Sprucing up long-running hits
Since its opening in 2019, the Off Broadway revival of “Little Shop of Horrors” has kept fresh thanks to a revolving door of grade-A talent. The current cast includes Nikki M. James (a Tony Award winner for “The Book of Mormon”) as Audrey and the three-time Tony nominee Andy Karl as the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello. (Westside Theater)
A few blocks away, Jon Cryer starts as Vice Principal Douglas Panch in the terrific revival of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” on May 11. (Through Sept. 6, New World Stages)
‘Have You Ever Thought About’
The Bushwick Starr is quite the successful incubator, nurturing three plays now (or soon) running Off Broadway: “Rheology” at Playwrights Horizons, “Animal Wisdom” at Signature Theater and “A Woman Among Women” at LCT3. Not resting on its laurels, it’s presenting Michael Oluokun’s new show, “Have You Ever Thought About,” which is framed as a workshop meant to help expand our minds. (Through May 16, the Bushwick Starr)
‘Indian Princesses’
Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s new play, a co-production with Rattlestick Theater, is inspired by her experience in a real-life Y.M.C.A. program that aimed to bond fathers and their children, and relied on what Rodriguez describes as “a complete bastardization of Native American culture.” (Through June 7, Atlantic Theater Company)
‘Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium’
You can be forgiven for never having heard of this Thornton Wilder play: It languished unfinished for decades until Kirk Lynn (a co-founder of the Texas collective Rude Mechs) completed it. The title establishment refers to a very special department store, and the cast of Rob Melrose’s production includes Candy Buckley. (Through June 7, Classic Stage Company)
‘Canciones’
This collectively hatched new play is the latest addition to the ever-growing ranks of immersive shows staged in private homes, in this case in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. Audience members are thrown into a rambunctious family reunion, complete with food and music — the title is a reference to the Linda Ronstadt album “Canciones de My Padres” (1987). (May 2-24, Radical Evolution)
‘Dad Don’t Read This’
Sadie Sink deservedly drew focus in “John Proctor Is the Villain,” but the entire cast was superb, so it’s nice to see Amalia Yoo, who played preacher’s daughter Raelynn, resurface in this new play by Eliya Smith (“Grief Camp”). Once again we are deep in the teenage world, this time with four friends who hold a weekly sleepover in Ohio. (May 4-24, St. Luke’s Theater)
‘Animal Wisdom’
In 2017, The New York Times’s Ben Brantley described this piece by Heather Christian (“Oratorio for Living Things”) as a “truly one-of-a-kind opus” with “an often rhapsodic musical style of cosmic gospel.” It’s now back in a production starring the sterling Kenita Miller (“for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf”). (May 5-June 14, Signature Theater)
In the Bricks Festival
New York Theater Workshop presents new solo shows: Liza Jessie Peterson investigates mass incarceration in “The Peculiar Patriot”; Kathryn Grody muses about being an aging boomer in “The Unexpected 3rd”; Leslie Ayvazian explores feminism and politics in “Mention My Beauty”; and Chris Grace’s “Sardines” is helpfully subtitled (a comedy about death). The festival also includes screenings of “The Horse of Jenin,” by the Palestinian actor and comedian Alaa Shehada. (May 5-June 14, New York Theater Workshop)
‘New Born’
After “Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes” last year, Hugh Jackman returns to the West Village in another Audible x Together production. Directed by Ian Rickson, this anthology of three monologues by Ella Hickson also stars Marianna Gailus and Sepideh Moafi (“The Pitt”). (May 8-June 8, Minetta Lane Theater)
‘Girls Chance Music’
The writer-performer Eisa Davis has a singular, poetic voice and often integrates music into her shows (she created the “Warriors” concept album with Lin-Manuel Miranda). Her new play focuses on four teenage girls attending a Bay Area summer music program. Pam McKinnon directs. (May 12-June 21, Vineyard Theater)
‘Girl, Interrupted’
Susanna Kaysen’s memoir about her time in a psychiatric institution continues to ripple. A film adaptation came out in 1999, and in 2021 Aimee Mann released “Queens of the Summer Hotel,” a concept album inspired by the book. Some of its songs resurface in Martyna Majok’s new play with music, which stars Juliana Canfield (“Stereophonic”) as Susanna and the pop star King Princess as the volatile Lisa. (May 13-June 21, Public Theater)
‘Jerome’
Following the acclaimed dark comedy “Wet Brain” (2023), the playwright John J. Caswell Jr. and the director Dustin Wills team up again for this Arizona-set story in which a gay couple (the excellent Tyrone Mitchell Henderson and Stephen Spinella) must deal with a stranger’s arrival. (May 14-June 21, Playwrights Horizons)
‘Obit.’
The popular actor Andrew Barth Feldman directs this new play by Trey Everett, in which a father-to-be confronts the legacy of his estranged dad, of unsound mind, churning up a whole lot of feelings. (May 14-30, East Village Basement)
‘Titans’
Clubbed Thumb’s beloved Summerworks series kicks off with Jesse Jae Hoon’s new play, which involves powers that may or may not be supernatural. The series has such a good track record developing shows (most recently with Ro Reddick’s “Cold War Choir Practice”) that it’s worth taking a risk on all of them. (May 14-26, Wild Project)
‘The Maids’
Yerin Ha is going from a maid on “Bridgerton” to mistress of the house in Jean Genet’s perverse classic, lording it over Phia Saban (“House of Dragons”) and Lydia Wilson as the title characters. Reviewing the London production, The Times praised the way the director Kip Williams (“The Picture of Dorian Gray”) turned the play into “a withering commentary on social media influencer culture.” (May 17-June 14, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘Can I Be Frank?’
Morgan Bassichis brings back his popular tribute to Frank Maya. That performance artist and comedian, who died of heart failure related to AIDS in 1995, was out at a time when few of his peers were, moving from avant-garde venues to Caroline’s and Comedy Central. It was not easy, to say the least. (May 21-June 27, SoHo Playhouse)
‘Romeo and Juliet’
Ra’Mya Latiah Aikens and Daniel Bravo Hernández take to the Delacorte stage as the doomed lovers under the direction of Saheem Ali (“Twelfth Night,” “Merry Wives”). The expert LaChanze as Lady Capulet, Deirdre O’Connell as Nurse and Francis Jue as Friar Laurence portray some of the adults in the room. (May 22-June 28, Shakespeare in the Park)
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