The 20 theater shows to catch this fall

Check out our roundup of the best new fall shows on Broadway and Off, and get your tickets now.

By David Cote Wed Sep 5 2012

  • Fall theater shows: Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want To Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them

     

  • Photograph: Michael Brosilow

    Fall theater shows: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

     

  • Photograph: Joan Marcus

    Fall theater shows: Annie

  • Photograph: Javier Oddo

    Fall theater shows: Blood Play

     

  • Fall theater shows: Disgraced

     

Fall theater shows: Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want To Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them

 

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4

The days are getting cooler and shorter and the kids are creeping unwillingly to school: Yes, it’s fall and that means a new theater season. Actually, by the Tony Awards calendar, the season already began back in June; the first technical opening of the Broadway season was Harvey. But there’s lots more coming: about 18 new shows on Broadway between now and January, and many more Off Broadway. We’ll have big stars (Katie Holmes, Al Pacino), stage veterans (Patti LuPone, Norbert Leo Butz), new plays (David Mamet’s The Anarchist) and movies turned into musicals (A Christmas Story). Oh, and of course there’s a large-scale European avant-garde spectacle at BAM (Roman Tragedies). There should be a little for everyone this season. We already shared our short list of performances we’re looking forward to this fall, now here’s a longer list of shows you have to catch.

Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them

  • Price band: 3/4

Two of the most exciting young performers on the New York stage—William Jackson Harper and Steven Boyer—star in a new satire about a rogue group of 21st-century terrorists and their darkly comic misadventures. Jon Kern’s topical farce with the Strangelovian title will be staged by Peter DuBois.

  1. Second Stage Theatre 305 W 43rd St, at Eighth Ave
  2. Sat Nov 3 - Sun Nov 4
More info

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

  • Price band: 4/4
  • Critics choice

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company brings its acclaimed revival of the 1962 Edward Albee masterwork to Broadway. With a cast headed by the ferocious Amy Morton (August: Osage County) and Tracy Letts (author of August), this production, staged by Pam MacKinnon, is guaranteed to feature Steppenwolf’s signature emotional volatility.

  1. Booth Theatre 222 W 45th St, between Broadway and Eighth Ave
  2. Sun Mar 3
More info

Annie

  • Price band: 4/4
  • Critics choice

The beloved 1977 musical about a redheaded orphan, her dog and a bald war profiteer returns to Broadway after an absence of 15 years. The classic will be staged by James Lapine and will feature a doubtless scene-stealing turn by Katie Finneran (Promises, Promises) as the boozy, orphan-hating Miss Hannigan.

  1. Palace Theatre 1564 Broadway, at 47th St
  2. Thu May 23 - Tue Dec 31
Buy tickets

Blood Play

  • Price band: 2/4
  • Critics choice

The Debate Society (performers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, and director Oliver Butler) has emerged as the most beguiling and visually inventive experimental troupe in years. Now it presents a weird, seriocomic thriller set in post-WWII Skokie, IL. Scenes alternate between camping kids and partying adults. The ensemble includes the superb Michael Cyril Creighton and Birgit Huppuch.

  1. The Bushwick Starr 207 Starr St, between Irving and Wyckoff Aves
  2. Sat Nov 9
More info
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4


You might also like
Five performances we want to see this fall
25 best film-to-musical adaptations
Bring It On: The Musical – meet the cheerleaders
See more listings and reviews in Theater

Share your thoughts
  4. * mandatory fields