Most popular New York theater and Broadway shows

The Phantom of the Opera ended its 35-year Broadway run in 2023, but you can't keep a masked man down for long. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical—adapted by the composer and Richard Stilgoe from Gaston Leroux's 1910 horror novel, and featuring lyrics mostly by Charles Hart—is already somehow here again, and in a surprising new form: an immersive experience, à la Sleep No More, in which audiences are led en masque through multiple locations in a complex designed to evoke the 19th-century Paris Opera House where soprano Christine Daaé is tutored and stalked by a serial killer who lives in the basement. Six groups of 60 spectators at a time enter at staggered 15-minute intervals; each group gets its own Phantom and Christine, but the other roles are played by one to four actors each; to help sustain the atmosphere, audience members must wear black, white or silver cocktail or formal attire—and, hopefully, comfortable shoes. (Masks are provided for those who do not bring their own.) Don't expect the same old Phantom: This version has been heavily streamlined and rearranged to fit its new form, and material about the Phantom's history has been added. Director Diane Paulus (Pippin), who kick-started the immersive-theater trend with 1999's The Donkey Show, oversees an extremely complicated system of simultaneous performances. The cast includes Hugh Panaro, Jeff Kready, Telly Leung, Nik Walker, Kyle Scatliffe, Clay Singer, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Anna Zavelson, Betsy Morgan, Raymond J....

The British conjurer Jamie Allan (iMagician), a Houdini aficionado who has made his reputation by infusing newfangled technology and emotionally charged storyelling into old-school tricks, appears at New World Stages for a limited run. This latest showcase is directed by Jonathan Goodwin and co-created with Allan's longtime partner in illusions, Tommy Bond.    

Luke Newton (Bridgerton) plays the highly theatrical British fashion designer Alexander McQueen and Broadway vet Emily Skinner plays his mother—whose death preceded his suicide by a week—in a new bioplay by Darrah Cloud. Director Sam Helfrich's staging employs a thousand square feet of LED screens, along with more than a dozen performers, to create an immersive experience at a new performance space in Hudson Yards. Fashion queens may also appreciate a display of archival McQueen designs. 

Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More gave up the ghost last fall after 14 years, but fans of that immersive theatrical experience have a new show to tide them over: a smaller-scale work by Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett that invites audience members to move barefoot through a labyrinthine installation inspired by Barry Pain’s 1901 gothic short story “The Moon-Slave," as adapted by the acclaimed British writer Daisy Johnson. Participants wear headphones and are guided through the 50-minute experience at the Shed via narration in the voice of Helena Bonham Carter. 

The boundary-busting comedian Natalie Palamides loves a high concept: She dressed as an egg for her first solo show, Laid, and donned hirsute dudebro drag for her astonishing follow-up, the toxic-masculinity lampoon Nate (which was filmed for a 2020 Netflix special). In Weer, which was a hit in Edinburgh last year, she takes he-said-she-said comedy to new extremes: Dividing herself down the middle through makeup and costume, she simultaneously plays both parts of the kind of young couple you might find in a 1990s romcom. The cherry on top: This production marks the official reopening of the Cherry Lane Theatre, a century-old Off Broadway landmark that has been closed for renovation since it was purchased by the film studio A24 in 2023. 

Theatre for a New Audience presents Henrik Ibsen's 1884 social drama, which, like Chekhov's The Seagull, investigates the links among family discord, suicidal young people and symbolic waterfowl. Simon Godwin—of Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is coproducing the show—directs the first Off Broadway revival of the show to employ David Eldridge's new adaptation of the script. Leading the cast are Robert Stanton, Alex Hurt, Nick Westrate, Melanie Field, Maaike Laanstra-Corn and David Patrick Kelly. 

The internationally acclaimed operatic countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten) plays the titular demented opera diva in a rare revival of a 1983 comic melodrama by Ridiculous Theatrical Company's queer auteur Charles Ludlam. Eric Ting (The Comeuppance) directs this outdoor production, which is the final major offering of Little Island's ambitious 2025 summer season. 

