POPCORN FALLS
• Davenport Theatre
• First Preview: September 14, 2018
• Opening: October 8, 2018
• Playwright: James Hindman
• Director: Christian Borle
• Cast: Adam Heller and Tom Souhrada
Welcome to Popcorn Falls, a small American town, whose only claim to fame - their namesake waterfall - has dried up. Now bankrupt, their last chance is a large grant that can only be used if the town produces a play in a week. Led by the Mayor and the local handyman, the enterprising townsfolk try to rise to the challenge and prove that art can save the world.
MOTHER OF THE MAID
• The Public Theater/Anspacher Theater
• First Preview: September 25, 2018
• Opening: October 17, 2018
• Playwright: Jane Anderson
• Director: Matthew Penn
• Cast: Glenn Close, Dermot Crowley, Olivia Gilliatt, Kate Jennings Grant, Andrew Hovelson, Daniel Pearce, and Grace Van Patten
Mother of the Maid tells the story of Joan of Arc’s mother, a sensible, hard-working, God-fearing peasant woman whose faith is upended as she deals with the baffling journey of her odd and extraordinary daughter. This riveting play is an epic tale told through an unexpected and remarkable new perspective.
FIREFLIES
• Atlantic Theater Company/Linda Gross Theater
• First Preview: September 26, 2018
• Opening: October 15, 2018
• Playwright: Donja R. Love
• Director: Saheem Ali
• Cast: Khris Davis and DeWanda Wise
Somewhere in the Jim Crow South, the sky is on fire. A pregnant Olivia’s fierce speech writing is the sole force behind her charismatic husband Charles and his successful Movement to galvanize people to march towards freedom. When four little girls are bombed in a church, Olivia and Charles’ marriage is threatened - as this tragedy and years of civil unrest leave Olivia believing that “this world ain’t no place to raise a colored child.”
APOLOGIA
• Roundabout Theatre Company/Laura Pels Theatre
• First Preview: September 27, 2018
• Opening: October 16, 2018
• Playwright: Alexi Kaye Campbell
• Director: Daniel Aukin
• Cast: Stockard Channing, Hugh Dancy, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Talene Monahon, and John Tillinger
You do not mess with Kristin Miller. In the 1960s, she was a radical activist and political protester. Now a celebrated art historian, the publication of her memoir threatens to split her family apart. But Kristin has never been one to shy away from a fight.
GLORIA: A LIFE
• Daryl Roth Theatre
• First Preview: October 2, 2018
• Opening: October 18, 2018
• Playwright: Emily Mann
• Director: Diane Paulus
• Cast: Christine Lahti, DeLanna Studi, Petrena Murray, Joanna Glushak, Liz Wisan, Francesca McKenzie, Fedna Jacquet, and Brittany K. Allen
Based on the extraordinary life of Gloria Steinem, Gloria: A Life weaves together events from her 50 years in social and political activism. Starting from her early years as an audacious reporter and as a founder of Ms. Magazine, the play features personal stories of the people who inspired her, leading to her evolution into a woman who has inspired generations.
INDIA PALE ALE
• Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center/Stage I
• First Preview: October 2, 2018
• Opening: October 23, 2018
• Playwright: Jaclyn Backhaus
• Director: Will Davis
• Cast: Purva Bedi, Angel Desai, Sophia Mahmud, Nate Miller, Shazi Raja, Nik Sadhnani, Lipica Shah, Sathya Sridharan, and Alok Tewari
In a small Wisconsin town, a tight-knit Punjabi community gathers to celebrate the wedding of a traditional family’s only son, just as their strong-willed daughter announces her plans to move away and open a bar. As they come together for feasts filled with singing and dancing, one generation’s cherished customs clash with another’s modern-day aspirations, and ghosts and pirates from the family’s past linger in everyone’s thoughts – until one sudden event changes everything.
MIDNIGHT AT THE NEVER GET
• York Theatre @ Saint Peter’s
• First Preview: October 2, 2018
• Opening: October 11, 2018
• Book, Music, and Lyrics: Mark Sonnenblick
• Director: Max Friedman
• Cast: Sam Bolen, Jeremy Cohen, and Jon. J. Peterson
Singer Trevor Copeland and songwriter Arthur Brightman have the perfect New York romance. That’s swell. In 1965, it’s also against the law. So in the back room of The Never Get, an illegal Greenwich Village gay bar, they put together a show called Midnight— a nightclub act where Trevor sings Arthur’s love songs with their male pronouns intact. But, as the lovers hurtle towards the end of the decade, they find themselves caught in a passion they can’t control and a political revolution they don’t understand.
