Below is a selection of theater opening* in New York in September, Including three new plays on Broadway — featuring the Broadway debut of Robert Downey Jr., and the return of Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow — written by three playwrights with terrific track records (Tony winner Jez Butterworth, Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar, and Jen Silverman making her Broadway debut.)
The month is bursting with shows beyond Broadway, Including showcases for some unusual performers (such as an out activist basketball player from Belarus), a couple of Edinburgh Fringe favorites, several new immersive site-specific theater pieces, and a musical and a drama timed to election season, which has had plenty of drama all on its own.
The calendar below 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 both it and theater are 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 and/or Site Specific: Silver ⬜️ .
Puppetry: Brown 🟫
Opera: Purple🟪
Concert: 🎶
Free of charge (or “pay what you can”) 🆓
For a look at the Broadway season as a whole, check out my Broadway 2024-2025 Season Preview Guide
September 1
🟨Picnic Performances (Bryant Park’s YouTube)
Summer may be ending, but the “Picnic performances” at Bryant Park this summer live on as videos. The latest; pianist Vijay Iyer and jazz trio, and Jaime Lozano and The Familia performing from his multi-volume album “Songs by an Immigrant”
September 4
🟦Lifeline (Charade Theater Company at Signature Center)
A musical, well-received at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, about Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming’s world-changing discovery of penicillin in 1928, charting the rise and fall of antibiotics, told through a present-day story of romance.
August 28 – September 28
September 5
🟪 The Marriage of Figaro (Little Island)
Mozart’s opera turned into a 90-minute showcase largely for one performer. In this comic tale of how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva, Anthony Roth Costanzo portrays Figaro, Susanna, and the Count, as well as Cherubino, Countess, Antonio, Basilio, and Barbarina.
August 30 – September 22
🟧The Evolution Festival (Center at West Park)
Eighteen one-night-only performances of original works of theater, dance, music, comedy, and interdisciplinary performance. First night production, “August 28th” is a choreopoem following five Black women through a journey of self-discovery that asks: how do our bodies hold trauma
September 5-28
September 6
🟩The Ask (Wild Project)
This comedy written by Matt Freeman presents a tense visit between a struggling young fundraiser and an affluent liberal donor, as they navigate the treacherous power dynamics at the heart of charitable giving.
September 6-28
September 8
🎶Elsie Fest (The Rooftop at Pier 17)
This one-night only concert is billed as Broadway’s music festival, this year featuring such popular performers as John Gallagher, Jordan Fisher, Rachel Zegler and Darren Criss.
🟦Twist of Fate (York at The Theater at St. Jean’s)
Inspired by an actual First Amendment case, a fortuneteller fights an arrest in 1970s Los Angeles to win the respect of her teenage daughter, in this new musical that’s part of York’s New2NY series.
Sept 7 – 15
September 10
🟩Wake Up (Bedlam at West End Theater)
Spencer Aste tackles his experiences with sexuality, Mormonism, drug use and abuse, upending the current trend of “living your best life.”
September 11
🟫Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi (Japan Society)
The return of the celebrated puppet piece on its twentieth anniversary: Enter a mystical world, where a mysterious white fox shepherds you through past and present Japan.
September 11 – 19
September 12
🟥THE ROOMMATE (Booth)
Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone return to Broadway in a comedy that marks the Broadway playwriting debut of Jen Silverman, who made a splash Off-Broadway with a raunchy comedy whose 47-word title begins “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties….” Sharon, a recently divorced middle aged woman, has some trepidation when she advertises for a roommate to share her large home in Iowa City. Her alarm increases when she discovers that her new roommate, Robyn, is a pot-smoking vegetarian lesbian from the Bronx, who arrives with a box full of clay voodoo dolls. Directed by Jack O’Brien.
August 29 – December 15
🟦Counting and Cracking (Public Theater at NYU Skirball)
A multi-generational journey of a Sri Lankan-Australian family from 1956-2004.
Sept 6 – 22
🟦That Parenting Musical (Theater Row)
New parents navigate the chaos and hilarity of early parenthood in such songs as “The Most Dangerous Thing in the Room” and “Toddler Travel Travesty”
September 12 – January 12
🟦In Search of Elaina (The Players Theater)
After a former friend dies, Annette travels home to face the person she once was, and is trying no longer to be.
Sept 5 – 22
🟦Medea Re-Versed (Red Bull/Bedlam at Sheen Center)
Luis Quintero’s adaptation of Euripides play written in Battle Rap verse.
September 12 – October 13
September 13
⬜️The Voices in Your Head (Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective at St. Lydia’s)
In an hour-long support group, eight New Yorkers exchange stories, sharing a sensibility of finding humor in their grief. Staged for an audience of 20 each night at a storefront church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
September 9 – October 6
🟧The Weasel Festival (BAM)
The 16th annual edition of this show, officially called the Bring A Weasel and A Pint of Your Own Blood Festival, features new plays by the Brooklyn College MFA Playwriting program’s 2024 graduates all inspired by The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
September 13-15
🟩Vile Isle (The Tank)
A drag queen’s prophecy of a world-ending flood sparks dark comedy and existential test
September 12 – October 6
September 14
🆓Judith Champion Caribbean MixFest (Atlantic)
Free
Six staged readings of new works
Sept 14 – 20
⬜️Family (Hoi Polloi and Amanda + James in a site-specific location in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn)
In this “grotesque and deeply dark” early play by Celine Song (best known now for her lovely Oscar-nominated film Past Lives), three half-siblings lead the audience through the twisted roots of their family tree.
