TDF Stages

Welcome to the spring edition of the Brodaway season preview. These 20 plays and musicals are all scheduled to open on the Great White Way by April 24, which is the last day of eligibility for the 2014 Tony Awards.

* Dates and shows are subject change. Before you plan a trip, use TDF's show search to guarantee that your preferred show is still scheduled to perform.

* "Previews" are preview performances, when a show is still being revised and polished before its opening night.

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JANUARY

* Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
At the Stephen Sondheim (124 West 43rd Street). Now in previews. Opens on January 12.

This new musical tells the story of legendary singer-songwriter Carole King, and it stars recently minted Broadway star Jesse Mueller.

* Machinal
At the American Airlines (227 West 42nd Street). Now in previews. Opens January 16.

This is a rare revival of Sophie Treadwell's groundbreaking 1928 play about a woman who is trapped in the lockstep emptiness of her "perfect life." Only when she commits a crime does she begin to feel free, but society swiftly punishes her. Treadwell's genius is in making this an Expressionistic exploration of the woman's life, so that the world around her is literally transformed by her perception.

* Outside Mullingar
At the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Previews January 2. Opens January 23

In this new play from John Patrick Shanley (<i>Doubt</i>), Brian F. O'Byrne and Debra Messing play a pair of lonely misfits who stumble toward each other in a halting quest for love.

FEBRUARY

* Bronx Bombers
At Circle in the Square (1633 Broadway). Previews January 10. Opens February 6.

After a successful Off-Broadway run, this play about the history of the New York Yankees moves to the majors. Playwright Eric Simon also delivered the recent sports-themed dramas Lombardi and Magic/Bird.

* The Bridges of Madison County
At the Gerald Schoenfeld (236 West 45th Street). Previews January 17. Opens February 20.

Composer Jason Robert Brown teams with playwright Marsha Norman to musicalize the seminal 90s love story, about a farm wife who has an affair with a photographer. Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale star.

MARCH

* All the Way
At the Neil Simon (250 West 52nd Street). Previews February 10. Opens March 6.

Bryan Cranston makes his Broadway debut as Lyndon Johnson, and since this study of Johnson's first year in the White House is written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan, whose plays typically treat history with irreverent curiosity, we should not expect a gentle biography of a former leader.

* Rocky
At the Winter Garden (1634 Broadway). Previews February 11. Opens March 13.

Yes, that Rocky. Sylvester Stallone's Oscar-winning movie is now a musical. It's scored by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the team behind Ragtime; it's directed Alex Timbers, who also helmed Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; and it's co-choreographed by Steven Hoggett, who shaped Once, Black Watch, and American Idiot. This team will likely do something very interesting.

* Aladdin 

At the New Amsterdam (214 West 42nd Street). Previews February 26. Opens March 20.</i>

The classic Disney movie is coming to Broadway. Who <i>doesn't</i> want to see how they handle the magic carpet ride and the genie coming out of the bottle?

* Les Miserables
At the Imperial (249 West 45th Street). Previews March 1. Opens March 23.

Since the cast is a who's who of young Broadway stars---including Will Swenson, Nikki M. James, Caissie Levy, and Keala Settle---the latest revival of this ever-present musical is generating buzz for its potential to surprise us.

* Mothers and Sons
At the John Golden (252 West 45th Street). Previews February 23. Opens March 24.

Tyne Daly stars in Terrence McNally's new play about who make a surprise visit to her late son's former partner. The press release says the play explores the "evolving definition of family and the healing power of forgiveness."

*If/Then

At the Richard Rodgers (226 West 46th Street). Previews March 4. Opens March 27.

Idina Menzel returns to Broadway for the first time since Wicked in this new musical from the creators of Next to Normal. The ambitiously structured show follows one group of characters through two different stories, raising questions of chance and fate as they try to make sense of their lives.

APRIL

* A Raisin in the Sun
At the Ethel Barrymore (243 West 47th Street). Previews March 8. Opens April 3.

Denzel Washington, Diahann Carroll, and Anika Noni Rose star in the latest revival of the classic play about an African-American family trying to move up in the world.

*Bullets Over Broadway
At the St. James (246 West 44th Street). Previews March 11. Opens April 10.

Woody Allen's dizzy film about mobsters and the theatre in 1928 is now a musical directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman . Allen adapted the book himself, and the score features songs of the period. The cast features Zach Braff, Vincent Pastore, and Marin Mazzie.

* Of Mice and Men
At the Longacre (220 West 48th Street). Previews March 19. Opens April 16.

James Franco, Chris O'Dowd, and Leighton Meester star in this revival, which follows the story of John Steinbeck's classic novel.

* Act One
At the Vivan Beaumont (150 West 65th Street). Previews March 20. Opens April 17.

In this new play about the life of theatre legend Moss Hart, Santino Fontana and Tony Shalhoub will both play the golden-age writer at different points in his life.

*Violet
At the American Airlines (227 West 42nd Street). Previews March 28. Opens April 20.

Before Fun Home and Caroline, or Change, Jeanine Tesori had her breakthrough with this touching, unusual musical about a disfigured girl who travels across the country on a quest to be healed. Sutton Foster will star in its first Broadway production.

*The Velocity of Autumn
At the Booth (222 West 45th Street). Previews April 1. Opens April 21.

Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella star in this feisty new play, which had a successful run in Washington, DC. The press notes describe it by saying, "The Velocity of Autumn swirls around Alexandra, a 79-year-old artist in a showdown with her family over where she'll spend her remaining years. In Alexandra's corner are her wit, her volcanic passion, and the fact that she's barricaded herself in her Brooklyn brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the block."

*Hedwig and the Angry Inch
At the Belasco (242 West 45nd Street). Previews March 29. Opens April 22.

John Cameron Mitchell's trailblazing musical about Hedwig, a gender-bending rock singer who escapes Communist East Berlin only to wind up "universally ignored" in America, is finally coming to Broadway. Neil Patrick Harris will star.

*Casa Valentina
At the Samuel J. Friedman (261 West 47th Street). Previews April 1. Opens April 23.

Harvey Fierstein's new play is based on the actual story of a 1960s resort in the Catskills where heterosexual men used to gather to dress and live as women. Joe Mantello directs.

*Cabaret
At Studio 54 (254 West 54th Street). Previews March 21. Opens April 24.

Roundabout revives its successful production of the Kander and Ebb musical, and Alan Cumming returns to play Emcee. The cast also includes Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, and Oscar nominee Michelle Williams.