After some 18 months of grim uncertainty, Broadway is—at this moment—essentially back, with many of the shows that were shuttered by the pandemic now either in previews or fully open. (You needn’t be a Wicked fan for footage from the first few minutes of its opening night to make you misty.)
Plotting your own return to the theater? Below, find a list of the best plays and musicals to see right now.
American Utopia: open now
American Utopia is based on David Byrne’s highly successful 2018 album and concert tour of the same name, the former Talking Heads frontman’s first solo work in more than a decade. Featuring choreography by Annie-B Parson, it defies the format of a traditional rock show, favoring a more layered, storytelling performance instead. Among other things, it boasts a 12-person band that moves freely—and at times, chaotically—across the stage. “It’s part rock concert, part theatrical spectacle, and part intimate exploration of a major artist’s career,” the show’s production consultant, Alex Timbers, told Vogue. Byrne added of the inspiration: “I thought, People! People onstage! I had a sense that, as human beings, when we go to a show, that’s what we’re interested in—that it’s the people that really move us.”
Book your tickets here.
Caroline or Change: currently in previews, opening October 27
Penned by Tony Kushner with composer Jeanine Tesori, the semi-autobiographical musical Caroline, or Change—centered on the relationship between a Jewish boy and his family’s Black maid in the Jim Crow South—was last on Broadway in 2004, when it earned six Tony nods (including for best musical) and one win (for Anika Noni Rose, who played the titular Caroline’s firebrand daughter, Emmie Thibodeaux). For this iteration, the English actress Sharon D Clarke is Caroline, a woman of strong values and strict faith. (Clarke won an Olivier for the role last year.) “Tony Kushner said he wrote Caroline as an African American maid who felt like a president,” director Michael Longhurst told Danny Leigh in a story for Vogue, “and Sharon has that quality.”
Book your tickets here.
Freestyle Love Supreme: open now
Freestyle Love Supreme, the freewheeling, improvised rap show directed by Thomas Kail (and featuring a cast that has variously included Utkarsh Ambudkar, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, James Monroe Iglehart, and Lin-Manuel Miranda) caused such a stir during its Booth Theatre run in late 2019 that it picked up a special Tony Award at this year’s ceremony (along with the Broadway Advocacy Coalition and American Utopia)—and has returned to Broadway for another limited engagement. “I don’t know if there’s a show I’ve ever done that makes the back of my head hurt—in the best sense—the way that Freestyle does,” Kail told Vogue in 2019. “[The cast has] been in each other’s lives, and in each other’s faces, for a long time, and there’s just something about the energy of it that still generates some of the purest expressions of joy that I’ve ever been around.”
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