ORDINARY DAYS
• Clurman Theatre @ Theatre Row
• First Preview: October 2, 2018
• Opening: October 17, 2018
• Book, Music, and Lyrics: Adam Gwon
• Director: Jonathan Silverstein
• Cast: Whitney Bashor, Marc delaCruz, Sarah Lynn Marion, and Kyle Sherman
Ordinary Days is a refreshingly humorous and inspiring musical about making simple connections in a chaotic city. Written by one of musical theater’s most exciting new composers, Ordinary Days tells the story of four young New Yorkers whose lives intersect in unexpected ways as they search for success, happiness, love, and taxis.
TRAVISVILLE
• Ensemble Studio Theatre
• First Preview: October 3, 2018
• Opening: October 11, 2018
• Playwright: William Jackson Harper
• Director: Steve H. Broadnax III
• Cast: Stori Ayers, Denny Dale Bess, Sheldon Best, Brian D. Coats, Bjorn Dupaty, Lynnette R. Freeman, Joe Holt, Ivan Moore, and Shawn Randall
An ailing minister, a protege, a mayor, a journeyman preacher, a domestic, and her husband, have their lives irrevocably changed, when their community, untouched by the tumult of the civil rights movement, is compelled into a kind of reckoning once a stranger enters their lives, forcing them to take sides and take a stand.
LEWISTON/CLARKSTON
• Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
• First Preview: October 5, 2018
• Opening: October 25, 2018
• Playwright: Samuel D. Hunter
• Director: Davis McCallum
• Cast: Arnie Burton, Kristin Griffith, Leah Karpel, Heidi Armbruster, Edmund Donovan, and Noah Robbins
Set at a failing fireworks stand in Lewiston, Idaho, and across the river at a big box store in Clarkston, Washington, the plays Lewiston and Clarkston focus on two modern-day descendants of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The plays share the essential question: what is the true legacy of the great American push West?
RENASCENCE
• Abrons Arts Center
• First Preview: October 5, 2018
• Opening: October 25, 2018
• Book: Dick Scanlan
• Music: Carmel Dean
• Lyrics: Edna St. Vincent Millay
• Director: Jack Cummings III & Dick Scanlan
• Cast: Mikaela Bennett, Hannah Corneau, Jason Gotay, Danny Harris Kornfeld, Katie Thompson, and Donald Webber Jr.
Renascenceis the story of Edna St. Vincent Millay, who lived one hundred years ago, a hundred years ahead of her time. At eighteen she writes a staggeringly profound poem that rocks the literary world and transforms this girl from rural Maine into a cause cèlébre. Vincent captivates everyone in her orbit (male and female), and is hero worshipped by young women for her unabashed intellect and frank sensuality. She works her newfound fame, leaving in her wake broken relationships with those who believed in her before anybody else.
SAKINA’S RESTAURANT
• Minetta Lane Theatre
• First Preview: October 5, 2018
• Opening: October 14, 2018
• Playwright: Aasif Mandvi
• Director: Kimberly Senior
• Cast: Aasif Mandvi
Actor, writer, and former correspondent for “The Daily Show”, Aasif Mandvi revisits his acclaimed, Obie Award-winning one man show, twenty years after its celebrated debut in New York City. Sakina’s Restaurant, a vibrantly funny and touching story about identity, home, and opportunity, casts new light on the idea of the American dream and is a perfect vehice for the dextrous and charming Mandvi.
PLOT POINTS IN OUR SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
• Lincoln Center Theater/Claire Tow Theater
• First Preview: October 6, 2018
• Opening: October 22, 2018
• Playwright: Miranda Rose Hall
• Director: Margot Bordelon
• Cast: Jax Jackson and Marianne Rendon
Theo and Cecily want to be honest about their sexual histories, but what happens when telling the truth jeopardizes everything? A contemporary queer love story, Plot Points in Our Sexual Development explores gender, intimacy, and the dangers of revealing yourself to the person you love.
DAYS OF RAGE
• Second Stage Theatre
• First Preview: October 9, 2018
• Opening: October 30, 2018
• Playwright: Steven Levenson
• Director: Trip Cullman
• Cast: Mike Faist, Tavi Gevinson, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Lauren Patten, and Odessa Young
Against the backdrop of an endless, unwinnable war raging halfway across the world, and a polarizing president recklessly stoking the flames of racist backlash at home – a generation of young people rises up to demand change from a corrupt political establishment. It is October, 1969 and unbeknownst to the rest of the world, three 20-something radicals are busy planning the impending revolution from a quiet college town in Upstate New York. But when two strangers appear, disrupting the group’s delicate balance, new dangers and old wounds threaten to tear the collective apart.
