Something to Look Forward to! Plays Bowing on Broadway in 2016
By: BWW Special Coverage Jan. 03, 2016
With a new year, brings a new slew of shows - and a new set of stars gracing the Great White Way's theaters. During the first half of the year, Broadway will see award-winners Lupita N'yongo, Michelle Williams, Jeff Daniels, Andrea Martin and more in both new and beloved pieces.
Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look at all of the upcoming plays from Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, and more, currently slated to bow on the Great White Way in 2016!
NOISES OFF
First Performance: Dec. 17, 2015
Opening Night: Jan. 14, 2016
Roundabout Theatre Company's new production of Noises Off includes Andrea Martin as "Dotty Otley", Campbell Scott as "Lloyd Dallas,"Tracee Chimo as "Poppy Norton-Taylor," Daniel Davis as "Selsdon Mowbray," David Furr as "Garry Lejeune," Kate Jennings Grant as "Belinda Blair," Megan Hilty as "Brooke Ashton," Rob McClure as "Tim Allgood" and Jeremy Shamos as "Frederick Fellowes." Tony nominee Jeremy Herrin will direct the new Broadway production as part of Roundabout Theatre Company's 50th anniversary season.
NOISES OFF premiered on Broadway in 1983 and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The original production ran more than 550 performances and was lauded as "the funniest show on Broadway" (The New York Times).
Full of shocking surprises and gut-busting humor, NOISES OFF is the classic show-within-a-show. The opening night performance of the farce Nothing On is just hours away, and as the cast stumbles through their final dress rehearsal, things couldn't be going any worse. With lines being forgotten, love triangles unraveling and sardines flying everywhere, it's complete pandemonium...and we haven't even reached intermission! Can the cast pull their act together on the stage even if they can't behind the scenes?
OUR MOTHER'S BRIEF AFFAIR
First Performance: Dec. 28, 2015
Opening Night: Jan. 20, 2016
Manhattan Theatre Club will stage the New York premiere of Our Mother's Brief Affair, the new play by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg, directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow, starring Tony and two-time Golden Globe Award winner Linda Lavin. The production will also star Kate Arrington, Greg Keller, and John Procaccino.
On the verge of death for the umpteenth time, Anna (Linda Lavin) makes a shocking confession to her grown children: an affair from her past that just might have resonance beyond the family. But how much of what she says is true? While her children try to separate fact from fiction, Anna fights for a legacy she can be proud of. With razor-sharp wit and extraordinary insight, Our Mother's Brief Affair considers the sweeping, surprising impact of indiscretions both large and small.
THE HUMANS
First Performance: Jan. 23, 2016
Opening Night: February 18, 2016
Stephen Karam's much-raved-about new play, The Humans, recently named "The Best Play of the Year" by New York Magazine, will soon arrive on Broadway, directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello at the Helen Hayes Theatre.
The ensemble cast, all of whom are featured in the current smash-hit Off-Broadway production at Roundabout Theatre Company, includes Cassie Beck (Aimee), Reed Birney (Erik), Jayne Houdyshell (Deirdre) Lauren Klein (Fiona "Momo" Blake), Arian Moayed (Richard) and Sarah Steele (Brigid).
The angst, anguish and amity of the American middle class are first coaxed - then shoved - into the light in this uproarious, hopeful, and heart-breaking play that takes place over the course of a family dinner on Thanksgiving. Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake (Birney) has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate and give thanks at his daughter's apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle pre-war duplex, and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the Blake clan's deepest fears and greatest follies are laid bare. Our modern age of anxiety is keenly observed, with humor and compassion, in this new American classic.
HUGHIE
First Performance: February 8, 2016
Opening Night: February 25, 2016
Academy Award winner, Golden Globe Award winner & BAFTA winner Forest Whitaker will be joined by Tony Award® winner Frank Wood in the Broadway revival of the Eugene O'Neill play at Broadway's Booth Theatre. Tony Award winner and Olivier Award winner Michael Grandage will direct.
1928. New York City. A hotel lobby. A small-time gambler and big-time drinker makes his way back to Room 492. With a new night clerk on duty, he is forced to confront his personal demons and discover the real end to his own story. HUGHIE is a rarely seen theatrical masterpiece about the loneliness and redemption of one man chasing the American Dream.
HUGHIE premiered on Broadway in 1964 with Jason Robards in the role of "Erie" Smith. The role of "Erie" has been played by illustrious actors such as Burgess Meredith, Ben Gazzara and Al Pacino.
BLACKBIRD
First Performance: February 5, 2016
Opening Night: March 10, 2016
David Harrower's Blackbird, the Olivier Award-winning drama, starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams, will soon arrive at Broadway's Belasco Theatre, under the direction of Joe Mantello.
BLACKBIRD tells the story of Una and Ray. Fifteen years earlier they had a relationship and haven't set eyes on each other since. Now she's found him again.
