TDF Stages

Catch Into the Woods, Kinky Boots, The Butcher Boy and more

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There are some cool shows to see during the dog days of summer. July brings multiple musicals: a Broadway transfer of the City Center Encores! production of Into the Woods, a stage adaptation of the best-selling novel The Butcher Boy and a revival of Kinky Boots Off Broadway. But there are also plenty of offerings for drama lovers. For a comprehensive overview of theatre in New York City, browse the listings in TDF's Show Finder. And remember, many of our Off-Broadway picks for June are still running.

As for COVID-19 protocols, although masks are now optional at most Broadway theatres, many venues beyond Broadway continue to require masks as well as proof of full vaccination. COVID-19 protocols for each production are listed below, however, they vary and are subject to change. Before buying tickets to any event, double-check the COVID-19 rules so you are prepared.

If you're a TDF member, be sure to log in to your account to see what we're selling as ticket inventory changes frequently.

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Into the Woods on Broadway - June 28

St. James Theatre, 246 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 28. Opens July 10. Closes January 8, 2023. The musical is frequently at the Times Square TKTS Booth.

Masks are optional but encouraged.

After a sold-out, critically acclaimed run at City Center's Encores! this spring, Lear deBessonet's magical mounting of Into the Woods transfers to Broadway for a limited summer run. James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's beloved musical weaves together multiple fairy tales to explore what happens after happily ever after. Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel reprise their performances as the Baker's Wife and the Wolf/Cinderella's Princess, respectively. Joining them are new cast members Brian D'Arcy James as the Baker, Pippin Tony winner Patina Miller as the Witch, Phillipa Soo as Cinderella and Joshua Henry as Rapunzel's Prince. Undoubtedly the hottest ticket of the summer!

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Prince Charming, You're Late - June 29

Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 29. Opens July 5. Closes July 23. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Proof of full vaccination and masks are required.

An actor as well as a veteran Broadway wardrobe worker, Billy Hipkins brings his humorous and heartfelt solo show Prince Charming, You're Late to Theatre Row. Inspired by his real-life experiences, this one-man play centers on Billy, a middle-aged Broadway dresser, who gets assigned to a hunky lead actor in a new musical. When the two bond, a backstage crush is born, teaching Billy about his true heart's desire. A comedic and candid exploration of gay-straight relationships, love and self-acceptance.

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PTP/NYC: Reverse Transcription - July 5

Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Previews begin July 5. Opens July 10. Closes July 30. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Proof of full vaccination and masks are required.

Every summer, the venerable PTP/NYC presents two productions in rep Off Broadway, usually thought-provoking works by undersung playwrights. For its first in-person offering since the onset of the pandemic, the company is mounting two evenings of one acts. The first, Reverse Transcription, is subtitled "Hauntings from Pandemics Past and Present" and features the AIDS-themed Dog Plays, written by the late Robert Chesley, who died of the virus, paired with the world premiere of Jim Petosa and Jonathan Adler's A Variant Strain, a meditation on our current plague.

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PTP/NYC: Sex, Grift and Death - July 6

Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Previews begin July 6. Opens July 13. Closes July 31. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Proof of full vaccination and masks are required.

Every summer, the venerable PTP/NYC presents two productions in rep Off Broadway, usually thought-provoking works by undersung playwrights. For its first in-person offering since the onset of the pandemic, the company is mounting two evenings of one acts. The second is a trio of playlets by two lauded British dramatists. Written by actor-writer-director Steven Berkoff, Lunch is a whirlwind two-hander about strangers who connect on their lunch break and experience the emotional ups and downs of an entire relationship in less than an hour. The incomparable Caryl Churchill is behind the shorts Hot Fudge, a bleak, black comedy about greed and self-invention, and Here We Go, three brief scenes about mourning and mortality.

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The Kite Runner on Broadway - July 6

Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start July 6. Opens July 21. Closes October 30.

Masks are required for Wednesday matinees and Friday evenings. All other performances are masks optional. 

This UK import is based on Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel of the same name about two friends in a divided Afghanistan, as the young men navigate class and moral differences, and a country on the brink of war. Amir Arison (NBC's The Blacklist) and newcomer Eric Sirakian make their Broadway debuts in this play with music, directed by Giles Croft with an adaptation by Matthew Spangler.

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Audible Theater: Heart - July 9

Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street in the West Village

Previews begin July 9. Opens July 17. Closes August 14. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Masks are required.

Written and performed by British actor and poet Jade Anouka (His Dark Materials), Heart centers on a young woman who finds herself married and divorced at 28. As she begins the process of piecing her life together, she confronts the insecurities and self-imposed boundaries that have always held her back, ultimately discovering love in the last place—and with the last person—she expects.

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Park Avenue Armory: Oresteia - July 11

Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets on the Upper East Side

Previews begin July 11. Opens July 26. Closes August 13. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Proof of full vaccination required. Masks are optional but encouraged.

