B'way Update: Mormon, Mockingbird, Love Supreme Return

Jeff Daniels and Celia Keenan-Bolger
in To Kill a Mockingbird
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

The new Broadway calendar is almost complete. Two more shows shuttered during the pandemic have announced their reopenings and another will have a return engagement. This means nearly every 2020 production has definite dates for a comeback. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Book of Mormon, two shows formerly under the aegis of producer Scott Rudin, have posted their return dates. Rudin has withdrawn from producing due to reports of workplace harassment and toxicity. Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the highest-grossing straight play in Broadway history, will resume performances at the Shubert Theater on Oct. 5. Jeff Daniels will return to the role of Atticus Finch and Celia Keenan-Bolger takes up the part of his young daughter Scout through Jan. 2, 2022. 

The Book of Mormon 
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

The Book of Mormon, winner of nine 2011 Tony Awards, will continue its raucous hijinks at the Eugene O'Neill Theater on Nov. 5. The satiric show about Mormon missionaries in an impoverished African village, will also continue performances in London on Nov. 15. It's been reported that the authors Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez will attend rehearsals in response to cast members expressing concerns over the depiction of the Ugandan villagers in the show. Whether this means there will be any script changes remains to be seen. 

This means only two Broadway shows running at the time of the shutdown--West Side Story (another Rudin production) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child--have yet to announced their reopening.

Freestyle Love Supreme
Credit: Joan Marcus

Meanwhile, Freestyle Love Supreme, the improvised hip-hop comedy show co-created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, will set up shop at the Booth Theater on Oct. 7 for a limited run through Jan. 2. After an Off-Broadway run, Freestyle played the Booth from Oct. 2, 2019 to Jan. 12, 2020.   

Off-Broadway, two long-running off-beat attractions have posted their new dates. Blue Man Group, the long-running performance art piece, will continue creating artistic mayhem at the Astor Place Theatre on Sept. 3. The Gazillion Bubble Show will fill New World Stages with dazzling bubbles on Oct. 9. 

Here's a calendar of new and returning productions with openings on and Off-Broadway:

June 26--Springsteen on Broadway (St. James)

July 27--Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park/Delacorte)

Sept. 2--Hadestown (Walter Kerr)

Sept. 3--Blue Man Group (Astor Place)

Sept. 14--Chicago (Ambassador); Hamilton (Richard Rodgers); The Lion King (Minskoff); Wicked (Gershwin)

Sept. 12--Pass Over (August Wilson)

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. 26--Tony Awards (CBS/Paramount +)

Sept. 28--Lackawanna Blues (MTC/Samuel Friedman); Aladdin (New Amsterdam)

Oct. 1--Diana premieres on Netflix

Oct. 3--Six (Brooks Atkinson)

Oct. 5--To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert)

Oct. 7--Freestyle Love Supreme (Booth)

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

Oct. 9--Gazillion Bubbles Show (New World Stages)

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

Oct. 14--The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlaner)

Oct. 16--Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial)

Oct. 21--Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst)

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

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

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

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

Nov. 5--The Book of Mormon (Eugene O'Neill)

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

Nov. 17--Diana  (Longacre)

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

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

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

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

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

Jan. 12--Skeleton Crew (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

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

Feb. 1--MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical (Neil Simon)

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

March 15--The Minutes (Theater TBA)

March 20--Paradise Square (Barrymore)

April 10--Birthday Candles (Roundabout/AA)

April 19--How I Learned to Drive (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

May 17--Golden Shield (MTC/City Center)

Spring 2022 (dates TBA)

Take Me Out (Second Stage/Hayes)

Romeo and Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn

No Dates Yet

(New Shows)

Clyde's (Second Stage/Helen Hayes)

American Buffalo (Circle in the Square)

Plaza Suite (Hudson)

Sing Street

(Old Shows)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

West Side Story

Fall 2022

1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

2022

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

2022-23

Dancin'

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