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Audiences, it seems, can not get enough of Into the Woods, and 鈥檚 1987 musical about the down side of fairy-tale endings.
Broadway saw a revival of the piece in 2002. The Delacorte Theater hosted another revival in Central Park in 2012. And then there鈥檚 that movie version that is flooding cinemas this holiday season. To coincide with that silver screen release, the is hosting a new version of the musical by the Fiasco Theater, directed by Noah Brody and . Already in previews, it will open Jan. 22, 2015.
Also always seemingly ripe for revival is O鈥橬eill鈥檚 The Iceman Cometh. Director and actor , who have joined forces on many another O鈥橬eill drama, do so again and have invited to the party. Performances of the show, which first played Chicago鈥檚 , begin Feb. 5 at BAM.
Though also a classic, Marlowe鈥檚 Doctor Faustus is rarely revived, except when a big star shows interest in the lead. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 happened at , where will play the titular sinner. (Mr. Big, indeed!) Previews begin May 29. Another seldom-seen classic, Turgenev鈥檚 comedy of pastoral, romantic turmoil, A Month in the Country, will also spend a couple of months at CSC. It, too, has a big star in tow: 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥濃� own Peter Dinklage. Performances start Jan. 9. He wasn鈥檛 a President 鈥� like Andrew Jackson and Herbert Hoover, who have gotten their own Off-Broadway musicals in recent years 鈥� but he鈥檚 getting a show of his own anyway. , about Alexander Hamilton (Founding Father, our nation鈥檚 first Secretary of the Treasury and the world鈥檚 most famous dueling victim) was written by of fame, and will star Miranda, , , , and . (Don鈥檛 expect Aaron Burr to come off well.) Performances begin Jan. 20.
has a play of his own, Application Pending, written with Greg Edwards. The comedy, opening Feb. 10 at the Westside Theatre, is about the cutthroat kindergarten admissions process at a New York private school.
Actors continue to do their darndest to render playwrights obsolete, churning out plays themselves left and right. , arguably the godfather of the movement, is back with a new work, The Spoils, at . As is his wont, Eisenberg will also star in the piece, about a man who sets out to win back his grade school crush after he finds out she is marrying a straight-laced banker. The production begins in the spring.
The , meanwhile, will present I鈥檓 Gonna Pray for You So Hard, a new play by actress about the relationship between a competitive actress and her famous playwright father. (Halley is the daughter of playwright and cartoonist .) It will star and Betty Gilpin and open Jan. 20.
Actress hasn鈥檛 written a play, but she will direct one at The New Group, where she has sometimes starred. She will pilot Rasheeda Speaking, a new work by Joel Drake about once-friendly co-workers who are driven apart by their white boss' machinations. Not a bad cast on this one: and star. Opening is Feb. 11.
It鈥檚 been a while since we鈥檝e seen a new collection of comic one-acts from . fixed that by presenting the new Lives of the Saints, which will be director by longtime Ives collaborator, . Opening is Feb. 24.
Jennifer Haley explores modern digital life in The Nether, her new play about a young female detective who investigates a new online immersive realm. (Don鈥檛 know what 鈥淭he Nether鈥� is? Ask a gamer kid. They鈥檒l tell you.) Anne Kauffman directs , Merritt Wever, and , starting Feb. 4 at .
More online-born adventures are depicted in Iowa, a new musical by Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond about a mother and daughter who move to Iowa when Mom finds her soul mate there on Facebook. (That鈥檚 gonna work out well, sure.) is the host, beginning March 20.
Another musical with elements of weirdness will be provided by Peter Lerman and , whose Brooklynite tells the Jonathan Letham-like story of a hardware store clerk who dreams of becoming a superhero. Previews begin at the Vineyard on Jan. 29. Mayer directs.
Keen Company pulls down a big Broadway star, , for its new revival of 鈥檚 musical John & Jen, about one woman's relationship with her young brother and her son. Opening is Feb. 26.
Whimsical chronicler of modern urban life Melissa James Gibson is back with Placebo, about a woman working on a placebo-controlled study of a new female arousal drug. Previews start at Playwrights Horizons Feb. 20. Also returning with new work is Lucy Thurber, whose The Insurgents, at the , starting Feb. 20, is about a woman who travels across the country in search of something to believe in, only to find herself home again.
