The Fall season promises to be as exciting and diversified as its four previous openers (1984, Marvin’s Room, Prince of Broadway and Michael Moore’s Terms of My Surrender)

 

The 25 plus new shows are almost evenly divided between plays and musicals, featuring  7 new plays and 5 revivals, 9 new musicals and 4 revivals. Starring roles come from all over; from Hollywood Elizabeth McGovern (Conways), Uma Thurman (Parisian Woman) Denzel Washington (Iceman). Megastars from the pop world: Bruce Springsteen,and array of icons for Spongebob’s score; from TV/Comedy John Leguizamo and Amy Schumer; and Mark Rylance from the West End.

 

Families (and fanciful adults ) will thrill to Harry Potter, Spongbob and Frozen. .Pop culture fans will be lured by Springsteen and the score of  Spongebob; Comedy will be contrasted with tragedy, and musicals from the Golden Age will meld with today’s versions.

In short, something for everyone or plenty for everybody

 

 

TIME AND THE CONWAYS
• Theatre: American Airlines
• First Preview: September 14, 2017
• Opening: October 10, 2017
• Playwright: J.B. Priestley
• Director: Rebecca Taichman
• Cast Includes: Elizabeth McGovern, Anna Camp, Gabriel Ebert, Steven Boyer
• Roundabout Theatre Company revival of this drama showing the status and dreams of British family just after World War I, and then as those dreams play out 19 years later. 
• Limited run through November 26, 2017.

SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY
• Theatre: Walter Kerr
• First Preview: October 3, 2017
• Opening: October 12, 2017
• After a career of more than 40 years, 20 Grammys and an Oscar, legendary musician Bruce Springsteen comes to Broadway with a solo acoustic performance. It is

intimate night with Bruce, his guitar, a piano, and his stories.

 

M. BUTTERFLY
• Theatre: Cort Theatre
• First Previews: October 7, 2017
• Opening: October 26, 2017
• Playwright: David Henry Hwang
• Director: Julie Taymor
• Cast Includes: Clive Owen
• Revival of the Tony-winning 1988 drama about a French diplomat who carries on an affair with a beautiful Chinese opera singer who he believes to be a woman, but who turns out to be a man.

JUNK
• Theatre: Vivian Beaumont
• First Preview: October 5, 2017
• Opening: November 2, 2017
• Playwright: Ayad Akhtar
• Director: Doug Hughes
• Cast Includes: Steven Pasquale
• New drama about a self-professed investment genius who touches off a financial civil war. Junk had its world premiere in August 2016 at California’s La Jolla Playhouse.

THE BAND'S VISIT
• Theatre: Ethel Barrymore
• First Preview: October 7, 2017
• Opening: November 9, 2017
• Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek
• Director: David Cromer
• The acclaimed Off-Broadway musical comes to Broadway, telling the story of an Egyptian police band that arrives in Israel to play a concert. When a mix-up at the border leaves them stranded with no bus or hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers must seek the help of the locals.

LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS
• Theatre: Studio 54
• First Preview: October 19, 2017
• Opening: November 15, 2017
• Director: Tony Taccone
• John Leguizamo's latest one-man show moves from Off-Broadway's Public Theatre to Broadway as he teaches his son, the audience, and himself about the unknown history of Latinos in America.

METEOR SHOWER
• Theatre: Booth Theatre
• First Preview: November 1, 2017
• Opening: November 29, 2017
• Written by Steve Martin
• Directed by Jerry Zaks
• Cast includes: Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti, Alan Tudyk
• Two couples find themselves in marital freefall—and in a meteor shower—during one hot Ojai night.

THE PARISIAN WOMAN
• Theatre: Hudson Theatre
• First Preview: November 7, 2017
• Opening: November 30, 2017
• Written by Beau Willimon
• Directed by Pam MacKinnon
• Cast includes: Uma Thurman, Josh Lucas, Blair Brown
• in Washington, D.C., powerful friends are the only kind worth having. At the center is Chloe, a socialite armed with charm and wit, coming to terms with politics, her past, her marriage and an uncertain future.

