The capital of the American theater promises to be in absolutely pulsing form this fall. If that sounds like hype, just look at the breadth and depth of this sampling of what’s coming up on New York City stages. Stars? Check. Comfort? Check. Distraction? Check. Also classics and new work, domestic and imported, alongside drama that speaks — and sings — to this cultural moment.
Broadway
‘ART’ This genteel comedy by the French playwright Yasmina Reza (“God of Carnage”) is a perennial magnet for boldface-name casts. Neil Patrick Harris plays Serge, whose purchase of an exorbitantly expensive white-on-white painting becomes a point of conflict among him and his old friends, the easily nettled Marc (Bobby Cannavale) and the conciliatory Yvan (James Corden). Scott Ellis directs Christopher Hampton’s translation. (Through Dec. 21, Music Box Theater)
‘PUNCH’ A young man (Will Harrison) decks a stranger, goes to prison for manslaughter, then agrees to a meeting with his victim’s parents (Victoria Clark and Sam Robards) in this drama by the British playwright James Graham (“Ink”), based on Jacob Dunne’s memoir. Adam Penford, director of the play’s 2024 world premiere and this fall’s West End production, stages it for Manhattan Theater Club. (Sept. 9-Nov. 2, Samuel J. Friedman Theater)
‘WAITING FOR GODOT’ Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, paired for all eternity in the “Bill and Ted” cinematic universe, team up anew as Estragon and Vladimir in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Samuel Beckett’s existential tragicomedy. With Michael Patrick Thornton, a standout in Lloyd’s “A Doll’s House,” as Lucky, and Brandon J. Dirden as Pozzo. (Sept. 13-Jan. 4, Hudson Theater)
‘RAGTIME’ Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, Brandon Uranowitz and Shaina Taub, all alumni of Lear deBessonet’s New York City Center gala staging last year, reprise their roles in this Lincoln Center Theater production of the musical by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens and Terrence McNally. Based on the E.L. Doctorow novel, it follows three families from disparate social strata chasing the American dream at the turn of the 20th century. (Sept. 26-Jan. 4, Vivian Beaumont Theater)
‘LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD’ Laurie Metcalf returns to Broadway, and so does the producer Scott Rudin, with this addition to the playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s Idaho oeuvre. As she did in the drama’s 2024 premiere at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Metcalf plays a nurse reunited with her estranged nephew (Micah Stock) after his father’s death. Joe Mantello directs. (Oct. 7-Feb. 15, Booth Theater)
‘BEETLEJUICE’ The third Broadway outing for Alex Timbers’s staging of this poltergeist musical has an unusual wrinkle: It is performed by the national touring company, fresh off the road. David Korins’s set and William Ivey Long’s costumes, though, will be eye-popping old familiars. (Oct. 8-Jan. 3, Palace Theater)
‘LIBERATION’ Bess Wohl’s bittersweet comic memory play, an Off Broadway hit earlier this year, slips between the present and 1970, when, in the basement of an Ohio recreation center, the playwright’s mother meets with her feminist consciousness-raising group to try to change the world. Whitney White directs the original cast, led by Susannah Flood. (Oct. 8-Jan. 11, James Earl Jones Theater)
‘THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES’ Not everyone with money would spend it building a 90,000-square-foot family home inspired by the Palace of Versailles, but Jackie Siegel is emphatically not everyone. Kristin Chenoweth plays her in Stephen Schwartz and Lindsey Ferrentino’s new musical, opposite F. Murray Abraham as Jackie’s husband, David. Directed by Michael Arden, and based in part on the documentary of the same name. (Starts Oct. 8, St. James Theater)
‘CHESS’ The Tim Rice-Benny Andersson-Björn Ulvaeus musical that flopped in its original 1988 Broadway outing takes another shot. With a new book by Danny Strong, it stars Lea Michele, Nicholas Christopher and the Tony winner Aaron Tveit in a tale of American vs. Russian rivalry, set at the World Chess Championship. Michael Mayer, a Tony winner for “Spring Awakening,” directs. (Starts Oct. 15, Imperial Theater)