MANDY PATINKIN IN CONCERT: DIARIES 2018
• New York Theatre Workshop
• Opening: October 10, 2018
• Cast: Mandy Patinkin with Adam Ben-David on piano
Before he was an Emmy®-winning TV actor, Mandy Patinkin was already a Tony®-winning Broadway legend. Mandy Patinkin in Concert presents the acclaimed actor/singer/storyteller in his most electrifying role: concert performer. From Randy Newman to Stephen Sondheim, from Irving Berlin to Rufus Wainwright, Mandy Patinkin takes you on a dazzling musical journey you’ll never forget.
GOOD GRIEF
• Vineyard Theatre
• First Preview: October 11, 2018
• Opening: October 30, 2018
• Playwright: Ngozi Anyanwu
• Director: Awoye Timpo
• Cast: Oberon K.A. Adjepong, Ngozi Anyanwu, Nnamdi Asomugha, Patrice Johnson Chevannes, Hunter Parrish, Ian Quinlan, and Lisa Ramirez
Nkechi was a good Nigerian-American girl. She did everything right. Went to med school. Made plans. Then life happened. And plans changed. A first-generation coming-of-age journey of love, loss, and growing into adulthood, Good Grief follows Nkechi as she navigates Pennsylvania’s suburbs alongside her childhood crush, her would-be-philosopher brother, and her immigrant parents.
USUAL GIRLS
• Roundabout Theatre Company/Black Box Theatre
• First Preview: October 11, 2018
• Opening: November 5, 2018
• Playwright: Ming Peiffer
• Director: Tyne Rafaeli
• Cast: Abby Corrigan, Ali Rose Dachis, Midori Francis, Karl Kenzler, Jennifer Lim, Sarah Pidgeon, Ryann Redmond, Nicole Rodenburg, and Raviv Ullman
How do girls grow up? Quickly, painfully, wondrously. On an elementary school playground, a boy threatens to tell on the girls for swearing - unless one of them kisses him. But just before lips can touch, Kyeoung tackles the boy to the ground. The victory is short-lived. Over the coming years, Kyeoung’s stories get stranger, funnier, more harrowing - and more familiar.
THE NICETIES
• Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center/Stage II
• First Preview: October 12, 2018
• Opening: October 25, 2018
• Playwright: Eleanor Burgess
• Director: Kimberly Senior
• Cast: Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman
At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student and her esteemed white professor meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They’re both liberal. They’re both women. They’re both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they’re in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen – and facing stunning implications that can’t be undone.
THE THANKSGIVING PLAY
• Playwrights Horizons/Peter Jay Sharp Theater
• First Preview: October 12, 2018
• Opening: November 5, 2018
• Playwright: Larissa FastHorse
• Director: Moritz von Stuelpnagel
• Cast: Jennifer Bareilles, Jeffrey Bean, Greg Keller, and Margo Seibert
Ah, Thanksgiving, that most American of holidays: when families gather to celebrate the warmth of home, the bounty of the harvest — and a legacy of genocide and violent colonial expansion. Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.
SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY
• MCC Theater/Lucille Lortel Theare
• First Preview: October 16, 2018
• Opening: October 22, 2018
• Playwright: Jocelyn Bioh
• Director: Rebecca Taichman
• Cast: MaameYaa Boafo, Latoya Edwards, Paige Gilbert, Zainab Jah, Joanna A. Jones, Abena Mensah-Bonsu, Mirirai Sithole, and Myra Lucretia Taylor
Paulina, the reigning queen bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter–and Paulina’s hive-minded friends.
THUNDERBODIES
• Soho Rep
• Opening: October 16, 2018
• Playwright: Kate Tarker
• Director: Lileana Blain-Cruz
• Cast: Juan Carlos Hernandez, Matthew Jeffers, Mia Katigbak, Dierdre O’Connell, and Monique St. Cyr
It’s springtime in America. The war is finally over. Grotilde has completed her life’s work of losing the last 10 pounds, General Michail has proposed, and the President is up to her new tricks. So what if the weather is a little strange and the last soldier won’t come home? Kate Tarker’s satire pokes, picks, and plucks at a society swimming, spinning, sloughing, and slurping through the fog of war.