Robert Icke's Olivier-winning reinvention of Aeschylus' searing trilogy finally arrives at the Park Avenue Armory, after delays caused by the pandemic and an injury to original star Lia Williams. Anastasia Hille now takes on the role of Clytemnestra, whose act of mariticide incites a bloody familial saga that prompts questions about vengeance, justice and the role of judicial democracy. The streamlined production is running in rep with Hamlet, with many cast members appearing in both shows.

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Elevator Repair Service: Seagull - July 12

NYU Skirball, 566 LaGuardia Place between West 3rd Street and Washington Square South in Greenwich Village.

Begins July 12. Closes July 31. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Proof of full vaccination and a booster shot are required. Masks are also mandatory.

Fresh off tackling Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Shakespeare with celebrated productions of The Sound and the Fury, Gatz and Measure for Measure, lauded experimental ensemble Elevator Repair Service takes on Chekhov with Seagull. Blurring the line between the play itself and an informal chat with the audience, this post-modern twist on the iconic drama explores the conflicting pursuits of art, love and happiness. Even if you know the play well, you likely won't recognize what ERS does with it. But the troupe's projects are always eye-opening, revealing new insights in classic texts.

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Notre Dame de Paris - July 13

David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza at 62nd Street and Columbus Avenue in Lincoln Square.

Begins July 13. Closes July 24.

Proof of full vaccination and masks are required.

Finally, the Hunchback of Notre Dame musical arrives in New York! No, we're not talking about the long-gestating Stephen Schwartz show based on the Disney animated movie of the same name. This is a French pop-rock musical that's wowed more than 13 million theatregoers in 23 countries over the past few decades. Faithful to Victor Hugo's popular novel, Notre Dame de Paris chronicles the relationship between cathedral bell ringer Quasimodo and the beautiful Esmeralda against the backdrop of Paris in the Middle Ages. Performed in French with English supertitles, this epic, Vegas-style musical features a book and lyrics by Luc Plamondon, music by Italian singer Richard Cocciante and direction by Gilles Maheu. Expect over-the-top everything, from the emotions to the aesthetics.

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Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3: The Nosebleed - July 16

Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Lincoln Square

Previews begin July 16. Opens August 1. Closes August 28.

Masks are required.

Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based performer, dramatist and director Aya Ogawa is behind The Nosebleed, an autobiographical play about their fractured relationship with their long-deceased and enigmatic father. Previously seen at The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival and the Japan Society, this surreal comedy uses a series of absurd and humorous vignettes to explore the cultural and generational gaps between the two, as well as Ogawa's own complicated journey as a parent today. Ogawa wrote, directs and stars in this theatrical memoir alongside a diverse ensemble.

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Irish Repertory Theatre: The Butcher Boy - July 21

Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Chelsea

Previews begin July 21. Opens August 1. Closes September 11.

Masks are required.

Asher Muldoon was just a senior in high school when he approached the Irish Repertory Theatre with his musical The Butcher Boy. Best known as a performer (Muldoon played multiple parts in the Dear Evan Hansen national tour), this quadruple threat wrote the lyrics, music and book for this page-to-stage adaptation of Patrick McCabe's best-selling 1992 novel centering on adolescent Francie Brady, who's struggling to navigate his volatile family home and his conservative Irish town in the 1960s. When he gets into a fight with the boy next door, the kid's mother deems Francie's family a bunch of pigs, and an unhealthy fixation on hogs is born. Broadway veteran Nicholas Barasch (She Loves Me) stars in this world premiere, the first new musical Irish Rep has developed in eight years.

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Primary Stages: On That Day in Amsterdam - July 23

59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East

Previews begin July 23. Opens August 11. Closes September 4.

Proof of full vaccination and masks are required.

Clarence Coo's long-delayed play finally arrives at Primary Stages, but sadly, its themes of displacement and citizenship are as timely as ever. The morning after a one-night stand, an American backpacker and a Middle Eastern refugee decide to spend their last day in Amsterdam together. They set off on a romantic tour of the city, moved by the stories and spirits of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Anne Frank as they contemplate how one's fate can be determined by a passport. Coo, a naturalized citizen who grew up in the US as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines, understands this firsthand, and he brings a personal touch to this politically charged play.

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Kinky Boots - July 26

Stage 42, 422 West 42nd Street at Dyer Avenue

Previews begin October 25. Opens August 25. Open run.

Masks are optional but encouraged.

Everybody say, "Yeah, yeah!" Three years after the Tony-winning Broadway production closed, Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper's joyous musical Kinky Boots will start strutting its stuff Off Broadway. As he previously did in London, on Broadway and on tour, Callum Francis plays drag diva Lola, who helps shoe manufacturer Charlie (Christian Douglas) inject some fabulousness into his factory. Although the musical examines serious subjects such as homophobia and father-son estrangement, it's also a celebration of friendship and being true to oneself. Jerry Mitchell, who won a Tony for helming the show on Broadway, returns to direct this incarnation. We're excited to see this musical kicking up its heels in NYC again!

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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her at @RavenSnook. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.

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Top image: Kennedy Kanagawa, puppeteering Milky White, and Cole Thompson as Jack in the City Center Encores! production of Into the Woods, which has transferred to Broadway for a limited summer run. Photo by Joan Marcus