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND
• Theatre: Circle in the Square
• First Preview: November 9, 2017
• Opening: December 3, 2017
• Music and Lyrics by Lynn Ah rens and Stephen Flaherty
• Director: Michael Arden
• A revival of the 1990 musical about a a peasant girl and her star-crossed romance with a young man from the wealthy side of her Caribbean island, which is ruled by four island gods.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS
• Theatre: Palace
• First Preview: November 6, 2017
• Opening: December 4, 2017
• Book by Kyle Jarrow, music by Steven Tyler, Cyndi Lauper, They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, Dirty Projectors, The Flaming Lips, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Lady Antebellum, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's, T.I. and David Bowie.
• Director: Tina Landau
• Stage adaptation of the hit Nickelodeon cartoon series about the undersea residents of Bikini Bottom. The show had a Chicago tryout in summer 2016.

THE CHILDREN
• Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman
• First Preview: November 28, 2017
• Opening: December 12, 2017
• Playwright: Lucy Kirkwood
• Director: James Macdonald
• Cast: Francesca Annis, Ron Cook, and Deborah Findlay
• The story of two retired nuclear engineers living in a remote cottage on the British coast. When an old friend turns up at their door, a shocking discovery disrupts their quiet existence.

FARINELLI AND THE KING
• Theatre: Belasco
• First Preview: December 5, 2017
• Opening: December 17, 2017
• Playwright/Director: Claire van Kampen
• Cast: Mark Rylance
• Spain’s 18th-century King Philip V is lifted out of depression by the singing of operatic castrato Farinelli. Previously presented in London at Shakespeare’s Globe and in the West End. 
• Limited run through March 25, 2018.

THE MINUTES
• Theatre: TBA
• First Preview: February 6, 2018
• Opening: March 8, 2018
• Playwright: Tracy Letts
• Director: Anna D. Shapiro
• Cast: TBA
• Drama about a clash of personalities at a small-town municipal meeting. 
• Producer: Scott Rudin. 
• Will play a world-premiere engagement at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago November 9–December 31, 2017.

ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE
• Theatre: Marquis
• First Preview: February 16, 2018
• Opening: March 15, 2018
• Music and lyrics by Jimmy Buffet; book by Greg Garcia and Mike O'Malley 
• Director: Christopher Ashley
• “Featuring both original songs and your most-loved Jimmy Buffett classics, this new musical is the story of a tropical island resort and its part-time bartender, part-time singer and full time charmer who thinks he’s got life all figured out. Until a beautiful career-minded tourist steals his heart and makes him question everything.”

FROZEN
• Theatre: St. James
• First Preview: February 22, 2018
• Opening: March 2018
• Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Book by Jennifer Lee
• Director: Michael Grandage
• Choreographer: Rob Ashford
• Cast: Caissie Levy, Patti Murin, Greg Hildreth, Robert Creighton, John Riddle, Jelani Alladin.
• Stage adaptation of the hit animated Disney film that won an Oscar for the song "Let It Go." Based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of a princess who freezes everything she touches.

ANGELS IN AMERICA
• Theatre: Neil Simon Theatre
• First Preview: February 23, 2018
• Opening: March 21, 2018
• Written by Tony Kushner
• Director: Marianne Elliott
• Cast Includes: Nathan Lane, Andrew Garfield, Susan Brown, Denise Gough, Amanda Lawrence, James McArdle, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.
• National Theatre revival of the Pulitzer-winning epic will transfer to Broadway for 18 weeks. Both plays will play in repertory.

THREE TALL WOMEN
• Theatre: John Golden Theatre
• First Preview: February 27, 2018
• Opening: March 29, 2018
• Written by Edward Albee
• Director: Joe Mantello
• Cast Includes: Laurie Metcalf, Glenda Jackson, Alison Pill
• Three women of different ages talk about their lives and their relationships with their families. Gradually it emerges that they may all be the same woman.

