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Broadway Fall Preview 2024: Shows to See in NYC

By: Raven Snook
Date: Aug 22, 2024
Broadway

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A guide to 19 upcoming musicals and plays

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The star player's the thing on Broadway this fall. Audra McDonald in a revival of Gypsy, Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes in a revival of Our Town, and Patti LuPone, Julianna Margulies, James Monroe Iglehart, Darren Criss and Robert Downey Jr. headlining new plays and musicals. There are also buzzy London transfers (Sunset Blvd., Tammy Faye, The Hills of California), satires about race about vaccination, and the Broadway debut of a recent Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Keep in mind that a handful of productions have already opened on Broadway since the 2024-2025 season officially began and three are still running, all transfers from Off Broadway: the hit comedy Oh, Mary!, Sutton Foster in the Encores! revival of Once Upon a Mattress and the psychological thriller Job.

If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to see what we're selling as ticket inventory changes frequently. Not a TDF member? Our TKTS Discount Booths sell same-day tickets up to 50% off to most Broadway shows.

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

MUSICALS


Sunset Blvd. - begins performances September 28

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

Previews begin September 28. Opens October 20. Open run.

Nicole Scherzinger (The Pussycat Dolls, The Masked Singer) won an Olivier Award for her performance as faded but still fame-hungry film star Norma Desmond in director Jamie Lloyd's stripped-down take on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, which transfers to Broadway after an acclaimed London run. The old-fashioned grandeur of past Sunset Boulevard productions, not to mention the Billy Wilder movie on which its based, has been replaced by a starkly contemporary sensibility, with live video feeds showing the characters up close in all their gory glory. This revival promises to be quite the killer comeback.

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A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical - begins performances October 16

Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews start October 16. Opens November 11. Open run. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Hello, Louis! Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Spamalot) stars as the legendary trumpeter and gravelly vocalist in this new bio musical, which had well-received runs in New Orleans and Chicago last year. This portrait of the artist is conjured through the eyes of his four wives and features songs he made famous, including the standards "What a Wonderful World" and "When You're Smiling." Tony nominee Christopher Renshaw directs.

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Maybe Happy Ending - begins performances October 16

Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue

Previews start October 16. Opens November 12. Open run.

After a decade of out-of-town productions, mostly in Asia, this robot rom-com arrives on Broadway. Darren Criss (Glee, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Helen J Shen (Teeth) star as two lonely, out-of-date Helperbots languishing in Seoul, Korea, who meet and discover that they may have some life and love in them yet. Tony winner Michael Arden (Parade, Once on This Island) directs this heartwarming, high-tech musical, written by Will Aronson and Hue Park.

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Tammy Faye - begins performances October 19

Palace Theatre, 160 West 47th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Previews begin October 19. Opens November 14. Closes December 8.

Jake Shears and Elton John's new musical about televangelist diva Tammy Faye Bakker comes to Broadway after a lauded London premiere. Katie Brayben reprises her Olivier Award-winning turn as the over-the-top icon, who earned legions of fans with her tearful sermons, extravagant makeup and unexpected support for the LGBTQ community. Two-time Tony winner Christian Borle is her scandal-prone husband, Jim Bakker, and two-time Tony winner Michael Cerveris is Reverend Jerry Falwell. Rupert Goold directs the show, the first full-fledged production at the newly renovated (and elevated!) Palace Theatre.

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Death Becomes Her - begins performances October 23

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 West 46th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews start October 23. Opens November 21. Open run.

A trio of Broadway divas—and a bona fide pop one—headline Death Becomes Her, a campy musical comedy based on the 1992 cult classic about an immortality serum that ruins lives... forever! Smash's Megan Hilty is narcissist Mad, scene-stealer Jennifer Simard (Company, Once Upon a One More Time) is her longtime frenemy Hel, Christopher Sieber (Shrek the Musical, The Prom) is the schlub torn between them and Destiny Child's Michelle Williams is the goddess who makes the ladies an offer they really should refuse. Tony winner Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs this drop-dead romp, which features songs by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey and earned positive notices in Chicago earlier this year.

