12 Shows to See on Broadway and Beyond This August
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FRIGID New York: Little Shakespeare Festival – August 1
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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Theater 86: Master and Margarita, Or, The Devil Comes to Moscow – August 3
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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Fowl Play – begins August 8
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 Summer One Act Festival – begins August 8
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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Negro Ensemble Company: Unentitled – August 16
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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AMPLIFY: A Playwright’s Voice: The Bleeding Class – August 10
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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MCC Theater: Table 17 – begins August 14
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.
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The Brick: Sex and the Abbey – begins August 22
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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Lifeline – begins August 28
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.
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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.
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Little Island: The Marriage of Figaro – begins August 30
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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– begins August 30
Theater 555, 555 West 42nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin August 30. Opens September 19. Closes November 3. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
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