McNeal
Robert Downey Jr. makes his Broadway debut in this new drama by the Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced”), playing an esteemed novelist dangerously fascinated by artificial intelligence. This Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Bartlett Sher, has a cast that includes Ruthie Ann Miles and a scene-stealing Andrea Martin. (Through Nov. 24 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.) Read the review.
critic’s pick
Once Upon a Mattress
Sutton Foster stars as the intrepid swamp creature and formidably delicate sleeper Princess Winnifred, opposite Michael Urie as her man-toddler love interest, Prince Dauntless, in this revival of the composer Mary Rodgers’s musical comedy riff on “The Princess and the Pea.” Adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino, and directed by Lear deBessonet. With Ana Gasteyer as Queen Aggravain. (Through Nov. 30 at the Hudson Theater.) Read the review.
Critic’s Pick
Yellow Face
David Henry Hwang’s 2007 satire stars Daniel Dae Kim (“Lost”) as DHH, a fictional version of the playwright, navigating anti-Asian racism in the theater and culture, while — whoops — mistakenly casting a white actor in an Asian role. With Francis Jue sublimely reprising his Obie-winning performance as DHH’s father, Leigh Silverman directs this Roundabout Theater staging. (Through Nov. 24 at the Todd Haimes Theater.) Read the review.
Critic’s Pick
Water for Elephants
The world of the circus springs into three dimensions in this musical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel about a young man who joins a traveling circus during the Great Depression and bonds with an elephant. This is a spectacle, incorporating circus design and performers. (Through Dec. 8 at the Imperial Theater.) Read the review.
The Notebook
Twenty years after Nicholas Sparks’s debut novel became a silver-screen romance, its latest incarnation is this musical. The story of a couple, Allie and Noah, it stretches from their adolescence to old age, when she has dementia and he reads to her, hoping to rouse her memory. With a book by Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us”) and a score by the singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. (Through Dec. 15 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.) Read the review.
The Roommate
Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone return to Broadway as a newly acquainted odd couple, sharing an Iowa house and dabbling in crime in this darkly comic two-hander by Jen Silverman (“Spain”). Jack O’Brien directs. (Through Dec. 15 at the Booth Theater.) Read the review.
Critic’s Pick
The Hills of California
Jez Butterworth and Sam Mendes had a hit with their last Broadway collaboration, “The Ferryman.” Now they’ve teamed up for this time-toggling Butterworth play — substantially revised since its London premiere — about four English sisters whose mother raised them in the 1950s to have showbiz dreams, and who return home in the 1970s as she is dying. Laura Donnelly, a star of “The Ferryman,” leads the capacious cast. (Through Dec. 22 at the Broadhurst Theater.) Read the review.
Elf the Musical
In this song-filled adaptation of the Will Ferrell movie, a preternaturally festive, Christmas-loving misfit named Buddy travels to New York in search of his human father after a childhood spent on the North Pole, where he was raised as an oversize member of Santa Claus’s work force. Grey Henson, who received a Tony nomination for his exuberantly show-stealing performance in “Mean Girls,” plays Buddy, with Sean Astin (sweet, loyal Sam in “The Lord of the Rings”) as Santa Claus. Philip Wm. McKinley directs this new production. In previews at the Marquis Theater; opens Nov. 17. Limited run ends Jan. 4.)
Back to the Future: The Musical
The DeLorean is the star attraction in this adaptation of the 1985 comedy about a teenager who time-travels to the 1950s and meets his parents when they were his age. With Roger Bart as the eccentric inventor Doc Brown and Casey Likes as Marty McFly. (Through Jan. 5 at the Winter Garden Theater.) Read the review.
Suffs
Shaina Taub is nothing if not a politically minded artist, so it’s apt that she is making her Broadway debut during a presidential election year. The show, about American women’s fight for the right to vote, won two Tonys, for Taub’s book and score. In a cast that includes Jenn Colella, Nikki M. James, Grace McLean and Emily Skinner, Taub plays the suffragist leader Alice Paul. Significantly different from the 2022 version at the Public Theater, the musical is directed once again by Leigh Silverman. (Through Jan. 5 at the Music Box Theater.) Read the review.
Critic’s Pick
Stereophonic
David Adjmi’s riveting rock drama with songs by Will Butler won five 2024 Tony Awards, including best play. Set in the mid-1970s inside a pair of California recording studios, it follows a British-American band on the cusp of fame as they make their new album. (Through Jan. 12 at the John Golden Theater.) Read the review.
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