17 Shows to See Off Broadway This February
Catch Steven Pasquale, Phillipa Soo, Tony Shalhoub, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Kathleen Chalfant, Ethan Slater and other stage stars this month
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Broadway may be quiet until March but there are dozens of shows opening on smaller stages in February. We managed to whittle down our list to 17 promising productions, including real-life spouses Steven Pasquale and Phillipa Soo in a rare musical revival, a new Wallace Shawn-André Gregory collaboration, and plays starring stage stalwarts like Rebecca Naomi Jones, Kathleen Chalfant, Ethan Slater, Mary Beth Peil, Chip Zien and Peter Friedman. 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, most of our picks for January are still running!
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Theatre for a New Audience: The Tragedy of Coriolanus – begins February 3
Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Previews begin February 3. Opens February 14. Closes March 1. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Shakespeare’s rarely produced tragedy (it’s only been done on Broadway once!) receives a 21st-century revamp in director Ash K. Tata’s kinetic staging for Theatre for a New Audience. McKinley Belcher III (Death of a Salesman) plays Coriolanus, the Roman general-turned-politician, who’s brought down by his bluntness, corrupt colleagues and a populace he disdains. Roslyn Ruff is Volumnia, his domineering mother, who indulges his aggression. Set in a screen-saturated society, The Tragedy of Coriolanus speaks to our current moment of political division and media distraction.
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Signature Theatre Company: Mother Russia – begins February 3
The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin February 3. Opens February 23. March 15.
Signature Theatre presents the New York premiere of this dark comedy by Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band) about a pair of aimless pals in post-USSR St. Petersburg who are recruited to spy on a politically problematic pop princess turned teacher. But as they flirt with their target and their newfound freedom in a changing nation, they grapple with who they are and what the future holds. Teddy Bergman directs a cast that includes Tony nominees Steven Boyer and Rebecca Naomi Jones.
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New York City Center Encores! High Spirits – begins February 4
New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Begins February 4. Closes February 15.
This musicalization of Noël Coward’s famous comedy Blithe Spirit is rarely seen. In fact, it hasn’t received a major NYC production since its original 1964 Broadway run. High Spirits is a supernatural scream featuring fabulous songs by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, kooky characters like the medium Madame Arcati (Tony winner Andrea Martin) and a loopy love triangle involving a married couple (real-life spouses Steven Pasquale and Phillipa Soo) and his late ex (Tony winner Katrina Lenk), who shows up during a séance. Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) directs this concert staging for Encores!
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Playwrights Horizons: The Dinosaurs – begins February 4
Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin February 4. Opens February 16. Closes March 8. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Playwrights Horizons presents the world premiere of Jacob Perkins’ The Dinosaurs about a group of women supporting each other on their rocky road to recovery over years, decades and, ultimately, forever. Les Waters (Dana H., 10 Out of 12) directs an all-women cast that includes aces Kathleen Chalfant, Elizabeth Marvel and April Matthis.
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What We Did Before Our Moth Days – begins February 4
Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street near Seventh Avenue South in the West Village
Previews begin February 4. Opens March 5. Closes April 26.
Longtime friends and collaborators Wallace Shawn and André Gregory (My Dinner with André, Vanya on 42nd Street) reunite for What We Did Before Our Moth Days about a famous writer (Josh Hamilton), his wife (Maria Dizzia), their son (John Early) and the father’s mistress (Hope Davis), each telling their side of their dysfunctional family story. As a playwright, Shawn has a witty and unflinchingly honest ear for what middle-class intellectuals say… and what they don’t (except in confessional monologues). Gregory directs this world premiere, running in rep with Shawn’s searing 1990 solo The Fever, which he performs on Sunday and Monday evenings.
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Classic Stage Company: Marcel on the Train – begins February 5
Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues in the East Village
Previews begin February 5. Opens February 22. Closes March 22.
Tony nominee Ethan Slater (SpongeBob SquarePants, the Wicked movie) co-wrote and stars in Marcel on the Train about the incredible early life of legendary mime Marcel Marceau. As a Jewish teen in Nazi-occupied France, he joined the Resistance to help spirit other Jewish children to safety. Marshall Pailet co-wrote and directs this compelling true story.
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Atlantic Theater Company: The Reservoir – begins February 5
Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater, 336 West 20th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea
Previews begin February 5. Opens February 24. Closes March 15.
