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Tom Hanks returns to the New York stage in the new play This World of Tomorrow, which he cowrote. Photo © Austin Hargrave.
Catch Tom Hanks in a new play he co-wrote, Ariana DeBose in The Baker's Wife, André De Shields as Tartuffe and more
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There are dozens of shows opening beyond Broadway in October, which makes it tough to choose. After a lot of research, we managed to whittle down our list to 19 (!!) promising productions, including a new play starring and co-written by Tom Hanks, a rare revival of Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife starring Ariana DeBose and Scott Bakula, André De Shields in a fabulous reimagining of Tartuffe and Michael Urie as Richard II. 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 September are still running!
If you're a TDF member, log in to your account daily to see what we're selling as ticket inventory changes frequently. Some shows are also available at our TKTS Discount Booths.
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Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin October 2. Opens October 13. Closes November 16. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
A high-tech world premiere from performer-playwright Jen Tullock of Severance fame, Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God centers on a buzzy author whose memoir about growing up gay in the Evangelical South angers folks from her past—particularly an alleged ex who claims they never dated. Tullock plays all the characters while using multiple cameras and live looping for this Playwrights Horizons production, directed by virtual theatre virtuoso Jared Mezzocchi and co-written by Frank Winters.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin October 2. Opens October 15. Closes November 9.
The team behind the Tony-nominated Ain't No Mo'—performer-playwright Jordan E. Cooper and director Stevie Walker-Webb—reunite for Oh Happy Day!, an irreverent, modern-day reinvention of the biblical tale of Noah's Ark, with God commanding a young gay man to save his estranged family from a coming flood. Filled with original Gospel songs by Grammy winner Donald Lawrence and spirited call-and-response sequences, this dramedy was a hit at Baltimore Center Stage last fall.
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House of the Redeemer, 7 East 95th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues on the Upper East Side
Previews begin October 3. Opens October 10. Closes November 23.
Molière really is having a moment: after two productions of The Imaginary Invalid this past spring, there are now back-to-back productions of Tartuffe this fall. The first stars Tony winner André De Shields as the title hypocrite and con man, and is staged for an intimate audience of 100 guests in a swanky Upper East Side mansion. Keaton Wooden directs this interactive, one-act adaptation of Molière's famous farce, costarring Lempicka Tony nominee Amber Iman.
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Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Lincoln Square
Previews begin October 8. Opens November 3. Closes November 30.
The artists behind the critically acclaimed history-based play The Jungle—cowriters Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson and co-directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin—bring their latest celebrated collaboration stateside: Kyoto. This Olivier-nominated drama explores the climate change conference held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, when American oil lobbyist Don Pearlman (Tony nominee Stephen Kunken) tried to derail a landmark international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the state of our planet, this searing story remains as relevant as it was three decades ago.
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Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street near Seventh Avenue South in the West Village
Previews begin October 8. Opens October 19. Closes December 6. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
After well-received runs regionally under the title Out of Character, Tony winner Ari'el Stachel (The Band's Visit) brings his moving theatrical memoir Other to NYC. As an Arab-American Jew who grapples with anxiety and learning differences, he explores identity and mental health challenges with humor and sensitivity, playing all the characters in his autobiographical tale. Tony Taccone, known for helming successful solo shows by Sarah Jones and John Leguizamo, directs.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin October 14. Opens October 24. Closes November 16.
After successful out of town engagements, playwright-performer Zoë Kim's theatrical memoir Did You Eat (밥 먹었니?) comes to New York City courtesy of the Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Public Theater. Performing in English and Korean, Kim mines her past for pathos and dark humor as she delves into her difficult upbringing and channels myriad members of her family, in all their flaws. Chris Yejin directs this powerful reckoning.
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Stage 42, 422 West 42nd Street at Dyer Avenue in Midtown West
Previews begin October 14. Opens October 28. Closes November 30. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
The long-gestating musical adaptation of the 1997 cult comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion arrives in NYC with a pair of Broadway favorites as the title BFFs: Legally Blonde Tony nominee Laura Bell Bundy and erstwhile Glinda Kara Lindsay. When the delightfully dopey pals decide to attend their 10-year high school reunion, they're determined to make an impression with the popular crowd... even if that means not being themselves. Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages) directs this romp featuring retro songs by husband-and-wife team Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay.
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin October 15. Opens November 5. Closes December 7. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Queens is not a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living)—it previously played Off Broadway at Lincoln Center in 2018. But this brand-new production of her drama about a community of immigrant women living in an illegal basement apartment in the title borough feels even more urgent today. When a young Ukrainian woman arrives looking for the mother who left her, she sparks a lot of soul-searching in these strivers. Trip Cullman directs a superb all-female cast, including Tony nominees Marin Ireland and Julia Lester alongside Nadine Malouf and Andrea Syglowski, who appeared in the Lincoln Center mounting.
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Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Previews begin October 16. Opens October 23. Closes December 7. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Celebrated Canadian character actor Saul Rubinek (Nixon, The Bonfire of the Vanities, countless TV series) examines the controversy behind one of Shakespeare's most polarizing characters in Playing Shylock. Framed as a performance of The Merchant of Venice that has been abruptly canceled due to protests, Mark Leiren-Young's one-man play allows Rubinek to explore questions like whether Shylock is unforgivably antisemitic and the issue of cultural appropriation in theatre while also delving into his own dramatic life as the child of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Canada. A heartfelt solo show that had successful out-of-town engagements.
