‘Are You Now or Have You Ever Been’
Anna D. Shapiro directs a rotating-cast revival of Eric Bentley’s transcript-based play about the 1940s House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings. Brooks Ashmanskas, Steven Boyer and Michael McKean are part of the core ensemble, with Andrew McCarthy, Jay O. Sanders, Billy Eugene Jones, Thomas Sadoski, Bob Odenkirk and Molly Ringwald among the slated guest stars. (Through Sept. 11, New York City Center Stage I)
‘Blooming in Dry Season’
New Federal Theater teams up with North Carolina Black Repertory Company to produce this new play by Eljon Wardally. With original calypso music by Etienne Charles, it’s set in Grenada, where a steel pan player’s parents disagree over her future. (Through June 28, WP Theater)
Clubbed Thumb Summerworks
At this annual festival of often oddball new plays, Annie Tippe directs Nadja Leonhard-Hooper’s “Derangements” (through June 12), with Crystal Finn among the actors and costumes by Brenda Abbandandolo, a current Tony nominee. Wrapping up the season, Tara Ahmadinejad directs Bailey Williams’s “The Family Dog” (June 18-30), with Sarah Steele in the cast. (Through June 30, Wild Project)
‘Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody’
Starring a glowering Jay Armstrong Johnson as Ilya and a darling Jimin Moon as Shane, this daffily clever comedy hits the sweet spot. Written by Dylan MarcAurele and directed by Alan Kliffer, it’s a sendup of the HBO Max drama, making affectionate fun of its borrowed tale of tortured love, hot sex and hockey while rooting for its heroes’ happiness. (Through Sept. 7, Culture Club)
‘I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!!’
Wedding culture is among the targets of this stressed-out comedy by Catherine Weingarten, in which a newly minted fiancée forges through the morass of event planning, aided by a prince on a unicorn. Alex Tobey directs the world premiere. (Through June 21, the Tank)
‘Shell’
True, we’ve already suggested one hockey-and-desire comedy. Here’s another, a queer, satirical solo show by Ana Evans and Linnea Scott, in which Scott plays a hockey bro giving sex ed instruction. The Scotsman newspaper admiringly described it as “part play, part interactive workshop.” Caution: Audience participation involved. (Through June 7, SoHo Playhouse)
‘North Star’
The speeches that the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass made during a visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, inspired this music and spoken-word show, created and directed by Kwame Daniels. Heads up: Most of the audience stands throughout. (June 3-21, Irish Arts Center)
Sugar Sugar!
Now in its second year, this weeknight outdoor performance festival puts experimental puppetry, dance and performance art onstage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the waterfront amphitheater at Domino Square. Admission is free. (June 3-25, Domino Park)
‘Rent’
The neuro-inclusive Epic Players perform Jonathan Larson’s “La Bohème”-inspired rock musical, directed by Travis Burbee and Cassidy Kaye. (June 4-20, A.R.T./New York Theaters)
‘Birthright’
Fresh off his riotous production of “Mother Russia,” Teddy Bergman stages this play by Jonathan Spector (“Eureka Day”), about a group of longtime friends who years ago took a Birthright trip to Israel. The cast includes Eli Gelb (“Stereophonic”). (June 5-July 12, MCC Theater)
‘Henry VI’
This is don’t-miss-it Shakespeare from the National Asian American Theater Company: a remount of its gripping 2018 production, whose bloody power-struggle action occurs between the events of “Henry V” and “Richard III.” The adapter-director Stephen Brown-Fried has condensed the mammoth trilogy into two parts played in rep by a thrilling cast that includes Jon Norman Schneider as Henry VI, Mia Katigbak as Gloucester, Rajesh Bose as York, Julyana Soelistyo as Richard and Teresa Avia Lim as Margaret, Shakespeare’s most fascinating woman. (June 9-July 19, Public Theater)
‘The Last Ship’
Sting stars as the ailing foreman of a declining shipyard in this revised version of his musical, which went to Broadway in 2014 and now has new songs and a new book by Barney Norris. (June 9-14, Metropolitan Opera)
Criminal Queerness Festival
New work by Palestinian, Egyptian and Syrian theater makers takes the stage in this year’s edition of the festival from National Queer Theater, which focuses on artists from countries where queerness is criminalized or subjected to censorship. (June 10-27, Here Arts Center)
‘Furniture Boys’
The writer-performer Emily Weitzman’s surreal feminist comedy envisions past boyfriends as household objects. The Guardian called the solo show “a very well-made play,” noting Weitzman’s “off-kilter energy that recalls Kristen Schaal and Chelsea Peretti.” (June 11-13, SoHo Playhouse)
‘Camping’
Two best friends, a single tent, a decades-spanning relationship. Colby Minifie and Alice Kremelberg star in the world premiere of Victoria Lynne Barclay’s play, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt for Colt Coeur. (June 13-July 11, Here Arts Center)
‘The Loved Ones’
Alana Raquel Bowers (“Cold War Choir Practice”), Donna Lynne Champlin, Clare O’Malley and Maryann Plunkett perform Erica Murray’s play about four women who meet in an Irish farmhouse, two grieving the same man, another expecting a new life. (June 13-Aug. 2, Irish Repertory Theater)
‘A Walk on the Moon’
The 1999 romance movie starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen inspired this new musical adaptation, set in the Catskills in the summer of 1969, when a married woman lets herself feel some freedom. Directed by Sheryl Kaller, it has a book by Pamela Gray, who wrote the screenplay, and music and lyrics by AnnMarie Milazzo. (June 15-Aug. 22, Laura Pels Theater)
‘Pea Dinneen: Raising Her Voice’
A mini memoir of trans life and liberation, set to pop music. When Pea Dinneen performed this show at Dublin Fringe Festival in 2025, The Irish Times gave it five stars, calling it an “eloquent cabaret play.” (June 16-28, Irish Repertory Theater)
‘La Cage aux Folles’
Billy Porter stars as the drag artist Albin opposite Wayne Brady as his partner, Georges, in Robert O’Hara’s Encores! staging of Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman’s musical comedy. The all-Black cast includes Tonya Pinkins, James Jackson Jr., Peter Francis James, Sharon Washington and Lance Coadie Williams. (June 17-28, New York City Center)
‘The Tune Up: A Juneteenth Celebration’
The playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is also a musician. In her “Tune Up” series of performances with her band, the Joyful Noise, she mixes music, dance and microplays, along with smart patter and vibrant guest artists. Crystal Lucas-Perry is on tap for this one, directed and choreographed by Niegel Smith. The show intends to be a balm. And it’s free. (June 19, David Rubenstein Atrium)
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