September 12 – 28
September 17
🟦 Our Class (Arlekin at CSC)
An encore presentation of this acclaimed play inspired by the harrowing true story of ten Polish classmates—five Jewish, five Catholic—who grow up as friends and neighbors, but then turn on one other violently
September 12 – November 3
🟨To The Fairest (54 Below)
In this musical by Miles Messier and Showpeople Theatre Collective, Achilles, war-hero-turned-rockstar-pianist in a look back at what really started the Trojan War! On stage and livestreamed
September 18
🟩See What I Wanna See (Out of the Box Theatrics)
A revival of the musical by Michael John LaChiusa, based on three short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, starting with a 1951 murder in Central Park re-created from contradictory perspectives
September 4 – 29
September 19
🟦Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (Theater 555)
The latest edition of Gerard Alessandrini’s long-running parody revue, targeting past and present Broadway shows, using their songs with new lyrics. As the subtitle indicates, this edition takes on Sondheim. Also Patti, Bernadette and Audra.
August 30 – December 1
September 20
⬜️ Speakeasy Die Softly (Carmine’s Restaurant)
It’s pitched as a site specific immersive theater piece, but sounds like the restaurant’s reinvention of dinner theater. A 30-minute cocktail reception in addition to a three-course meal, alongside a murder-mystery game: it’s the 1920s and you’re enjoying dinner at the Lou Zar speakeasy when someone is unexpectedly murdered.
September 6 – October 5.
September 21
🟦The Witness Room (AMT Theater)
Written by Pedro Antonio Garcia, four NYC police officers battle each other in a Manhattan criminal court over charges of corruption, racism, morality, loyalties, and the blue wall of silence.
🟦Monte Christo (York at The Theater at St. Jean’s)
A musical adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ revenge novel, part of York’s New2NY series.
September 21-29
September 22
🟦Age is a Feeling (Vineyard)
Update: This production was canceled.
This Edinburgh Fringe favorite written and performed by Haley McGee charts the seminal moments, rites of passage and turning points in an adult life from the day of turning 25 through death
September 11 – October 13
September 24
🟩KS6: Small Forward (Belarus Free Theater at LaMaMa)
The life story of Katya Snytsina, an Olympic basketball player from Belarus who, forced into exile, is an out activist. Snytsina plays herself.
September 21 – October 13
🟦Ghost of John McCain (Soho Playhouse)
In this new musical, the late soldier-turned-senator awakens in the afterlife, finding himself trapped inside the mind of President Donald Trump, alongside Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, Eva Perón, Teddy Roosevelt, Robert Jordan, and Lindsey Graham., forced to engage in a debate about American values.
September 3 – November 10
September 26
🟦Fatherland (Fountain Theater at New York City Center)
The true story of a teenager who contacts the FBI about his father’s participation in the January 6 insurrection
September 18 – November 23
September 28
🟩Women of Will (Bedlam at West End Theater)
Tina Packer returns to New York with a fascinating show I saw eleven years ago As I wrote then: It is Packer’s thesis that the Bard viewed women differently at the beginning of his 25-year career as a playwright than at the end, that his views can be divided into five phases, and that by tracking his changing attitude, one can learn something profound about Shakespeare and his plays.
September 28 – October 20
September 29
🟥THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA (Broadhurst)
In the sweltering heat of a 1970s summer, the Webb sisters return to their childhood home in Blackpool, an English seaside town where back in the 1950s they rehearsed their singing act and had a shot of fame, which cost them all dearly. The new play by Jez Butterworth (Tony winning playwright oJ The Ferryman, and Jerusalem), directed by Sam Mendess (Tony winning director of The Ferryman and The Lehman Trilogy) comes to Broadway following an acclaimed run in London’s West End.
September 11 – December 8
🟦Magnificent Bird/ Book of Travelers (Playwrights Horizons)
Two solo musical plays by Gabriel Kahan based on his personal experiences:
Magnificent Bird, created during a year spent off the internet, Book of Travelers, derived from an 8,980-mile train ride he took around the country, drawing songs from encounters with the strangers he met,
September 24 – October 6
September 30
🟥MCNEAL (Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont)
Academy Award-winner Robert Downey Jr. will make his Broadway debut in a new play by Ayad Akhtar (Pulitzer winning playwright of “Disgraced), directed by Bartlett Sher,about a great writer, his estranged son, and his unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence. The cast includes Andrea Martin and Ruthie Ann Miles.
September 5 – November 24
🟦The Big Gay Jamboree (Orpheum Theater)
Co-creator Marla Mindelle (who created Titanique), portrays Stacey, who after blacking out from 18 Jägerbombs wakes up hungover in the most terrifying place of all: an old fashioned musical, where gay still just means happy.
September 17 – January 19
*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 (although it is the same for festivals and most Off-Off Broadway shows ) For 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 September but don’t officially open until October 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 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.)
(Several performing arts venues in New York City, such as The Shed, Little Island, Park Avenue Armory, NYU Skirball and the Perelman Performing Arts Center, technically exist outside these classifications; I list them as Off-Broadway, even though, for most shows, they have more than 500 seats.)
