Broadway is lately catering to an especially wide range of tastes. That’s good news when you have gifts to give and family and friends to entertain, and prefer drama that happens onstage to any other kind. Want to escape the world outside the theater, confront it head-on or both at once? There are multiple shows for each. Ditto if you have a small army to please, or weird and arty friends who never seem to agree on anything. (Have they seen “Oh, Mary!”? Try “Maybe Happy Ending” around the corner.)
Here are our picks for the best of what’s relatively new on Broadway.
Buena Vista Social Club
For live-music lovers always itching to dance
This new musical about the supergroup whose namesake 1997 album of Cuban hits became an international sensation weaves a few of the artists’ personal histories with the story of the recording. If ever there were an argument to give a band a Tony Award, the one assembled onstage for “Buena Vista Social Club” would be it. To say that the show features the most spectacular musicianship on Broadway undersells the thrill. In addition to a feast of Afro-Cuban numbers — including full-band showstoppers, aching boleros and laments for racial justice — the production is a visual sunburst.
Read our full review of “Buena Vista Social Club.” Ongoing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. 2 hours with an intermission. buenavistamusical.com.
Chess
For 1980s megamusical completists
If you step on glass in Midtown Manhattan, consider that the stars of “Chess” may have shattered any in earshot of the Imperial Theatre. As sung by Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, the musical’s belty and synth-tastic score, written by members of Abba, may have achieved its ultimate peak. The new production of the 1988 Broadway flop has the air of peculiar novelty amped to arena-style proportions: Come for the theater MVPs wailing to high heaven, shrug as the story ceases to make much sense. A new book has added winking narration acknowledging that the idea of a musical about Cold War chess championships is obviously bizarre.
Read our full review of “Chess.” Through May 3 at the Imperial Theatre in New York. 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission. chessbroadway.com.
Just in Time
For upscale-nightclub nostalgics
Jonathan Groff is kind-eyed, honey-voiced and all but irresistible as the chameleon crooner Bobby Darin. “Just in Time” travels the familiar narrative road of an artist’s rise and fall, but immersive swank and charming personality set this bio-musical apart from even its most successful predecessors. (“Jersey Boys,” watch your tail.) Staged nightclub-style by director Alex Timbers — with seating on three sides plus cabaret two-tops down front — the production fizzes with class and delight like a coupé of champagne.
Read our full review of “Just in Time.” Ongoing at Circle in the Square Theatre. 2 hours and 30 minutes with an intermission. justintimebroadway.com.
Liberation
For liberals craving a heartfelt dose of hope
If you’ve watched with growing alarm as art that preserves thorny histories and agitates for social progress has come under attack, bookmark this page and go buy tickets for “Liberation.” The superb and galvanizing new play by Bess Wohl would undoubtedly earn the derisive label “woke” in the most technical sense: It’s about a consciousness-raising group in 1970s Ohio awakening women to everyday oppression. Wohl’s ensemble drama is a memory play about a social movement, full of arguments that will ring familiar to many. But it’s rooted in vibrant, complex characters who embody the individual stakes entangled behind efforts at solidarity.
Read our full review of “Liberation.” Through Feb. 1 at the James Earl Jones Theatre in New York. 2 hours and 30 minutes with an intermission. liberationbway.com.
Maybe Happy Ending
For rom-com fans who are sci-fi curious
Art about artificial intelligence tends to warn us about the dangers of playing God and creating monsters. So there is an immediate element of surprise and delight to this swoony and only slightly dystopian rom-com between robots. The musical, like most science fiction, reflects on human experience but with an eye toward exploring our best impulses rather than our worst. It’s a darling gem of a show with a big heart and a captivating sideways sensibility. And in a Broadway assembly line churning with revivals and remakes, it’s a refreshing model of innovation.
Read our full review of “Maybe Happy Ending.” Ongoing at the Belasco Theatre. 1 hour, 40 minutes with no intermission. maybehappyending.com.
Oedipus
For thrill-seeking drama nerds and political junkies
When polls close in a couple of hours, a noble and progressive Oedipus appears likely to win a major election. Most people in the audience also know that within that time, he’ll discover unspeakable horrors and self-destruct. This taut spin on “Oedipus” now on Broadway after a West End run last fall is a rare and magnificent feat of adaptation: Writer and director Robert Icke draws Sophocles’s ancient play into the present while deepening its timeless explorations of power, desire and fate. As the doomed mother-son couple, Lesley Manville and Mark Strong deliver two of the most captivating performances on New York stages this year, in a production that combines the intrigue of a primal tragedy with a modern political thriller.
Read our full review of “Oedipus.” Through Feb. 8 at Studio 54 in New York. 2 hours without an intermission. oedipustheplay.com.
Oh, Mary!
For the freaks (or everyone over 18, really)
Writer Cole Escola’s demented, outlandishly fictionalized retelling of Abraham Lincoln’s final days, through the lens of his wife, Mary Todd — here, a sadistic and alcoholic wannabe cabaret star — is the success story of the year. Wholly unique, deeply stupid and spit-wine-out-your-nose funny, “Oh, Mary!” should serve as an invitation for every artist with a harebrained idea to let their imagination roam free. Not only did the show leap from downtown to Broadway, it also broke box office records and recouped its investment. In an industry rife with safe bets, Escola renews our faith that sometimes getting weird as hell not only makes a fabulous show but also leads straight to the bank.
Read our profile of Cole Escola. Ongoing at the Lyceum Theatre. 80 minutes with no intermission. ohmaryplay.com.
Operation Mincemeat
For connoisseurs of British humor
What possessed British spies to dress a cadaver as a pilot and deposit it off the coast of Spain with fake plans for an Italian invasion in tow? Creativity and chutzpah, which this production from the multi-hyphenate company SpitLip has in spades. The ingenuity of the storytelling matches the zaniness of the plot, which is exactly as it should be in musical comedy. In the spirit of Austin Powers, Monty Python and the high-concept farce of Alan Ayckbourn, “Operation Mincemeat” is both unabashedly goofy and exceptionally smart.
Read our full review of “Operation Mincemeat.” Ongoing at the John Golden Theatre. 2 hours, 35 minutes with an intermission. operationbroadway.com.
Ragtime
For admirers of handsome classic revivals
America’s promise has always rested on uneasy accord among people — in this case, a mix of White, Black and immigrant New Yorkers around 1906 — that threatens at any moment to explode. This revival aims to soothe jangled liberal nerves and makes some appealing use of the grand canvas at Lincoln Center Theater. But its bold strokes also underline the pitfalls of a narrative told through archetypes and melodrama. The characters’ believability as flesh-and-blood depends on the actors, and many of them are doing excellent work here, including Caissie Levy and Joshua Henry.
Read our full review of “Ragtime.” Through June 14 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York. About 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission. lct.org.
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