The coming months will feature plenty of new works by well-established playwrights. The Atlantic Theater Company will present Posterity, the latest by . Beginning Feb. 25, the work is about a commission for Norway's most celebrated sculptor to create the last official portrait of . Wright also directs. tells the tale of a newly-married couple that attends a party for partner-swapping couples in The Qualms (a title that could really be used for any of Norris鈥� plays). It begins at Playwrights Horizons May 22.
Richard Greenberg will see his new The Swing of the Sea presented at from May 26. The new play tells of two sons who reunite with their father鈥檚 lover after his death. reveals What I Did Last Summer at the Signature, starting in May. The story is about a mother who takes her teenage son and daughter to spend the summer on Lake Erie. Finally, in Show For Days, relates his fond remembrance of his immersion into a life in the theatre. It opens June 29 at LCT. directs.
Also on offer in the coming months: Guards of the Taj, 's play about two Imperial Guards in 1648 India, who watch the sun rise for the first time on the newly-completely Taj Mahal, starting at the Atlantic May 6; Nice Girl, Melissa Ross鈥� new play about a woman in a dead-end job who begins to take tentative steps toward a new life, at Labyrinth Theater Company in the spring; a new production of Hugh Leonard鈥檚 memory play Da at Irish Rep, opening Jan. 22; Laith Nakli's new play set in New York during the first weeks of the 2011 Syria civil war, Shesh Yak, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, opening Jan. 29; Between Riverside and Crazy, the latest by that chronicler of New York鈥檚 gritty underside , at Second Stage, premiering Jan. 16; Kate Benson鈥檚 lengthily-titled Thanksgiving play, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Lakes, a Women鈥檚 Project production at New York City Center, beginning Jan. 12; the -directed Jack Thorne's stage adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist鈥檚 vampire novel, Let the Right One In, at St. Ann鈥檚 Warehouse; Little Children Dream of God, Jeff Augustin's play about a Haitian woman who is determined to forge a better life for herself and her unborn son in America, at Roundabout鈥檚 Black Box Theatre, opening Feb. 17; Verite, a LCT鈥檚 Claire Tow Theatre, a world premiere of Nick Jones' play about a stay-at-home mom who is offered a deal for her memoir if she can make her life exciting enough to publish; a new production of Charles Mee鈥檚 Aeschylus-inspired Big Love, beginning Feb. 3 at ; Bathsheba Doran's new play about four individuals' lives that are inextricably intertwined, The Mystery of Love and Sex at LCT鈥檚 Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, opening March 2; 鈥檚 production of Soho Rep鈥檚 new rendition of 鈥檚 19th-century staple, The Octoroon, opening March 1; The Liquid Plain, the New York premiere of Naomi Wallace鈥檚 play about two runaway slaves in 18th-century Rhode Island, at the Signature, beginning Feb. 17; Tracey Scott Wilson's new play, Buzzer, directed by Anne Kauffman, at , opening April 8; a new staging of Hamlet by relentless workaholic , starring at CSC, starting March 22; Toast, Lemon Andersen鈥檚 new play about a group of inmates during the 1971 Attica Prison riots, at the Public, opening May 5; a new mounting of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, commencing April 24, a Fiasco Theater production of Theatre for a New Audience; Permission, the world premiere of ' comedy about a couple that decides to make Christian Domestic Discipline the foundation of their marriage, directed by at MCC from April 29; the world premiere of the prolific 's play The Way We Get By, about an awkward encounter following a drunken wedding, at Second Stage, from May 12; new stagings of the one-acts The Shawl and Prarie du Chien at (where else?) Atlantic Theater Company, starting May 27; Gloria; Or Ambition, the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins鈥檚 play about a group of editorial assistants at a famed Manhattan magazine, beginning in May at the ; and a new play by South African dramatist at the Signature, starting in April.
(Author鈥檚 note: The Off-Broadway season, like the universe, is vast and unknowable. This listings is by no means meant to be complete or exhaustive.)