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Irish Arts Center, 726 Eleventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets in Midtown West
Previews begin October 22. Opens TBD. Closes November 23. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Lauded 50-year-old Irish theatre troupe Druid brings its celebrated mounting of Samuel Beckett's Endgame to Irish Arts Center. The absurdist, tragicomic one-act centers on Hamm, a domineering man who's blind, immobile and abusive to his legless parents and his downtrodden servant Clov. Tony winner Garry Hynes (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) directs.
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Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin October 23. Opens November 12. Closes December 21.
A new play by Pulitzer finalist Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Archduke is a darkly comic look at the infamous Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked World War I. But perhaps he was less of a radical and more of an angry young man. Tony nominees Patrick Page and Kristine Nielsen star alongside three up-and-comers in this Roundabout Theatre Company production, directed by Tony winner Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder).
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Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street between Irving Place and Union Square East in Union Square
Previews begin October 23. Opens November 9. Closes December 7.
After earning accolades for their previous collaborations, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play and A Devil at Noon, playwright Anne Washburn and director Steve Cosson reunite for The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire. This world premiere is set in Northern California in a modern-day commune trying to weather the world's madness. But when a community member dies, all their lives are thrown into chaos. The ensemble cast includes Stereophonic Tony nominee Tom Pecinka and Off-Broadway MVP Donnetta Lavinia Grays.
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Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues in the East Village
Previews begin October 23. Opens November 11. Closes December 21.
A famous flop with a glorious score ("Meadowlark!"), Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife toured the US in 1976 but never quite made it to Broadway. But a recording of six songs from the show performed by Paul Sorvino and Patti LuPone became a must-have for musical mavens. So it's a treat that Classic Stage Company is giving the long-lost show a rare first-class revival, directed by Gordon Greenberg, who frequently works with the Wicked songwriter on reinventing his less successful projects. West Side Story Oscar winner Ariana DeBose is the titular character, who runs off, leaving her baker hubby (Scott Bakula) so forlorn, he stops making bread, which plunges their village into disarray. Scene-stealers Arnie Burton, Robert Cuccioli, Kevin Del Aguila and Nathan Lee Graham costar.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin October 24. Opens November 13. Closes November 30. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
After collaborating on last year's We Are Your Robots, Obie-winning playwright-songwriter Ethan Lipton (No Place to Go, Tumacho) and Tony-nominated director Leigh Silverman (Suffs) reteam for another ambitious project: a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's fantastical Pulitzer Prize-winning epic The Skin of Our Teeth, which follows the Antrobus family as they navigate 5,000 years of history and crises. Tony winners Shuler Hensley and Ruthie Ann Miles are the parents, and Tony nominee Micaela Diamond is their cheeky maid Sabina in this surreal saga of survival.
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Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin October 28. Opens November 10. Closes December 21.
Michael Urie leads Red Bull Theater's intriguing reimagining of Shakespeare's rarely mounted Richard II, the first production at the Astor Place Theatre since Blue Man Group closed. Set in 1980s Manhattan, the tragedy chronicles the downfall of an erratic king as he's betrayed by those closest to him. Craig Baldwin wrote the adaptation and directs.
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The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin October 29. Opens November 17. Closes December 14.
A famous clan of Armenian Americans looking for likes and clicks? Hmm, who could playwright Talene Monahon (How to Load a Musket, Jane Anger) be satirizing? But this isn't just cracking up with the Kardashians, she is interested in immigration, cultural heritage and the American Dream as she juxtaposes one man fighting for legal recognition in the 1920s with his fame-obsessed descendant a century later. Tony winners Andrea Martin and Will Brill star in this Second Stage Theater world premiere, directed by Tony winner David Cromer.
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Begins October 29. Closes November 9.
Tony-winning director Alex Timbers (Beetlejuice, Moulin Rouge! The Musical) brings Bat Boy: The Musical back to Off Broadway just in time for Halloween! This 25-year-old cult classic centers on the titular creature (Tony nominee Taylor Trensch), who becomes domesticated and wins the hearts of an unhappy mother and daughter. If only he can curb his thirst for blood. The pop-rock songs by Laurence O'Keefe (Heathers) are hilarious and the story's a scream. In an inspired bit of casting, Tony nominee Kerry Butler, who played the daughter in the original production, is the mom in this mounting. Broadway favorites Andrew Durand, Alex Newell, Christopher Sieber and Marissa Jaret Winokur costar.
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Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin October 30. Opens TBD. Closes December 14. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Nazareth Hassan is having a banner season: hot on the heels of their hit Bowl EP at Vineyard Theatre, the playwright makes their Playwrights Horizons debut with Practice, a metatheatrical comedy about a buzzy avant-garde artist who invites some actors to live together in a Brooklyn church while they create a devised work about the group. What could go right? Keenan Tyler Oliphant directs.
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The Shed, 545 West 30th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Hudson Yards
Previews begin October 30. Opens November 18. Closes December 21.
Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks returns to the New York stage in This World of Tomorrow, based on short stories he wrote. In the future, a melancholy scientist longs for the past and true love. His time-traveling treks keep landing him at the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens on a magical day that promised a different tomorrow. Tony winners Kelli O’Hara and Ruben Santiago-Hudson costar in this touching meditation on time, cowritten by James Glossman and directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon.
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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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