14 New Musicals to See Off Broadway This Spring
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In terms of COVID-19 safety protocols, all of these productions require theatregoers to provide proof of being fully vaccinated with an FDA or WHO authorized vaccine. Masks are also mandatory. Note that some shows are adding additional rules such as proof of a booster shot. While we are doing our best to keep this article up to date, before buying tickets to any event, double-check the COVID-19 rules to avoid disappointment.
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Prospect Theatre: Notes from Now – March 2
59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown East
Previews begin March 2. Opens March 10. Closes March 20. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Note: Proof of booster shot required.
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Audible Theater: Coal Country – March 4
Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street between Bedford and Hudson Streets in the West Village
Previews begin March 4. Opens March 10. Closes April 17. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
After receiving excellent reviews in early March 2020, The Public Theater’s heartbreaking Coal Country had its run cut short due to COVID. Now Audible Theater is resurrecting this affecting documentary theatre work by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (The Exonerated), which interweaves real-life stories of folks impacted by West Virginia’s 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster with blue-collar ballads performed live by Grammy winner Steve Earle. It’s not a conventional musical—Earle’s songs set the mood instead of driving the story—but it’s a powerful examination of our country’s misordered priorities, where profit is too often valued over people.
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Little Girl Blue – March 5
New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin March 5. Opens March 14. Closes May 22. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
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The Tank: Glass Town: A Rock Requiem – March 10
The Tank, 312 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins March 10. Closes March 26. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Get ready to bang your head to the Brontë siblings! After presenting a digital version of this staged concept album during the pandemic, songwriter Miriam Pultro’s Glass Town: A Rock Requiem makes its in-person debut at indie theatre incubator The Tank. In this musical fantasy, the tragic 19th-century lit legends become alt-rock icons whose tunes explore the bonds of family and grief. Daniella Caggiano directs.
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The Public Theater: Suffs – March 13
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in the East Village
Previews begin March 13. Opens April 6. Closes May 29.
Note: Proof of booster shot required.
An incredible cast of talented women—including Hamilton‘s Phillipa Soo, The Book of Mormon Tony winner Nikki M. James and Come From Away‘s Jenn Colella—headline Shaina Taub’s buzzy new musical about the American women’s suffrage movement. A brilliant singer-songwriter who penned enchanting musicalizations of As You Like It and Twelfth Night for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park, Taub also costars in Suffs, which chronicles the seven years leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Judging from the diverse cast, the show does not shy away from the class, racial and generational divides that plagued feminism, both then and now.
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Ars Nova: Oratorio for Living Things – March 15
Ars Nova at Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street near Seventh Avenue South in the West Village
Previews March 15. Opens March 30. Closes May 14.
After playing just two preview performances in March 2020, Oratorio for Living Things was forced to close due to you-know-what. But Ars Nova is finally giving this genre-defying work by Obie winner Heather Christian a full-fledged run. The premise of the piece is still a mystery, but we know an 18-person ensemble of singer-instrumentalists will perform the oratorio, which fuses a variety of styles including classical, soul, folk and gospel, under the direction of Lee Sunday Evans. The theatre company has a history of developing innovative musicals, notably Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, so expect to be dazzled.
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National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene: Harmony: A New Musical – March 23
Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place near 1st Place in Battery Park City
Previews begin March 23. Opens April 13. Closes May 15.
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¡Americano! – March 31
New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin March 31. Opens May 1. Closes June 19. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
After an acclaimed run at Arizona’s Phoenix Theater Company, ¡Americano! comes to New World Stages. Featuring songs by Ameri-Chicana singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez, the musical is based on the real-life story of Tony Valdovinos, a DREAMer who discovered his immigration status at age 18 when he tried to enlist in the US Marines Corps after September 11. But this proud Latinx immigrant finds other inspiring ways to serve his country. A poignant tale of what makes an American, the show is directed by Michael Barnard, who also cowrote the book with Jonathan Rosenberg and Fernanda Santos.
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The York Theatre Company: Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written – April 2
The York Theatre at Theatre at St. Jean’s, 150 East 76th Street near Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side
POSTPONED FROM MARCH DUE TO COVID Previews begin April 2. Opens April 7. Closes April 24. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
Greece is the word in this new musical comedy that puts a funny, feminist spin on The Odyssey. With a book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg (whose rollicking musicalization of Measure for Measure was a smash for the York) and music by Stephen Weiner, this show centers on Penelope, who stands by her man, Odysseus, even when he doesn’t return home from the war in a timely fashion. She even staves off suitors by writing letters to herself in her husband’s name. Maybe someone will publish them someday. Emily Maltby directs and choreographs, and Britney Nicole Simpson stars as the title character.
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New Ohio Theatre: Songs About Trains – April 5
New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in the West Village
Previews begin April 5. Opens April 10. Closes April 23. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
A theatrical concert chronicling the building of the US rail system, Songs About Trains is the brainchild of the arts collective Radical Evolution, and coproduced by New Ohio Theatre and Working Theater. Using 21 folk songs and evocative stories from the era, the show celebrates the multicultural workforce that changed our country, and explores issues of immigration, labor and class as a select few became outrageously wealthy off the backs of downtrodden workers. An excellent counterpoint to The Gilded Age! Rebecca Martínez and Taylor Reynolds direct.
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Islander: A New Musical – April 14
Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s, 308 West 46th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin April 14. Opens April 21. Closes June 13. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
A hit at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this tuneful tale centers on a lonely girl living on a remote Scottish isle, whose discovery of a whale carcass and a mysterious stranger change the trajectory of her life. The performers use looped vocals and clapping to create an ethereal score that helps conjure this Scottish folklore. This will be the first production in the completely redesigned Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s.
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Atlantic Theater Company: The Bedwetter – April 30
Atlantic Theater Company, Linda Gross Theater, 336 West 20th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea
Previews begin April 30. Opens June 7. Closes July 10.
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Romeo & Bernadette – May 3
Theater 555, 555 West 42nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin May 3. Opens May 16. Closes June 26. If you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase discount tickets.
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Between the Lines – June 15
The Tony Kiser Theater, 305 West 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Previews begin June 15. Opens July 11. Closes September 11.
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Top image: Bebe Neuwirth, who’s starring in The Bedwetter at Atlantic Theater Company. Photo by Arin Sang-urai.
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