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Catch new works by Suzan-Lori Parks and Alan Bennett, musical revivals and more
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Two rare musical revivals. A new musical by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks and new plays by Tony winner Alan Bennett and best-selling author Zadie Smith. Plus daring new works about hoarding, Hurricane Katrina and heartbreaking loss. These are just some of the promising new Off-Broadway productions beginning in April. We couldn't include everything, so be sure to browse the listings in TDF's Show Finder to see what else is playing. And remember, many of our Off-Broadway picks for March are still running!
In terms of COVID-19 safety protocols, rules vary by venue. While we are trying to keep this article up to date, please double-check the protocols before purchasing tickets so you arrive prepared.
If you're a TDF member, log in to your account daily to see what we're selling as ticket inventory changes frequently.
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BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street between Ashland and Rockwell Places in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Begins April 1. Closes April 16.
Masks are optional.
Best-selling English novelist Zadie Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty) makes her playwrighting debut with this vivid reimagining of The Wife of Bath section from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales centering on Alvita, a much-married, middle-aged, Jamaican-born British woman captivating strangers in a London pub. After well-received runs across the pond and at Massachusetts' American Repertory Theater, The Wife of Willesden arrives at BAM with Claire Perkins reprising her acclaimed performance in the title role.
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Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in the East Village
Begins April 5. Closes April 30.
Masks are optional.
When theatres shut down in March 2020, Suzan-Lori Parks went to work. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright penned a playlet and/or song every day and the result is Plays for the Plague Year, a three-hour, music-filled fantasia channeling the hope, fear and resilience of our collective lockdown experience. This musical was scheduled to debut last fall but COVID-19 had other ideas. Now it's back for an official premiere at The Public Theater's intimate Joe's Pub. Niegel Smith (Hir) directs a cast that includes Parks herself rocking out with her guitar! Note: If you're feeling lucky, try entering the digital lottery to win free tickets to the first preview on Wednesday, April 5. Details are on The Public's site.
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Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 13. Closes April 23.
Masks are optional.
Like City Center Encores!, the J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company revives rarely performed tuners, though admittedly with smaller budgets. A Tony-winning hit 40 years ago, Woman of the Year is based on the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy film of the same name about the battle-of-the-sexes romance between a famous TV reporter and a celebrated cartoonist. Broadway vets Janine LaManna (The Drowsy Chaperone, Seussical, Ragtime) and John Leone (Les Misérables, Jersey Boys) headline the show, which boasts a wonderful John Kander and Fred Ebb score, including the earworms "Sometimes a Day Goes By," "I Wrote the Book" and "The Grass Is Always Greener."
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Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street between Bleecker and Hudson Streets in the West Village
Previews begin April 17. Opens April 27. Closes May 13. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Masks are required for Monday evening and Saturday matinee performances.
Red Bull Theater, which is well known for revitalizing undersung classics, revives this delightful Elizabethan romp about a troupe gathering to present a play about star-crossed lovers. But a grocer and his wife demand the actors perform a different kind of show: the outrageous adventure The Knight of the Burning Pestle. And what do you know, their apprentice is available to star! Coproduced by Fiasco Theater, this comedy celebrates the anything-can-happen thrill of live theatre.
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin April 18. Opens April 22. Closes May 7.
Masks are optional.
Part of 59E59 Theaters' annual Brits Off Broadway festival, Laura Horton's solo play about hoarding was well-reviewed at last year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Madeleine MacMahon reprises her performance as Sophie, a lesbian who's finally opening herself up to love, though she'll have to clear out her closets first.
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Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 18. Opens April 27. Closes May 20. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Masks are optional.
Theater Breaking Through Barriers, which spotlights artists with disabilities, presents a revival of Yasmina Reza's Tony-winning dark comedy God of Carnage, about two well-to-do families who clash after their kids get into a schoolyard tussle. The cast of four, David Burtka, Carey Cox, Gabe Fazio and Tony nominee Christiane Noll, includes actors with and without disabilities, and every performance will have supertitle captioning and audio description to enhance accessibility.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin April 20. Opens May 4. Closes May 28.
Masks are required for Tuesday evening and Saturday and Sunday matinee performances.
