14 New Musicals to See Beyond Broadway This Spring

Catch a new show from Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles, Tony nominees Norm Lewis and Mary Testa in two new tuners, encore runs of Mexodus and Music City and more

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So far, it hasn’t been a great season for new musicals on Broadway. Only two opened in the fall (one, The Queen of Versailles, closed quickly) and just four more are scheduled to bow this spring. So let’s sing the praises of Off Broadway, where more than a dozen new musicals begin performances over the next few months. There are encore runs of two critically acclaimed productions, Mexodus and Music City: The Musical, plus a new musical romp from funny lady Amber Ruffin, a fresh Maltby and Shire revue, an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo starring Broadway favorites Norm Lewis, Karen Ziemba and Sierra Boggess, and a world premiere written by and starring Jennifer Nettles.

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Bigfoot! – begins February 11

New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin February 11. Opens March 1. Closes April 26. If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Hilarious late-night personality and musical theatre maven Amber Ruffin (Late Night with Seth Meyers, Some Like it Hot on Broadway) is one of the creators of this campy tuner about an eight-foot-tall creature who just wants to be loved… and a little less hairy. Will the paranoid townsfolk ever accept this sensitive outcast? A Fringe-style romp, Bigfoot! boasts quite the cast of cutups, including Tony nominee Grey Henson as the title character alongside SNL alum Alex Moffat and Tony nominee Crystal Lucas-Perry. Danny Mefford, whose revival of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a bona fide hit, directs and choreographs.

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Blood/Love – begins February 13

Theater 555, 555 West 42nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin February 13. Opens March 3. Closes March 29. If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Carey Renee Sharpe knows from blood: she spent a dozen years in health care, mostly as a nurse practitioner. But as the co-creator and star of Blood/Love, this classically trained violinist returns to her first love: music. Co-written by two-time Grammy nominee Dru DeCaro, this vampire pop opera centers on a beautiful bloodsucker who meets her mysterious mortal match on a nightclub dance floor. Yes, vampire musicals have a history of sucking, but this sexy tale has an intriguing pedigree, including direction by Hunter Bird, who’s also working on Masquerade.

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Lincoln Center Theater: Night Side Songs – begins February 14

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

Previews begin February 14. Opens March 2. Closes March 29. If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Songwriting siblings Patrick and Daniel Lazour are attracted to ambitious subjects. Their last musical, We Live in Cairo at New York Theatre Workshop, was about young Egyptians participating in the Arab Spring uprising. Their new musical, Night Side Songs at Lincoln Center Theater’s innovative incubator LCT3, chronicles the harrowing journey of a breast cancer patient (Brooke Ishibashi) and the caring folks she connects with along the way. The Lazours’ frequent collaborator Taibi Magar directs an ensemble cast that includes Tony nominees Mary Testa and Robin de Jesús.

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Silver Manhattan – begins February 18

Bowery Palace, 327 Bowery between 2nd and 3rd Streets in the East Village

Previews begin February 18. Opens March 4. Closes March 29. If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Native New Yorker and old-school punk Jesse Malin had been making music for 44 years when he suffered a severe spinal stroke in 2023. Silver Manhattan is his celebration of the city that shaped him and continues to inspire him as he fights to heal. This musical memoir features songs and stories from his adventure- and art-filled life, including collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Ryan Adams. Backed by his band, Malin shares this profoundly personal tale in the brand-new Bowery Palace theatre, formerly the rock venue The Bowery Electric.

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New York Theatre Workshop: My Joy Is Heavy – begins February 25

New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street between Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village

Previews begin February 25. Opens March 17. Closes April 5.

Hadestown Tony winner Rachel Chavkin directs this deeply personal musical from prolific songwriting spouses Abigail and Shaun Bengson (The Lucky Ones, Hundred Days, The Keep Going Songs). In this world premiere, they share their family’s journey with pregnancy loss through their original indie-folk-rock songs.

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About Time – begins February 27

Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 10 West 64th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on the Upper West Side

Previews begin February 27. Opens March 15. Closes April 5. If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Beloved songwriters Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire (Baby, Big) reteam for About Time, the final installment in a trio of revues that began with Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever. Broadway vets including Darius De Haas and Eddie Korbich along with original Closer Than Ever star Lynne Wintersteller tackle insightful songs about romance, forgotten dreams, precocious grandkids and lost keys. Maltby directs.

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Mexodus – begins March 6

Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 East 15th Street between Union Square East and Irving Place in Union Square

Begins March 6. Closes May 17.

