The new season is just getting started for off Broadway as well, and just like the new Broadway season, there are many exciting shows coming up.
Napoli, Brooklyn about the women of the Muscolino family who want to have a life outside of their four walls, each yearning for something different in this play by Meghan Kennedy about sisterhood, freedom, and forgiveness. It began previews at the Laura Pels Theater on June 9th and opened June 27th.
Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare's study of political and sexual hypocrisy directed by Simon Godwin began previews at the Theatre for a New Audience on June 17th and opened on June 26th.
Two more of Shakespeare's plays, both done by the Public Theater will arrive this summer. Hamlet with Oscar Issac will open at the Anspacher Theatre on July 13th, while A Midsummer's Night Dream will open at the Delacorte Theater will open on July 11th.
A Parallelogram will open at Second Stage Theater on August 2nd with Celia Keenan-Bolger. It focuses on a girl named Bee who can look at different moments of her life with a remote control.
Pipeline will open on July 20th at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. It is about a public school teacher who works hard to inspire her kids, while sending her own son to a private boarding school. When her son is threatened with expulsion, she rallies to save him.
Pershing Square Signature Center will welcome The Red Letter Plays: In the Blood and Fucking A. The two plays are redone versions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter and look at notions of gender and hypocrisy in society. They will share a cast, and share Jo Bonney as a director, with an opening to be announced.
Atlantic Theatre Company's On the Shore of the Wide World will begin previews at the Linda Gross Theater on August 23rd. The play is about love, family, and the size of the galaxy and is the New York debut of Simon Stephens' Olivier Award winning play.
Monica Bill Barnes & Company's "One Night Only (Running as Long as We Can)" will begin previews at the McGinn Cazdle Theatre on September 12th. Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass will be trying to do everything they've ever learned to do in one night.
Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical will begin previews at the Linda Gross Theater on September 16th. Inspired by the events of Little Rock 9, it follows 8 year old Lily Polkadot who moved to a "Squares Only" town. She finds it hard to gain acceptance at school and faces constant bullying and segregation until she meets Sky, a square boy who's curiosity creates an unexpected friendship.
Measure for Measure will open at the LuEsther Hall on October 6th. The new production brings unique performance to the lyrical language of the Bard himself, William Shakespeare.
The Portuguese Kid will open at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I on October 24th. Set in Providence, it follows a widow who visits her second rate lawyer to settle her late husband's affairs. However it quickly becomes a nightmare for the cheesy attorney, along with the additions of an impossible mother, modern politics, and young lovers it becomes the perfect recipe for comic gold.
Tiny Beautiful Things will open at the Newman Theater on October 10th, marking it's return after a sold-out run last season. Directed by Thomas Kail, the show was written by and stars Nia Vardalos in a story about an anonymous online columnist who goes by the name of Sugar.
Oedipus El Ray will open at the Shiva Theater on October 26th. Written by Luis Alfaro it is an electrifying modern take on the Greek tragedy.
Office Hour will open on November 2nd at the Martinson Theater. The Public Theater's website describes the show as follows: "Gina was warned that one of her students would be a problem. Eighteen years old and strikingly odd, Dennis writes violently obscene work clearly intended to unsettle those around him. Determined to know whether he’s a real threat, Gina compels Dennis to attend her office hours. But as the clock ticks down, Gina realizes that “good” versus “bad” is nothing more than a convenient illusion, and that the isolated young student in her office has learned one thing above all else: that for the powerless, the ability to terrify others is powerful indeed."
Illyria will begin previews on October 22nd at the Anspacher Theater. The Public Theater's website summarizes the show as follows: "It is 1958, and New York City is in the midst of a major building boom; a four-lane highway is planned for the heart of Washington Square; Carnegie Hall is designated for demolition; entire neighborhoods on the West Side are leveled to make room for a new ‘palace of art’. And a young Joe Papp and his colleagues face betrayals, self-inflicted wounds and anger from the city’s powerful elite as they continue their free Shakespeare productions in Central Park."
Describe the Night begins previews at the Linda Gross Theater on November 1st. It follows seven men and women connected by history, myth, and conspiracy theories in different times.