For 35 years, the comic actor John Leguizamo has played himself—and many colorful side characters to boot—in dynamic solo shows ranging from Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama to Freak, Sexaholix and Latin History for Morons. This time, however, he is surrounding himself with other actors in an old-school ensemble drama about a family waking up from the American Dream. Leguizamo stars as a Latino laundromat owner in 1990s Queens who must own up to old secrets when his mentally unwell son returns to the fold. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the NYC premiere at the Public; the mostly three-named cast includes Luna Lauren Velez, Rosa Evangelina Arredondo, Sarah Nina Hayon, Bradley James Tejeda, Rebecca Jimenez and, as the wayward son, the director's own son Trey Santiago-Hudson. 

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  [Note: Jinkx Monsoon plays the role of Mary Todd Lincoln through September 30, joined by new cast members Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Urie and Jenn Harris. Jane Krakowski assumes the central role on October 14.] Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do pop up they tend to be the kind of funny that evokes smirks, chuckles or wry smiles of recognition. Not so here: I can’t remember the last time I saw a play that made me laugh, helplessly and loudly, as much as Oh, Mary! did—and my reaction was shared by the rest of the audience, which burst into applause at the end of every scene. Fasten your seatbelts: This 80-minute show is a fast and wild joy ride. Escola has earned a cult reputation as a sly comedic genius in their dazzling solo performances (Help! I’m Stuck!) and on TV shows like At Home with Amy Sedaris, Difficult People and Search Party. But Oh, Mary!, their first full-length play, may surprise even longtime fans. In this hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque, Escola plays—who else?—Mary Todd Lincoln, in the weeks leading up to her husband’s assassination. Boozy, vicious and miserable, the unstable and outrageously contrary Mary is oblivious to the Civil War and hell-bent on achieving stardom as—what else?—a cabaret singer.      Oh,...

As half of the Coen Brothers, Ethan Coen has been one of the cinematic auteurs behind such classics as Fargo, The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men—but in his spare time, he likes to write short comedies for the stage. Neil Pepe has already directed two collections of them for his Atlantic Theater Company (2008's Almost an Evening and 2011's Happy Hour) and was set to bring in another in 2020, A Play Is a Poem, before Covid interfered. The company has been mum about the contents of this latest trio of playlets, except to say that their subject is love. Aubrey Plaza headlines a promising cast that also includes Nellie McKay, Noah Robbins, Mary Wiseman, CJ Wilson, Dylan Gelula and Atlantic regulars Chris Bauer and Mary McCann.

The queer Salvadoran-American comedian Julio Torres has one of the country's most distinctive sensibilities, as he has proved as the auteur and star of Los Espookys, Fantasmas and Problemista. His 2019 HBO special My Favorite Shapes found him musing about physical forms; in this new multimedia stage show, he hews to hues. 

Writer-performer Drew Droege, known and loved for his online impersonations of Chloë Sevigny, has previously skewered modern gay culture in Happy Birthday Doug and the hilarious Bright Colors and Bold Patterns. In his newest comedy, he throws a little Rope down that same well, imagining a Hell's Kitchen brunch hosted a gay couple who have just killed their boyfriend and stashed his body in the furniture. Mike Donahue directs the world premiere with a highly auspicious cast of gay entertainers: Droege, Aaron Jackson, James Cusati-Moyer, Pete Zias and Fire Island hunk Zane Phillips.

A widow gets swept off her feet by her attractive ballroom dance instructor, to the displeasure of her adult daughter, in a new comedy by Candace H. Caplin and Kim St. Leon. The possibly ill-intentioned younger man is played by Caplin's actual partner on the competitive dance circuit, Ronny Dutra, who also choreographs the show and co-directs it with St. Leon. The additional cast includes Sarah Hogewood, Jason Kennedy and eight dancers. Jesse Corbin contributes original music and songs.

Hollywood sweetheart Tom Hanks plays a time-traveling scientist—whose search for true love keeps bringing him back to the same day at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens—in a new play that Hanks has adapted with James Glossman from his own short stories. Kenny Leon (Our Town) directs the Off Broadway premiere at the Shed; the cast of 11 includes Kelli O'Hara, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Michelle Wilson and the ever-excellent Jay O. Sanders.