BLACKBIRD premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival before moving on to London's West End where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in a production directed by Peter Stein. The drama was subsequently produced in New York by Manhattan Theatre Club in a production starring Daniels and Allison Pill, directed by Mantello.
ECLIPSED
First Performance: February 23, 2016
Opening Night: March 6, 2016
The complete original cast from The Public Theater's acclaimed, sold-out production of the new American play Eclipsed by Danai Gurira, will officially bring the production to Broadway next spring at the Golden Theatre. Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o will be once again joined by Pascale Armand, Akosua Busia, Zainab Jah and Saycon Sengbloh. Eclipsed, directed by Liesl Tommy.
Eclipsed marks a historic moment on Broadway: the first time the cast, director, and playwright are composed entirely of female artists, fitting for a production that so stunningly chronicles the experiences of a group of very resilient women.
Eclipsed is the story of five extraordinary women brought together by upheaval in their homeland of Liberia. They forge a close-knit community... one that inspires them to feats of increasingly greater strength. Directed by South African-born Liesl Tommy (The Good Negro, Appropriate), Eclipsed is a stirring tale of hope, humor and resilience-and the only new play by a woman on Broadway this season.
THE CRUCIBLE
First Performance: February 29, 2016
Opening Night: April 7, 2016'
Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE will return to Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre next spring, featuring Ben Whishaw (as John Proctor), Sophie Okonedo (as Elizabeth Proctor), Saoirse Ronan (as Abigail Williams), and Ciarán Hinds (as Deputy-Governor Danforth), Bill Camp (as Reverend John Hale), Jim Norton (as Giles Corey), Tavi Gevinson(as Mary Warren), and Jason Butler Harner (as Reverend Samuel Parris).
The cast of 18, to be directed by Ivo van Hove, will also feature Tina Benko (as Ann Putnam/Sarah Goode), Teagle Bougere (as Judge Hawthorne), Michael Braun (as Ezekiel Cheever), Jenny Jules (as Tituba), Thomas Jay Ryan (asThomas Putnam), Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut (as Susanna Walcott), Elizabeth Teeter (as Betty Parris), Ray Anthony Thomas (as Francis Nurse), Brenda Wehle (as Rebecca Nurse), and Erin Wilhelmi (as Mercy Lewis).
Widely considered to be a central work in the canon of American drama, THE CRUCIBLE premiered on Broadway in January 1953, won that year's Tony Award for Best Play, and has subsequently become Arthur Miller's most-produced work.
THE FATHER
First Performance: March 22, 2016
Opening Night: April 12, 2016
The Father, the American premiere of the acclaimed new play by Florian Zeller, in a translation by two-time Tony winner Christopher Hampton, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes and starring three-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee Frank Langella, will open on Broadway next spring courtesy of MTC.
The Father offers a fascinating look inside the mind of Andre (Frank Langella), a retired dancer living with his adult daughter Anne and her husband. Or is he a retired engineer receiving a visit from Anne who has moved away with her boyfriend? Why do strangers keep turning up in his room? And where has he left his watch?
The Guardian's pick for Best Play of the Year, The Father is the winner of the Molière Award, France's most prestigious honor for a new work of theatre.
LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
First Performance: March 31, 2016
Opening Night: April 27, 2016
Roundabout Theatre Company's upcoming production of Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT will star Academy and Emmy Award winner Jessica Lange as "Mary Tyrone", Golden Globe winner and Tony Award nominee Gabriel Byrne as "James Tyrone," Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon as "James Tyrone, Jr." and Tony Award winner John Gallagher Jr. as "Edmund Tyrone".
Elegant in its simplicity yet limitless in its scope, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT is the tale of an ordinary summer's day with extraordinary consequences. Drawing so heavily from the author's personal history that it could only be produced posthumously, the story of the Tyrone family and their battle to unearth -- and conceal -- a lifetime of secrets continues to reveal itself to audiences as one of the most profound and powerful plays ever brought to the stage.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PARAMOUR
First Performance: April 16, 2016
Opening Night: May 25, 2016
PARAMOUR is a landmark production for Cirque du Soleil, blending the best of Broadway with Cirque du Soleil's signature style, to provide a new experience for both traditional Broadway musical theatre goers and Cirque du Soleil's fans. The show will have many of the elements beloved on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre: a timeless love story, live musicians, and professional actors in lead roles; but with the Cirque du Soleil aesthetic integrated throughout the show: visionary production design on a grand scale, world class entertainment, and acrobatic feats that defy the imagination.
Prepare to get swept off your feet by PARAMOUR, a rapturous and passionate new experience that unites the signature spectacle of Cirque du Soleil with the storytelling magic that defines Broadway. Set in the glamorous world of Golden Age Hollywood, this groundbreaking event spins the tale of a beautiful young poet forced to choose between love and art. Featuring a cast that blends the best in circus arts and musical theatre, PARAMOUR will transport you to a world of sublime beauty and emotion as it walks the exhilarating tightrope of the heart.
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