Broadway Fall Preview 2026: 15 New Shows

Everything you need to know about the musicals and plays starting before the end of the year

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This fall on Broadway, the play’s the thing! Eleven are opening before the end of the year, mostly starry revivals (A Few Good Men with Bradley Whitford, Awake and Sing! with Micaela Diamond and Danny Burstein, Other Desert Cities with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ed Harris) and buzzy transfers (Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell in Much Ado About Nothing, Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia, Off-Broadway award winners Here There Are Blueberries and Downstate).

Unfortunately, for the second season in a row, musicals seem to be getting short shrift, with only four coming in this autumn: two originals, a queer reframing of The Fantasticks and a bio-show about Dolly Parton, a longtime passion project for the icon, who just passed away.

We’ll update this list as new details come in or additional shows are announced.

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NOTE: Shows are listed in first preview date order within each category.

MUSICALS

Wanted – begins October 15

James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 West 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Previews start October 15, Opens November 8. Closes March 31, 2027.

Previously known as Gun & Powder, this musical about a pair of vigilante Black twin sisters passing for white in the Old West earned solid reviews at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse two years ago. The duo is actually based on the great-great-aunts of lyricist-book writer Angelica Chéri, who started developing the show with composer Ross Baum when they were students in NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Rechristened Wanted, the musical arrives on Broadway with Solea Pfeiffer and Liisi LaFontaine as the gun-toting, revenge-seeking siblings, and Grammy winner Ledisi as their no-nonsense mom. Ain’t No Mo’ Tony nominee Stevie Walker-Webb directs.

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The Fantasticks – begins October 22

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

Previews start October 22. Opens November 16. Closes February 7, 2027.

The world’s longest-running musical (42 years downtown!) comes to Broadway courtesy of Second Stage Theater in a new production that recasts the central couple as two adolescent boys, whose meddling mothers make a mess as they try to trick their sons into falling in love. Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs this reimagined classic, featuring Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s glorious songs (“Try to Remember,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain”) and a great cast, including Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles as the moms, and TV actor Zane Phillips in his Broadway debut as the narrator, El Gallo.

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Galileo – begins November 10

Shubert Theatre, 225 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start November 10. Opens December 6. Closes March 30, 2027.

After a 14-year absence, Raúl Esparza returns to Broadway in a new musical about the legendary astronomer, who expanded our understanding of the universe in the 17th century. But, like many men of science today, he found himself challenged by those in power, particularly the Catholic Church, who worried his discoveries would undermine their influence. With a rock ‘n’ roll score by Zoe Sarnak and Michael Weiner and a book by Chess rewriter Danny Strong, Galileo had its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre two years ago. It arrives on Broadway with Tony nominee Joy Woods as Galileo’s daughter and directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer.

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DOLLY: A True Original Musical – begins December 7

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

Previews start December 7. Opens January 19. Open run.

While we recently had to say goodbye, Dolly, her passion project lives on. Beloved country icon Dolly Parton cowrote the book and supplied all the songs (hits such as “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene” and “9 to 5” as well as new tunes like “God, Sex and Music”) for this bio-musical about her incredible life in music, movies and beyond. The show had an out-of-town tryout in Nashville last year and is rumored to be gleefully over the top, with three different performers playing Parton at different ages à la The Cher Show and Summer. The cast is not yet announced but Tony winner Bartlett Sher is directing.

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PLAYS

Paranormal Activity – begins August 14

August Wilson Theatre, 245 West 52nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews start August 14. Opens August 25. Closes January 3, 2027.

After freaking out audiences in London, Toronto, LA, Chicago and Boston, Paranormal Activity is now haunting Broadway. Not a direct adaptation but inspired by the cinematic horror series of the same name, Levi Holloway’s script centers on an comely couple (Broadway newbies Travis A. Knight and Cher Álvarez) desperately trying to exorcise evil spirits from their lives. Illusions designer Chris Fisher, who supplies some seriously terrifying jump scares, is the real star here, with an assist from director Felix Barrett.

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School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play – begins September 8

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews begin September 8. Opens September 28. Closes November 1.

A smash downtown a decade ago, Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play comes to Broadway thanks to Manhattan Theatre Club. Whitney White directs this new production of Bioh’s shrewd, ’80s-set comedy about the pecking order at an elite Ghana boarding school, where the young ladies are keen to compete in their nation’s beauty pageant. But the arrival of an American student derails their dreams. The all-Black women cast includes Tony winner Patina Miller, BOOP‘s Jasmine Amy Rogers and Denée Benton (The Great Comet, The Gilded Age).

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The Imaginary Invalid – begins September 25

Todd Haimes Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start September 25. Opens October 22. Closes November 22.

