Talk about déjà vu! Many productions originally scheduled for spring 2020 are finally bowing on Broadway, including buzzy transfers like Hangmen and The Minutes, and starry play revivals such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in Plaza Suite, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams in Take Me Out and Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse in How I Learned to Drive. There's also an exciting crop of new shows that were developed during the shutdown, including a revival of Funny Girl headlined by Beanie Feldstein, a musicalization of Billy Crystal's movie Mr. Saturday Night starring the legendary comedian and the Broadway debut of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner A Strange Loop. Our guide helps you navigate everything that's coming.
In terms of COVID-19 safety protocols, all Broadway theatres require audience members of all ages to provide proof of being fully vaccinated with an FDA or WHO authorized vaccine. Masks are also mandatory.
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NOTE: Shows are listed in first preview date order within each category.
Musicals
Paradise Square - begins performances March 15
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 West 47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue
Previews start March 15. Opens April 3. Open run.
After a well-received run in Chicago last year, Paradise Square arrives on Broadway. A music-and-tap-dance-filled portrait of Five Points, an integrated 19th-century neighborhood in New York City, the show uses period songs by Stephen Foster such as "Camptown Races," "Oh Susanna" and "Ring, Ring the Banjo" alongside new numbers to conjure a community where Irish immigrants and free Black Americans coexisted, intermarried, raised families and shared their cultures. This musical has been gestating for a while—an early incarnation ran Off-Off Broadway under the title Hard Times in 2012. But with two-time Tony-nominated director Moisés Kaufman and two-time Tony-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones at the helm, and an ensemble featuring Broadway favorites Joaquina Kalukango, Chilina Kennedy, Matt Bogart and John Dossett, we're hoping for an exuberant history lesson.
Subway
Funny Girl - begins performances March 26
August Wilson Theatre, 245 West 52nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue
Previews start March 26. Opens April 24. Open run.
Hello gorgeous! The first-ever Broadway revival of Funny Girl begins performances 58 years to the day that the original production opened and catapulted Barbra Streisand to stardom. Hello, Dolly! scene-stealer Beanie Feldstein plays legendary comedian Fanny Brice, Jane Lynch is her overbearing mother and Les Misérables Tony nominee Ramin Karimloo portrays her dashing but no-goodnik husband Nick Arnstein. Tony-winning director Michael Mayer previously directed Funny Girl in London and tapped Tony winner Harvey Fierstein to revise the script so Nick is more nuanced and Fanny less codependent. Ellenore Scott choreographs, with tap-dance sequences by Ayodele Casel.
The Little Prince - begins performances March 29
Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway at 53rd Street
Previews start March 29. Opens April 11. Closes August 14.
One of the few family-friendly productions opening this spring, this genre-defying theatricalization of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella about a young planet-hopping prince lands on Broadway after hit runs in Paris, Sydney and Dubai. Directed and choreographed by Anne Tournié, the production uses aerial acrobatics, movement, music and high-tech video mapping to bring the interstellar adventure to life. It's not really a musical but it's not a play, either. It's an eye-popping, circus-style spectacle.
Mr. Saturday Night - begins performances March 29
Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start March 29. Opens April 27. Open run.
Billy Crystal headlines this new musical inspired by his 1992 movie of the same name about a once-well-known comedian desperately hoping for one last shot at fame and family reconciliation. Tony winner Jason Robert Brown (13, Parade, The Bridges of Madison County) and Tony nominee Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody) wrote the songs, while Crystal and his longtime collaborators Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell penned the book based on their original screenplay. Tony-winning Urinetown director John Rando helms the production, which had a brief out-of-town tryout at Barrington Stage Company last year. Randy Graff, Shoshana Bean and David Paymer, reprising his role from the movie, costar.
A Strange Loop - begins performances April 6
Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
Previews start April 6. Opens April 26. Open run.
After critically acclaimed runs Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and at Washington, DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop comes to Broadway. Described by the creator as "self-referential," the show centers on Usher, a young, Black, queer man trying to write a musical about his life as his inner thoughts keep invading the stage. Stephen Brackett and Raja Feather Kelly serve as director and choreographer respectively, and the entire cast of the Off-Broadway production returns save for the lead, now played by newcomer Jaquel Spivey. A must-see, one-of-a-kind show.
Beetlejuice - resumes performances April 8
Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway at 46th Street
Resumes performances April 8. Open run.
Talk about being raised from the dead! While the pandemic cut Beetlejuice's Broadway run short, it was slated to close in June 2020 anyway because The Music Man was kicking the show out of the Winter Garden Theatre. But producers and fans never gave up hope. Now the ghostly musical comedy inspired by Tim Burton's popular 1988 movie is getting a second life at Broadway's Marquis Theatre with original cast members Alex Brightman, Kerry Butler, David Josefsberg, Adam Dannheisser and Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer. It's showtime (again)!
Mrs. Doubtfire - resumes performances April 14
Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 West 43rd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway
Resumes performances April 14. Open run.
Hellooooooo (again)! Based on the beloved 1993 Robin Williams movie of the same name, this musical comedy opened on Broadway last fall but omicron put a damper on the laughs. Hoping to survive the surge as well as off-peak season, producers closed the show for three months, promising to reopen in the spring. Tony nominee Rob McClure returns as the title character, a divorced actor who disguises himself as an eccentric British nanny in order to spend time with his kids. Written by the team behind Something Rotten! and directed by four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, Mrs. Doubtfire boasts brand recognition and family appeal.
Plays
Plaza Suite - begins performances February 25
Hudson Theatre, 141 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue
Previews start February 25. Opens March 28. Closes June 26.
