The Grim Reaper gets a musical, and Brian Cox stars in a play about Bach. Bess Wohl’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Liberation” embarks on a post-Broadway life, Suzan-Lori Parks’s “Topdog/Underdog” is almost omnipresent, and Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” hikes up its hoop skirts to crisscross the nation. An abundance of theater awaits this fall in these United States. Here’s a sampling.
Northeast
‘THE SNOW GOOSE’ An artist in coastal England, a neighbor who intrudes on his solitude, a wounded bird they help to heal: Paul Gallico’s 1941 novella is the basis for this new musical by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie. (Through Oct. 18, the Goodspeed, East Haddam, Conn.)
‘THE GETAWAY DRIVER’ Two lives are forever linked by a man’s murder in Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston’s crime drama, inspired by the true story of the victim’s daughter and the getaway car driver turned fugitive. (Sept. 3—Oct. 4, Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, R.I.; Oct. 29—Nov. 22, Central Square Theater, Cambridge, Mass.)
‘HORSEGIRL & COWDADDY’ A 30-something trans woman falls in love in this new play by DJ Hills. Adil Mansoor directs. (Sept. 22—Oct. 4, Wilma Theater, Philadelphia)
‘A BEAT OF OUR OWN’ A team of misfits steps into the world of competitive bhangra dance in this musical comedy, formerly titled “Bhangin’ It,” by Rehana Lew Mirza, Mike Lew and Sam Willmott. Stafford Arima directs; Rujuta Vaidya choreographs. (Oct. 7-25, McCarter Theater Center, Princeton, N.J.)
‘PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, PART 2: NAPOLEON AT PEMBERLEY’ Napoleon Bonaparte, past his peak, is the Darcys’ surprise houseguest in Ken Ludwig’s new riff on Jane Austen. Emily Mann directs. (Oct. 20—Nov. 7, Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Conn.)
‘1972’ In this world-premiere rock opera by Jessie Nelson (“Waitress”) and Chadwick Stokes, a pregnant teenager who is fleeing abuse meets an underground women’s network. (Oct. 27—Nov. 22, American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Mass.)
‘ANNIE’ Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin’s musical about the redheaded orphan is 50 this year. Of the myriad productions out there, this one is happening where the show had its premiere. Emily Skinner stars as Miss Hannigan, and Jenn Thompson directs. (Oct. 30—Dec. 27, the Goodspeed, East Haddam, Conn.)
‘THE PRICE’ Two estranged brothers, the one who left and the one who stayed, reunite over the sale of their dead father’s furniture in this Arthur Miller play, directed by Ralph B. Peña (“The Chinese Lady”) for Long Wharf Theater. (Oct. 30—Nov. 22, Legacy Theater, Branford, Conn.)
‘WATCH ME WALK’ The experimental theater maker Anne Gridley, a founding member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, puts her physical disability center stage in this rigorously unsentimental, acerbically funny show. (Nov. 14—Dec. 5, Yale Repertory Theater, New Haven, Conn.)
‘ADIA & CLORA SNATCH JOY’ Mfoniso Udofia finishes her nine-play Ufot Family Cycle with this new folk opera about two grown daughters, set in South Carolina. Music is by Michael Ellis Ingram; Awoye Timpo directs. (Nov. 24—Dec. 13, Huntington Theater, Boston)
South
‘THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOR’ The company Step Afrika! marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding with a reflection, in dance, on what it is to build a country and to believe in it. (Sept. 10—Nov. 1, Arena Stage, Washington)
‘THE SCORE’ What’s a theater season without a “Succession” star in it? Brian Cox plays Johann Sebastian Bach in Trevor Nunn’s production of this historical drama by Oliver Cotton. Nunn has reassembled most of his West End cast, including Cox’s wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox, as Bach’s wife, Anna. (Sept. 11—Oct. 25, Shakespeare Theater Company, Washington)
‘WISH YOU WERE HERE’ The Pulitzer winner Sanaz Toossi’s bittersweet friendship comedy about a group of Iranian women stretches from the 1970s to the ’90s, through revolution and war. (Sept. 23—Nov. 1, Studio Theater, Washington)
‘NIKOLA’ The rise of the intensely eccentric engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla is the subject of this new musical by Benjamin Halstead and Nikko Benson. (Oct. 2—Nov. 29, Arena Stage, Washington)
‘LIKE FATHER’ A true-crime podcast makes public a family’s past in this folk-pop musical by Jacob Ryan Smith and Caroline Pernick. (Oct. 8—Nov. 15, Alliance Theater, Atlanta)
‘GANDHI AND THE JEW’ The friendship between Gandhi and the South African architect Hermann Kallenbach is the subject of Harley Elias’s new play, directed by Margot Bordelon for Miami New Drama. (Nov. 5-29, Colony Theater, Miami Beach)
‘PRIMA FACIE’ In this solo play by Suzie Miller, a criminal lawyer who defends men accused of sexual assault finds herself on a starkly different side of the legal system, and unlikely to prevail, after a male colleague rapes her. (Nov. 13—Jan. 17, 2027, Arena Stage, Washington)
‘CULT OF LOVE’ Before you gather the clan to see this together over the holidays, a small heads-up: Leslye Headland’s sharp comedy, filled with seasonal music, is also brimming with familial dysfunction. Proceed with caution. (Nov. 18—Dec. 27, Round House Theater, Bethesda, Md.)