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Swept Away - begins performances October 29

Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue

Previews start October 29. Opens November 19. Closes December 29.

After successful runs in California and Washington, DC, Swept Away docks on Broadway. Featuring hits by the Grammy-nominated folk-rock group The Avett Brothers, it's the harrowing tale of four shipwreck survivors, stranded and starving on a lifeboat. The book by Tony winner John Logan (Red, Moulin Rouge! The Musical) was inspired in part by the Avett Brothers' album Mignonette, about a real-life 1884 tragedy at sea, and Tony-winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) has cast two of his talented regulars: Tony winner John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands. Here's to a dramatic voyage.

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Elf The Musical - begins performances November 9

Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway at 46th Street

Previews start November 9. Opens November 17. Closes January 4, 2025.

The family-friendly musical Elf, based on the 2003 movie comedy of the same name, returns to Broadway for the first time in over a decade for a seasonal engagement. Mean Girls Tony nominee Grey Henson stars as Buddy the Elf, an orphan who crawls into Santa's sack and ends up at the North Pole, where he's raised by elves. Once he realizes he's human as an adult, he sets out to locate his bio dad in NYC, spreading chaos and Christmas cheer wherever he goes. With funny songs by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Prom, The Wedding Singer) and a joke-filled book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, it's a tuneful holiday treat.

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Gypsy - begins performances November 21

Majestic Theatre, 247 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start November 21. Opens December 19. Open run.

Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald is the ultimate stage mother in Tony-winning director George C. Wolfe's reimagining of Gypsy. Yes, the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim classic is revived a lot, but we are happy to let these two entertain us with their talent and insight into this musical masterpiece, the first production to play the Majestic Theatre since Phantom closed. The rest of the cast has not yet been announced, but Wolfe has stated Mama Rose's boyfriend and manager, Herbie, will be white, adding new layers to this iconic showbiz story.

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PLAYS


The Roommate - begins August 29

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. 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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McNeal - begins performances September 5

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

Previews start September 5. Opens September 30. Closes November 24.

Oscar winner and cinematic superhero Robert Downey Jr. makes his Broadway debut in McNeal, an enigmatic new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) about a famous writer with a dysfunctional family and a disturbing obsession with AI. Tony winner Bartlett Sher (To Kill a Mockingbird, Oslo) directs this world premiere at Lincoln Center Theater, which features some beloved stage stalwarts (Ruthie Ann Miles, Andrea Martin) alongside a "highly realistic Metahuman Digital Likeness" of Downey created by AGBO, cofounded by Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed the actor in multiple Marvel movies. How's that for synergy?

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The Hills of California - begins performances September 11

Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues

Previews start September 11. Opens September 29. Closes December 22.

The Tony-winning team behind The Ferryman, playwright Jez Butterworth and director Sam Mendes, reunite for The Hills of California, a rich, novelistic play about a quartet of sisters and their single-minded single mother. As children in the '50s, they dreamed of escaping their English seaside town as a vocal group. Twenty years later, they return to hash out what went wrong as their mom lies dying upstairs. Critically acclaimed in London, the show arrives on Broadway with its British cast intact, including Ferryman Tony nominee Laura Donnelly.

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Yellow Face - begins performances September 13

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

Previews start September 13. Opens October 1. Closes November 24.

Sixteen years after the play was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize, David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face has its Broadway debut courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company. Inspired by real-life incidents in the playwright's life in the 1990s—particularly his protests against the casting of a white man in a Eurasian role in the original production of Miss Saigon—the show is both funny and furious as Hwang explores the limits of identity politics and the insidiousness of racism. Lost star Daniel Dae Kim is the playwright's onstage avatar and Francis Jue portrays his dad, a role he originated in the original production back in 2007. Hwang's frequent collaborator, Tony nominee Leigh Silverman, who helmed the play's 2007 world premiere, returns to direct.

