks, the off-off-off-Broadway theater troupe Good Company is putting on a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Writer Luce is cast as Sally; her romantic partner, and the play’s director, Mike, is cast as Tom. Really, people, what could possibly go wrong?
March 28 – May 5
🟦Agreement (Irish Arts Center)
In this play written by Owen McCafferty from Belfast’s Lyric Theater, it’s April 1998 and the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the British government and the Irish government, all under the watchful eye of Senator George Mitchell, try to hammer out a deal that could pave the way for peace in Northern Ireland. This is the last chance, and no one is leaving until agreement is reached one way or another.
April 11 – May 12
April 17
🟥The Wiz (Marquis Theater)
First preview: March 29
Book by William F. Brown with additional material by Amber Ruffin
Music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls
Directed by Schele Williams
Cast: Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Deborah Cox as Glinda and Melody A. Betts as Aunt Em and Evillene, Kyle Ramar Freeman as the Lion, Phillip Johnson Richardson as the Tinman, Avery Wilson as the Scarecrow, and Wayne Brady as The Wiz.
A revival of the 1975 Tony winning musical version of The Wizard of Oz featuring an all-Black cast.
April 18
🟥Suffs (Music Box Theater)
First preview: March 26
Book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub
Directed by Leigh Silverman
The story of the suffragists — “Suffs,” as they called themselves — who relentlessly pursued a Constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote. My review of the Off-Broadway production, which I called an inspiring, instructive and entertaining sung-through musical that tells the sweeping story of the final seven-year push to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
🟦Still (DR2 Theatre )
In this comedy by Lisa Romeo, Thirty years ago, Helen and Mark broke up, but they never completely forgot about each other. When they meet for dinner to catch up, the flame is rekindled… but Mark is running for Congress, and Helen has a secret that could derail his bid.
April 13- May 18
April 19
🟥Stereophonic (Golden)
First preview: April 3
Written by David Adjmi
Songs by Will Butler
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Cast: Will Brill as Reg, Andrew R. Butler as Charlie, Juliana Canfield as Holly, Eli Gelb as Grover, Tom Pecinka as Peter, Sarah Pidgeon as Diana, and Chris Stack as Simon.
The Broadway transfer of a play taking place entirely in a music studio in the 1970s about a fictitious rock band recording a new album. My review Off-Broadway
April 20
🟥Hell’s Kitchen (Shubert Theater)
First preview: March 28
Music and lyrics by Alicia Keys
Book by Kristoffer Diaz
Directed by Michael Greif
A jukebox musical featuring Alicia Keys’ hits to tell the somewhat fictionalized story of Keys at age 17, growing up in the Manhattan Plaza artists housing in the NYC neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, pursuing a boy and discovering the piano while rebelling against her strict mother. My review of the production Off-Broadway.
🟦Stargazers ( Connelly Theater)In this play by Majkin Holmquist produced by Page 73, a grieving mother contemplates selling her Kansas farm—guided, she says, by the ghost of her daughter. While her ex-husband and neighbors fight to keep the land, an East Coast developer hopes to build a progressive utopia that would alter the landscape forever.
April 21
🟥Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (August Wilson Theater)
First preview: April 1
Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Gayle Rankin
A Broadway transfer of the new (and newly named) production of the story about American Sally Bowles in Nazi Germany will take place in a Broadway house transform with an in-the-round auditorium and “sinfully dreamlike spaces which guests will be invited to explore pre-show entertainment, drinks, and dining.”
🟦Orlando (Signature)
Sarah Ruhl’s 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. Directed by Will Davis, (the new, transgender artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) and starring the gender fluid theater artist Taylor Mac.
April 2 – May 12
🟦Grenfell (St Ann’s Warehouse)
Gillian Slovo’s play that uses verbatim accounts by survivors to tell the story of the fire in West London’s Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people.
