Below is a calendar of selected theater opening* in March, a month that’s bursting with shows: Six on Broadway alone – Denzel and Jake in Othello, Kieran Culkin in a Mamet revival, Sarah Snook playing all the parts in an Oscar Wilde adaptation, Phylicia Rashad making her Broadway directorial debut in a new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the Broadway transfers of two hit musicals, one from the West End, the other via Off-Broadway. But that’s just the start.
There is a SECOND solo show with one actor playing all the roles in a classic adaptation: Andrew Scott in “Vanya,” Off-Broadway. There is a SECOND raved-about West End export — “A Streetcar Named Desire” starring Paul Mescal at BAM — and another new version of a classic with a starry cast, Ibsen’s Ghosts at Lincoln Center. There is a revue showcasing the unknown songs of Rent composer Jonathan Larson.
There are TWO shows about a fading movie queen trying to make a comeback, several epic works of puppetry, a play about Leonard Bernstein, a play about Sumo wrestlers….
The calendar below is organized chronologically by opening date*, or first performance, but we must consider the dates subject to change, thanks to the continuing vagaries of COVID-19, and the normal serendipity of live theater.
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 ⬜️ . Concert 🎶
Puppetry: Brown 🟫 Opera: Purple🟪 Free 🆓
March 1
🟩As Time Goes By (Out of the Box Theatrics)
In this play by Danny Brown, two gay men who hook up from Grindr are trapped in a snowstorm, forcing them to do the previously unimaginable: learn each other’s names
March 1 – 23
March 4
🟦March Forth (PACNYC)
Written and performed by Reginald Dwayne Betts, the one-day-only production chronicles his transformation from solitary confinement to poet, lawyer, and promoter of the rights of prisoners.
March 5
🟦Sumo (Public Theater)
In a Tokyo sumo stable, six wrestlers clash over ambition, honor, and the dreams they chase. Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring , directed by Ralph B. Peña, a co-production of Ma-Yi Theater Company and La Jolla Playhouse
February 20 – March 30
March 7
🟫Metamorphoses (or A Few Ways of Keeping a Child from Running Around at His Great Uncle’s Funeral)(Krymov Lab at La MaMa ETC)
A dark comic romp bursting with puppets, high anxiety, and dubious life lessons, which follows a beleaguered parent and his naturally restless child on a boisterous and harrowing journey. The latest work by the great exiled Russian director Dmitry Krymov known for his physical clowning and alluring off-kilter anarchy.
March 7 – 23
🟫The Magic of Light (Yara Arts Group at La MaMa ETC)
A young man embarks on a lifelong quest to record, preserve and illuminate Ukrainian traditions against the tremendous pressures of history.
March 7 – 16
🟦Upside Down (AMT)
In a world very unlike our own, two gay songwriters decide to challenge cultural norms by creating the first-ever Broadway show about a straight couple, in this musical with songs by Al Tapper and a book by Tony Sportiello
March 5 – April 5
March 9
🟦Platinum Dreams (York at Theatre at St. Jean’s)
A musical about a 1940s movie star hoping to make a comeback by recording her first-ever solo album in the 1970s. Part of the York’s New2ny series
March 8 – 16
March 10
🟦Ghosts (Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E Newhouse Theater)
A new version of Ibsen’s scathing critique of 19th century morality, centered on the dark doings of the Alving family, involving adultery, venereal disease, incest and euthanasia. Theatergoers who saw the recent production of “An Enemy of the People” should know Ibsen wrote that play in response to the condemnation he received for this scandalous earlier play. This version by Mark O’Rowe and directed by Jack O’Brien features an intriguing cast – Lily Rabe, Billy Crudup, Hamish Linklater, Levon Hawke (Ethan and Uma’s kid) and Ella Beatty (Warren and Annette’s).
February 13 – April 13.
🟦The Jonathan Larson Project (Orpheum)
A revue celebrating the life and legacy of Rent composer Jonathan Larson, with his unknown songs performed by Adam Chanler-Berat, Taylor Iman Jones and Jason Tam.
