Broadway Buying Guide: August 21, 2023

Looking for the best deals on Broadway shows? Welcome to our new weekly guide to the most popular shows listed on BroadwayWorld.

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This Week's Top Broadway Shows

1) Spamalot Buy Tickets - SPAMALOT, the musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, returns to Broadway for the first time ever, following a record-breaking sold-out run at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Peter Marks of The Washington Post exclaims “It’s UNFAIR to make me laugh this much! SPAMALOT is a tightly packed clown car speeding to musical theater nirvana!” Everything that makes a great knight in the theatre is here, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the Lady of the Lake.

2) El Mago Pop Buy Tickets Tickets from: $109 - Discover the Master of the impossible. This summer on Broadway, see Antonio Díaz, the number one European illusionist in the world, as El Mago Pop! Inspired by the idea of challenging the limits of the impossible, El Mago Pop takes a journey through the extraordinary. Through a show defined by surprise, fantasy, sensibility, rhythm and emotion, patrons experience Antonio Díaz’s close-up magic and his most unusual & spectacular illusions. El Mago Pop is a tribute to life and to the hope it instills in us. At its core, El Mago Pop is an existential reminder of all those dreams and illusions that awakened our consciousness in the earliest stages of our lives, so that we never forget who we are. Antonio Díaz is the highest grossing European illusionist in the world! For each of the past 5 years, he has had the greatest box office success of any other artist in Spain. More than 2 million theatregoers have been astonished by the unique magic of Díaz, on stage as El Mago Pop. Díaz has also starred on the Netflix shows Magic for Humans and La Gran Ilusion, which are broadcast in nearly 200 countries.

3) Here Lies Love Buy Tickets Tickets from: $83 - From Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner David Byrne (concept, music and lyrics) and Grammy Award® winner Fatboy Slim (music), Here Lies Love re-defines the musical theater experience, turning the rise and fall of a dictator and his wife into an exuberant party. Developed & directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers, with choreography by Olivier Award nominee Annie-B Parson, Here Lies Love transforms the Broadway Theatre into a nightclub where the audience is literally immersed in the story, witnessing history up close. While some audience members stand and move with the actors, others enjoy from traditional theater seating. Everyone is close to the action.

4) Sweeney Todd Buy Tickets Tickets from: $40 - Attend the tale! Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's landmark musical tells the tale of a resourceful pie shop owner and a vengeful barber out for blood. After he's sent away by a corrupt judge, Sweeney returns to London years later seeking his long-lost family, and forms an unlikely partnership with Mrs. Lovett, who serves up pies underneath his former shop. Together, they wreak havoc on Fleet Street and serve up the hottest - and most unsettling - pies in London. Director Thomas Kail helms the return of this musical thriller starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford.

5) Back to the Future: The Musical Buy Tickets Tickets from $79 - Welcome to Hill Valley! Marty McFly is a rock 'n' roll teenager who is accidentally transported back to 1955 in a time-travelling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown. But before he can return to 1985, Marty must make sure his high school-aged parents fall in love in order to save his own existence. Based on the beloved film of the same name, Back to the Future is directed by John Rando. Set your destination time, New York and get ready to make musical theater history.

6) The Shark Is Broken Buy Tickets Tickets from: $48.50 - Martha’s Vineyard, 1974: shooting on ‘Jaws’ has stalled. The film’s lead actors – Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss – are stuck on a boat, at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Awash with alcohol and ambition, three hammered sharks start to bare their teeth…Directed by Guy Masterson, THE SHARK IS BROKEN reveals the hilarious behind-the-scenes drama on one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.

7) Hadestown Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - In Hadestown, a song can change your fate. This Tony-winning new musical by Anaïs Mitchell and innovative director Rachel Chavkin is a love story for today, and always. Intertwining two mythic Greek tales - that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and of King Hades and his wife Persephone - Hadestown invites you on a journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell's alluring melodies and Chavkin's poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love, with art perhaps being the one thing that can save it all. Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

8) Good Night, Oscar Buy Tickets Tickets from: $99 - Anything can happen on live TV. And one night, it did. Sean Hayes stars as the irrepressible Oscar Levant. It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Good Night, Oscar explores the nexus of humor and heartbreak, the ever-dwindling distinction between exploitation and entertainment, and the high cost of baring one’s soul for public consumption.

9) Hamilton Buy Tickets Tickets from: $124 - A revolutionary story of passion, unstoppable ambition, and the dawn of a new nation. HAMILTON is the epic saga that follows the rise of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as he fights for honor, love, and a legacy that would shape the course of a nation. Based on Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography and set to a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, HAMILTON has had a profound impact on culture, politics, and education. HAMILTON features book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. In addition to its 11 Tony Awards, it has won Grammy®, Olivier Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and an unprecedented special citation from the Kennedy Center Honors.

10) The Notebook Buy Tickets - Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart. With a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide and a film that's one of the highest-grossing romantic dramas of all-time, the musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's The Notebook comes to Broadway following a critically acclaimed world premiere engagement at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the fall of 2022.

