B'way Update: Hadestown Opens Early, Girl, Blues, Thoughts Announce Dates

Amber Gray, Patrick Page, and 
Reeve Carney in Hadestown
which will begin performances on Sept. 2.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Since my last Broadway update, several more shows have announced firm opening dates and one has leapt ahead of all the others. Hadestown, the 2019 Tony Best Musical, will reopen its gates at the Walter Theater on Sept. 2, nearly two weeks before the big-ticket, box-office blockbusters Hamilton, Lion King Wicked, and Chicago do on Sept. 14. It seems an odd choice since the earlier date falls before Labor Day and the Jewish holidays, a traditionally slow time for theater going. The Hadestown producers may be counting on the pent-up demand for theater since we will have been starved for it for a year and a half. Perhaps more shows will follow and announce early openings, hoping to beat the Hamilton-Lion King-Wicked bandwagon. Of the opened shows which shuttered because of the COVID pandemic, we still have to hear from The Book of Mormon, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, To Kill a Mockingbird and West Side Story about their opening dates. Unopened 2020 productions which were planning to open and now have no firm dates include American Buffalo, Plaza Suite, The Lehman Trilogy and Sing Street.

Mare Winningham and Jay O. Sanders 
in Girl from the North Country.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The Girl from the North Country, Connor McPherson's musical employing the Bob Dylan songbook, has also announced its new dates, with performances commencing Oct. 13 at the Belasco, with only one cast change from the 2020 incarnation. Colin Bates will replace Colton Ryan as Gene Laine. Girl opened on March 5, 2020 and had to close--along with every other Broadway show in town--less than a week later on March 11. The show was considered ineligible for the long-delayed Tony Awards because not enough voters would have seen it, so they will probably be invited back.

The first new production of the 2021-22 Broadway season will also begin previews on Sept. 14. Lackawanna Blues, Reuben Santiago-Hudson's autobiographical solo show, begins performances at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater as part of Manhattan Theater Club's subscription season in anticipation of a Sept. 28 opening. MTC has also announced their Off-Broadway opening of Simon Stephen's Morning Sun starring Blair Brown, Edie Falco, and Marin Ireland. (opening Nov. 3 at City Center with previews starting Oct. 12). Skeleton Crew, Dominique Morrisseau's play set in a failing Detroit auto plant, and How I Learned to Drive, the revival of Paula Vogel's disturbing memory play with original stars Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, will play the Friedman in the winter and spring repsectively.

Thoughts of a Colored Man, Keenan Scott II's play on a day in the life of seven African-American men in Brooklyn, will be the first totally new play to open on Broadway this season (Lackawanna is a revival of an Off-Broadway production) with an Oct. 31 opening. Previews begin Oct. 1.

There are still no specific details on whether proof of vaccination will be required for theatergoers, but it seems masks will be mandatory. All theaters will be operating at 100 percent capacity.

Here is a calendar of openings and previews on and Off-Broadway:

2021-22 Broadway/Off-Broadway Season Calendar (so far)

July 3--Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park/Delacorte)

Fall 2021 (dates unspecified)

Clyde's (Second Stage/Helen Hayes)

Pass Over (August Wilson)

Sept. 2--Hadestown (Walter Kerr)

Sept. 14--Chicago (Ambassador); Hamilton (Richard Rodgers); The Lion King (Minskoff); Wicked (Gershwin); Lackawanna Blues begins previews (MTC/Samuel Friedman)

Sept. 17--Six begins previews (Brooks Atkinson)

Sept. 17--David Byrne's American Utopia (Theater TBA)

Sept. 21--Little Shop of Horrors (Westside)

Sept. 22--Come from Away (Gerald Schoenfeld)

Sept. 24--Moulin Rouge (Al Hirschfeld)

Sept. 28--Lackawanna Blues opens (MTC/Samuel Friedman)

Sept. 28--Aladdin (New Amsterdam)

Oct. 1--Diana premieres on Netflix

Oct. 1--Thoughts of a Colored Man begins previews (Golden)

Oct. 3--Six opens (Brooks Atkinson)

Dec. 6--MJ begins previews (Neil Simon)

Oct. 8--Caroline or Change begins previews (Roundabout/Studio 54)

Oct. 8--Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Lunt-Fontanne)

Oct. 12--Morning Sun begins previews (MTC/City Center)

Oct. 13--Girl from the North Country (Belasco)

Oct. 16--Ain't Too Proud (Imperial)

Oct. 21--Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst)

Oct. 21--Mrs. Doubtfire begins previews (Stephen Sondheim)

Oct. 22--Phantom of the Opera (Majestic)

Oct. 27--Caroline or Change opens (Roundabout/Studio 54)

Oct. 29--Trouble in Mind begins previews (Roundabout/AA)

Oct. 31--Thoughts of a Colored Man (Golden)

Nov. 2--Diana begins previews (Longacre)

Nov. 3--Morning Sun opens (MTC/City Center)

Nov. 4--Flying Over Sunset begins previews (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

Nov. 15--Jersey Boys (New World Stages)

Nov. 17--Diana opens (Longacre)

Nov. 18--Trouble in Mind opens (Roundabout/AA)

Dec. 5--Mrs. Doubtfire opens (Stephen Sondheim)

Dec. 6--Flying Over Sunset opens (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

Dec. 11--Dear Evan Hansen (Music Box)

Dec. 20--Company begins previews (Bernard B. Jacobs)

Dec. 20--The Music Man starts previews (Winter Garden)

Jan. 9, 2022--Company opens (Bernard B. Jacobs)

Jan. 13--Intimate Apparel starts previews (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Jan. 27--Intimate Apparel opens (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Feb. 1--MJ opens (Neil Simon)

Feb. 10--The Music Man opens (Winter Garden)

March 15--The Minutes (Theater TBA)

March 18--Birthday Candles begins previews (Roundabout/AA)

April 10--Birthday Candles opens (Roundabout/AA)

Winter 2021-22

Skeleton Crew (Friedman/MTC)

Prayer for the French Republic (MTC/City Center)

Spring 2022 (dates TBA)

How I Learned to Drive (Friedman/MTC)

Take Me Out (Second Stage/Hayes)

Romeo and Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn

Golden Shield (MTC/City Center I)

Previously announced 2020 shows with no dates

American Buffalo (Circle in the Square)

The Lehman Trilogy

Plaza Suite (Hudson)

Sing Street

Fall 2022

1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

2022

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Piano Lesson

2023 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby

Future--Our Town; Death of a Salesman; Funny Girl; K-pop the Broadway Musical; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Smash; Some Like It Hot; Soul Train; The Who's Tommy