ILLINOISE, TEETH & More Lead Top Off-Broadway Shows for March
Each month we're rounding up 10 off-Broadway recommendations for audiences not to miss!
By: Sidney Paterra Mar. 01, 2024
What's happening off-Broadway? BroadwayWorld is here to guide you through the top picks for theatre this month. March brings a diverse array of productions to the Off-Broadway scene, including a New York premiere, a World Premiere, and more. From star-studded plays to classic Shakespearean tales, there is something for every theatre fan to enjoy.
BroadwayWorld selects shows to feature based on a variety of factors such as popularity, critical acclaim, unique concepts, star power, and more. BroadwayWorld's senior editorial team closely follows the Off-Broadway scene to stay informed about upcoming and currently running productions. They consider a range of offerings each month, including musicals, plays, and more to provide a well-rounded selection of recommendations to readers. Their goal is to offer theater enthusiasts a comprehensive guide to the most exciting shows happening Off-Broadway each month.
Take a look at BroadwayWorld's recommendations for the best shows to catch off-Broadway in March.
Illinoise
Park Avenue Armory
March 2 - March 23, 2024
Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed 2005 concept album Illinois enjoys cult status for its lush orchestrations and wildly inventive portrayal of the state’s people, landscapes, and history, complete with UFOs, zombies, and predatory wasps. This musically ambitious work, which weaves together cinematic orchestral anthems, jazz riffs, and other musical influences to explore wide-ranging narratives about blossoming queerness and self-exploration is expanded upon through a mix of live music and impressionistic choreography to revisit the beloved album’s themes of self-discovery.
Dancer, choreographer, and director Justin Peck has assembled an impressive body of creative projects, starting out as a soloist with New York City Ballet and moving on to create work for that company and prestigious companies from around the world, as well as on Broadway with Carousel and Stephen Spielberg’s acclaimed film West Side Story. The Tony Award-winner embraces Stevens’ album in an ecstatic pageant of storytelling, theater, dance, and live music with a cast of virtuosic dancers, singers, and musicians with a narrative crafted with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole). Featuring new arrangements of the entire album by composer and pianist Timo Andres for a live band and three voices, ranging in style from DIY folk and indie rock to marching band and ambient electronics, this bold, new music-theater production leads audiences on a mighty journey through the American heartland, from campfire storytelling to the edges of the cosmos.
Pericles
Now through March 24, 2024
Pericles takes the Prince of Tyre on a Mediterranean adventure full of riddles, betrayals…and pirates! From confident leader to yearning lover to seeker of meaning, our hero in this Shakespearean tragicomedy will be brought to life on the CSC stage by the inventive Fiasco Theater, who have previously delighted New York audiences with inspired interpretations of Cymbeline and Into the Woods. The Fiasco Theater ensemble brings music, poetry, and a completely new way of seeing one of the Bard’s most complex characters.
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Eddie Izzard's Hamlet
Greenwich House Theatre
Now through April 14, 2024
Eddie returns to New York following last year’s sold-out run of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, which played to rave reviews at Greenwich House and in London’s West End. Hamlet reunites Eddie with Selina and Mark who collaborated on Great Expectations. Upon closing at the Greenwich House Theatre, the show will transfer to the Orpheum Theatre, running March 19 through April 14.
In Hamlet, The King of Denmark is dead, and Prince Hamlet is determined to take revenge, initiating a cascade of events that will destroy both family and state. Eddie will be portraying men, women, ghosts, scholars, tyrants, courtiers, lovers, fools, and poets. She says, “I have always gravitated towards playing complex and challenging characters and Hamlet is the ultimate. This is a production for everyone, a timeless drama with an accidental hero. Selina, Mark, and I want audiences to see and hear an accessible, touching, scary and dramatic Hamlet.”
The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers
New World Stages
Now through June 2, 2024
Part interactive game show, part memoir, THE LIFE AND SLIMES OF Marc Summers takes us on one man’s extraordinary journey, both on screen and off. Marc Summers launched Nickelodeon as the host of the world’s most famous children’s game show Double Dare and went on to become a household name on the small screen, having a 20 year relationship with the Food Network as the host of Unwrapped and executive producer of Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible, all while facing immeasurable challenges behind the scenes.
On your mark! Get set! Go! to this one-of-a-kind intimate theatrical adventure that will leave you inspired, hopeful and feeling like a kid again.
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The Seven Year Disappear
The Pershing Square Signature Center
Now through March 24, 2024
Naphtali’s (Taylor Trensch) world-famous performance artist mother (Cynthia Nixon) disappeared suddenly seven years ago. And yet, he sees her everywhere: in the faces of friends, coworkers, the guy he’s flirting with. When his mother returns with few answers and a major request, Naphtali is forced to confront what he’s spent years trying to forget. A funny, deeply human mystery of mothers and sons, coming of age, and coming apart. This production marks a return to The New Group for Cynthia Nixon, where she directed Rasheeda Speaking and Steve, and appeared on stage in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, directed by Scott Elliott. This marks a New Group debut for playwright Jordan Seavey and Taylor Trensch.
The Effect
The Shed
March 3 - March 31, 2024
As clinical drug trial participants Connie and Tristan explore their attraction to each other, how can they be sure it’s the real thing and not an exhilarating side effect of the new antidepressant they’re taking? The supervising doctors begin to ask themselves questions too: where do they draw the line between love and ethics?
Stalker
New World Stages
March 18 - September 1, 2024
Stalker is an innovative 90-minute magic show by the Swedish duo Peter Brynolf and Jonas Ljung, directed by Eurovision mastermind Edward Af Sillén. Get ready for fast-paced entertainment combining street magic, physical mentalism, and social hacking — with a climactic plot twist that you’ll never see coming. In today’s society, no one is hidden. Everyone is being stalked, and everyone has become a stalker.
Teeth
Playwrights Horizons
Now through April 14, 2024
Dawn O’Keefe is an evangelical Christian teen with a powerful secret not even she understands – when men violate her, her body bites back. Literally. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs (POP!), Teeth, based on the cult classic film of the same name, is a fierce, rapturous, and savagely entertaining new musical crackling with irrepressible desire and ancient rage – a dark comedy conjuring the legend of one girl whose sexual curse is also her salvation.
Sunset Baby
The Pershing Square Signature Center
Now through March 10, 2024
East New York, Brooklyn. Nina’s estranged father Kenyatta, a former Black revolutionary and political prisoner, reappears to obtain a coveted piece of her late Mother's legacy. While Kenyatta had visions of changing the world, his daughter became everything he feared. Now he’s at her mercy for his own redemption. This is a story about love, political action, and one woman’s journey from a brutal existence to her own liberation.
Blue Man Group
Astor Place Theatre
Now Playing
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.
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