The pop megastar Sia provides songs for the stage adaptation of Damon Cardasis's 2017 movie musical about a sisyish young man torn between his conservative aunt's church and his secret new community amid the LGBTQ+ ballroom scene. Cardasis is joined as book writer by James Ijames (Fat Ham), and Honey Dijon contributes additional music. Whitney White (Liberation) directs the world premiere at New York Theatre Workshop, with Darrell Grand Moultrie as choreographer; recent Voice semifinalist Bryson Battle and recent Tony winners J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot) and Joaquina Kalukango (Paradise Square) lead a large cast that also includes B Noel Thomas and Kristolyn Lloyd.

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  If last week’s box-office tallies are any indication, Broadway audiences really want their mommy. The national tour of Mamma Mia! has just set up camp (or at least kitsch) at the Winter Garden Theatre, where the show’s original production ran for 14 years, and in the first week of its scheduled sixth-month engagement it outgrossed every other show except fellow marathon runners The Lion King, Wicked and Hamilton. This show, the mother of all jukebox musicals, is nothing if not familiar—and in this case, familiarity breeds contentment. Comfort has always been central to this show’s appeal. Mamma Mia! is constructed around nearly two dozen 1970s Europop bops by the Swedish megagroup ABBA, including “Dancing Queen,” “Super Trouper” and “Take a Chance on Me”: all the ABBA songs you love plus a few others you probably don’t have strong feelings about one way or the other. (Of the 19 tracks on the greatest-hits album ABBA Gold, the only one missing here is “Fernando,” which was sliced from an early draft.) These songs—written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, sometimes with help from Stig Anderson—are easy to swallow and hard to resist, with infectious melodies and lyrics that are, shall we say, direct: Their titles include "Honey, Honey," "Money, Money, Money," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do."  Mamma Mia! | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus But while Mamma Mia! originally inspired warm fuzzies for its score, it now...

The very talented David Cromer is directing three NYC productions this fall, including the Broadway revival of Bug. And the first of the three to open is a play that, as fate would have it, stars a cast member of Bug's original 2004 production: Amy Landecker, now best known for playing Sarah Pfefferman on TV's Transparent. Landecker is joined by the always compelling Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie) and newcomer River Lipe-Smith in the world premiere of Preston Max Allen's intergenerational drama about a young woman who must turn to her estranged mother for help, while trying to protect her daughter from their dark family history. 

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Oliver (Darren Criss) is a Helperbot, and he can’t help himself. A shut-in at his residence for retired androids in a near-future Korea, he functions in a chipper loop of programmatic behavior; every day, he brushes his teeth and eyes, tends to his plant and listens to the retro jazz favored by his former owner, James (Marcus Choi), who he is confident will someday arrive to take him back. More than a decade goes by before his solitary routine is disrupted by Claire (Helen J Shen), a fellow Helperbot from across the hall, who is looking to literally connect and recharge. Will these two droids somehow make a Seoul connection? Can they feel their hearts beep? That is the premise of Will Aronson and Hue Park’s new musical Maybe Happy Ending, and it’s a risky one. The notion of robots discovering love—in a world where nothing lasts forever, including their own obsolescent technologies—could easily fall into preciousness or tweedom. Instead, it is utterly enchanting. As staged by Michael Arden (Parade), Maybe Happy Ending is an adorable and bittersweet exploration of what it is to be human, cleverly channeled through characters who are only just learning what that entails. Maybe Happy Ending | Photograph: Courtesy Evan Zimmerman In a Broadway landscape dominated by loud adaptations of pre-existing IP, Maybe Happy Ending stands out for both its intimacy and its originality. Arden and his actors approach the material with a delicate touch; they...

Julia McDermott (Heroes of the Fourth Turning) plays a California TV personality and offscreen hot mess who is forced to smile in the face of ecological disaster in a darkly comical ecological cautionary tale by Brian Watkins (Outer Range). Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this incendiary solo show earned rave notices at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London, and is being brought to NYC by St. Ann's Warehouse, a reliable source of important imports.

