TDF Stages

Catch Mikhail Baryshnikov in Chekhov, a premiere by Pulitzer finalist Will Arbery, three new musicals and more

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School may be out for the summer, but Off Broadway is still in session. Our curated list features a dozen of the most promising productions, including a new play by Heroes of the Fourth Turning Pulitzer finalist Will Arbery, a cutting-edge riff on The Cherry Orchard starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and a tuneful trio of new musicals. For a comprehensive overview of theatre in New York City, browse the listings in TDF's Show Finder. And remember, most of our Off-Broadway picks for May are still running!

As for COVID-19 protocols, although most Broadway theatres are no longer checking vaccination status, the Off-Broadway shows listed below continue to require proof of full vaccination as well as masks unless otherwise noted. While we are doing our best to keep this article up to date, before buying tickets to any event, double-check the COVID-19 rules so you are prepared.

If you're a TDF member, be sure to log in to your account to see what we're selling as ticket inventory changes frequently.

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Penguin Rep: Mr. Parker - June 1

Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 1. Opens June 6. Closes June 25. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

How do you claim the spotlight when you've spent your life in someone else's shadow? That's the question at the heart of Mr. Parker, a new play about a gay middle-aged man trying to figure out who he is and how to move forward after the sudden death of his famous partner. Written by Michael McKeever and directed by Joe Brancato, the team behind the thought-provoking hit Daniel's Husband, Mr. Parker arrives Off Broadway after a well-reviewed run at Stony Point, NY's lauded Penguin Rep Theatre.

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Playwrights Horizons: Corsicana - June 2

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

Previews begin June 2. Opens June 22. Closes July 17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Will Arbery's last drama at Playwrights Horizons, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, won an Obie Award and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. He returns to the Off-Broadway theatre with Corsicana, a deeply personal play centering on two siblings inspired by Arbery and his older sister Julia, who has Down syndrome. In a small Texas city, a woman with Down syndrome named Ginny (American Horror Story's Jamie Brewer) and her half-brother Christopher (Will Dagger) are grappling with grief after their mother's death. A close family friend, Justice (the incomparable Deirdre O'Connell from Dana H.) introduces them to a reclusive local musician named Lot (Harold Surratt), hoping they can soothe themselves through song. A quartet about caretaking and caregiving, Corsicana is sure to have some of the surreal elements that made Heroes of the Fourth Turning so haunting. Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home, A Doll's House, Part 2) directs.

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The New Victory Theater: Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster - June 4

The New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Midtown West

Begins June 4. Closes June 26. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Officially, this hour-long romp inspired by Mo Willems' popular picture book Leonardo, The Terrible Monster is aimed at theatregoers ages 4 to 7. But fans of the endlessly inventive multimedia collective Manual Cinema won't want to miss this eye-popping piece of theatre for young audiences, even if they fall outside the target demo. Using surprisingly expressive paper puppets, projections and live music, the troupe conjures the tale of a monster who's terrified he's not scary enough. So, he sets out to find the most sensitive kid in the world. But will he end up frightening him or befriending him? You can catch this show at The New Victory Theater in person or stream a recording at home.

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The Orchard - June 7

Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 7. Opens June 16. Closes July 3.

There are two ways to experience The Orchard, theatre director Igor Golyak's mind-blowing riff on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. In-person audiences at the Baryshnikov Arts Center will see Mikhail Baryshnikov and Tony nominee Jessica Hecht in this classic tale of a Russian family contemplating the demise of their estate and way of life. Streaming audiences experience the play in a totally different way, with Baryshnikov portraying Chekhov, who takes you on a virtual tour of the theatre where each space holds a different memory. Oh, and did I mention the 12-foot robotic arm that's programmed to cater to the characters? If this all sounds confounding, I encourage you to read the feature in The New York Times, which gives a nice backstory on Golyak and his Massachusetts-based Arlekin Players Theatre, which has been creating exciting virtual works through its Zero Gravity (zero-G) lab throughout the pandemic. Golyak is a Russian theatre trained Ukrainian immigrant, so his take on this Chekhov classic is personal, political and heartbreaking.

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Mint Theater Company: Chains - June 7

Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 7. Opens June 23. Closes July 17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Off Broadway's esteemed Mint Theater Company, which has been unearthing forgotten gems since 1992, presents Chains, the drama that put an obscure English stenographer and suffragist named Elizabeth Baker on the map in 1909, although she fell back into obscurity soon after. Her first full-length play, Chains movingly explores the challenges of the lower-middle class, as a suburban London family is blindsided when their longtime lodger announces he's leaving. Already stuck in unsatisfying jobs and relationships, what will they need to do just to get by? While this play was a sensation in London and ran briefly on Broadway in 2012, it wasn't seen for almost a century on either side of the pond. This rare revival is directed by Jenn Thompson.