On their website, recent Juilliard Playwriting Program grad Jake Brasch describes themselves as “sober.” So personal experience may have inspired their Off-Broadway debut The Reservoir centering on Josh (Noah Galvin), a young man struggling with alcoholism and memory loss who finds support and understanding from his grandparents (the delicious foursome of Mary Beth Peil, Chip Zien, Caroline Aaron and Peter Maloney). Shelley Butler directs the New York premiere of this darkly funny play, co-produced by Atlantic Theater Company and the Ensemble Studio Theatre & The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Roundabout Theatre Company: Chinese Republicans – begins February 5
Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin February 5. Opens February 26. Closes April 5.
Emerging playwright Alex Lin is having quite the season. In the fall, Primary Stages presented Laowang, her inventive immigrant riff on King Lear. Now Roundabout is mounting her new play Chinese Republicans. Three Asian women (Jennifer Ikeda, Jully Lee and Jodi Long) are proud to have made it to the upper echelons of the financial industry. But when a young up-and-comer (Anna Zavelson) joins their monthly lunch looking for advice, they’re forced to reckon with what they’ve given up. Chay Yew directs this witty and wise world premiere about identity, morality and capitalism.
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Second Stage Theater: Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood – begins February 11
The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin February 11. Opens February 25. Closes March 15.
A mother of a show from writer-director-parent Aya Ogawa, Meat Suit is an amusingly honest and appropriately chaotic look at being a mom. Performed by a cast of mothers and featuring satirical scenes and songs, this world premiere explores what dies when a person gives birth.
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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 that 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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Cherry Lane Theatre: You Got Older – begins February 12
Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street between Bedford and Hudson Streets in the West Village
Previews begin February 12. Opens February 23. Closes April 12.
Since Clare Barron won a 2015 Obie Award for You Got Older, she’s gone on to be a Pulitzer finalist (Dance Nation) and wrote and starred in the well-received Shhhh at Atlantic Theater Company. Now Cherry Lane is reviving her breakthrough play, directed by Anne Kauffman who helmed the original production a decade ago. Alia Shawkat (Search Party, Arrested Development) stars as Mae, recently dumped by her job and her boyfriend, who returns home to care for her cancer-stricken dad (Peter Friedman). But healing is never easy.
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Burnout Paradise – begins February 18
Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin February 18. Opens March 5. Closes June 28. Begins February 4. Closes February 15. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Four intrepid performers complete a wild variety of challenges, from a Shakespeare soliloquy to cooking dinner, while jogging on treadmills in this bonkers comedy from Pony Cam about the hilariously punishing nature of our multitasking society. A smash at multiple international Fringe festivals and Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse, this hour-long show (they time it!) runs riot Off Broadway. Laughing at exhaustion has never been so exhilarating. Come prepared to participate, this is true community theatre!
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MCC Theater: Cold War Choir Practice – begins February 21
The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 511 West 52nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin February 21. Opens March 10. Closes March 29.
Clubbed Thumb’s annual Summerworks series has spawned some celebrated transfers, including What the Constitution Means to Me and Men on Boats. So it’s exciting that MCC Theater and Page 73 are coproducing an encore run of Ro Reddick’s Cold War Choir Practice, which earned rave reviews at Summerworks last year. Centering on a precocious 10-year-old girl in 1987 Syracuse who’s worried about nuclear annihilation, this dark comedy with songs explores political and identity divisions through a loopy tale of espionage and cults. Tony nominee Knud Adams (English) directs.
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Vineyard Theatre: Bughouse – begins February 24
Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street between Irving Place and Union Square East in Union Square
Previews begin February 24. Opens March 11. Closes March 29.
A trio of celebrated artists—multidisciplinary director Martha Clarke, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley and performance artist John Kelly—is behind this world premiere about Henry Darger, a solitary 20th-century janitor who left a trove of haunting art and writings that was discovered after his death. With text adapted from Darger’s own words and immersive projections of his singular and often disturbing work, Bughouse offers a fascinating peek into the mind of the ultimate outsider artist.
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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, the couple shares their family’s journey with pregnancy loss through their original indie-folk-rock songs.
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The Public Theater: Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) – begins February 26
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin February 26. Opens March 11. Closes March 29.
Sophocles’ ancient tragedy Antigone is being adapted a lot these days (see Amm (i)gone and The Other Place, currently running at The Shed), a reflection of this volatile time marked by despots and civil rights setbacks. This world premiere reimagining by Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51) uses the play to address a hot-button issue head-on, reproductive rights, as a young woman (Susannah Perkins) challenges the laws of her land and its leader (Tony winner Tony Shalhoub) so she can make her own choices. Tyne Rafaeli directs an ensemble cast that also includes Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger as the Chorus. Note: If you’re feeling lucky, try entering the digital lottery to win free tickets to the first preview on Thursday, February 26. Details are on The Public’s site.
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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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