B'way/Off-B'way Update: Star Casting with Paulson, Plaza, Shannon, etc.

Sarah Paulson

Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe winner Sarah Paulson (American Crime Story) will return to the New York stage in the Broadway premiere of Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate, with previews beginning Nov. 28 in advance of a Dec. 18 opening at the Hayes Theater in a Second Stage production. She last appeared Off-Broadway in Roundabout Theatre Company's 2013 revival of Talley's Folly, and previously on Broadway in Collected Stories, The Glass Menagerie and The Sisters Rosensweig. Appropriate, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2014 at Signature Theater, centers on a white family making a horrifying discovery while closing the estate of their late father. Paulson is also slated to star in a film version of Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park.

Aubrey Plaza in
The White Lotus
Credit: HBO

Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreations, The White Lotus) will be making her stage debut (apart from a one-night cameo as herself in the Broadway comedy Oh Hello!) in a revival of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea opposite Christopher Abbott (House of Blue Leaves). The 1984 two-character play about two lonely singles with issues who meet in a dive bar will begin previews on Oct. 30 before a Nov. 13 at the Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theater. 

Oscar and Tony nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Long Day's Journey Into Night) and Drama Desk nominee Paul Sparks (At Home at the Zoo) will star in a revival of Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot from Theater for a New

Michael Shannon

Audience, running Nov. 4-Dec. 3 at Brooklyn's Polonsky Shakespeare Center with an opening date to be announced. The rest of TFANA's season consists of Annie Dorsen's Prometheus Firebringer; Shayok Misha Chowdhury's Public Obscenities (previously seen at Soho Rep where it won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble); and Zinnie Harris' Macbeth (an Undoing). (See the calendar below for specific dates.)

The Rumor Mill: Now that New York, New York is closing at the St. James Theater on July 30, speculation as to the theater's next occupant is rampant. Leading candidates are the Encores' critically praised staging of Light in the Piazza with Ruthie Ann Miles and the Kennedy Center's revival of Monty Python's Spamalot. Ironically, the original productions of both these shows played Broadway during the 2004-05 season and competed against each other at the Tonys with Spamalot winning three awards including Best Musical and Light six.

2023-24 Broadway/Off-Broadway Calendar
Summer 2023
Aug. 3--Back to the Future (Marquis)
Aug. 10--The Shark Is Broken (Golden)
Aug. 20--El Mago Pop (Barrymore)
Aug. 27--The Tempest (Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park)

Fall 2023

Sept. 15--Prometheus Firebringer (begins previews; opening TBA) (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)

Sept. 19--Merrily We Roll Along (begins previews; opening TBA) (Hudson)

Sept. 27--Purlie Victorious (Music Box)

Sept. 28--Melissa Etheridge: My Window (Circle in the Square)

Oct. 3--Jaja's African Hair Braiding (MTC/Friedman)

Oct 4--The Refuge Plays (Roundabout/NYTW/Laura Pels)

Oct. 4--DruidO'Casey (Public/NYU Skirball Center)

Oct. 12--Gutenberg! The Musical (James Earl Jones)

Oct. 22--Here We Are (The Shed Griffin Theater)

Oct. 29--Translations (Irish Repertory Theater)

Oct. 30--I Can Get It for You Wholesale (CSC)

Nov. 1--Poor Yella Rednecks (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Nov. 2--I Need That (Roundabout/AA)

Nov. 2--Sabbath's Theater (New Group/Signature Theater)

Nov. 4--Waiting for Godot (begins previews; opening TBA) (TFANA/Polonsky Center)

Nov. 13--Harmony (Barrymore)

Nov. 13--Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Lortel)

Nov. 19--Hell's Kitchen (Public)

Nov. 20--The Gardens of Anuncia (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Nov.--Spain (Second Stage/Terry Kiser)

Winter 2023-24

Dec. 5--Manhatta (Public)

Dec. 10--How To Dance in Ohio (Belasco)

Dec. 18--Appropriate (Second Stage/Hayes)

Jan. 9--Prayer for the French Republic (MTC/Friedman)

Jan. 17--Public Obscenities (previews begin; opening TBA) (TFANA/Polonsky Center)

Jan. 21--Aristocrats (IRT)

Feb. 26--Pericles (previews begin; opening TBA) (CSC)

Feb.--Doubt: A Parable (Roundabout/AA)

Feb.--The Ally (Public)

TBA--Brooklyn Laundry (MTC/City Center Stage I)

TBA--An Enemy of the People

TBA--I Love You So Much I Could Die (NYTW)

Spring 2024

March 24--Philadelphia, Here I Come (IRT)

March--Sally and Tom (Public)

April 5--Macbeth (an undoing) (previews begin; opening TBA) (TFANA/Polonsky Center)

April--Jordans (Public)

May 2--Wine in the Wilderness (previews begin; opening TBA) (CSC)

June--Cats (Perelman Performing Arts Center)

TBA--Cabaret (August Wilson)

TBA--Here There Are Blueberries (NYTW)

TBA--Home (Roundabout/AA)

TBA--Jonah (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

TBA--Paula Vogel Play (Second Stage/Hayes)

TBA--The Wiz

Fall 2024

King Lear (Kenneth Branagh Theater Company/The Shed)

2024-25

Smash

Spring 2025

Show Boat (Target Margin/NYU Skirball)

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Black Orpheus; BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; The Great Gatsby; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; Lempicka; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; Our Town; Pal Joey; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Soul Train; Water for Elephants; What a Wonderful World; The Who's Tommy; Working Girl.