DANIEL’S HUSBAND
• Westside Theatre (Upstairs)
• First Preview: October 18, 2018
• Opening: October 28, 2018
• Playwright: Michael McKeever
• Director: Joe Brancato
• Cast: Anna Holbrook, Lou Liberatore, Matthew Montelongo, Ryan Spahn, and Leland Wheeler
Daniel and Mitchell enjoy life as the Perfect Couple. Perfect house, perfect friends, even a mother who wants them to wed. What isn’t perfect is that Daniel longs to be married and Mitchell does not. A turn of events forces both men to face the consequences of their opposing views, and they learn that they are living in a world where fundamental rights aren’t always so fundamental.
EVE’S SONG
• The Public Theater/LuEsther Hall
• First Preview: October 23, 2018
• Opening: November 7, 2018
• Playwright: Patricia Ione Lloyd
• Director: Jo Bonney
• Cast: De’Adre Aziza, Karl Green, Ashley D. Kelley, Vernice Miller, Kadijah Raquel, Rachel Watson-Jih, and Tamara M. Williams
In the aftermath of a messy divorce and a daughter coming out as queer, Deborah is trying to keep things normal at home. But as black people continue to be killed beyond their four walls, the outside finds its way in, blurring the lines between family dynamics, politics, and the spirit world. How long can family dinners keep the dangers outside at bay?
THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING)
• The Pershing Square Signature Center/Irene Diamond Stage
• First Preview: October 23, 2018
• Opening: November 11, 2018
• Playwright: Will Eno
• Director: Oliver Butler
• Cast: Michael C. Hall
This surreal and very real one-man show follows Thom Pain as he desperately, and hilariously, tries to save his own life…or at least make it into something worth dying for.
THE HARD PROBLEM
• Lincoln Center Theater/Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
• First Preview: October 25, 2018
• Opening: November 19, 2018
• Playwright: Tom Stoppard
• Director: Jack O’Brien
• Cast: Eshan Bay, Adelaide Clemens, John Patrick Doherty, Nina Grollman, Katie Beth Hall, Eleanor Handley, Olivia Hebert, Sagar Kiran, Chris O’Shea, Madeleine Pace, Robert Petkoff, Tara Summers, Jon Tenney, Baylen Thomas, Kim N. Wong, and Karoline Xu
In Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, Hilary is a young psychology researcher at the Krohl Institute for Brain Science where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is “the hard problem” facing science, and for Hilary the possibility of genuine altruism, without a hidden Darwinian self-interest, depends on the answer. Meanwhile she is nursing a private sorrow. She needs a miracle and is prepared to pray for one.
THE OTHER JOSH COHEN
• Westside Theatre Downstairs
• First Preview: October 26, 2018
• Opening: November 12, 2018
• Book, Music and Lyrics: David Rossmer and Steven Rosen
• Director: Hunter Foster
• Cast: David Rossmer, Steven Rosen, Kate Wetherhead, Hannah Elless, Elizabeth Nestlerode, Luke Darnell, Louis Tucci, and Zachary Spound
Josh Cohen just can’t get a break. He’s single, broke and to top it all off, his apartment’s been robbed of everything but a Neil Diamond CD. Soon though, his luck takes a turn when a mysterious envelope arrives that changes his life forever.
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
• Classic Stage Company
• First Preview: October 30, 2018
• Opening: November 14, 2018
• Playwright: Bertolt Brecht
• Translator: George Tabori
• Director: John Doyle
• Cast: Raúl Esparza, George Abud, Eddie Cooper, Elizabeth A. Davis, Christopher Gurr, Omozé Idehenre, Mahira Kakkar, and Thom Sesma
In 1930s Chicago, mobster Arturo Ui will stop at nothing to control the cauliflower trade. Terror and bloodshed follow. Can anyone stop him? Brecht’s skewering of Adolf Hitler and totalitarianism is given renewed significance in a production directed by John Doyle. Written in 1941, the play was one of the Berliner Ensemble’s greatest box office successes.
WILD GOOSE DREAMS
• The Public Theater/Martinson Hall
• First Preview: October 30, 2018
• Opening: November 14, 2018
• Playwright: Hansol Jung
• Director: Leigh Silverman
• Cast: Dan Domingues, Lulu Fall, Kendyl Ito, Francis Jue, Peter Kim, Michelle Krusiec, Jaygee Macapugay, Joél Pérez, Jamar Williams, and Katrina Yaukey
Minsung is a “goose father,” a South Korean man whose wife and daughter have moved to America for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible?
