B'way Update: Here Lies Love and Hamlet

Jose Llana and Ruthie Ann Miles in
the Off-Broadway production of 
Here Lies Love.

The new year has barely begun, but there are already theatrical plans for summer 2023. Here Lies Love, the immersive disco musical based on the career of the infamous Imelda Marcos and the rise of the People Power Revolution of the Philippines, will make its Broadway debut and the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park series at the Delacorte will present yet another production of Hamlet, this time set in a post-COVID contemporary America.

Here Lies Love, featuring a sung-through score by pop icons David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, will begin previews at the Broadway Theater on June 17 and open on July 20. The theater will be reconfigured into a dance floor for the show's environmental design. The original production opened at the Public Theater in 2013 and won five Lucille Lortel Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. The show has had subsequent stagings in London and Seattle. Original director Alex Timbers (Tony winner for Moulin Rouge) returns to the production.

Said the producing team: “As a team of binational American producers––Filipinos among us––we are thrilled to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway! We welcome everyone to experience this singularly exuberant piece of theatre. The history of the Philippines is inseparable from the history of the United States, and as both evolve, we cannot think of a more appropriate time to stage this show. See you on the dance floor!”

Ato Blankson-Wood will star as Hamlet
this summer

Shakespeare in the Park will celebrate its 61st season with only one production: Hamlet, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (two revivals of A Raisin in the Sun, The Ohio State Murders, etc.) and starring Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood (Slave Play, the Public's As You Like It). Blankson-Wood also recently appeared in another classic play recast in a COVID-bound world: Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. 

“Hamlet is arguably the greatest play in the Western canon, and I am thrilled that Kenny Leon will be helming this summer's production. As he demonstrated with his brilliant production of Much Ado About Nothing, Kenny has an expert way of making Shakespeare come alive in a contemporary American context, illuminating these great works while also reimagining them for our times and our country,” said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “Hamlet will be a beautiful salute to the city as we head into a season where we will be renewing and renovating our beautiful home, The Delacorte Theater.”

"I’m so happy to be at the Delacorte once again and to share something that binds us to one another,” Leon said in a press statement. "A 500-year-old play exploring the need for a strong foundation of family, with music and words, Shakespeare's Hamlet has much to say about humanity and the importance of our connectedness to each other. We set this production in 2021, filled with all of the challenges we face as Americans as we explore our need to love more profoundly both nature and its people." Hamlet begins performances June 8 prior to an official opening on June 28 for a nine-week run through Aug. 6. 

Blankson-Wood will be the fifth Hamlet on the Delacorte stage. His predecessors are Michael Stuhlbarg (2008), Sam Waterston (1975), Stacy Keach (1972), and Alfred Ryder (1964).

2022-23 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule
February--The Trees (Playwrights Horizons)
Feb. 2--Endgame (Irish Repertory Theater)

Feb. 9--Pictures from Home (Studio 54)

Feb. 16--The Wanderers (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Feb. 23--The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (BAM)

Feb. 27--Elyria (Atlantic Theater Company)

Feb. 28--The Seagull/Woodstock NY (The New Group/Signature Theatre)

March--Regretfully So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons)
March 1--the best we could (a family tragedy) (MTC/City Center Stage I)
March 8--Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Keen Company/Theater Row)

March 9--A Doll's House (Hudson)

March 13--The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center/Mitzi Newhouse)

March 15--The Harder They Come (Public)

March 16--Parade (Bernard B. Jacobs)

March 19--Dancin' (Music Box)

March 23--Bad Cinderella (Imperial)

March 26--Sweeney Todd (Lunt-Fontanne)

March 30--Life of Pi (Schoenfeld)

April 4--Shucked (Nederlander)

April 12--Fat Ham (AA)

April 13--Camelot (Lincoln Center/Vivian Beaumont)

April 19--Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Barrymore)

April 20--The Thanksgiving Play (Second Stage/Hayes)

April 23--Prime Facie (Golden)

April 24--Good Night, Oscar (Belasco)

April 25--Summer, 1976 (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) 

April 26--New York, New York (St. James)

April 29--Fuenta Ovejuna (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)

May 4--Primary Trust (Roundabout/Laura Pels) (previews begin; opening TBA)

May 16--King James (MTC/City Center Stage I)
May--Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons)

June 22--Once Upon a One More Time (Marquis)
June 28--Hamlet (Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park) 

July 9--Orpheus Descending (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)

July 20--Here Lies Love (Broadway)

Aug. 3--Back to the Future (Marquis)

2022-23 (no dates or theaters yet)

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, Black Orpheus, Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical, Pal Joey, Square One

Winter 2022-23

Dark Disabled Stories (Public)

Spring 2023 

Good Bones (Public)

Shadow/Land (Public)

Fall 2023

Merrily We Roll Along

Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage II)

2023, 2024 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby, Frida, the Musical, High Noon, The Mousetrap

Future--The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; Harmony; I Need That; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; Lempicka; Back to the Future; Our Town; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Sing Street; Smash; Soul Train; What a Wonderful World; The Who's Tommy; Working Girl