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Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone star in The Roommate on Broadway, which begins performances in August. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.
Catch Patti LuPone's Broadway return, Tony winner Kara Young in a new comedy, a new installment of Forbidden Broadway and more
August is the calm before the stormy fall season—18 productions are opening between now and the end of the year on Broadway alone. But even though it's a quiet time for theatre in NYC, there are still worthy shows to catch this month, including a new Broadway comedy starring Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow, Purlie Victorious Tony winner Kara Young in a new play, a fresh edition of Forbidden Broadway and a radical reinvention of The Marriage of Figaro. These are just some of the promising new productions beginning in August. We couldn't include everything, so be sure to browse the listings in TDF's Show Finder to see what else is playing. Remember, many of our picks for July 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.
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Under St. Marks Theater, 94 St. Marks Place between First Avenue and Avenue A in the East Village
Begins August 1. Closes August 17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account and search for Little Shakespeare Festival to purchase discount tickets to select performances.
Zhuzh up your Shakespeare at FRIGID's fourth annual fest featuring gender-expansive takes on the Bard's canon. The lineup includes Justin Hay's solo turn My Own Private Shakespeare (August 1-4) about a Shakespearean actor grappling with an existential crisis; The Lark and the Nightingale (August 9-11, 15 and 17), which gives Juliet and Desdemona happier endings; and the improv Shakespeare show As You Will (August 2, 4, 10 and 17).
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Pushkin Hall, 165 West 86th Street at Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side
Begins August 3. Closes October 13.
Russian Arts Theater may have changed its name to Theater 86, but the venerable troupe continues to mount Russian classics rarely seen in the US, like this stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. The landmark novel was penned in secret during the darkest days of Stalin's regime and wasn't published until decades after the author's death, and even then it was censored. Jean-Claude van Itallie's dramatization, which is performed in English, shares the full glory of this fantastical satire of the Soviet Union, as the Devil and his cohorts descend on Moscow and upend the cultural elite, including a writer called the Master, who ends up in a mental hospital. But can his lover, Margarita, save his soul by selling hers?
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AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins August 8. Closes August 17. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Prolific songwriter Billy Recce (A Musical About Star Wars, FIVE: The Parody Musical, Singfeld! A Musical Parody About Nothing!) is behind this campy musical comedy about a pair of unemployed queer folks who get hired to pen an apology show for a homophobic chicken chain. Sounds finger-shticking good!
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Chain Theatre, 312 West 36th between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins August 8. Closes September 1.
The Chain Theatre presents more than four dozen new one-acts by both emerging and established playwrights. Highlights include the New York premiere of Banshee by Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley, Catch by longtime journalist Jeryl Brunner and the hilarious solo show Reflections from the Shallow End of the Dating Pool by Debbi Hobson, a former TDF staffer and talented raconteur. Each performance features two to five playlets so peruse the schedule and take a chance!
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin August 16. Opens August 23. Closes September 1.
Just in time for the Democratic National Convention, the legendary Negro Ensemble Company brings back Charles White's play about an upper-middle-class Black clan grappling with internalized racism, class anxiety and secrets against the backdrop of Obama's historic 2008 presidential win. With their comfortable lives at risk in a society on the cusp of change, their beloved Sag Harbor vacation home becomes the focus of an intense family battle.
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin August 10. Opens August 15. Closes September 1.
59E59 Theaters' AMPLIFY series celebrates the work of one playwright per season. This edition's pick is Chisa Hutchinson, with three of her plays receiving their NYC premieres between now and April. The fest kicks off with Bleeding Class, a politically charged sci-fi thriller about a deadly plague that turns two folks from wildly different worlds—a virologist and a prostitute with a unique immune system—into uncomfortable allies. Will class and cultural divides prove deadly to their collaboration?
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The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 511 West 52nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin August 14. Opens September 6. Closes September 29.
Chicken & Biscuits had an undeservedly brief Broadway run, but the raucous romp has become a regional favorite. So it's exciting that playwright Douglas Lyons and director Zhailon Levingston are reteaming for the new comedy Table 17, about exes reuniting for a hilariously dramatic dinner. Purlie Victorious Tony winner Kara Young stars opposite her real-life partner, Biko Eisen-Martin, in this laugh-filled world premiere about the highs and lows of romance.
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The Brick, 579 Metropolitan Avenue near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Begins August 22. Closes September 7.
Indie theatre mecca The Brick presents Emily Lyon's history-inspired satire Sex and the Abbey about Hrotsvitha, a real-life 10th-century canoness and the first Western female playwright who's tasked with entertaining special guest Emperor Otto. But it's tough to amuse a visiting monarch when the ladies of Gandersheim Abbey are so distracted by behind-the-scenes drama, including romances.
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The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin August 28. Opens September 4. Closes September 28.
After a pair of well-received Edinburgh Festival Fringe runs under the title The Mould that Changed the World, the musical Lifeline arrives Off Broadway. With songs by Robin Hiley and a book by Becky Hope-Palmer, the show intertwines the story of Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovering penicillin in 1928 with the modern-day tale of a doctor trying to save her childhood sweetheart, who's battling cancer and may have developed antimicrobial resistance. The show's website has excerpts of its songs performed by some pretty impressive folks, including Aaron Lazar and Arielle Jacobs.
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Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Previews start August 29. Opens September 12. Closes December 15.
Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow star in the new Broadway comedy The Roommate—need we say more? Well, we will. Written by Jen Silverman (The Moors, Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties), this play about very different housemates—one's a Noo Yawker with a mysterious past, the other's a naive Midwestern divorcée—has an Odd Couple-style setup but with a criminal twist. Jack O'Brien (who last directed LuPone on Broadway 49 years ago in The Time of Your Life!) helms the production.
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Little Island, Pier 55 in Hudson River Park at 13th Street in the Meatpacking District
Begins August 30. Closes September 22.
Little Island's powerhouse season ends on many high notes with Anthony Roth Costanzo doing multiple diva turns in The Marriage of Figaro. The celebrated countertenor plays all the leading roles in Mozart's beloved opera about a pair of servants foiling the seduction plot of their employer. All tickets are just $25 and are released in waves—they go quickly! If you're interested, do not hesitate.
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Theater 555, 555 West 42nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin August 30. Opens September 19. Closes December 1. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Legendary parodist Gerard Alessandrini skewers Sondheim et al. with love in the latest edition of his long-running revue Forbidden Broadway, which is bowing Off Broadway, not on as originally announced. All the big 2024 Tony winners, including Hell's Kitchen, Stereophonic, The Outsiders and Merrily We Roll Along get spoofed plus there will be sendups of stars like Roger Bart, Patti LuPone, Daniel Radcliffe, Ariana DeBose and Jeremy Jordan.
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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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