February 14 – June 1
March 11
🟦A Streetcar Named Desire (BAM’s Harvey Theater)
A revival of Tennessee Williams’ play about Blanche’s arrival at her sister Stella’s doorstep, desperate and out of options, which sparks the resentment of Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski. An export from London, where it won Olivier Awards for the production and two of its stars, including Paul Mescal as the brutish Stanley
February 28 – April 6
March 13
🟦Malaise dans la civilisation (PACNYC)
Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage shake up both theatrical and social norms experimenting with the porous border between the stage and audience
March 13 – 22
🟩Ammigone (The Flea)
Ansil Monsoor once close bond with his mother was broken when she discovered he was gay. In an effort at repair, he enlisted her to examine and translate Sophocles’ Antigone into Urdu
March 13 – April 7
March 15
Song of the North (New Victory Theater)
During a time of fragile peace between rival kingdoms, the princess Manijeh must summon all her strength and skills to rescue her beloved, Bijan, from a perilous predicament of her own making. Can their love quiet the drumbeat of war? Shadows from 9 performers and 483 handmade puppets play against stunning animated projections
March 15 – 23
March 16
Last Call (New World Stages)
In this play by Peter Danish, classical music legends and rivals Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan share one last drink in Vienna.
March 12 – May 4
March 17
🟥PURPOSE (Helen Hayes Theater)
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and directed by Phylicia Rashad, a cast of six — LaTanya Richardson, Kara Young, Alana Arena -:Harry Lennix, Glenn Davis, and Jon Michael Hill – portay the members of the
the influential Jasper family who far decades has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home to Illinois with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning. “Purpose” had its world premiere in March 2024 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater.
February 25 – July 6
March 18
🟦Vanya (Lucille Lortel)
Andrew Scott portrays all the characters in an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, a play about a group of characters’ life regrets and unrequited love.
March 11 – May 4
March 19
🟥BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (Schoenfeld)
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Julio Monge, Mel Semé, Isa Antonetta repeat their performances in a musical inspired by the 1996 album with fifteen classic Cuban songs performed in Spanish. My review of the production when it was Off-Broadway in 2023.
February 21 – ?
🟦We Had A World (MTC at NY City Center)
A dying woman calls her grandson and asks him to write a play about their family. “But I want you to promise me something,” she says. “Make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible.” Joshua Harmon ( Prayer for the French Republic) recreates thirty years of family fights and love.
Feb 25 – April 27
🟩Untitled Miniature (HERE)
Over eight days Joshua William Gelb will be trapped naked in a tiny box for 24 non-consecutive hours and streamed live to the internet. This immersive performance art installation will be presented live in-person at HERE’s DOT theater, and live-streamed on HERE’s digital platform URHERE (http://URHERE.art).
March 18 – 25
March 20
🟥OPERATION MINCEMEAT (John Golden Theater)
Written and composed by the comedy group, SpitLip (David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts)the Olivier Award winning musical is based on the improbable true story of a successful British operation in World War II to deceive the Germans before the Allied invasion of Sicily by dressing up a corpse as if it had been an officer of the Royal Marines and planting a fake letter between two generals that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia.
February 15 – July 13
March 22
🟩The Trojans (Loading Dock Theater at the cell)
an 1980s style synthwave musical adaptation of The Iliad by Leegrid Stevens
March 19 – April 19
March 23
🟥OTHELLO (Barrymore Theater)
Denzel Washington plays Othello and Jake Gyllenhaal Iago in Shakespeare’s tragedy of jealousy and deception in this production directed by Kenny Leon.. A production of the play was last on Broadway four decades ago starring James Earl Jones.
February 24 – June 8
March 26
🎶Love Life (Encores at City Center)
A concert version of the 1948 musical by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner that depicts a love story that takes place over 200 years of American history, through the eyes of a couple who never ages, played by Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!) and Nicholas Christopher (Encores! Jelly’s Last Jam).
March 26-30
March 27
🟥THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Music Box Theater_
Adapted and directed by Kip Williams, and starring Sarah Snook, the star of the HBO series “Succession,” who takes on all 26 roles in this adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel about a man who stays looking young, while his portrait turns evil and ugly.
March 10 – June 15
March 31
🟥GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (The Palace)
Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean star in the fourth Broadway production of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about cutthroat Chicago real estate office where four salespeople compete to keep their jobs selling mostly worthless properties to unwitting customers. Directed by Patrick Marber
March 10 – May 31
*Opening Night
This selection of plays 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 March, but officially open next month will be featured in the April 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. Off-Off Broadway tends to have shorter runs and much lower ticket prices
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.