The inimitable Bill Irwin adapted and stars in Molière’s timeless romp about a hypochondriac so obsessed with his phantom ailments that he doesn’t realize he’s being fleeced by everyone around him, including his new wife. Only his daughter is sympathetic, yet he wants to marry her off to a doctor to reduce his medical bills! Tony-nominated actor Brandon J. Dirden makes his Broadway directorial debut with this fabulous farce, costarring Brooks Ashmanskas as the conniving doctor and Rachel Bloom as an irreverent maid.

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Other Desert Cities – begins September 29

Hudson Theatre, 141 West 44th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue

Previews start September 29. Opens October 18. Closes January 17, 2027.

John Benjamin Hickey directs this starry revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s play centering on the Wyeths, a staunchly conservative, politically powerful family in Palm Springs whose daughter drops a bombshell on Christmas Eve 2004: she’s publishing a tell-all memoir uncovering all their nasty secrets. Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her Broadway debut as the matriarch, Ed Harris is her husband, Lily Rabe and Stranger Things‘ Joe Keery are their unhappy offspring and Allison Janney is the visiting alcoholic aunt, who gets the best lines!

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860 – begins October 1

Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start October 1. Opens October 21. Closes January 2, 2027.

Beloved comedian Billy Crystal returns to Broadway with a bittersweet solo show inspired by the loss his home of almost half a century in the devastating 2025 California wildfires. Surviving that tragedy is what sparked this moving stage memoir about the happy decades he spent there with his wife and kids as his star rose. Scott Ellis directs.

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A Few Good Men – begins October 8

Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

Previews start October 8. Opens October 29. Closes January 10, 2027.

Although Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men is best known as an award-winning and oft-quoted movie, it actually started as a Broadway play in 1989. Lincoln Center Theater is giving the military courtroom drama a revival starring Tom Blyth as a brash young lawyer defending a pair of Marines accused of murder who runs afoul of a high-ranking officer, played by Bradley Whitford. Tony winner Michael Arden directs.

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Much Ado About Nothing – begins October 31

Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway between 50th and 51st Streets

Previews start October 31. Opens November 19. Closes January 10, 2027.

Although Shakespeare’s sparkling romantic comedy centering on two frenemies who fall in love is a staple of outdoor summer theatre, it’s been more than 40 years since Much Ado About Nothing has been seen on Broadway. This London transfer comes with quite the pedigree: minimalist Jamie Lloyd directs Marvel movie stars Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston as Beatrice and Benedick. Alas, the run is almost totally sold out!

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Downstate – begins in October*

Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

*Exact dates to be announced.

The marquee is up but there are still no confirmed dates for the Broadway transfer of Bruce Norris’ provocative play Downstate, which premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2018 and had an acclaimed run at Playwrights Horizons in 2022. The drama focuses on four registered sex offenders sharing a group home in Illinois post-incarceration. When a man shows up hell-bent on confronting his childhood abuser, it becomes clear justice and forgiveness are in the eye of the beholder. For the Broadway mounting, Tony winner Joe Mantello replaces original director Pam MacKinnon. At least two original cast members, Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman, are rumored to be returning. We will post more once details are official.

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Here There Are Blueberries – begins November 2

Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 West 47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews start November 2. Opens November 9. Closes January 10, 2027.

After well-received runs regionally and at New York Theatre Workshop in 2024, the Pulitzer finalist play Here There Are Blueberries arrives on Broadway. In 2007, a US Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist was handed a photo album featuring Nazis seemingly enjoying every day life. As experts researched the pictures and the people in them, they uncovered unsettling truths about the perpetrators of the Holocaust and all of humankind. This chilling drama is conceived and directed by Tony nominee Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project, 33 Variations), who leads Tectonic Theater Project, a company known for its rigorously researched plays about real-life events. Casting has not yet been announced.

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Inter Alia – begins November 10

Music Box Theatre, 239 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start November 10. Opens December 1. Closes February 21, 2027.

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) makes her Broadway debut in this London import about a high-powered judge and mother who unexpectedly gets caught up in a moral and legal quagmire. Penned by lawyer-turned-playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie), the production earned raves across the pond.

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Awake and Sing! – begins December 15

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews begin December 15. Opens January 7, 2027. Closes TBD.

Manhattan Theatre Club presents a revival of Clifford Odets’ politically charged drama Awake and Sing!, about a struggling Bronx family during the Great Depression, with each member trying to figure out the best way forward. Tyne Rafaeli directs a top-notch cast in this uncomfortably relevant play, including Tony winner Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, Micaela Diamond, Jeremy Shamos and Will Pullen.

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