Fall Preview: 2024 Broadway shows (2024)

The most recent Broadway collaboration between British playwright Jez Butterworth (Jerusalem) and director Sam Mendes (The Lehman Trilogy)was 2018's superbThe Ferryman. The duo now returns with another ambitious family drama; this one is set in a seaside English town in the 1970s,where sisters reunite at the deathbed of the mother who, decades earlier, drilled them into a child singing act. The eight leading actors fromthe show's premiere production in London earlier this yearreprise their roles:The Ferryman'sLaura Donnelly as well as Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond, Helena Wilson, Nancy Allsop, Sophia Ally, Lara McDonnell and Nicola Turner.

Thornton Wilder's 1938 masterpiece, a staple of high school drama programs for generations, is thornier than you might remember: It's afrighteningly profound exploration of life and death in a sleepy New England town. The play's latest Broadway revival—its first inmore than 20 years—is directed by Kenny Leon (Topdog/Underdog) and features a largeensemblethat is notably mutiracial: Black actors Billy Eugene Jones,Michelle Wilson andEphraim Sykes play members of the Gibbs family, whilewhite actors Richard Thomas, Katie Holmes and Zoey Deutchspinthe Webbs.Julie Halston and Donald Webber Jr. are also in the cast; recent Broadway mainstay Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) plays the omniscient Stage Manager.

Delia Ephron's husband died of cancer in 2015, just three years after the cancer death of her sister Nora (with whom she cowrote the smash romcomYou've Got Mail). Her 2022 bookLeft on Tenth: a Second Chance at Lifechronicles her surprise reconnection, in the wake of those deaths, with a man she had dated half a century earlier—only to find herself in a cancer struggle of her own. In Ephron's stage adaption of her own memoir, stage and screen vetsJulianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher play the late-in-life lovers, with support fromPeter Francis James and Kate MacCluggage. Susan Stroman (The Producers) directs the premiere.

Sunset Boulevardrises again with anew versionof Andrew Lloyd Webber,Don Black and Christopher Hampton's sweeping musical, adapted from Billy Wilder's classic 1950 film. Playing the delusional silent-screen star Norma Desmond this time around is Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger, who earned ecstatic reviews in this revival's original London production.In a striking departure from thelavishdesign ofthe original production, director Jamie Lloyd employsaminimalist style (akin tohis approachtoA Doll's Houselast year) that makes plentiful use of live video. The Broadway transfer will maintainScherzinger's London costars: Tom Francis as her young lover Joe, Grace Hodgett-Young as his colleague and David Thaxton as Norma's loyal majordomo. (Mandy Gonzalez plays Norma atsome performances.)

In this idiosyncratic original musical, Darren Criss(Glee) andHelen J Shen (The Lonely Few) star asobsolescent robots who make an unexpected Seoul connection. A Korean-language version of the show, also written by composerWill Aronsonand lyricistHue Park, won several awards for its 2016 premiere in South Korea;an earlier version of thisincarnation—directed by Michael Arden (Parade) and designed by his frequent collaboratorDane Laffrey—debuted in Atlantain 2020.

James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony as the Genie inAlladin, tries to make magic again asLouis Armstrong in thisnew biomusical about thesoaring jazz trumpeter and gravel-voiced entertainer. Conceived byAndrew Delaplaine anddirector Christopher Renshaw, the show features an original book by Aurin Squire (This Is Us) and, natch,many ofSatchmo's signaturesongs, such as “It Don’t Mean A Thing It Ain’t Got That Swing,” "When You're Smiling" and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby.” Darlesia Cearcy, Dionne Figgins, Kim Exum and Jennie Harney-Fleming play four of thecharismatic jazzman's brightest flames.

The disgraced 1980s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker—long beloved by gay menfor her outrageous makeup, extravagant emotionality and tolerant attitudes—is the subject of this new musical, with a book by the English political-theater specialist James Graham (Ink) and original songs by Elton John and Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears. Katie Brayben, who originated the title role inthe show's well-received London premiere(and won a 2003 Olivier Award for her troubles), reprises the part on Broadway,once again underRupert Goold's directionbutnowflankedby anew pair ofmen: Christian Borle as her husband, Jim Bakker, and Michael Cerveris as their rival and nemesis, Jerry Falwell.

Two of Broadway's funniest women, Megan Hilty (Smash) and Jennifer Simard (Once Upon a One More Time),face off as enemiesbent on eternal youthin a musical dark comedy adapted by Marco Pennette from the 1992 film (with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn). Christopher Sieber, who wrestled Simard inCompany, plays the man at the center of their rivalry; Michelle Williams, of Destiny's Child, is the Mephistopholean purveyor of the mysterious serum they seek.The original score is by Broadway newcomers Julia Mattison and Noel Carey;Christopher Gattelli (Newsies) serves as director and choreographer.

In the wake of well-received pre-Broadway runs atBerkeley Repertory and Arena Stage, this musical drama about a19th-century shipwreck makes port on the Great White Way. The book by John Logan (Moulin Rouge!), inspired by real events, incorporates songs from the catalogue ofthe folk-rock group the Avett Brothers, especially the 2004 albumMignonette.John Gallagher Jr. (Spring Awakening), Stark Sands (Kinky Boots), Adrian Blake Enscoe and Wayne Duvall play the four main sailors; Michael Mayer (Little Shop of Horrors) directs.

The entertaining 2010 Broadway musical adaptation of the Will Ferrell film comedy returns for another limited holiday engagement, its fourth encore run in New York City. Grey Henson (Shucked) donshis gay apparelto play Santa’s least helpful helper: Buddy, a human boy raised as an elf at the North Polewho finds his way toNYC in search of his birth family. The amiable score is byMatthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Prom);Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) and the late Thomas Meehan (The Producers) handled the adaptation.This latest production is directed by Philip Wm. McKinley (Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark), whose 2022 restaging has been a hit in London.

EveryBroadway diva worth her salt dreams of playing the greatest musical-theater role of them all, sometimescalled the King Lear of musicals: Mama Rose, the all-but-unstoppable stage mother of the world-renowned ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee. Now it's Tony Award hoarder Audra McDonald's turn, andshow queens are salivating to see how she will compare to such prior Roses as Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and (perhaps definitively)Patti LuPone. George C. Wolfe (Angels in America) directs the production, which marks the reopening of the Majestic Theatre for the first time since its 35-year occupation byThe Phantom of the Opera. Broadway mensch Danny Burstein plays her long-suffering manager,and Joy Woods is her neglected tomboy daughter.

Five years after its memorable Off Broadway run, Jonathan Spector's award-winning dark comedy, about a mumps outbreak at an ultraliberal elementary school, arrives on Broadway in an all-new production directed by Anna D. Shapiro for Manhattan Theatre Club.The firsthalf mines comic gold from the tugs-of-war for control among the members of the school's executive committee; in the second act, this comedy of manners yields to a serious probing of interpersonal responsibility and the limits of consideration. The formidable cast of five comprises Bill Irwin, Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray,Zoë Chao and Silicon Valley'sThomas Middleditch.

One of the country's foremost comedians,John Mulaney, leads the rotating cast in thuis collection of stories by his fellowSaturday Night Livewriting alumnus Simon Rich, based on material that Rich created forThe New Yorker. Mulaney will appear for only the firsthalfof the show's strictly limited 10-week run, joined by Fred Armisen, Richard Kind, Renée Elise Goldsberry (through December 30) and Chloe Fineman (January 2–12); casting for the second half of the run has not yet been announced. The show is directed by Mulaney's longtime collaborator Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!), who oversaw hishilariousBroadway debut in 2016'sOh, Hello.