Eric Tucker and his neoclassical company Bedlam have a knack for modern-minded stagings of period pieces, and their past seasons have offered takes on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. Here they turn to Pride and Prejudice, in a cheeky new adaptation by Emily Breeze that shifts the focus away from romance to center the relationships among the 1813 novel's five Bennet sisters. The cast includes Elyse Steingold, Shayvawn Webster, Masha Breeze, Violeta Picayo and Caroline Grogan as the girls, Zuzanna Szadkowski as their mum and Edoardo Benzoni as all of the story's men.

Review by Adam Feldman  The low-key dazzling Speakeasy Magick has been nestled in the atmospheric McKittrick Hotel for more than a year, and now it has moved up to the Lodge: a small wood-framed room at Gallow Green, which functions as a rooftop bar in the summer. The show’s dark and noisy new digs suit it well. Hosted by Todd Robbins (Play Dead), who specializes in mild carnival-sideshow shocks, Speakeasy Magick is a moveable feast of legerdemain; audience members, seated at seven tables, are visited by a series of performers in turn. Robbins describes this as “magic speed dating.” One might also think of it as tricking: an illusion of intimacy, a satisfying climax, and off they go into the night. The evening is punctuated with brief performances on a makeshift stage. When I attended, the hearty Matthew Holtzclaw kicked things off with sleight of hand involving cigarettes and booze; later, the delicate-featured Alex Boyce pulled doves from thin air. But it’s the highly skilled close-up magic that really leaves you gasping with wonder. Holtzclaw’s table act comes to fruition with a highly effective variation on the classic cups-and-balls routine; the elegant, Singapore-born Prakash and the dauntingly tattooed Mark Calabrese—a razor of a card sharp—both find clever ways to integrate cell phones into their acts. Each performer has a tight 10-minute act, and most of them are excellent, but that’s the nice thing about the way the show is structured: If one of them happens to...

Ireland's marvelous Druid Theatre Company, a frequent visitor to New York, unpacks a new staging of Samuel Beckett's 1957 masterwork, a darkly funny metatheatrical exploration of existential dread. The director is Druid founder Garry Hynes, whose work on 1998's The Beauty Queen of Leenane made her the first woman ever to win a Tony for directing. Rory Nolan and Aaron Monaghan, respectively, play the blind and domineering Hamm and his long-suffering servant Clov; Bosco Hogan and Marie Mullen (who also won a Tony for Beauty Queen) get canned as elderly garbage dwellers.

New York Theatre Workshop bakes up a new version of Molière's baguette-crisp comedy about religious hypocrisy and gullibility among the upper crust, freshly adapted by Lucas Hnath (A Dolls House, Part 2) and directed by erstwhile Soho Rep leader Sarah Benson. The cast is a murderers' row: Matthew Broderick plays the conning lead character and David Cross is his principal dupe; joining the fun are Amber Gray, Francie Jue, Emily Davis, Ryan Haddad, Lisa Kron, Ike Ufomadu and RuPaul’s Drag Race's acidulous Bianca del Rio. 

In recent years, the Skirball Center has become New York's top landing zone for Europe's most outré avant garde theater and dance. This production, the U.S. debut of the Oslo company Susie Wang, continues that tradition with Trine Falch's creepy and surreal horror-comedy thriller, set in American hotel lobby and rendered in a style that might be described as extreme Southern Gothic. Among the attractions are blood, dismemberment, cannibalism and a briefcase stuffed with a mother's remains. Susie Wang is only here for a week, so you have just five chances to see this—if you dare.

The accomplished and busy Michael Urie (Shrinking) essays the title role of Shakespeare's lyrical portrait of the last Plantagenet king, a unfortunate weakling who gets sent to the Tower after making an unpopular land deal—thus setting off a splitting of heirs that eventually leads to the War of the Roses, as chronicled in Shakespeare's other history plays). Craig Baldwin directs his own adaptation of the play for Red Bull, the city's gutsiest classical-theater company. The supporting cast includes Grantham Coleman, Ron Canada, Kathryn Meisle, Ryan Spahn, Emily Swallow and Medea: Reversed's Sarin Monae West.