A CHORUS LINE
• New York City Center
• Opening: November 14, 2018
• Music: Marvin Hamlisch
• Lyrics: Edward Kleban
• Book: James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante
• Directors: Bob Avian and Baayork Lee
• Cast: TBD
A Chorus Line, the 2018 New York City Center Annual Gala Presentation, is a joyous celebration of dance and musical theater—two art forms that City Center has been bringing to New York audiences for 75 years. In 1975, the stories of seventeen Broadway dancers were brought to life when A Chorus Line opened Off-Broadway. The musical was born of workshop sessions with actual Broadway dancers (eight of whom appeared in the original cast) who laid bare their personal stories and the challenges they faced in pursuit of their dreams.
THE DEAD, 1904
• The American Irish Historical Society
• First Preview: November 17, 2018
• Opening: November 29, 2018
• Playwright: Paul Muldoon
• Director: Ciarán O’Reilly
• Cast: TBD
This exquisite recreation of James Joyce’s haunting story was the most sought-after theatrical event of New York’s 2016 and 2017 holiday seasons. We relish the opportunity to welcome you again, or for the first time.
CLUELESS, THE MUSICAL
• The Pershing Square Signature Center/Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
• First Preview: November 20, 2018
• Opening: December 11, 2018
• Book: Amy Heckerling
• Director: Kristin Hanggi
• Choreographer: Kelly Devine
• Cast: TBD
Amy Heckerling takes us back to 90s Beverly Hills with this musical version of her beloved film “Clueless”, a modern spin on Jane Austen’s Emma. With her singular voice, she gives us a score that reimagines 90s hits into ingenious parodies and yearning monologues for her lovesick characters.
FABULATION, OR THE RE-EDUCATION OF UNDINE
• The Pershing Square Signature Center/Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
• First Preview: November 20, 2018
• Opening: TBD
• Playwright: Lynn Nottage
• Director: Lileana Blain-Cruz
• Cast: TBD
This satirical tale, set in present-day New York City, follows successful African-American publicist Undine as she stumbles down the social ladder after her husband steals her hard-earned fortune. Broke and now pregnant, Undine is forced to return to her childhood home in the Brooklyn projects, where she must face the challenges of the life she left behind.
THE PRISONER
• Theatre for a New Audience/Polonsky Shakespeare Center
• First Preview: November 24, 2018
• Opening: TBD
• Playwrights and Directors: Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
• Cast: Hiran Abeysekera, Omar Silva, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, and Donald Sumpter
The Prisoner examines the complexities of crime, justice, and compassion in a breathtaking new international production. A man sits alone outside a prison. Who is he, and what is he doing there? Is he free, or is he the prisoner?
CHRISTMAS IN HELL
• York Theatre at Saint Peter’s
• First Preview: December 4, 2018
• Opening: December 9, 2018
• Book, Music, and Lyrics: Gary Apple
• Director: Bill Castellino
• Cast: TBD
Looking for a sweet, wholesome holiday musical? Well, this ain’t it! On Christmas Eve, little 6-year-old Davin is mistakenly taken down to Hell. When he returns, not only has he missed Christmas, but he is devilishly changed. To set things right, his father embarks on a bizarre odyssey that eventually leads him down to Hell itself where he makes a wager with Lucifer he can’t possibly win.
THE JUNGLE
• St. Ann’s Warehouse
• First Preview: December 4, 2018
• Opening: December 9, 2018
• Playwrights: Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
• Directors: Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin
• Cast: TBD
Okot wants nothing more than to get to the UK. Beth wants nothing more than to help him. Meet the hopeful, resilient residents of the Jungle – a sprawling refugee camp in Northern France. Take a seat inside the bustling Afghan Café and experience how, with minimal resources in a cold, muddy and scary environment, refugees and committed volunteers built a warm, self-governing, diverse society from nothing.
BLUE RIDGE
• Atlantic Theater Company/Linda Gross Theater
• First Preview: December 12, 2018
• Opening: January 7, 2019
• Playwright: Abby Rosebrock
• Director: Taibi Magar
• Cast: Marin Ireland
A progressive high-school teacher with a rage problem retaliates against her unscrupulous boss and is sentenced to six months at a church-sponsored halfway house, where she attends to everyone’s recovery but her own. Set in Southern Appalachia, Blue Ridge is a pitch-dark comedy about heartbreak, hell-raising and healing.