‘OEDIPUS’ Lesley Manville, who received a best actress Olivier Award this year for her performance as Jocasta, and Mark Strong, in the title role of her politician husband, headline this Olivier-winning Sophocles adaptation by the director Robert Icke, whose harrowing “Oresteia” at the Park Avenue Armory in 2022 demonstrated his razor-sharp skill with ancient Greek tragedy. (Oct. 30-Feb. 8, Studio 54)
‘TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)’ Robin, a native New Yorker, and Dougal, a Brit visiting the city for the first time for a wedding, topple into their own holiday rom-com in this musical by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, transferred from the West End. Directed by Tim Jackson, with set and costumes by Soutra Gilmour. (Starts Nov. 1, Longacre Theater)
‘MARJORIE PRIME’ An octogenarian rewrites her memories with the help of a youthful A.I. hologram of her dead husband in Jordan Harrison’s tender, futuristic comedy, which was adapted into a 2017 film. Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”), who staged the 2015 Off Broadway production, directs for Second Stage. (Nov. 20-Feb. 15, Helen Hayes Theater)
Off Broadway
‘THE OTHER AMERICANS’ John Leguizamo stars as the owner of a failing laundromat in Queens in this family drama, which he wrote. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs. (Sept. 11-Oct. 12, Public Theater)
‘PRINCE FAGGOT’ Jordan Tannahill’s recent hit for Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep, which imagines Prince George as a young gay man, transfers with its original ensemble cast, including David Greenspan, Mihir Kumar and, in the title role, John McCrea. Sept. 11-Oct. 26, Studio Seaview.
‘CAROLINE’ Amy Landecker, Chloë Grace Moretz and River Lipe-Smith star in Preston Max Allen’s new play about three generations of mothers and daughters in a fractured family. David Cromer directs. (Sept. 12-Oct. 19, MCC Theater)
‘WEATHER GIRL’ Drought, destruction and dark comedy all figure in Brian Watkins’s fast-paced climate-change monologue, starring Julia McDermott as a TV weather reporter on the verge. Tyne Rafaeli directs. (Sept. 16-Oct. 12, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘THE HONEY TRAP’ This drama by the Northern Irish playwright Leo McGann toggles between the Troubles and an American oral history project, which elicits memories of a 1979 encounter between some British soldiers and the Irish women they thought were into them. (Sept. 17-Nov. 9, Irish Repertory Theater)
‘AND THEN WE WERE NO MORE’ Elizabeth Marvel stars in this world-premiere play by Tim Blake Nelson, set in a near future in which a lawyer must represent a client who is labeled “beyond rehabilitation” and bound for death in a new execution machine. Mark Wing-Davey directs. (Sept. 19-Nov. 2, La MaMa)
‘THE LEAST PROBLEMATIC WOMAN IN THE WORLD’ Dylan Mulvaney, the actor who documented her gender transition on TikTok, performs in this autobiographical solo show. Tim Jackson directs. (Sept. 20-Nov. 30, Lucille Lortel Theater)
‘WEER’ The clown Natalie Palamides (“Nate”) plays both halves of a couple — one with the right side of her body, the other with the left — in this rom-com sendup that reopens a venerable downtown stage, now run by A24. (Sept. 20-Nov. 9, Cherry Lane Theater)
‘FLAMING SEPTEMBER’ The cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond pays tribute to Marianne Faithfull. Daniel Fish (“Oklahoma!”) directs for St. Ann’s Warehouse in its original Brooklyn home. (Sept. 24-28, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church)
‘FIGARO/FAGGOTS’ The novel “Faggots” and other texts by Larry Kramer are blended with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” in this theater-opera-dance piece by Kevin Carillo and Sean Forte, set on Fire Island in 1977 and recommended for age 18 and older. (Sept. 25-27, Baryshnikov Arts)
‘LET’S LOVE!’ Aubrey Plaza, Nellie McKay, Dylan Gelula and Mary Wiseman are among the cast of Ethan Coen’s collection of one-act comedies about love. Neil Pepe directs the world premiere for Atlantic Theater Company. (Sept. 25-Nov. 9, Linda Gross Theater)
‘ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS’ The composer Heather Christian’s intimate, mesmeric, enveloping work of music theater gets a revival, directed by Lee Sunday Evans. (Sept. 30-Nov. 16, Signature Theater)
‘NOTHING CAN TAKE YOU FROM THE HAND OF GOD’ Jen Tullock (“Severance”), who wrote the script with Frank Winters, plays all of the roles in this story of an author accused of lying in her memoir about growing up gay in the South. Jared Mezzocchi directs a production involving “multiple cameras and live looping systems.” (Oct. 2-26, Playwrights Horizons)