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Our Town - begins performances September 17

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

Previews start September 17. Opens October 10. Closes January 19, 2025.

It's been more than two decades since Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 masterwork Our Town has been mounted on Broadway. For this revival helmed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun), the everyday citizens of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire are played by some pretty exceptional folks, including Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager, Ephraim Sykes as George Gibbs, indie darling Zoey Deutch as Emily Webb, and Katie Holmes and Richard Thomas as her mother and father. A timeless American classic that reminds us to realize life while we live it... every, every minute.

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Left on Tenth - begins performances September 26

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

Previews start September 26. Opens October 23. Closes February 2, 2025. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher star in a stage adaptation of Delia Ephron's best-selling memoir of unexpected romance. On the heels of loss and health challenges, a widowed writer reconnects with a man from her past with life-changing results. Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Producers) directs this feel-good, true dramedy.

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Romeo + Juliet - begins performances September 26

Circle in the Square Theatre, 1633 Broadway with the entrance between Broadway and Eighth Avenue on 50th Street

Previews start September 26. Opens October 24. Closes February 16, 2025.

Tony winner Sam Gold, who's made a career out of daring, contemporary reinventions of classics (An Enemy of the People, Othello with Daniel Craig, Hamlet with Oscar Isaac) takes on the Bard's most famous romantic tragedy. Youthful in spirit, style and stars—Heartstopper Emmy Award winner Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler from Spielberg's West Side Story—this Romeo and Juliet aims to be the Shakespeare gateway drug for Gen Z. Just look at that trailer!

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Cult of Love - begins performances November 20

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

Previews start November 20. Opens December 12. Closes February 2, 2025.

Writer Leslye Headland (Bachelorette, Assistance, Netflix's Russian Doll) completes her Seven Deadly Sins cycle with her pride-themed play Cult of Love, an intensely personal, empathetic and humorous examination of a dysfunctional religious family, just like the one she grew up in. At Christmas, four adult children with varying levels of faith return to their evangelical Christian home along with their literal and figurative baggage. But despite their differences, they share love and harmony, especially when they burst into song. Headland's frequent collaborator, Trip Cullman, directs an ensemble cast led by Zachary Quinto and Shailene Woodley.

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Eureka Day - begins performances November 25

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

Previews start November 25. Opens December 16. Closes February 2, 2025.

Jonathan Spector's comedy about a progressive private school at odds over vaccination policy has become even more darkly funny and depressingly relevant since its 2019 Off Broadway premiere. Manhattan Theatre Club's brand-new production has a crack comic cast, including Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch, consummate clown Bill Irwin and Hadestown's Amber Gray. Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) directs.

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All In: Comedy About Love - begins performances December 11

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

Previews start December 11. Opens December 22. Closes February 9, 2025.

A late addition to the fall season, All In: Comedy About Love is a Saturday Night Live pet project! Written by longtime SNL scribe Simon Rich, produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels and featuring SNL alums John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Chloe Fineman, Aidy Bryant, Jimmy Fallon and Tim Meadows, this anthology comedy is based on humorous New Yorker stories penned by the playwright about hooking up, breaking up and getting hitched. Alex Timbers directs the play, which will star a rotating cast of cutups, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hank Azaria, David Cross, Andrew Rannells, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Richard Kind.

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English - begins performances January 3, 2025

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

Previews start January 3, 2025. Opens January 23, 2025. Closes March 2, 2025. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.

Sanaz Toossi's 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play English makes its Broadway debut thanks to Roundabout Theatre Company. In this delicate comedy set in 2008, four Iranians prep for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) which, they hope, will unlock the futures they desire. But learning a new tongue and accommodating a different culture can take a personal toll. Knud Adams, who helmed the show's Off-Broadway production, once again directs.

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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.