Hollywood power couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick play multiple kooky characters in this revival of Neil Simon's classic comedy about three different couples facing various romantic crises in a hotel suite. Their longtime pal, Tony-winning actor John Benjamin Hickey, makes his Broadway directorial debut with this production. Let's hear it for good old-fashioned laughs.
Take Me Out - begins performances March 10
Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start March 10. Opens April 4. Closes May 29.
Scott Ellis directs this revival of Richard Greenberg's Tony-winning play about a beloved biracial Major League Baseball player (Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy) who comes out and then contends with homophobia and racism. Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson costars as his loquacious gay accountant, who hilariously narrates the tale.
Birthday Candles - begins performances March 18
American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start March 18. Opens April 10. Closes May 29.
Debra Messing inhabits the same woman from ages 17 to 101 in Roundabout Theatre Company's mounting of Noah Haidle's play about the twists and turns of life. Each scene is set on one of her birthdays, and the actors playing her loved ones include fellow TV star Enrico Colantoni in his Broadway debut. Vivienne Benesch directs.
American Buffalo - begins performances March 22
Circle in the Square Theatre, 1633 Broadway with the entrance between Broadway and Eighth Avenue on 50th Street
Previews start March 22. Opens April 14. Closes July 10.
David Mamet's celebrated play about a trio of two-bit hustlers angling for a larger slice of the American dream gets a starry revival featuring Oscar winner Sam Rockwell, Tony winner Laurence Fishburne and Darren Criss. Atlantic Theater Company artistic director Neil Pepe helms the production.
How I Learned to Drive - begins performances March 29
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue
Previews start March 29. Opens April 19. Closes May 29.
A quarter century after starring in the premiere of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Off-Broadway, Tony winner Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse reprise their roles in a new production. Once again, Parker plays a woman looking back on the magnetic uncle (Morse) who sexually abused her when she was young. The play's original director, Mark Brokaw, helms this Manhattan Theatre Club mounting.
Macbeth - begins performances March 29
Longacre Theatre, 220 W 48th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue
Previews start March 29. Opens April 28. Closes July 10.
Tony-winning director Sam Gold and Daniel Craig reunite for this mounting of the Bard's Scottish play. The two previously collaborated on Shakespeare's Othello at New York Theatre Workshop, with Craig delivering a chilling Iago in a riveting production that sold out almost the moment it went on sale. Oscar nominee Ruth Negga makes her Broadway debut as Macbeth's bloody ambitious wife, and the supporting cast includes Tony nominees Amber Gray and Maria Dizzia.
The Skin of Our Teeth - begins performances April 1
Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue
Previews start April 1. Opens April 25. Closes May 29.
Lincoln Center Theater's resident director Lileana Blain-Cruz makes her Broadway debut with this revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which follows the Antrobus family of Excelsior, New Jersey as they navigate an Ice Age, a biblical flood and war. This sprawling and fantastical comedy about the constant threat of extinction and the power of human resilience was last seen on Broadway in 1975. With the central family played by four Black actors (James Vincent Meredith, Roslyn Ruff, Julian Robertson and Paige Gilbert) and Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins contributing additional material, this production promises an of-the-moment exploration of the surreal cycle of survival.
for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf - begins performances April 1
Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start April 1. Opens April 20. Closes August 14.
Celebrated choreographer Camille A. Brown makes her Broadway directorial debut with a revival of Ntozake Shange's landmark choreopoem, which is being staged at the Booth Theatre where the original production ran back in the '70s. In this celebration of Black womanhood, seven characters share their stories through a fierce fusion of poetry, dance and music. The cast includes Okwui Okpokwasili, D. Woods and Alexandria Wailes, who all appeared in The Public Theater's critically acclaimed 2019 revival, which Brown choreographed. They'll be joined by Amara Granderso, Tendayi Kuumba, Kenita R. Miller and Stacey Sargeant.
The Minutes - begins performances April 2
Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue
Previews start April 2. Opens April 17. Closes July 10.
After being shut down during previews in March 2020, Tracy Letts' caustic small-town ensemble comedy set at a city council meeting resumes performances on Broadway at a new theatre, Studio 54. Most of the original cast members are returning, including Tony winners Jessie Mueller, Blair Brown and Letts. However, troubled actor Armie Hammer has been replaced by Schitt's Creek star Noah Reid. Anna D. Shapiro, Letts' collaborator on his Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County, directs.
Hangmen - begins performances April 8
John Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start April 8. Opens April 21. Closes June 18.
Talk about a resurrection! After officially canceling this production in the early days of the pandemic, the producers suddenly announced it was back on... two years later! Buoyed by a hit run at Atlantic Theater Company, Martin McDonagh's pitch-black comedy about execution and vengeance finally comes to Broadway. Reminiscent in tone of the four-time Tony nominee's other dark mysteries (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Pillowman), the play centers on Harry, a hangman who's sent into a tailspin when his vocation is abolished in England in 1965. Expect wicked humor, prolific profanity, eccentric characters, malevolence and jaw-dropping surprises.
To Kill a Mockingbird - resumes performances June 1
Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
Resumes performances June 1. Open run.
One of the most financially successful plays in Broadway history, Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's landmark novel about racism in 1934 Alabama resumes performances at a new theatre, the Belasco, after a six-month hiatus. Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear makes his Broadway debut as crusading lawyer Atticus Finch.
The Kite Runner - begins performances July 6
Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start July 6. Opens July 21. Closes October 30.
Technically opening next season, this UK import is based on Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel of the same name about two friends in a divided Afghanistan on the verge of war. Billed as a play with music, The Kite Runner is a limited-run production directed by Giles Croft with a script by Matthew Spangler.
Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages, the online culture blog for TDF, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the power of the performing arts to everyone. TKTS is one of many TDF programs that help make theatre accessible. Learn more about TDF at tdf.org.
