B'way Update: Washington and Gyllenhaal to Star in Othello

Denzel Washington

Get ready for the highest-profile star casting in several years, if not decades. Oscar and Tony winner Denzel Washington (Training Day, Fences) and Tony and Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sea Wall/A Life, Brokeback Mountain) will co-star in a revival of Shakespeare's Othello, set to open in Spring 2025. To add to the marquee value, the play will be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun) who will also be staging a new production of Our Town during the same 2024-25 season. Leon directed Washington in The Iceman Cometh, Raisin, and Fences. Further casting is to be announced.

This will be the 22nd production of Othello on Broadway. The most recent was in 1982 with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. The most famous was probably in 1943 with Paul Robeson, Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Recent Off-Broadway productions have starred Raul Julia and Christopher Walken, David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig, John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier have played the jealousy-ridden Moor on screen.

Jake Gyllenhaal

2023-24 Broadway/Off-Broadway/Awards Calendar (and Beyond)
Spring 2024
March 2--Illinoise (Park Ave. Armory)
March 7--Doubt: A Parable (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)
March 7--Tuesdays with Morrie (Sea Dog Theater)
March 10--Dead Outlaw (Audible/Minetta Lane)
March 11--Corruption (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
March 12--Teeth (Playwrights Horizons)
March 13--The Effect (The Shed/Griffin Theater)
March 14--The Notebook (Schoenfeld)
March 14--Ibsen's Ghost (Primary Stages/59E59)
March 18--An Enemy of the People (Circle in the Square)
March 21--Water for Elephants (Imperial)
March 24--Philadelphia, Here I Come (IRT)
March 28--The Who's Tommy (Nederlander)
April 1--Brynolf & Ljung in Stalker (New World Stages)
April 1--Bistro Awards (Gotham Comedy Club)
April 2--Orlando (previews begin; opening TBA) (Signature Theatre)
April 2--Fish (Keen Co./Working Theater/Theater Four) 
April 4--Lortel Award nominees announced
April 5--Macbeth (an undoing) (TFANA/Polonsky Center)
April 11--The Outsiders (Jacobs)
April 11--Jordans (Public) (previews begin; opening TBA)
April 12--Staff Meal (previews begin; opening TBA) (Playwrights Horizons)
April 14--Lempicka (Longacre)
April 15--MAC Awards (Peter Norton Symphony Space)
April 16--Sally & Tom (Public Theater)
April 17--The Wiz (Marquis)
April 18--Suffs (Music Box)
April 19--Stereophonic (Golden)
April 20--Hell's Kitchen (Shubert)
April 20/21--Cabaret (August Wilson)
April 22--The Heart of Rock and Roll (James Earl Jones)
April 22--Patriots (Barrymore)
April 22--Outer Critics Circle nominations announced
April 22--Drama League nominations announced (NY Library for the Performing Arts)
April 23--Mary Jane (MTC/Friedman) 
April 24--Uncle Vanya (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)
April 25--Mother Play (Second Stage/Hayes)
April 25--The Great Gatsby (Broadway)
April 26--Chita Rivera Award nominations announced
April 29--Drama Desk Award nominations announced
April 30--Tony Nominations Announced
April 30--Three Houses (previews begin; opening TBA) (Signature Theatre)
May 2--Wine in the Wilderness (previews begin; opening TBA) (CSC)
May 5--Lortel Awards (NYU Skirball)
May 13--Here There Are Blueberries (NYTW)
May 13--Outer Critics Circle winners announced
May 17--Drama League Awards (Ziegfeld Ballroom)
May 20--Chita Rivera Awards Ceremony (NYU Skirball)
May 23--Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony 

Summer 2024

June 5--Home (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

June 10--Drama Desk Awards

June 10--Theater World Awards

June 12--The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Company)

June 12--Titanic (Encores/City Center)

June 16--Tony Awards (David Koch Theater/Lincoln Center)

June 20--Cats (Perelman Performing Arts Center)

TBA--All of Me (The New Group/Signature Center)

Aug. 15--Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (Hayes)

2024

Sunset Boulevard

Fall 2024

Nov. 11--What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical (Studio 54)

The Counter (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

King Lear (Kenneth Branagh Theater Company/The Shed)

Yellowface (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Winter 2024-25

English (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Liberation (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

2024-25

My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?)

Our Town

Smash

Tammy Faye

Spring 2025

Othello

The Pirates of Penzance (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Show Boat (Target Margin/NYU Skirball)

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Black Orpheus; BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Death Becomes Her; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; Pal Joey; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; The Queen of Versailles; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Soul Train; Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Working Girl.

2023-24 Broadway Season Breakdown:
New Plays:
The Cottage
Grey House
I Need That
Jaja's African Hair Braiding
Mother Play

Patriots
Prayer for the French Republic
The Shark Is Broken

Stereophonic

New Musicals:

Back to the Future

Days of Wine and Roses

The Great Gatsby

Harmony

The Heart of Rock and Roll

Hell's Kitchen

How to Dance in Ohio

Lempicka

The Notebook

Once Upon a One More Time

The Outsiders

Suffs

Water for Elephants

Play Revivals:

Appropriate

Doubt: A Parable

An Enemy of the People

Mary Jane

Purlie Victorious

Uncle Vanya

Musical Revivals:

Cabaret

Gutenberg! The Musical

Here Lies Love

Merrily We Roll Along

Monty Python's Spamalot

The Who's Tommy

The Wiz

Solos/Specialties:

Alex Edelman: Just for Us

Melissa Etheridge: My Window