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Irish Repertory Theatre: Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom - June 8

Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Chelsea

Previews begin June 8. Opens June 15. Closes July 17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Aedín Moloney's theatrical adaptation of the "Penelope episode" from James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses was a hit at the theatre in 2019 and again online during the pandemic. Now Irish Rep is bringing it back for an encore run. A monologue play offering intimate insights into one woman's desires and dreams as she grapples with an empty nest, an unfulfilling affair and a dying marriage, the show includes brief musical interludes composed by The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney, who happens to be the star's papa.

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Park Avenue Armory: Hamlet - June 10

Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets on the Upper East Side

Previews begin June 10. Opens June 28. Closes August 13. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Following a critically acclaimed run at London's Almeida Theatre, visionary director Robert Icke's timely take on Hamlet comes to the Park Avenue Armory. British stage star Alex Lawther is the grieving prince hell-bent on revenge, who's trying to navigate a surveillance society dominated by rolling news feeds, blurring the line between public and private life. Lia Williams was set to reprise her role as his mother Gertrude, but she was forced to drop out due to injury. How's this for a sub: two-time Tony winner Jennifer Ehle! To see or not to see, honestly, that's not a question.

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Just for Us - June 13

Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street near Seventh Avenue South in the West Village

Begins June 13. Closes September 2.

For much of his career, comedian Alex Edelman didn't like to get political on stage. But some upsetting anti-Semitic tweets and a public invitation to a white nationalist meeting in Queens prompted him to change trajectory. The result is Just For Us, a hilarious and harrowing one-man comedy about coming face-to-face with hate. After critically acclaimed runs at two smaller theatres earlier this season, Edelman brings this very personal solo show to Off-Broadway's Greenwich House Theater. It's insightful standup that makes you want to stand up to intolerance everywhere.

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Second Stage Theater: 53% OF - June 14

2ST Uptown at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway between 76th and 77th Streets on the Upper West Side

Previews begin June 14. Opens June 28. Closes July 10. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Note: proof of vaccination NOT required. Masks are mandatory.

Second Stage Theater presents Steph Del Rosso's biting new dark comedy 53% OF about the white women who voted for Donald Trump... and the ones who didn't. The white women of Bethlehem, PA are in a tizzy because 45 is coming to town. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, other white women are planning to rise up against him. But are there sheroes on either side? An examination of how even self-described good people can be willfully ignorant.

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Titanique - June 14

Asylum NYC, 307 West 26th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea

Previews begin June 14. Opens June 23. Closes September 25. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Like many satires, Titanique started out as an alcohol-infused goof between a bunch of creative pals. What would a send-up of James Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winning epic Titanic look like as a stage musical as seen through the eyes, songs and vibrato of Céline Dion? But then cocreators Tye Blue, Constantine Rousouli and Marla Mindelle realized they were onto something special—that's how this buoyant comedy set sail. Last year the trio presented a virtual concert of the show. Now it's going on its maiden Off-Broadway voyage with belter Mindelle as Dion, who hijacks a Titanic Museum tour, recharting the course of the movie's iconic moments and characters through her song catalog. Blue directs a comedic cast that also includes Rousouli as Jack, Alex Ellis as Rose, Phantom of the Opera star John Riddle as Cal and Frankie Grande as Victor Garber.

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Between the Lines - June 15

The Tony Kiser Theater, 305 West 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 15. Opens July 11. Closes September 11.

Note: proof of vaccination NOT required. Masks are mandatory.

Based on the best-selling young-adult novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult and her daughter Samantha Van Leer, Between the Lines focuses on 17-year-old Delilah (Aladdin's Arielle Jacobs), a bookish outcast whose obsession with a fairy tale starts seeping into her reality in fantastical ways. Tony-nominated Newsies director Jeff Calhoun oversees a cast of Broadway vets, and legendary Broadway producer Daryl Roth, who's transferred many a show to the Main Stem, presents the production.

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Love Quirks: A New Musical - June 18

AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin June 18. Opens June 27. Closes September 2. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Note: proof of vaccination NOT required. Masks are mandatory.

A musical romantic comedy about four thirtysomethings looking for connection in the big city, Love Quirks shut down just as it was getting started due to the pandemic. Two years later, Mark Childers and Seth Bisen-Hersh's tuneful take on love and friendship returns Off Broadway with the original cast intact. The theatrical equivalent of comfort food!

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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her at @RavenSnook. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.

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Top image: Alex Lawther as Hamlet in Robert Icke's critically acclaimed mounting of Shakespeare's tragedy at the Park Avenue Armory. Photo by Miles Aldridge.