By Jeanne Lieberman
Hamilton heralded a spectacular Fall Season;
Can
the new season match it?
The
“Hamilton phenomenon”, as it is now called, has brought national attention to Broadway,
opening the best Fall season in decades. Late fall openings: Noises Off,
two outstanding revivals: The Color Purple and Fiddler, plus those
rare occurrences 2 new musicals On Your Feet, School of Rock, are the
icing on the cake.
The
innovative revival of Arthur Miller’s View from the Bridge is still the
talk of the town but almost all of those 22 shows will have closed by March,
either by merit or contract.
The
new season is hard to categorize opening with 3 productions from Off Broadway: Disaster,
The Humans and Eclipsed. After that a marvelous mélange of
original productions and revered revivals.
See
for yourself:
GUIDE
TO THE NEW SHOWS
Location,
dates, cast and summary:
·
Theatre: Helen Hayes
·
Previews Begin: Jan. 23, 2016
·
Opening: Feb. 18, 2016
·
Written by Stephen Karam
·
Director: Joe Mantello
·
Cast: Cassie Beck, Reed Birney, Jayne Houdyshell, Lauren Klein,
Arian Moayed and Sarah Steele
·
After a sleepless night, Mr. Blake has brought his family from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter's new apartment. As darkness falls
outside the crumbling pre-war duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the
night and family tensions reach a boiling point.
·
Premiered Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre with the same
cast.
·
Theatre: Booth
·
First Preview: Feb. 8, 2016
·
Opening: Feb. 25, 2016
·
Written by Eugene O'Neill
·
Director: Michael Grandage
·
Cast: Forest Whitaker and Frank Wood
·
The Oscar-winning actor makes his Broadway debut in this O'Neill
two-hander.
ECLIPSED
·
Theatre: Golden
·
Previews Begin: February 23, 2016
·
Opening: March 6, 2016
·
Written by Danai Gurira
·
Director: Liesl Tommy
·
Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Saycon Sengbloh, Pascale Armand, Akosua
Busia, Zainab Jah
·
A group of women are held captive in Liberia.
·
Premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater with the same cast.
·
Theatre: Nederlander
·
First Preview: Feb. 9, 2016
·
Opening: March 8, 2016
·
Written by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick
·
Director: Jack Plotnick
·
Cast: Roger Bart, Kerry Butler, Kevin Chamberlin, Adam Pascal,
Faith Prince, Rachel York, Jennifer Simard, Max Crumm, Lacretta Nicole and Seth
Rudetsky
·
Musical spoof of 1970's disaster movies, done previously
Off-Broadway.
·
Theatre: Belasco
·
Previews Begin: February 5, 2016
·
Opening: March 10, 2016
·
Written by David Harrower
·
Director: Joe Mantello
·
Cast: Jeff Daniels, Michelle Williams
·
A woman tracks down and confronts the man who had a relationship
with her when she was 12.
·
Premiered Off-Broadway with Daniels and Mantello.
Theatre:
Studio 54
·
First Preview: February 19, 2016
·
Opening: March 17, 2016
·
Written by Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) and Joe
Masteroff (book)
·
Director: Scott Ellis
·
Cast: Zachary Levi, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski
·
Georg (Levi) and Amalia (Benanti) are two parfumerie clerks who
aren’t quite the best of friends. Constantly bumping heads while on the job,
the sparring coworkers can’t seem to find common ground. But little do they
know, the anonymous romantic pen pals they have both been falling for happen to
be each other.
·
Theatre: Cort
·
Previews Begin: February 25, 2016
·
Opening: March 24, 2016
·
Written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell (music), Edie Brickell
(lyrics), Steve Martin (book)
·
Director: Walter Bobbie
·
Cast: Carmen Cusack
·
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina between 1923 and
1945, Billy Cane, a young soldier just home from World War II, meets Alice
Murphy, the brilliant editor of a southern literary journal. Together they
discover a powerful secret that alters their lives.
·
Premiered at San Diego's Old Globe in fall 2014. The musical was
being presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington Dec. 2, 2015-Jan. 10, 2016.
·
Theatre: Walter Kerr
·
First Preview: February 29, 2016
·
Opening: April 7, 2016
·
Written by Arthur Miller
·
Director: Ivo van Hove
·
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Saoirse Ronan, Ciaran Hinds. Sophie Okonedo.
·
Arthur Miller's political allegory framed as a story about a man
falsely charged with witchcraft in colonial, Salem, MA.
·
Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman
·
First Preview: March 22, 2016
·
Opening: April 14, 2016
·
Written by Florian Zeller
·
Director: Doug Hughes
·
Cast: Frank Langella, Kathryn Erbe
·
A look inside the mind of Andre (Langella), a retired dancer
living with his adult daughter Anne and her husband. Or is he a retired engineer
receiving a visit from Anne who has moved away with her boyfriend? Why do
strangers keep turning up in his room? And where has he left his watch?