‘OH HAPPY DAY!’ The playwright-performer Jordan E. Cooper (“Ain’t No Mo’”) puts his own spin on the Noah’s Ark tale in this new comedy, which has original songs by Donald Lawrence. Stevie Walker-Webb directs. (Oct. 2-26, Public Theater)
‘KRAPP’S LAST TAPE’ Stephen Rea stars in this bleakly comic Samuel Beckett short about a man listening back on audiotapes he made of his life. Vicky Featherstone, the former head of the Royal Court Theater in London, directs. (Oct. 8-19, NYU Skirball)
‘KYOTO’ The high-stakes international negotiations that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change inspired this drama by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson (“The Jungle”), directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. This is the Royal Shakespeare Company-Good Chance production, presented by Lincoln Center Theater, with a cast that includes Stephen Kunken, Kate Burton and Roslyn Ruff. (Oct. 8-Nov. 30, Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater)
‘DID YOU EAT? (밥 먹었니?)’ Zoë Kim is both the writer and the performer of this autobiographical piece about Korean American identity. Chris Yejin directs for Ma-Yi Theater Company. (Oct. 14-Nov. 9, Public Theater)
‘ROMY & MICHELE: THE MUSICAL’ The Lisa Kudrow-Mira Sorvino buddy-comedy classic morphs from screen to stage, with a book by Robin Schiff and music and lyrics by Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay. Kristin Hanggi directs. (Starts Oct. 14, Stage 42)
‘QUEENS’ Brooke Bloom, Anna Chlumsky, Sharlene Cruz, Marin Ireland, Julia Lester, Nadine Malouf, Andrea Syglowski and Nicole Villamil tell this story of immigrant women sharing tight quarters in New York. Written by Martyna Majok, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Trip Cullman directs for Manhattan Theater Club. (Oct. 14-Nov. 30, New York City Center Stage 1)
‘ENDGAME’ The Tony winner Garry Hynes directs her venerable Druid company in Samuel Beckett’s tragicomic classic, starring Bosco Hogan, Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan and Marie Mullen, who won a Tony in Hynes’s production of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.” (Oct. 22-Nov. 23, Irish Arts Center)
‘LACRIMA’ The transcontinental creation of a wedding dress for a fictional European princess is the task for the many skilled hands in this theater piece by the French director Caroline Guiela Nguyen, whose interest is in the sometimes brutal work that goes into luxury. (Oct. 22-26, Harvey Theater at BAM Strong)
‘ARCHDUKE’ Patrick Page stars in Rajiv Joseph’s play about the world-altering assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the radicalization of young naïfs. Darko Tresnjak directs for Roundabout Theater Company. (Oct. 23-Dec. 21, Laura Pels Theater)
‘THE BURNING CAULDRON OF FIERY FIRE’ The playwright Anne Washburn and the director Steve Cosson, who gave the world “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” re-team for this world premiere, set in a Northern California community where people are trying to live off the land. Produced with the Civilians. (Oct. 23-Nov. 30, Vineyard Theater)
‘CADELA FORÇA TRILOGY, CHAPTER I: THE BRIDE AND THE GOODNIGHT CINDERELLA’ Part theater, part performance art, this is the Brazilian writer-director-performer Carolina Bianchi’s vivid examination of sexual violence against women. Recommended for age 18 and older. (Oct. 23-25, Powerhouse Arts)
‘THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS’ Ethan Lipton’s world-premiere musical comedy is based on Thornton Wilder’s apocalyptic classic, “The Skin of Our Teeth.” Leigh Silverman directs a cast that includes Ruthie Ann Miles, Shuler Hensley, Damon Daunno, Micaela Diamond, Amina Faye and Andy Grotelueschen. (Oct. 24-Nov. 30, Public Theater)
‘RICHARD II’ Michael Urie plays the title role in this reimagining of the Shakespeare play. Adapted and directed by Craig Baldwin for Red Bull Theater. (Oct. 28-Nov. 30, Astor Place Theater)
‘MARTHA@BAM — THE 1963 INTERVIEW’ Richard Move portrays the choreographer Martha Graham in this re-creation of an interview that she did onstage at the 92nd Street Y with the critic Walter Terry, played by Lisa Kron. (Oct. 28-Nov. 1, BAM Fisher)