April 13 – May 12
April 22
🟥Patriots (Barrymore)
Written by Peter Morgan
Directed by Rupert Goold
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Keen as Putin, Luke Thallon
A play by Peter Morgan (The Crown, The Audience, Frost/Nixon) about a Russian oligarch’s ill-fated role in the rise of Vladimir V. Putin. The play had a successful run on the West End
April 1 – June 23
🟥The Heart of Rock and Roll (James Earl Jones Theater)
First preview: March 29
Book by Jonathan A. Abrams, and story by Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan A. Abrams
Music by Huey Lewis and the News
Using the hit songs from the 1980s band (including “Workin’ For A Livin’,” “Stuck With You,” and “If This Is It,”), the musical tells the story of a Chicago-based musician who gives up his life onstage for a corporate job and meets the girl of his dreams — but his old bandmates want to get back on stage.
🟧Fresh Fruit Festival (The Wild Project)
Two dozen new works exploring LGBTQ experience, including eight ten-minute plays in competition
April 22 — May 5
April 23
🟥Mary Jane (MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater)
First Preview: April 2
Written by Amy Herzog
Directed by Anne Kaufman
Cast: Rachel McAdams
The playwright and director reunite to tell the story of Mary Jane, a single mother who takes care of her two-year-old son Alex, who was born prematurely and wasn’t expected to live more than a few days. My review of the 2017 Off-Broadway production of this play, which exerted 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.
April 24
🟥Illinoise
St. James Theater
Music and Lyrics by Sufjan Stevens
Based on the Album Illinois
Story by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed and Choreographed by Justin Peck
The dance-theater piece inspired by Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 album Illinois just had brief run at Park Avenue Armory that was much acclaimed — including by me: My review.
April 24 – August 10
🟥Uncle Vanya (Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater)
Written by Anton Chekhov, in a new translation by Heidi Schreck
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Sonya and her uncle Vanya have devoted their lives to managing the family farm in isolation, but when her celebrated, ailing father and his charismatic wife move in,their lives are upended. In the heat of the summer, the wrong people fall in love, desires and resentments erupt, and the family is forced to reckon with the ghosts of their unlived lives. The starry cast features Steve Carell, William Jackson Harper, Jonathan Hadary, Jayne Houdyshell, Spencer Donovan Jones, Mia Katigbak, Alfred Molina, Alison Pill, and Anika Noni Rose.
April 2 – June 16
April 25
🟥The Great Gatsby (Broadway Theater)
First preview: March 29
Book by Kate Kerrigan, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel
Music and lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland
Directed by Marc Bruni
Cast: Jeremy Jordan, Eva Noblezada
A Broadway transfer of the Paper Mill Playhouse musical adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Jazz Age novel about the mysterious Jay Gatsby, who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of his lost love, Daisy Buchanan
🟥Mother Play
Second Stage’s Hayes Theater
Written by Paula Vogel
Directed by Tina Landau
Cast: Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons
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
April 3 – June 16
April 27
🟩The Frybread Queen (Amerinda at Theater for the New City)
In this play by Carolyn Dunn, three generations of Navajo women unite to prepare frybread and other food for the funeral a beloved son, father, husband and brother
April 26 – May 12
April 28
🟦Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons)
In this play by Abe Koehler, a group of lonely city dwellers gather for comfort and connection in an environment of exemplary hospitality, as the world breaks apart.
April 12 – May 19
April 29
🟧In Scena! Italian Theater Festival
April 29 – May 13
🟩Lines (La MaMa)
Set in five prisons across five decades, the play is a visceral examination of postcolonial lives in Palestine, Uganda, and the UK.
April 25-May 12
🟩Exagoge (La MaMa)
An immersive opera/play/Passover seder, based on the oldest known Jewish play, written in
Alexandria in the second century BCE by Ezekiel the Tragedian. The audience gathers round
the seder table or watches from the risers, joining the performers for a traditional 15-part modern seder. An opera composer, Zeke, has brought home his girlfriend Aliya, a non-
practicing Muslim, for the first time. Meanwhile, in the middle of it all, opera performers sing an adaptation of the ancient Greek interpretation of the Book of Exodus.
April 26 – May 12
April 30
Tony nominations announced
*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 April but don’t officially open until May 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 Urp The Confusion and Crystallize the Outrage.
What Is Broadway 🟥, Off Broadway 🟦 and Off-Off Broadway🟩?
Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 99 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.)