·
Produced previously in Paris and London.
Theatre: Gerald Schoenfeld
·
First Preview: March 24, 2016
·
Opening: April 20, 2016
·
Written by Duncan Sheik (music & lyrics), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(book)
·
Director: Rupert Goold
·
Cast: Benjamin Walker, Alice Ripley, Jennifer Damiano
·
"Direct from a highly acclaimed, sold-out run in London, American Psycho brings its designer brand of style,
sex and synthesizers to Broadway. Set in the excess of 1980s Manhattan, American Psycho tells the story of Patrick Bateman, a
young and handsome Wall Street banker who pursues his darkest American dreams.
Patrick and his elite group of friends spend their days in exclusive
restaurants, hot clubs and luxury labels. But at night, Patrick takes part in a
more sinful indulgence, and his mask of sanity is starting to slip...."
·
Made its world premiere in London at the Almeida Theatre January
2014, starring Matt Smith. Act 4 is partnering with Jeffrey Richards to bring
the show to Broadway.
NERDS
·
Theatre: Longacre
·
First Preview: March 31, 2016
·
Opening: April 21, 2016
·
Written by Hal Goldberg (music), Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik
Weiner (book and lyrics)
·
Director: Casey Hushion
·
Cast: TBA
·
"Before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were the undisputed titans
of technology, they were Nerds.
Join America’s favorite garage inventors on a hilarious musical journey from
the floppy disc era to the iPhone phenomenon, and the epic competition in
between, that would revolutionize modern culture as we know it."
·
First presented by the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2007. Then
played a limited engagement at North Carolina Theatre in 2013. A concert was
presented at 54 Below in June 2014.
·
Theatre: Brooks Atkinson
·
First Preview: March 25, 2016
·
Opening: April 24, 2016
·
Written by Sara Bareilles (music & lyrics), Jessie Nelson
(book), Adrienne Shelly (original screenplay)
·
Director: Diane Paulus
·
Cast: Jessie Mueller
·
Based on the 2007 film of the same name, which follows a pregnant
waitress named Jenna who is unhappily married in the Deep South. She meets a
newcomer to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt
at happiness.
·
In development since June 2013 with producers Barry and Fran
Weissler, director Diane Paulus and songwriter Sara Bareilles. The show had its
first full production at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA
in summer 2015.
FULLY COMMITTED
·
Theatre: Lyceum
·
First Preview: April 2, 2016
·
Opening: April 25, 2016
·
Written by Becky Mode
·
Director: Jason Moore
·
Cast: Jesse Tyler Ferguson
·
Broadway premiere of the hit 1999 comedy about a harried
reservations clerk at a hot restaurant with a mob of crazy guests...all played
by one actor.
·
Theatre: Broadhurst
·
First Preview: March 31, 2016
·
Opening: April 26, 2016
·
Written by Nathan Tysen (lyrics), Chris Miller (music), Claudia
Shear and Tim Federle (book)
·
Director: Casey Nicholaw
·
Cast: Sarah Charles Lewis, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Carolee
Carmello, Michael Park, Terrence Mann
·
Good girl Winnie Foster’s world has been safely contained behind
the picket fence that surrounds the house she shares with her mother and
grandmother. Yearning to break free, Winnie runs deep into the woods behind
their house where she discovers the Tuck family and the secret they’ve been
keeping.
·
Theatre: American Airlines
·
First Preview: March 31, 2016
·
Opening: April 27, 2016
·
Written by Eugene O'Neill
·
Director: Jonathan Kent
Cast:
Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Shannon
O'Neill's
tale of an ordinary summer’s day with extraordinary consequences. Roundabout
revives the story of the Tyrone family and their battle to unearth — and
conceal — a lifetime of secrets.
·
Theatre: Music Box
·
First Preview: March 15, 2016
·
Opening: April 28, 2016
·
Written by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle (music), George C. Wolfe
(book)
·
Director: George C. Wolfe
·
Choreographer: Savion Glover
·
Cast: Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy
Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon, Joshua Henry
·
A backstage musical about the events that led to the creation of
the groundbreaking Eubie Blake-Noble Sissle musical Shuffle
Along.
·
Theatre: Lyric
·
First Preview: April 16, 2016
·
Opening: May 25, 2016
·
Written by "Bob & Bill" (Guy Dubuc and Marc
Lessard).
·
Director: Philippe Decouflé
·
Cast: Ruby Lewis
·
New musical that will represent the first Cirque du Soleil show
assembled expressly for Broadway. Although it is scheduled to open in the
2015-16 season, it won't be eligible for the Tony Awards until 2017.
Above information subject to
change – it is, after all, theater!
