The 25 best Off Broadway shows to see in Fall 2023

Vampire shows don't have a great track record lately, as the blessedly short Broadway runs of Dance of the Vampires, Lestat and Dracula attest. But this one, co-written by director Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, may have better luck: It takes a wild comedic approach to the material. James Daly plays the Count, who is now a pansexual zoomer; the supporting cast comprises Arnie Burton, Ellen Harvey, Jordan Boatman and the appropriately ageless Andrew Keenan-Bolger.

When the musical-theater deity Stephen Sondheim died in 2021, he was working with the witty playwright David Ives (The Heir Apparent) on what would turn out to be his final new show, based on typically unconventional subject matter: The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, a pair of surrealist films directed by Luis Buñuel. That project is now gettingits world premiere at the Shed in a production directed by Joe Mantello (Assassins). The extraodinary cast includes David Hyde Pierce and Bobby Cannavale as well as Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale and Jeremy Shamos.

Patrick Page's magnificent bass voice has made him the go-to actor for menacing roles in Broadway musicals, including Hadestown, The Lion King, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. In this solo show, he goes from bad to verse in an extended look at the villains of Shakespeare, stepping into the shadows of multiple characters—such as Richard III, Iago and Macbeth—to explore the playwright's evolving understanding of the evil that men do. Classical-theater expert Simon Godwin directs. 

Classic Stage Company assembles a first-rate cast for a rare revival of Harold Rome and Jerome Wiedman's 1962 musical, which stars Santino Fontana (Tootsie) as a ruthless climber in the schmatta business during the Great Depression. John Weidman (Assassins) revises his father's book for this production, directed by Trip Cullman. The supporting cast includes Judy Kuhn, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Adam Chanler-Berat, Sarah Steele, Greg Hildreth, Joy Woods, Adam Grupper, Eddie Cooper, Ryah Nixon and—in the role that marked Barbra Streisand's Broadway debut—Into the Woods standout Julia Lester.

Stage and screen staple John Turturro plays the title role of Mickey Sabbath in a theatrical adaptation—written by Turturro and Ariel Levy—of Philip Roth's scabrous 1995 novel, which follows the misadventures of an aging but still nasty-minded puppeteer. The formidable Elizabeth Marvel costars as his late mistress, and Jason Kravits plays all of the other roles; Jo Bonney directs the world premiere for the New Group. 

Broadway lifer Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) plays an Argentine artist looking back on her childhood in a new musical by Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party) that is inspired by the life story of the show's director and co-choreographer: frequent LaChiusa collaborator Graciela Daniele. The promising cast also includes Andréa Burns, Eden Espinosa, Enrique Acevedo, Tally Sessions, Kalyn West and the always zesty Mary Testa. 

Words fail exquisitely in Brian Friel’s Translations, a rich, reflective masterwork—set in rural Ireland in 1833, where a delegation of British soldiers works to rename the local towns—that offers both a implicit critique of colonialism and a Chekhovian portrait of linguistic erosion. The Irish Rep begins its 35th-anniversary celebration of Friel's work with a revival of this 1980 drama, directed by Dough Hughes; revivals of Aristocrats and Philadelphia, Here I Come! will follow later in the season. The cast includes Seth Numrich, Erin Wilhelmi, Mary Wiseman, Raffi Barsoumian, Owen Campbell, Rufus Collins, Owen Laheen, Sean McGinley, Oona Roche and Irish Rep mainstay John Keating.

Alicia Keys salutes the concrete jungle where dreams are made of (sigh) in a coming-of-age musical, loosely inspired by the pop singer-songwriter's personal history, that includes new material as well as hits from the Keys catalog. The script is by Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity); Michael Greif (Rent) directs the world premiere at the Public, and Camille A. Brown is the choreographer. Newcomer Maleah Joi Moon is at the center of a large cast that also includes Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Kecia Lewis, Chris Lee, Lamont Walker II, Mariand Torres and Crystal Monee Hall. Unsurprisingly, the Public run is completely sold out—but if the show turns out to be a winner, a Broadway transfer might be in its future.

Becca Blackwell (Is This A Room) has been a forceful presence in many a downtown production in the past 15 years. In their outrageous new queer comedy, the charismatic postgender performer plays a human-size vagina named Snatch Adams who hosts a late-night talk show with help from sidekick Tainty McCracken (played by Dead Darlings firebrand Amanda Duarte). Jess Barbagallo directs Soho Rep's world-premiere production, which is presented in association with the Bushwick Starr.

Eric Tucker and his company, Bedlam, have a knack for modern-minded stagings of historical dramas. That should make them a good match with Arcadia—Tom Stoppard's dazzling 1993 brain-teaser about mathematics, nature, chaos and sex—which alternates between scenes set in the early 19th century and the present. Tucker directs a cast of 12 that includes Zuzanna Szadkowski and many other Bedlam regulars.

The delightful Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus) makes her stage debut opposite Christopher Abbott in John Patrick Shanley's prickly 1983 romantic drama, in which two lost souls in the Bronx try to grab each other. The revival is directed by actor Jeff Ward (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) in his first outing as a stage director. 

Two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest returns to the stage as a 75-year-old woman who moves to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, determined to be a star of the silver screen. Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown) directs the Vineyard's world premiere of this offbeat new comedy by John J. Caswell Jr. (Wet Brain). 

Boardwalk Empire costars Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks reunite to play Estragon and Vladimir, a pair of static tramps killing time under a tree, in the latest revival of Samuel Beckett's existentialist antidrama, directed by TFANA's Arin Arbus. Ajay Naidu and Jeffrey Biehl complete the principal cast. Will Godot show up this time? Wait—and wait and wait and wait—and see!

1930s filmmakers work on a KGB-funded movie about the Spanish Civil War in a new play by Jen Silverman (Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties), directed by Tyne Rafaeli for Second Stage. The stacked cast features Marin Ireland and Zachary James as well as three actors playing the real-life creators of the pro-Republican 1937 film The Spanish Earth: Andrew Burnap as the Communist documentarian Joris Ivens, and Danny Wolohan and Erik Lochtefeld as writers Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos, respectively. 

If you were alive in the late 1990s, you probably remember the eponymous 1997 album that catapulted Buena Vista Social Club, an ensemble of veteran Cuban musicians, to international fame (and an acclaimed Wim Winders documentary a couple years later). Now the group's story comes to the Atlantic in a world-premiere musical by Marco Ramirez (The Royale), directed by Saheem Ali and choreographed by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck. Broadway composer David Yazbek leads the music team bringing BVSC's tunes to the stage.