CAROUSEL
• Theatre: Imperial Theatre
• First Preview: February 28, 2018
• Opening: April 12, 2018
• Music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein 
• Director: Jack O'Brien
• Cast Includes: Joshua Henry, Jessie Mueller, Renee Fleming, Betsy Wolfe
• Free-spirit carnival barker Billy Bigelow's love for the curiously soulful Julie Jordan persists beyond the circles of time. Includes the songs "If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "Soliloquy (My Boy Bill)." Based on the drama Liliom by Ferenc Molnar.

MEAN GIRLS
• Theatre: August Wilson Theatre
• First Preview: March 12, 2018
• Opening: April 8
• Written by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin (music & lyrics), Tina Fey (book)
• Director/choreographer: Casey Nicholaw
• Cast: Erika Henningsen, Kerry Butler, Taylor Louderman, Barrett Wilbert Weed, Ashley Park, Kate Rockwell, Grey Henson, Rick Younger
• A musical adaptation of the hit 2004 film comedy about rivalries among high school girls.
• A world premiere production will run October 31–December 3, 2017 at the National Theatre in Washington, DC.

MY FAIR LADY
• Theatre: Vivian Beaumont
• First Preview: March 15, 2018
• Opening: April 19, 2018
• Music by Frederick Loewe. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.
• Director: Bartlett Sher
• Choreographer: Christopher Gattelli
• Cast: TBA
• Revival of the classic musical adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD
• Theatre: Studio 54
• First Preview: March 22, 2018 
• Opening: April 11, 2018
• Written by Mark Medoff
• Director: Kenny Leon
• Cast: Joshua Jackson, Lauren Ridloff
• Revival of the 1980s play. A speech therapist who works at a school for the deaf attempts to teach the school's deaf cleaning woman to speak and read lips. They fall in love, but she refuses to learn speech, which complicates their relationship.

THE ICEMAN COMETH
• Theatre: Bernard B. Jacobs
• First Preview: March 22, 2018
• Opening: April 26, 2018
• Written by Eugene O'Neill
• Director: George C. Wolfe
• Cast Includes: Denzel Washington
• Denzel Washington returns to Broadway in a revival of the classic O'Neill play.

TRAVESTIES
• Theatre: American Airlines
• First Preview: March 29, 2018 
• Opening: April 24, 2018
• Written by Tom Stoppard
• Director: Patrick Marber
• Cast: Tom Hollander
• Revival. In 1917 Zurich, an artist—Tristan Tzara—a writer—James Joyce—and a revolutionary—Lenin—collide in a kaleidoscopic thrill-ride that's performed in the style of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD, PARTS 1 AND 2
• Theatre: Lyric
• First Preview: March 2018
• Opening: April 22, 2018
• Written by Jack Thorne, based on a story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
• Director: John Tiffany
• Cast: TBA
• Broadway transfer of the London phenomenon.
• Original stage play that continues the story of former boy wizard Harry Potter, his friends, and his son, in a time-traveling adventure to save the world from the evil Lord Voldemort.

LOBBY HERO

Helen Hayes Theater  Opens 3/25/18

GETTIN’ THE BAND BACK TOGETHER
• Theatre: Belasco Theatre
• First Preview: July 18, 2018 
• Opening: August 13, 2018
• Music and Lyrics by Mark Allen, book by Ken Davenport and Grundleshotz
• Director: John Rando
• Cast: TBA
• New musical about an investment banker who loses his job and decides to restart his life by reorganizing his high school rock band.

KING KONG
• Theatre: Broadway Theatre
• Target Opening: Fall 2018
• Written by Jack Thorne (book), Marius de Vries and Eddie Perfect (score)
• Director and choreographer: Drew McOnie
• Cast: TBA
• A musical adaptation of Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace’s novella.