‘WILDERNESS GENERATION’ Four cousins descend on their grandmother’s house, where they trawl through memories and traumas, in this play by the Pulitzer winner James Ijames (“Fat Ham”). Taibi Magar directs. (Nov. 18—Jan. 3, 2027, Studio Theater, Washington)
Central
‘THE FRONT PAGE’ Jeffrey Hatcher adapts a Chicago-set classic: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s nearly century-old comedy about scoop-driven reporters on the crime beat. “S.N.L.” alum alert: The cast includes Tim Kazurinsky. (Sept. 9—Oct. 18, Northlight Theater, Evanston, Ill.)
‘THE HUMANITIES’ Victory Gardens Theater stirs back to life with a world-premiere play by Zayd Ayers Dohrn. It’s set at an elite university where controversy erupts among the faculty and students. (Sept. 10—Oct. 4, Biograph Theater, Chicago)
‘COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE’ The 10-year-old daughter of a former Black Panther is at the center of Ro Reddick’s whip-smart spy-games comedy with choral music, set at Christmastime in 1987. (Sept. 12—Oct. 11, Main Street Theater, Houston)
‘KOWALSKI’ Spun from history, Gregg Ostrin’s play stars Johnny Galecki (“The Big Bang Theory”) as Tennessee Williams, sizing up a young Marlon Brando, who might just be the perfect pretty brute for Williams’s new drama, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” (Sept. 15—Oct. 25, Lookingglass Theater Company, Chicago)
‘TALK’ Theresa Rebeck takes aim at the chaotic media landscape in this new satire. (Sept. 26—Oct. 25, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park)
‘THE MONSTERS’ A skilled fighter whose moniker is “The Monster” and the little sister he was close to when they were young reconnect through boxing in this time-hopping two-hander by Ngozi Anyanwu. (Oct. 9—Nov. 1, Dallas Theater Center)
‘KUNENE AND THE KING’ A Black caregiver tends to a white actor preparing to play King Lear in this drama written by and starring John Kani, set in post-apartheid South Africa. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs. (Oct. 10—Nov. 8, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis)
‘TITUBA’ The British playwright Winsome Pinnock reimagines the story of Tituba — the real 17th-century enslaved woman whom Arthur Miller made a peripheral character in “The Crucible” — in this monologue, getting its U.S. premiere. (Dec. 10-20, Court Theater, Chicago)
West
‘THE COOK’ A woman makes a promise as her employers flee Cuba, and then spends 40 years keeping it by safeguarding their mansion for them. David Mendizábal (“Mexodus”) directs Eduardo Machado’s play. (Sept. 4—Oct. 11, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Berkeley, Calif.)
‘BEGIN AGAIN’ A songwriter and a producer at personal low points spark creatively in this adaptation of John Carney’s 2014 movie. The book is by Jenna Clark Embrey and Molly Beach Murphy, with an original score by Pat Monahan and the band Train. Lorin Latarro directs; David Neumann choreographs. (Sept. 6—Oct. 11, Old Globe, San Diego)
‘THE VISIT’ Jefferson Mays stars in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ruthless comedy, adapted by Maurice Valency, in which morally repugnant behavior — murdering a neighbor, say — becomes socially acceptable when the payday is rich enough. Darko Tresnjak directs. (Sept. 9—Oct. 4, Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, Calif.)
