THEATRE

What happens in our present cultural climate when four well-meaning white actors try to present a culturally-sensitive, authentic play about the first Thanksgiving? It’s a clever premise and one that is quite hilariously realized in a production of Larissa Fasthorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play” at the Helen Hayes Theatre.

What happens in our present cultural climate when four well-meaning white actors try to present a culturally-sensitive, authentic play about the first Thanksgiving? It’s a clever premise and one that is quite hilariously realized in a production of Larissa Fasthorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play” at the Helen Hayes Theatre.

(REVIEW) Following their 2017 success on Broadway with “The Play That Goes Wrong,” the British comedy group “Mischief” returns to Broadway this month with a new show that also explores how a live performance can fall apart on the stage. “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” is a classic re-staging of J.M. Barrie’s iconic fairytale about the boy who never grew up where everything that can go wrong—does. The mishaps begin innocently enough: a forgotten line, a malfunctioning stage light, but as the evening progresses, things go (quite hilariously) from bad to worse.

(REVIEW) A new musical opens this month at Nederlander Theatre celebrating (and poking fun at) a piece of American culture not often seen on the Broadway stage—the rural farming communities of middle America. “Shucked,” a musical from Nashville songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, takes place in the fictional Midwest area of Cobb County, a rural community of farmers who are content with life within their own community.

(REVIEW) Broadway has long been pulled between commercial, “theme-park” shows and philosophical, artistic works. The former tends to draw larger box office returns, and the latter greater critical acclaim. Occasionally a show is able to achieve success in both categories and this spring one such Oliver Award-winning production transfers from London to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre by the title of “Life of Pi.”

(REVIEW) For those among you wondering how many retellings of the Cinderella fairytale is too many, we may have finally hit a breaking point. The latest retelling of the classic Brother’s Grimm story opens on Broadway this month at the Imperial Theatre as a brand-new musical. This new incarnation is entitled “Bad Cinderella,” a title that, despite the promising list of people involved in the show, is not ironic.

(REVIEW) In the late 1970s, Fosse conceived and staged a musical completely his own. It lacked a narrative arc or cohesive theme, consisting of a series of vignettes told mostly through dance (with a little bit of singing mixed in). The spectacle, entitled “Dancin’,” opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1978 and ran for over four years. This month, “Dancin’” returns to New York City under the direction of Wayne Cliento, a cast member of the original 1978 production. 

Originally staged in 1998 at Lincoln Center, Jason Robert Brown’s “Parade” returns to Broadway this month at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre as the musical event of the season. Set in the deep-south state of Georgia fifty years after the Civil War, “Parade” tells the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish-American factory superintendent falsely accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory worker. It stars Tony-Award winning actor Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen, The Book of Mormon) as Frank and Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show) as his wife Lucille.

Originally set in 19th-century Norway, a new production of “A Doll’s House” – adapted by Amy Herzog and directed by Jamie Lloyd – opens this month at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. The story of “A Doll’s House” is centered around an exploration of the power dynamics between a husband and wife. This production is a bold departure from the dense, maximalist visuals that ordinarily accompany a play set within an affluent Victorian home. Instead, the play is performed with no costumes, sets, props or effects apart from simple lighting, a few wooden chairs and a hidden turntable in the stage floor.

The Spring 2023 Broadway season kicks off this week at Studio 54 with a touching tribute to the messy, complicated and beautiful relationships between parents and their children. Inspired by Larry Sultan’s photo memoir of his aging parents, “Pictures From Home” tells the story of how Sultan crafted his deeply personal memoir through eight years of photographing and observing the surroundings, marriage and lives of his retired father Irving and semi-retired mother Jean. The show is nearly perfect in its construction and presentation, and it’s one not to be missed or overlooked by theater-goers this spring.

(REVIEW) “Everybody in New York hates cops. Even cops hate cops,” says Pops, a retired police officer and the protagonist of “Between Riverside and Crazy,” a 2014 play making its Broadway debut this season at Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theatre. The play is about the complex relationship between the New York Police Department and the African-American community in New York City. While the story has a lot of potential, it can’t seem to get many plot lines off the launch pad.

Most people familiar with modern art in New York City are probably familiar with painters Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. This season, Warhol and Basquiat appear on Broadway, portrayed as artists collaborating on a series of paintings that reflect the convergence of their contrasting approaches to art in “The Collaboration.”

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald returns to Broadway this holiday season in “Ohio State Murders,” a dark tragedy about the racially motivated murder of a new mother’s infant African-American daughters. “Ohio State Murders,” is directed by Kenny Leon. This play is a short seventy-five minutes on stage, but McDonald gives a tour-de-force performance as Alexander that is spell-binding to witness.

“Some Like it Hot,” a new musical comedy opening this week at the Shubert Theatre, is returning to the feel of a classic Broadway musical. And they have the full brass orchestra, tap-dancing ensemble, big-budget sets and glittering costumes to prove it.

There is no better way to spend a winter evening in New York than at a Broadway show. Thirty-six Broadway shows will perform during the Christmas break, but I will save you some trouble and narrow down the best options. These five have something for everyone, offering a variety of genres, lengths and prices.

A new genre of music debuts on Broadway this season at the Circle in the Square Theatre in the form of “KPOP,” a musical inspired by the cultural phenomenon of Korean dance and pop music. While “KPOP” is full of the energetic dancing and singing that has come to define K-pop, the musical lacks a clear, compelling storyline and generally falls flat when the dancing stops.

The latest play to transfer to Broadway from London’s West End is “Leopoldstadt,” a look into the Jewish experience in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Directed by Patrick Barber and written by Tom Stoppard (of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” fame), the show opened at the Longacre Theatre on Sunday, October 2.