After premiering as an audio play during the pandemic shutdown, Erika Dickerson-Despenza's shadow/land receives its in-person debut at The Public Theater. Just as she did with the Flint Water Crisis in cullud wattah last season, Dickerson-Despenza investigates the societal impact of a disaster, in this case Hurricane Katrina, by focusing on one family as the storm tears their lives and legacy asunder. Candis C. Jones directs this powerful drama, the first installment of a planned 10-play cycle exploring the ongoing effects of evacuation, displacement and gentrification around New Orleans. Note: If you're feeling lucky, try entering the digital lottery to win free tickets to the first preview on Thursday, April 20. Details are on The Public's site.
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Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 304 West 47th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 20. Closes May 7.
Masks are optional.
One of NYC's premiere Latine companies, Pregones / Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, is behind this new hip-hop musical exploring mixed-heritage identity. Written by Gabriel Hernández, Quarter Rican centers on new dad Danny, who visits the playground with his super-cute, multicultural kid and connects with a fellow parent. As they chat, Danny's musical alter egos, MC Plátano and the Beatboxer, comment on the conversation. Inspired by the creator's experiences as the Puerto Rican father of a white-passing child, the show is performed in English with Spanish supertitles.
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INTAR, 500 West 52nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues
Previews begin April 22. Opens May 2. Closes June 11.
Masks are optional.
Another lauded Latine troupe, INTAR, presents the premiere of Julissa Contreras' dramedy Vámonos, a portrait of a tight-knit, fun-loving Dominican family in the Bronx a year after September 11 injected uncertainty into their lives. Gathered for a christening, they eat, argue and banter in English and Spanish as their unsettling new reality closes in. Tatyana-Marie Carlo directs an all-Latine cast.
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The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 25. Opens May 18. Closes June 18. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Masks are optional.
We're intrigued that Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh is presenting the world premiere of Emma Sheanshang's play about an eclectic group of fragile New Yorkers seeking solace at a Buddhist center. When a newbie shows up and runs afoul of the rules, it upends their delicate balance in hilarious and harrowing ways. Dan Algrant directs an ensemble cast that includes Maddie Corman (Accidentally Brave).
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Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 27. Closes May 7.
Masks are optional.
Like City Center Encores!, J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company revives rarely performed musicals, though admittedly with smaller budgets. In a brilliant bit of synergy, the troupe is mounting Sugar, aka the original musicalization of the screwball comedy Some Like It Hot written by Funny Girl collaborators Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. After witnessing a Mob hit, two Prohibition-era musicians go undercover by donning drag and joining an all-female traveling band. A great way to see how this old-fashioned tuner stacks up against Broadway's current reinvention of Some Like It Hot.
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Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street in the West Village
Previews begin April 28. Opens May 8. Closes June 10.
Masks are optional.
Coming out of a deadly pandemic, it's no surprise that there are a lot of plays about loss right now, including Michael Cruz Kayne's Sorry for Your Loss. In this autobiographical solo show, the comedian and Late Show with Stephen Colbert writer talks about how a Tweet marking the 10-year anniversary of his infant son's death went viral and helped him and myriad others open up about grief. It's a tragicomic exploration of three things we all have in common: life, death and loss.
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Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Previews begin April 29. Opens May 23. Closes May 28.
Masks are required.
Theatre for a New Audience is well known for producing classy revivals of classics, particularly Shakespeare. But this is the first time the company is mounting the work of Spanish Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega. Considered his masterpiece, Fuente Ovejuna is a 17th-century, history-based drama about a peasant uprising led by a brave young woman who was raped by the soldiers oppressing her village. A prescient play, the piece resonates in our age of social justice. Flordelino Lagundino directs an ensemble that includes Broadway vet Jonathan Cake as the central villain and Carmen Zilles as the lady who brings him down.
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown
Begins April 29. Closes May 28.
Masks are optional.
Prolific, Tony-winning writer Alan Bennett (The History Boys, The Madness of King George) penned The Habit of Art in 2009, but it's only now receiving its US debut courtesy of 59E59 Theaters' annual Brits Off Broadway festival. Inspired by the real-life collaboration and friendship between composer Benjamin Britten and writer W.H. Auden, whose relationship ended abruptly and acrimoniously in the 1950s, the play imagines the two geniuses reconnecting 25 years later as their future biographer looks on. A fascinating examination of rivalry and the emotional toll of creativity.
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Top image: Suzan-Lori Parks in Plays for the Plague Year at The Public Theater. Photo credit by Joan Marcus.
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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her on Facebook at @Raven.Snook. Follow TDF on Facebook at @TDFNYC.
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