‘WILD CHILD’ At a wilderness therapy program in Utah, two teens become friends in this new pop musical by Dan Marshall and Julianne Wick Davis. (Sept. 9—Oct. 4, Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Beach, Calif.)
‘NORTH BY NORTHWEST’ A spy caper with music and dance, Emma Rice’s take on the classic Alfred Hitchcock film comes to the Bay Area. (Sept. 22—Oct. 18, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco)
‘WIVES’ The women behind assorted great men, on various continents and in different centuries, tell their sides of the stories in this comedy by Jaclyn Backhaus (“Men on Boats”), at East West Players. (Oct. 8—Nov. 1, David Henry Hwang Theater, Los Angeles)
‘GRIM’ Who knew the Grim Reaper had a daughter? The trouble is, he’s hanging up his scythe, and she might love humanity too much to succeed him. Sammi Cannold directs the world premiere of this musical by Joey Orton, Brad Silnutzer, Petro AP and Scott Hoying. (Oct. 27—Nov. 29, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego)
All Over the Map
‘PURPOSE’ Legacy is on the table when a politically powerful civil rights leader and his family get together at home in Chicago in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s 2025 Pulitzer winner. The Los Angeles run is a remount of Phylicia Rashad’s Broadway production, with the same cast. (Sept. 10—Oct. 11, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston; Nov. 11—Dec. 13, Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles)
‘JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN’ High school girls studying “The Crucible” take away a very different lesson than the one their teacher intends in Kimberly Belflower’s feminist dramedy. (Sept. 11-26, Pioneer Theater Company, Salt Lake City; Sept. 23—Oct. 11, Northern Stage, White River Junction, Vt.; Oct. 2-18, Nashville Repertory Theater; Oct. 6-25, Kansas City Repertory Theater, Missouri; Nov. 12—Dec. 6, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco)
‘TOPDOG/UNDERDOG’ Suzan-Lori Parks’s Pulitzer-winning three-card monte play is about two Black brothers — Lincoln, the top dog, and Booth, the underdog. Of particular note: the Chicago production is directed by Kenny Leon and stars Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood. (Sept. 16—Oct. 11, People’s Light, Malvern, Pa.; Sept. 17—Nov. 1, Steppenwolf, Chicago; Sept. 25—Oct. 18, Old Globe, San Diego; Oct. 13—Nov. 22, Geva Theater, Rochester, N.Y.; Oct. 29—Dec. 13, Arden Theater Company, Philadelphia)
‘THE FORD/HILL PROJECT’ The testimonies of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford at two Supreme Court nominees’ confirmation hearings, decades apart, form the core of this verbatim play by Elizabeth Marvel and Lee Sunday Evans, who directs this Waterwell production. The cast, in Los Angeles, is Rosemarie DeWitt, Betty Gabriel, Dulé Hill and Jerry O’Connell. (Sept. 17-19, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, Los Angeles; Sept. 19-20, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn.; Sept. 25-27, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Conn.; Sept. 30—Oct. 1, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.; Oct. 2-3, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.)
‘OH, MARY!’ Cole Escola’s gleefully unhinged comedy hits the road, starring Alaska ___________ (of the unprintable last name) as a booze-guzzling Mary Todd Lincoln, longing for the stage, and J. Harrison Ghee as her husband, the president. (Sept. 19-23, the Bushnell, Hartford, Conn.; Sept. 29—Oct. 4, San Diego Civic Theater; Oct. 6-11, Smith Center, Las Vegas; Oct. 13—Nov. 1, Curran Theater, San Francisco; Nov. 3-8, Paramount Theater, Seattle; Nov. 10—Dec. 6, Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles; Dec. 21—Jan. 3, 2027, Emerson Colonial Theater, Boston)
‘MEXODUS’ Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s hip-hop musical tells a story of the Underground Railroad that ran south into Mexico. David Mendizábal directs. (Oct. 2-16, Alliance Theater, Atlanta; Nov. 6-21, Studebaker Theater, Chicago; Dec. 4—Jan. 10, 2027, American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Mass.)
‘LIBERATION’ Bess Wohl’s rue-tinged comedy, which won this year’s Pulitzer for drama, remembers a time before she was born, when her mother started a women’s consciousness-raising group in 1970s Ohio. (Oct. 9-25, Philadelphia Theater Company; Oct. 23—Nov. 29, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Berkeley, Calif.)
The post ‘Liberation,’ ‘Purpose’ and 39 More Shows to See in the U.S. This Fall appeared first on New York Times.
