B'way Update: Second Stage Season

Leslye Headland

Second Stage has announced its fall and winter openings for the 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. Cult of Love by Emmy nominee Leslye Headland will premiere at Second Stage's Broadway Theatre the Hayes with previews commencing on Nov. 20 and opening Dec. 12. Off-Broadway, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse will play the Kiser Theater starting previews Oct. 9 and an opening set for Oct. 30.

“I’m excited and proud to be working with these incredible artists next season,” said Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak.  “I have had the opportunity to collaborate with several of them at Second Stage and I look forward to joining forces once again. We will welcome audiences back for Season 46, where they can expect another year of innovative artists and bold plays by living American writers.” 

Cult of Love focuses on the Dahl Family and their calamitous holiday season. The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. 

Leslye Heartland returns to Second Stage which produced her play, Bachelorette, in its Uptown Series, and her play, The Layover, off-Broadway at the Kiser Theater. She recently completed “Star Wars: The Acolyte” for the Disney+ streaming platform. She served as writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner. Headland served as writer, producing director and showrunner for Netflix’s acclaimed series “Russian Doll.” The series was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Drama League nominee Trip Cullman (I Can Get It For You Wholesale) directs.

Donald Marguiles

Lunar Eclipse takes place late on a summer night, in a field on their Kentucky farm, when a long-married couple, George (Tony winner Reed Birney) and Em (Drama Desk nominee Lisa Emery), have come to watch a lunar eclipse. As the seven stages of the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, and children and dogs.  But as more and more is revealed, they realize they are as much a mystery to each other as the heavens above. 

Marguiles won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends and was a finalist twice for Sight Unseen and Collected Stories. His many plays include Long Lost, The Country House, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Brooklyn Boy, The Loman Family Picnic, What’s Wrong With This Picture?, Found a Peanut, Coney Island Christmas, God of Vengeance, the Tony Award-nominated Time Stands Still, and the Obie Award-winning The Model Apartment. 

Drama League Award winner Kate Whoriskey (Clyde's, Sweat) directs.

2024-25 Broadway/Off-Broadway/Awards Calendar 
Summer 2024
June 27--N/A (Mitzi Newhouse)
June 29--From Here (Signature Center)

July 11--Oh, Mary! (Lyceum)

July 14--Ain't Done Bad (Signature Center)

July 29--Six Characters (LCT3/Clara Tow)
July 30--Job (Hayes)
Aug. 12--Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson)

Fall 2024

Sept. 12--The Roommate (Booth)

Sept. 12--Counting and Cracking (Public Theater/NYU Skirball)

Sept. 12--Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (Theater555)

Sept. 24--Vladimir (MTC/City Center Stage I) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 29--The Hills of California (Broadhurst)

Sept. 30--MCNEAL (Vivian Beaumont/LCT)

Oct. 1--Yellowface (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Oct. 1--Good Bones (Public)

Oct. 9--The Counter (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Oct. 10--Our Town (Barrymore)

Oct. 10--Deep History (Public)

Oct. 17--Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco)

Oct. 20--Sunset Boulevard (St. James)

Oct. 24--Romeo and Juliet (Circle in the Square)

Oct. 30--Lunar Eclipse (Second Stage/Kiser)

Nov. 8--Gatz (Elevator Repair Service/Public)

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

Nov. 14--Tammy Faye (Palace)

Nov. 14--King Lear (Kenneth Branagh Theater Company/The Shed)

Nov. 19--Swept Away (Longacre)

Nov. 21--Death Becomes Her (Lunt-Fontanne)

Nov. 21--The Blood Quilt (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Bad Kreyol (MTC/Signature Theatre)

Left on Tenth

We Live in Cairo (NYTW)

Winter 2024-25

Dec. 12--Cult of Love (Second Stage/Hayes)

Dec. 16--Eureka Day (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) 

Dec. 19--Gypsy (Majestic)

Jan. 23--English (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Feb. 20--Liberation (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

The Antiquities (Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard Theater)

Dakar 2000 (MTC/City Center Stage I)

A Knock on the Roof (NYTW)

Sumo (Ma-Yi Theater/Public)

2024-25

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

Romeo and Juliet w.Tom Holland/Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (?)

Smash

Wine in the Wilderness (CSC)

Spring 2025

March 10--Ghosts (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

March 25--Old Friends (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman) (previews begins opening TBA)

April 21--Floyd Collins (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

April 24--The Pirates of Penzance (Roundabout/Todd Haimes Theater)

Bowl EP (Vineyard Theater/National Black Theater)

Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. (Public)

Good Night and Good Luck

The Last Five Years

Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole (NYTW)

Othello

The Picture of Dorian Gray (???)

Show Boat (Target Margin/NYU Skirball)

2025

Redwood

We Had a World (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Summer 2025

Twelfth Night (Public Theater/Delacorte)

Fall 2025

Initiative (Public)

2026

Hello, I'm Dolly

Future--Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; 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.

2024-25 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

Cult of Love

Good Night and Good Luck

The Hills of California

Job 

Left on Tenth

MCNEAL

Oh, Mary!

The Roommate

New Musicals

Death Becomes Her

Maybe Happy Ending

Old Friends

Smash

Swept Away

Tammy Faye

What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

Play Revivals

English

Eureka Day

Home

Othello

Our Town

Romeo and Juliet

Yellowface

Musical Revivals

Floyd Collins

Gypsy

The Last Five Years

Once Upon a Mattress

The Pirates of Penzance

Sunset Boulevard