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Hugh Jackman, who's starring in a new play at Audible starting this month.
Catch Tony winner Anika Noni Rose in Wonderful Town, a new musical about Nat "King" Cole, Hugh Jackman (!!!) and more
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Hugh Jackman is back on the boards... but this time he's Off Broadway and in a play! Plus Tony winner Anika Noni Rose stars in a revival of Wonderful Town, Tony nominee Kate Burton headlines a new comedy at Irish Rep and Dulé Hill plays Nat "King" Cole at New York Theatre Workshop. These are just some of the promising productions opening Off Broadway in April. 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 March 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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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin April 1. Opens April 5. Closes April 20.
Lauded Dublin company Fishamble presents a pair of plays as part of the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival. First up: Fight Night, Gavin Kostick's devastating portrait of a washed-up boxer whose battles outside the ring—against booze and babes and family—are the ones that left scars. But the birth of his son inspires him to seek redemption. Aonghus Óg McAnally reprises his acclaimed performance in this one-man drama.
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin April 2. Opens April 6. Closes April 20.
The second play presented by acclaimed Dublin company Fishamble as part of the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival, In Two Minds is based on playwright Joanne Ryan's experiences with her own mother, who is bipolar. While her house is being renovated, an eccentric woman moves into her daughter's studio apartment. In those close quarters, the duo navigates a loving but fraught relationship, shaped by the highs and lows of manic depression. Sarah Jane Scaife directs this two-hander, which was well received in Edinburgh last year.
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Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Chelsea
Previews begin April 2. Opens April 13. Closes May 25.
Three-time Tony nominee Kate Burton and Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson headline Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's world-premiere comedy at Irish Rep. A celebrated Dublin-based company led by a cutting-edge playwright is on the cusp of its New York debut, but the actors are worried their new production just isn't Irish enough. So they decide to take artistic matters into their own hands. Nicola Murphy Dubey directs this laugh-out-loud look at the commodification of culture and the challenges of collaboration.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin April 3. Opens April 16. Closes May 11.
British director and frequent Caryl Churchill collaborator James Macdonald (Top Girls on Broadway) directs a quartet of recent one-acts by the legendary playwright, whose boundary-pushing works include Cloud Nine and Serious Money. Glass. Kill. and Imp. were presented together in 2019 to great acclaim in London; for this Public Theater production, the 2021 playlet What If If Only joins the lineup. The ensemble cast includes Tony winner Deirdre O'Connell (Dana H.).
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Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater, 336 West 20th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea
Previews begin April 5. Opens April 22. Closes May 11. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
After being postponed in January due to a strike, Grief Camp is back on the Atlantic Theater Company's schedule. The Off-Broadway debut of Eliya Smith, a Harvard grad currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting in Texas, this poignant play is set at a summer program where adolescents grapple with loss, love and growing up. Tony nominee Les Waters (Dana H.) directs a cast of fresh faces in this world premiere.
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Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 10. Opens April 23. Closes May 4. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Hilarious, no-holds-barred playwright and performer Ryan J. Haddad (Hi, Are You Single?, Dark Disabled Stories) is behind Hold Me in the Water, his latest autobiographical solo show about dating while disabled. After years of hookups, he falls head over heels for a man he just met. As their relationships deepens, he becomes intimate with the ups and downs of first love. Danny Sharron directs this production for Playwrights Horizons.
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AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 10. Closes April 20.
Like Encores!, J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company revives rarely performed musicals, though admittedly with smaller budgets. This season kicks off with Smile, Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Ashman's short-lived Broadway musical about contestants vying for the crown at The 1985 Young American Miss Pageant, which includes the well-known numbers "Disneyland" and "Typical High School Senior."
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Theatre at St. Clement's, 423 West 46th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 11. Opens April 18. Closes May 18. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
In 1969, Lonne Elder III's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men was an early success for the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), with the play going on to a commercial transfer and being short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. Now NEC partners with The Peccadillo Theater Company for a rare revival of this powerful drama, about how systemic racism leads to the unraveling of one family in 1950s Harlem. Tony nominee Norm Lewis plays the idle patriarch, a widow haunted by the death of his wife with three adult children: two sons hoping to get rich quick and a daughter desperately trying to keep them all going. But crime, obsession and exasperation lead to tragic consequences. Clinton Turner Davis directs.
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BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street between Ashland and Rockwell Places in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Begins April 15. Closes April 27.
Whitney White may be the busiest NYC theatre artist this season. Not only is she directing three productions, she is also starring in her celebrated show Macbeth in Stride, a rocking reimagining of the Scottish Play that presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful Black woman looking to have her own seat at the table. A fusion of pop, gospel and R&B songs, Shakespeare's words and contemporary poetry, the show explores the challenges ambitious Black women face through the journey of the Bard's most iconic female character.