‘BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL’ Taylor Trensch plays Edgar, a bitey bat-human-hybrid teenager, in this revival of Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O’Keefe’s cult-favorite musical comedy. Alex Timbers directs a cast that also features Kerry Butler, Andrew Durand, Alex Newell and Marissa Jaret Winokur. (Oct. 29-Nov. 9, New York City Center)
‘MEET THE CARTOZIANS’ History collides with satire in Talene Monahon’s play about ancestors and descendants in one Armenian American family, a century apart. Andrea Martin, Will Brill, Raffi Barsoumian, Nael Nacer, Susan Pourfar and Tamara Sevunts star in David Cromer’s production for Second Stage. (Oct. 29-Dec. 7, Pershing Square Signature Center)
‘THIS WORLD OF TOMORROW’ Tom Hanks stars as a time-traveling scientist in search of love in this new play, which Hanks and James Glossman adapted from Hanks’s short stories, borrowing the title from the theme of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Kenny Leon directs a cast that includes Kelli O’Hara, Jay O. Sanders and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. (Oct. 30-Dec. 21, the Shed)
‘PRACTICE’ In this comedy by Nazareth Hassan (“Bowl EP”), an avant-garde theater maker wants a group of actors to move into an old church in Brooklyn and create a performance piece about themselves. Keenan Tyler Oliphant directs. (Oct. 30-Dec. 7, Playwrights Horizons)
‘THE BAKER’S WIFE’ Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein’s long-troubled romantic musical had a tortuous journey to Broadway that ended before it arrived. This new production, starring Ariana DeBose in the title role that Patti LuPone played nearly a half-century ago, is by the director Gordon Greenberg, a devotee of the show, whose score includes “Meadowlark.” (Oct. 23-Dec. 14, Classic Stage Company)
‘LAOWANG: A CHINATOWN KING LEAR’ Alex Lin’s riff on Shakespeare involves a Chinatown restaurant owner with a precarious memory, her three grandchildren and a gentrifying developer who wants her out. Joshua Kahan Brody directs for Primary Stages. (Nov. 1-Dec. 14, 59E59 Theaters)
‘BURNT TOAST’ The Norwegian company Susie Wang makes its U.S. debut with this splatter-horror comic chamber piece that a critic for The New York Times described as “unclassifiable” and “unsettling,” but in a good way. (Nov. 5-8, NYU Skirball)
‘THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE’ Justin Cooley, Kevin McHale, Philippe Arroyo and Leana Rae Concepcion star in Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn’s Tony-winning musical comedy about middle schoolers vying for orthographic glory. Directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford. (Nov. 7-Feb. 15, New World Stages)
‘SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS’ For this concert staging, the book writer, John Guare, and the lyricist, Craig Carnelia, have revised their work on their 2002 musical, composed by Marvin Hamlisch. Directed and conducted by Ted Sperling for MasterVoices. (Nov. 21-22, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall)
‘THE SURGEON AND HER DAUGHTERS’ After a Marine sergeant major disappears on deployment, her grown daughters try to get their bearings without her in this New York City drama by Chris Gabo, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt for Colt Coeur. (Nov. 23-Dec. 20, Theater 154)
‘ANNA CHRISTIE’ Michelle Williams stars as a prostitute who holds the moralizing men in her life to account in this new production of the play that won Eugene O’Neill his second Pulitzer Prize, in 1922. With Tom Sturridge (“Sea Wall/A Life”) as the sailor Anna loves, and Brian d’Arcy James as her barge-captain father. Williams’s husband, Thomas Kail (“Hamilton”), directs. (Nov. 25-Feb. 1, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘TARTUFFE’ Matthew Broderick plays the title hypocrite in Lucas Hnath’s new version of the Molière comedy, whose blockbuster cast includes David Cross, Emily Davis, Bianca del Rio, Amber Gray, Ryan Haddad, Francis Jue, Lisa Kron and Ike Ufomadu. Sarah Benson directs. (Nov. 28-Jan. 11, New York Theater Workshop)
‘THE FAGGOTS AND THEIR FRIENDS BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS’ A celebratory music-theater cabaret, adapted from Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta’s 1977 queer manifesto by the director Ted Huffman and the composer Philip Venables, who first staged it in 2023. (Dec. 2-14, Park Avenue Armory)
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