KING JAMES, LOVE LETTERS & More Lead Top Off-Broadway Shows for June 2023
Each month we're rounding up 10 off-Broadway recommendations for audiences not to miss!
By: Team BWW Jun. 01, 2023
What's happening off-Broadway? BroadwayWorld is helping you pick what to see next by rounding up our top recommended theatre each month. Coming up off-Broadway this June is a New York premiere, an immersive production, and much more!
KING JAMES
Manhattan Theatre Club
Now through June 18, 2023
Manhattan Theatre Club is presenting the New York premiere of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Center Theatre Group's production of King James, starring Glenn Davis (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Downstate) and Chris Perfetti ("Abbott Elementary").
"King" LeBron James was just the hero that Cleveland needed. One of the greatest NBA players to ever hit the court, his influence on the whole city loomed large for the dozen years of his reign. Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) wonderfully funny and remarkably moving new play chronicles the unexpected friendship between two men whose intertwined fortunes are tied to those of their idol. This highly anticipated, adrenaline-packed New York premiere about the power of connection is directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences).
A SIMULACRUM
Atlantic Theater Company
June 14-June 25,2023
Lucas is a playwright. Steve is a magician. Lucas asked Steve to show him some magic tricks. Steve did. And this is what happened.
Tony Award nominee Lucas Hnath (Dana H.) directs this unique collaboration starring sleight of hand artist and illusion designer Steve Cuiffo.
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THE FEARS
The Pershing Square Signature Center [Irene Diamond Stage]
Now through July 9, 2023
Every week at a Buddhist center in New York City, a diverse group of fractured souls share a commitment to eccentric yet restorative teachings providing solace from their personal turmoil. When their newest member shows up without knowing the rules, it sets off heated confrontations and deep meditations on how finding peace in the city that never sleeps can be insanely hilarious.
From the prolific visionary behind Traffic, Behind the Candelabra, and Magic Mike, Steven Soderbergh presents Emma Sheanshang’s THE FEARS, a wildly funny reminder how, sometimes when facing the abyss, the only place to turn is to one another. The cast includes Maddie Corman, Kerry Bishé, Natalie Woolams-Torres, Jess Gabor, Mehran Khaghani, Carl Hendrick Louis, and Robyn Peterson.
THE GREAT GATSBY
The Gatsby Mansion at the Park Central Hotel New York
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!
LOVE LETTERS
Irish Repertory Theatre
Now through June 9, 2023
Starring Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick, A.R Gurney’s Love Letters is a two-hander drama comprised of letters exchanged between two friends over a lifetime. Andrew and Melissa, both born into wealth and position, begin their correspondence in childhood with birthday party thank-you notes. Their letters continue through their boarding school and college years while they are romantically attached and later through their individual marriages and careers. As the actors read the letters aloud, an evocative, touching, frequently funny, but always telling pair of character studies is revealed, where what is implied is as revealing and affecting as what is written down.
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MONSOON WEDDING
St. Ann's Warehouse
Now through June 25, 2023
Two families converge on Delhi for an arranged marriage and what promises to be a glorious union. As festivities unfurl in song and dance, expectation and reality collide. The bride and groom are not who they appear to be, and dark family secrets begin to surface. Chaos ensues, and as the nuptials draw closer, so do the wedding planner and the house maid. Together they find love over a simple marigold flower. As the city pulses with the promise of relief from the heat, the ancient and unbroken ties of family are further tested, asking the question: how do we redefine love in a rapidly evolving world?
PRIMARY TRUST
Roundabout Theatre Company
Now through July 2, 2023
Do you have the courage to change? In Eboni Booth’s absorbing, funny, and ultimately stunning new play—William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) heads a remarkable company, directed by Knud Adams, as Kenneth, a 38-year-old bookstore worker facing a world he’s long avoided.
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THIS LAND WAS MADE
June 4-June 25, 2023
History and imagination collide with vibrant humor and echo into our present moment in this stirring new play from Tori Sampson (NYT Critic’s Pick If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka) and directed by LPTW Lucille Lortel Award and 2023 Obie Award winner Taylor Reynolds (Tambo and Bones).
Oakland in 1967 is a powder keg of social activism ready to boil over into radical action. For the patrons of Miss Trish’s bar, it’s all just talking points — until the explosive and seductive force of the revolution walks through the door.
WET BRAIN
Playwrights Horizons
June 6-June 25, 2023
In a crumbling house in Arizona, a family haunted by addiction — and hardened into smart-asses — wrestles with the alcoholic ruin of its patriarch… who may or may not be repeatedly abducted by aliens. With humor and horror, John J. Caswell, Jr. brings us the transfixing story of a family mining the depths of loss, traveling lightyears to find a language for closure.
PERFECT CRIME
Duffy Theatre
Now playing
Warren Manzi's Perfect Crime is a sexy, funny and fast-paced thriller that makes for a great night of whodunit. The longest-running play in NYC history, it tells the story of psychiatrist and potential cold-blooded killer Margaret Brent, her rich husband, a deranged patient, and the handsome detective who's falling in love with her.
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