Let some brilliant theater artists — like Jeff Hiller in “Urinetown,” Susannah Flood in “Liberation” and Tonya Pinkins in “My First Ex-Husband” — tell you a story this month. Here are 10 shows to tempt you, Off Broadway and beyond.
‘Urinetown’
If you are allergic to bathroom humor, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann’s Tony Award-winning musical satire probably is not for you. Winkingly Brechtian, with echoes of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” it’s set in a dystopia where private toilets are illegal and public facilities charge for use — a situation ripe for rebellion. Directed by Teddy Bergman (“KPOP”) for New York City Center Encores!, this brief revival stars Jordan Fisher, Rainn Wilson, Keala Settle and Jeff Hiller. (Through Feb. 16, New York City Center)
‘Anywhere’
A marionette made of ice plays a wandering, melting, disappearing Oedipus accompanied by his daughter Antigone in this puppet piece by the French company Théâtre de l’Entrouvert, which uses bits of text from Henry Bauchau’s novel “Oedipus on the Road.” Conceived and directed by Élise Vigneron, whose interest in ephemerality has led her to work repeatedly with ice puppets, it is presented with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival as part of Basil Twist’s Dream Music Puppetry program. Recommended for ages 11 and up. (Through March 2, Here)
‘My Man Kono’
The New York Times once described Charlie Chaplin’s longtime assistant, Toraichi Kono, as “the keeper of his privacy.” An immigrant from Japan who made fleeting appearances in Chaplin films, this “combination valet, bodyguard and chauffeur” is the title character of Philip W. Chung’s historically based play, which follows Kono’s fortunes as he is suspected of espionage and imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. Jeff Liu directs the world premiere for Pan Asian Repertory Theater. (Through March 9, A.R.T./New York Theaters)
‘Grangeville’
This new two-hander by the Obie Award winner Samuel D. Hunter (“A Case for the Existence of God”) stars Brian J. Smith and Paul Sparks as estranged brothers with different fathers, discrete wounds and far-flung lives — one in their Idaho hometown, the other in a city thousands of miles away. But they have a shared filial task: caring for their sick mother. Jack Serio (“Uncle Vanya”) directs for Signature Theater. (Through March 16, Signature Theater)
‘Dakar 2000’
The Obie-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph (“Guards at the Taj”) spent three years serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal. That country is the setting for his new thriller, about a Peace Corps volunteer who finds himself under the protection of a State Department operative as the year 2000 approaches. May Adrales directs this world premiere for Manhattan Theater Club. (Through March 23, New York City Center)
‘Curse of the Starving Class’
The New Group can be relied on to sprinkle its shows with stars, and so it goes with this revival of Sam Shepard’s 1977 Obie winner, a poetic tragicomedy about a family living the flip side of the American dream. Directed by Scott Elliott, it’s led by Calista Flockhart as Ella Tate and Christian Slater as her drunken, combustible husband, Weston. Cooper Hoffman, whose father starred in Shepard’s “True West” on Broadway, plays their teenage son. (Through March 30, Pershing Square Signature Center)
‘Liberation’
Bess Wohl, who so deftly traced an older woman’s feminist awakening in her Broadway comedy, “Grand Horizons,” here tells a mother-daughter story, stretching from Ohio in 1970, during the era of women’s consciousness-raising groups, to a half-century later. In a world-premiere production for Roundabout Theater Company, Whitney White directs a cast that includes Betsy Aidem, Susannah Flood and Kristolyn Lloyd. The show contains nudity, and audience members are required to place their phones in locked pouches during the performance. (Through March 30, Laura Pels Theater)
‘My First Ex-Husband’
Rotating casts filled with boldface names are the lure for this collection of comic relationship stories written by Joy Behar, who performs them alongside Susie Essman, Tovah Feldshuh and Adrienne C. Moore through Feb. 23. Judy Gold, Susan Lucci, Tonya Pinkins and Cathy Moriarty take over from Feb. 26 to March 23, followed by Veanne Cox, Jackie Hoffman and Andrea Navedo, March 26 through April 20. Gina Gershon joins them from April 2 to April 20. (Manhattan Movement & Arts Center)
‘Safe House’
The Irish dramatist Enda Walsh, a St. Ann’s Warehouse favorite last seen there with his shattering “Medicine” in 2021, returns with this fractured memory play, woven through with original music by Anna Mullarkey. Directed by Walsh for the Abbey Theater in Dublin, it stars Kate Gilmore in an acclaimed performance. Walsh, a Tony winner for the musical “Once,” is drawn to explorations of abuse and its damages. This is one of those. (Feb. 15 through March 2, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘Mary Said What She Said’
The letters of Mary Stuart — the 16th-century Scottish queen whose own cousin Elizabeth I of England ordered her beheaded — form the basis of this 90-minute monologue about a life full of royal plots and scheming, spoken on the eve of her execution. Starring Isabelle Huppert and directed by the avant-gardist Robert Wilson, this highly stylized production is the third time Huppert has starred in a show of Wilson’s. Written by Darryl Pinckney, with a classical score by Ludovico Einaudi, it is performed in French with English supertitles. (Feb. 27 through March 2, NYU Skirball)
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