As summer enters its home stretch, herewith is a look at what not to miss on stages on and off Broadway this fall. From buzzy debuts to triumphant returns—and even a Sondheim world premiere—this season cuts a deliciously wide swath…and it’s only just getting started.
Purlie Victorious
Leslie Odom Jr., making a much-anticipated return to Broadway after his 2016 Tony-winning performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, will star as the titular Purlie in a revival of this 1961 play. Written by and originally starring Ossie Davis, the story is set in Jim Crow Georgia, as a preacher returns to his hometown in order to save the local church and liberate his community from the grips of a cruel landowner. Directed by Kenny Leon, fresh off last season’s Topdog/Underdog, it begins previews on September 7 and opens on September 27 at the Music Box Theatre.
Gutenberg! The Musical!
After circling fringe houses and regional theaters across the globe for the last couple of decades, this unlikely show-within-a-show about two best friends writing a musical about Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor of the printing press, finally arrives on Broadway this fall. From the creators of Beetlejuice, the production stars Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, reunited for the first time since their breakout performances in 2011’s Book of Mormon. And it’s not the only show about the joys and pitfalls of theatrical collaboration this season…. Previews begin September 15, with an opening set for October 12 at the James Earl Jones Theater.
Merrily We Roll Along
Last season’s off-Broadway smash heads uptown for a limited run this September. A Sondheim deep cut and historically one of the trickiest to pull off, this three-way tale of love and friendship (told in reverse!) again stars Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez. With its heft of star power and talent, masterfully corralled by director Maria Freedman, this revival is already a Tony favorite. It’s their time, indeed. Performances begin September 19 at the Hudson Theatre.
Dead Man Walking
Another film turned opera will grace the Met Opera’s fall season. After Kevin Puts’s adaptation of The Hours last year comes Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, directed by Belgian iconoclast Ivo van Hove with a libretto by the late Terrence McNally. Based on the memoir of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean that followed her relationship with a death-row murderer, the 1995 film version garnered Susan Sarandon a best-actress Oscar. Joyce DiDonato leads this buzzy production, which opens September 26 at Lincoln Center.
Here We Are
After the death of legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in 2021, questions swirled about what, if anything, would become of his final project: a musical inspired by the films of avant-garde filmmaker Luis Buñuel that he had been developing with the playwright David Ives. The answer will come next month with the world premiere of Here We Are at the Shed in Hudson Yards, directed by Joe Mantello with a cast that includes Bobby Cannavale, David Hyde Pierce, and Micaela Diamond. With the wave of Sondheim revivals and tributes in the last two years, it is heartening to think he will still be able to confound us with new work one last time. Previews begin September 28; opens October 22 at the Shed’s Griffin Theater.
Hell’s Kitchen
Who better to channel the heart, struggle, and joy of growing up in the Big Apple than “Empire State of Mind” singer Alicia Keys? Hell’s Kitchen is a coming-of-age story about a girl who dreams of making it big in music from the confines of a tiny midtown apartment—which may sound familiar to Keys’s fans. With music and lyrics by Keys and under the direction of Michael Greif, Hell’s Kitchen begins previews October 24 and opens November 19 at the Public Theater.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Making her stage debut, the dame of deadpan, Aubrey Plaza, will star opposite Christopher Abbott in John Patrick Shanley’s classic down-and-out love story this October at the Lucille Lortel Theater in the West Village. With Plaza’s successful turn on The White Lotus this year and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis in the can, it will be interesting to see if her singular style and charm, so compelling on film, can translate to the stage. Previews begin October 30; opens November 13.
Spamalot
If you missed Lincoln Center Theater’s Camelot revival this past spring and are looking for your Arthurian fix, the newly announced revival of Spamalot may be the ticket. Based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a classic send-up of King Arthur and his witless band of knights, this 2005 hit musical, which garnered a pre-Chez Diaz Sara Ramirez a Tony, will land at the St. James Theatre this fall. On the heels of a short run in D.C. at the Kennedy Center last May, the production and its coconut cavalry begins previews on October 31 with an opening scheduled for November 16.
Pal Joey
New York City Center’s latest revival of a musical classic for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it run is the Rodgers and Hart gem Pal Joey. Based on the short stories of John O’Hara, this production will be codirected by network television’s favorite POTUS, Tony Goldwyn, and tap GOAT Savion Glover. With Loretta Divine and Elizabeth Stanley costarring, with any luck you’ll be some combination of bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Running November 1 to 5.
Appropriate
The recent announcement that Sarah Paulson will be headlining the cast of MacArthur “genius grant” recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play Appropriate was welcome news to theatergoers. Though this casting was likely some time in the making, it raises the idea that while the SAG and WGA strikes see no sign of stopping, film actors with time on their hands may start looking to the stage more. Marking Jacobs-Jenkins’s Broadway debut, the play deals with a family settling the estate of their dead father in Arkansas and will be directed by Lila Neugebauer. Previews begin November 28; opens December 18 at the Hayes Theater.