This Week's Top Off-Broadway Shows

1) Little Shop of Horrors Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - Seymour is a down-on-his-luck florist with a crush on his co-worker Audrey. When he discovers a mysterious – and voracious – plant, suddenly Seymour and Audrey are thrust into an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. Little Shop of Horrors made its highly-anticipated return home to Off-Broadway, in an intimate new production directed by Michael Mayer that offers an unprecedented opportunity to get close — maybe too close — to an incredible plant with an insatiable appetite.

2) Pay The Writer Buy Tickets - Pay The Writer is a new comedy-drama from New York Times Best Selling Author Tawni O’Dell, starring Bryan Batt (Mad Men), Ron Canada (The West Wing) and Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives). Focusing on the complicated relationship between a legendary literary agent and his best friend-turned-most-successful client, this dynamic and socially intuitive play explores how an artist’s life is controlled by their calling and talent. Bruston Fischer is a young gay man trying to make it in publishing while suffering from social persecution when he first meets Cyrus Holt some 40 years ago. Cyrus is a gifted Black writer trying to get his talent noticed in a world that wants to ignore his existence. Through their unique friendship, the pair find literary success and the most stable relationship either will ever have. Yet, when talent, business, and love intertwine, missteps occur and inevitably, regrets often follow. Triumph and loss become blurred as we sort through the challenges of the human condition. Pay The Writer is a heartrending and funny exploration of personal and artistic legacy while navigating life’s final chapter.

3) Uncle Vanya Buy Tickets - The critically-acclaimed, “sold-out-before-you-heard-about-it” (New Yorker) production of Uncle Vanya in a loft is back for a strictly limited engagement this August. Uncle Vanya sees the lives of Sonya, her uncle, and a visiting doctor disrupted by the arrival of Sonya’s father, Professor Serebryakov, and his restless new wife, the beautiful Yelena. Using Paul Schmidt’s “warm, seamless, and contemporary” (The New York Times) translation, “Off-Off-Broadway hitmaker” (Joey Sims of American Theatre) Jack Serio stages a “fly-on-the-wall, hyper-intimate” (Forbes) new production of Chekhov’s masterpiece at a private loft in the Flatiron District. Tony-winner David Cromer leads an all-star cast in a radical new staging that highlights the immediacy and profound humanity of Chekhov’s enduring classic.

4) The Great Gatsby Buy Tickets - You are invited to one of Jay Gatsby's infamous parties. As invites go, this is the hottest ticket in town. A world of red-hot rhythms, bootleg liquor, and pure jazz age self-indulgence awaits. Spend the evening dancing and clinking glasses with Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jay Gatsby himself. As the champagne flows, all the drama unfolds. Dress to the nines and immerse yourself in this heart racing adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal tale. Welcome back to the roaring twenties!

5) Infinite Life Buy Tickets - Atlantic Theater will welcome back both Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Baker (Body Awareness) and Obie Award winning director James Macdonald (Cloud Nine). Five women in Northern California sit outside on chaise lounges and philosophize. A surprisingly funny inquiry into the complexity of suffering, and what it means to desire in a body that’s failing you.

6) Sesame Street the Musical Buy Tickets - The hit musical returns to New York City! Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, Grover, Rosita, Ernie, Bert, The Count, Gabrielle and a whole host of Honkers, Martians and other Sesame Street favorites have ventured onto the stage to appear in their very own musical – starring… well, themselves. Featuring classic Sesame Street songs and new numbers by Broadway’s brightest songwriters. Directed by Jonathan Rockefeller and produced by Rockefeller Productions.

7) The Play That Goes Wrong Buy Tickets - Co-written by Mischief company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, The Play That Goes Wrong is a riotous comedy about the theatre. The play introduces The 'Cornley University Drama Society' who are attempting to put on a 1920s' murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong...does, as the accident-prone thespians battle on against all odds to get to their final curtain call.

8) Blue Man Group Buy Tickets - Blue Man Group combines music, technology and comedy to create a form of entertainment that defies categorization and appeals to people of all ages. Blue Man Group's shows have been described by critics as "innovative," "energetic" and "wildly entertaining." But the only way to truly understand Blue Man Group's global popularity is to see the show for yourself.

9) Rock & Roll Man Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - ROCK & ROLL MAN is the original musical about a musical original. Alan Freed was a Cleveland DJ who heard the future—and knew he had to let it sing. He named the genre “Rock & Roll,” bringing music to the masses and integrating artists and audiences on the airwaves and in concerts for the first time in history. Along the way, he became an icon to the nation’s youth—and a target for the nation’s establishment.

10) Here We Are Buy Tickets - Here We Are, legendary composer Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, features a book by Tony Award–nominee David Ives. It is inspired by Luis Buñuel’s films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. Here We Are is directed by Tony Award–winner Joe Mantello. The cast will include Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. The understudies for Here We Are are Bradley Dean, Adam Harrington, Bligh Voth, Adante Carter, Mehry Eslaminia, and Lindsay Nicole Chambers. Produced by Tom Kirdahy, its executive producers are Sue Wagner, John Johnson, and Jillian Robbins. Co-presented by The Shed. Performances begin in September 2023.