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Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Lincoln Square
Previews begin April 19. Opens May 5. Closes June 1.
Lincoln Center Theater's innovative LCT3 presents the world premiere of Caitlin Saylor Stephens' new dark comedy Five Models in Ruins, 1981 about a fashion photographer (Obie-winning stage stalwart Elizabeth Marvel) whose gig of a lifetime, the cover of Vogue, quickly falls apart. Will she be able to find a moment of beauty in all the ugliness she's forced to reckon with? Morgan Green directs.
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The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and Tenth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 22. Opens May 13. Closes June 1.
Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley are pop culture scholars. Their last two shows, This American Wife dissecting The Real Housewives franchise and Circle Jerk, a Pulitzer-nominated satire about gay internet trolls, were insightful as well as entertaining as they parsed the power of viral trends. Their obsession continues with their new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse, inspired by a bitchy 2006 New York Post cover dubbing Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears "bimbos." When a trio of Gen Zers becomes fixated on an unnamed fourth bimbo, they go on a quest to find a forgotten pop princess. The ensemble cast includes Matilda the Musical star Milly Shapiro.
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59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Begins begin April 23. Closes May 25.
Writer-director Paul Hendy is behind The Last Laugh, a tribute to three late UK comedy icons: Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse. Part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, this hit play from across the pond imagines the trio sitting down to joke about what it takes to get laughs.
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AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 24. Closes May 4.
Like Encores!, J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company revives rarely performed musicals, though admittedly with smaller budgets. This season continues with Zorba! about a freewheeling vagabond and his pal traveling through Crete. John Kander and Fred Ebb's glorious score includes "Life Is" and "I Am Free."
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Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street in the West Village
Previews begin April 28. Opens TBD. Closes June 18.
Audible Theater and Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman's recently founded TOGETHER present the US premiere of Hannah Moscovitch's two-hander Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes... starring the Tony winner himself! Jackman plays Jon, a celebrated writer and college professor on the brink of a third divorce. Ella Beatty is Annie, his precocious 19-year-old student and fan. Their relationship sparks complex questions about consent, desire and abuse of power. Presented in repertory with an adaptation of August Strindberg's Creditors starring Liev Schreiber, which begins performances in May. Bonus: Not all tickets will be insanely priced! In fact, 25% will available for purchase on the day of each performance through a digital lottery as well as in person at the box office for just $35. And TDF will also be offering complimentary tickets to underserved communities.
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The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin April 29. Opens May 20. Closes June 1.
After a well-received run at Berkeley Rep, Goddess makes its NYC debut at The Public. With a book and direction by Tony nominee Saheem Ali (Fat Ham) and songs by Michael Thurber, it's an epic romance inspired by the myth of Marimba about an enthralling singer (Lempicka Tony nominee Amber Iman) seducing audiences in an Afro-jazz club in Kenya. But will an engaged man with political aspirations (Nick Rashad Burrough) win her heart?
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New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown West
Begins April 30. Closes May 11.
Tony winner Anika Noni Rose and Aisha Jackson are sisters who move from small-town Ohio to NYC to chase their dreams and fall in love in this classic musical featuring fabulous songs by Leonard Bernstein and Betty Comden & Adolph Green, including "Ohio" and "One Hundred Easy Ways." Zhailon Levingston (Cats: "The Jellicle Ball") directs.
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Irish Arts Center, 726 Eleventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets in Midtown West
Previews begin April 30. Opens TBD. Closes June 1.
The Irish Arts Center presents Colin Murphy's docudrama about the legal fight to lift the ban on James Joyce's controversial modernist classic Ulysses in the US. Framed as a radio reenactment of the real-life 1933 saga, The United States vs Ulysses interweaves characters and scenes from the landmark novel with the court case as an ambitious young publisher and his lawyer challenge notions of what's considered obscene.
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New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street between Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village
Previews begin April 30. Opens May 19. Closes June 15.
Emmy nominee and Broadway vet Dulé Hill stars as the groundbreaking jazz singer and pianist Nat "King" Cole in Lights Out, a new musical centered on the abrupt cancelation of his eponymous TV variety series in 1957 due to lack of sponsors. Set during the climactic episode, this show finds Cole struggling with how he wants to go out as he debates being a Black artist in racist America with his alter-ego, Sammy Davis Jr. (Tina Tony nominee Daniel J. Watts). Celebrated performer-playwright Colman Domingo and New York Theatre Workshop Aristic Director Patricia McGregor co-created this fascinating meditation on a complicated figure that features many of Cole's biggest hits, including "Nature Boy," "It's a Good Day," "Smile" and "Unforgettable."
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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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