After an acclaimed run last fall at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, this exhilarating hip-hop history musical transfers to the Daryl Roth Theatre for an encore engagement. Created and performed by the multitalented Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, Mexodus shines a spotlight on a forgotten chapter from America’s past, when enslaved Black folks sought freedom by fleeing to Mexico. Featuring live looping and instrumentation, beatboxing, rapping and singing, this two-hander follows one man on that harrowing journey south of the border, where he’s helped by a former Mexican Army soldier. David Mendizábal directs this singular show, which is as entertaining as it is illuminating.

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The York Theatre: Monte Cristo – begins March 12

The York Theatre Company at Theatre at St. Jean’s, 150 East 76th Street near Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side

Previews begin March 12. Opens March 19. Closes April 5.

An impressive cast of Broadway favorites, including Norm Lewis, Sierra Boggess, Adam Jacobs and Tony winner Karen Ziemba, star in this musicalization of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Book writer and lyricist Peter Kellogg has a great track record when it comes to page-to-stage adaptations: he earned a pair of Tony nominations for his work on Anna Karenina and his Wild West spin on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Desperate Measures, was a hit for The York Theatre. With music by Stephen Weiner and direction by Peter Flynn, this epic tale of revenge and romance was developed through The York’s New2NY series.

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Chasing Grace – begins March 12

A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 West 53rd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin March 12. Opens March 14. Closes March 29.

There are a striking number of Off-Broadway plays about sobriety currently running. Now there’s a musical to add to the mix: Chasing Grace, a passion project from songwriter, book writer and director Elizabeth Addison inspired by her own recovery journey. This is actually the third show she has created based on her experiences, but this one is a meta-musical that alternates between her stint in a women’s treatment facility and her time in a rehearsal room as she’s pressured to sanitize her tale. After a tryout at last year’s SheNYC Arts summer festival, Chasing Grace arrives Off Broadway.

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Playwrights Horizons: No Singing in the Navy – begins March 18

Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West

Begins March 18. Opens March 29. Closes April 19.

Milo Cramer’s last musical, the solo turn School Pictures, was a celebrated sold-out hit voted best show of 2023 in New York Magazine. So we’re excited about their new show, No Singing in the Navy, which skewers classic musicals as three sailors look for adventure during their daylong leave in NYC. (Hmmm, sounds familiar.) Cramer is a talented songwriter with a progressive perspective, so we expect a lot of incisive digs at old-school gender and racial politics in this three-person, one-piano romp.

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Music City: A New Musical – begins March 23

Music City, 512 West 42nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West

Begins previews March 23. Opens April 8. Closes September 30.

Last season, this countrified musical was a surprise hit for the theatre company Bedlam. Now the show’s getting an encore run at a brand-new venue designed as an immersive honky-tonk. Set in Nashville in the early 2000s, it follows a couple of aspiring country stars trying to make it big as they navigate a city ravaged by drugs and poverty. In between the catchy tunes are insightful observations about class, addiction and how stars are made. Celebrated songwriter J.T. Harding supplies new numbers alongside hits he wrote for Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Uncle Kracker and other country crooners. Eric Tucker directs.

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Cable Street – begins April 26

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

Begins April 26. Closes May 24.

After earning rave reviews across the pond, Cable Street arrives in NYC as part of Brits Off Broadway. An interfaith romance between an Irish Catholic and a British Jew in 1936 London is polarizing for their families and community. Then Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists storms into town, prompting disparate groups to unite in the face of hate. Toggling between a 2024 London walking tour and the Battle of Cable Street, Tim Gilvin and Alex Kanefsky’s history-inspired epic tells its powerful story through an eclectic score, including Irish ballads, classic show tunes and hip-hop.

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I’m Almost There – begins June 9

BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Hanson Place in Fort Greene

Begins June 9. Closes June 28.

After lauded runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, singer-songwriter-storyteller Todd Almond (Girl From the North Country, On the Levee) brings his almost-solo musical to BAM. Loosely inspired by The Odyssey, I’m Almost There is a fantastical and funny tale of fighting for love in NYC as Almond must battle his unstable neighbor, a sex cult, a narcissistic vampire and a demon cat in order to connect with his soulmate. Tony winner David Cromer (The Band’s Visit) directs.

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Perelman Performing Arts Center: Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo – begins June 28

Perelman Performing Arts Center, 251 Fulton Street at the intersection of Vesey and Greenwich Streets in the Financial District

Begins June 28. Closes July 26.

Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles wrote and stars in this world-premiere musical inspired by the life of Giulia Tofana, who led a poisoning ring so wives could get rid of their abusive spouses in 17th-century Italy… maybe. While the facts of her life are up for debate, she’s certainly an intriguing figure to explore on stage, especially with visionary Tony-winning director Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses) at the helm. After a delay and creative team changes, Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo opens this summer at the Perelman Performing Arts Center.

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