Below is a calendar of theater opening* in May, including some starry plays Off-Broadway (Hugh Jackman as a leering professor, Amber Iman as a goddess, Liev Schreiber as a homewrecker) as well as some cutting edge theater Off-Off Broadway, the return of several festivals, a couple of hip operas (one cheap, one free) and the first traces of the summer theater season. So, while nothing is scheduled to open on Broadway this month, theatergoers need not spend May just catching up on the shows of the Broadway season that just ended, or debating the steady announcements of nominations and awards.
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 challenges and 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/site-specific: Silver ⬜️ . Concert 🎶 Puppetry: Brown 🟫 Opera: Purple🟪 Free (or “choose what you pay”) 🆓
May 1
🟩Fat Cat Killers (Gene Frankel)
In this play by Adam Szymkowicz, Michael and Steve have just gotten laid off. So they have decided to kidnap the CEO of the company who laid them off.
Through May 17
May 4
🟦United States vs. Ulysses (Irish Art Center)
A bawdy courtroom drama by Colin Murphy dramatizing the true story of the New York trial that liberated James Joyce’s seminal novel from American censorship
through June 1.
May 5
🟧🆓 Scena! Italian Theater Festival
A free festival now in its 12th season, presenting nine plays from Italy in Italian with English supertitles, including an adaptation of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. The opening night play is “Lampedusa Beach,” written by Lina Prosa, performed by Nadia Kibout about the difficult journey of a young migrant woman from Africa
May 4 – 19
May 8
🟦Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes * (Minetta Lane Theater)
Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty star in Hannah Moscovitch’s play about an acclaimed novelist and professor at the end of his third marriage and his dangerous interaction with his 19-year-old student. The show will start to run in repertory with Creditors (see May 10.
April 28 – June 18
🟩Those Who Remained (La MaMa ETC)
A multimedia solo show by Sophia Gutchinov, who explores the profound depths of love through a deeply personal lens of Indigenous ceremony and modern dating.
May 8 – 18
May 9
🟩A(u)nts (The Brick)
Three middle-aged aunts who work in a dentist’s office are liberated by a line of ants, largely childless, largely female, rigorously organized societies who can serve as human role models.
May 8 – 25
May 10
🟦Creditors (Minetta Lane)
Liev Schreiber, Maggie Siff and Justice Smith star in Jen Silverman adaptation of Strindberg’s play about sexual triangle involving a young malleable painter, his older wife, and the stranger who comes between them.
May 10 – June 18
May 13
🟦The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (New Group at Signature)
Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, the team that brought us Circle Jerk, create a musical in which three Gen Z internet sleuths investigate the mysterious disappearance of Coco, an early 2000’s one-hit wonder, leading them to uncover the truth and rewrite pop history.
April 22 – June 8
May 15
🟩Revolution (Flea Theater)
Puff is celebrating her 26th birthday, hanging out in the alley behind her hair salon with her best friend and an unexpected eccentric employee, when things take a turn.
May 13 – June 7
🟪🟫Faust (Heartbeat Opera at Baruch)
A brand new 100-minute adaptation by Jacob Ashworth and Sara Holdren (theater critic at New York Magazine), sung in French with new English dialogues
May 13 – 25
May 16
🟩Seagull: True Story (La MaMa ETC)
Alexander Molochnikov, a theater and film director who spoke against Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and moved to NYC, tells the story of a director at the Moscow Art Theater with a similar story, who starts resembling the character of Treplov in Chekhov’s play “Seagull,” which he had been directing.
May 16 – June 1
May 18
🟦Bowl EP (Vineyard Theater)
In this play written and directed by Nazareth Hassan, two rappers grow increasingly close. Skating and Smoking. Skating and Drinking. Skating and exorcizing a demon. With live skating and original music. A co-production with National Black Theatre, in association with The New Group.
May 1 – June 8
🟩Outraged Hearts (The Fire Weeds at Houghton Hall)
A double bill of two early works by Tennessee Williams: Interior: Panic, a precursor to A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Pretty Trap, an early comedic iteration of The Glass Menagerie.
May 15 – 30
May 20
🟦Goddess (Public Theater)
In this musical with songs by Michael Thurber and a book by Saheem Ali based on the myth of Marimba, a mysterious singer (Amber Iman) arrives at Moto Moto, a steamy Afro-jazz club in Mombasa, Kenya. She casts an entrancing spell on everyone, including a young man who has returned home from studying in America. Will the big plans for his life—stepping into a political legacy and marrying his fiancée—be upended?
April 29 – June 1
May 21
🟧🟫Puppetopia (HERE Arts)
The fourth annual festival led by master puppet artist Basil Twist has commissioned three contemporary adult puppet works: The Harlem Doll Palace (inspired by the true story of Aunt Len’s Doll and Toy Museum,), Rhynoceron (which traces the true events surrounding the arrival of a one-horned rhinoceros to Renaissance Europe), Variations On (the) Water (Lake Simons’ lyrical embodiment of the sea.)
May 21 – June 1
May 26
🟧Rehearsal for Truth Festival (Bohemian National Hall)
The annual showcase of contemporary Central and Eastern European theater is this year entitled Perseverance and features some dozen works, including “Blood, Sweat and Queers” a new Czech drama by Tomas Dianiška inspired by the life of the successful athlete Zdenek Koubek (1913-1986), a record-holding “wonder woman” in the 1930s who transitioned into male.
May 26 – June 15
May 28
⬜️The Waiting Room (Mabou Mines)
A test run of this AI-driven immersive theater before its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival this summer.
“Participants enter a liminal “waiting space” and receive a confidential message from their future self. As generative AI unveils alternate histories and imagined futures, each decision reshapes a personalized audio-led story layered with moral dilemmas, global crises, and existential dreams.”
May 28 – June 1
May 29
🟪The Counterfeit Opera: A Beggar’s Opera For A Grifter’s City (Little Island)
A new adaptation of John Gay’s A Beggar’s Opera of 1728 (which was also the inspiration for Brecht/Weil’s Three-Penny Opera), which criticizes corruption and skewers politicians. The cast includes Ann Harada and Lauren Patten. It sets the antihero robber Macheath in the streets of 1850s Manhattan.
The show marks the opening of the new season at Little Island
May 29 – June 15
May 30
🟦Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (Public Theater)
Julia Masli’s touring solo show is improvised based on audience participation
*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 May, but officially open next month will be featured in the June calendar.)
(There is a new wrinkle to this, shows that have “embargo” dates — when critics can run their reviews — that are later than the opening night. I will list those shows on the date the embargo is lifted, and put an asterisk next to the title.)
Check out my updated article on all this: What is Broadway Opening Night? How it’s changed, why it matters.
