B'way/Off-B'way Update: MTC and Public Theater Seasons

David Lindsay-Abaire
Credit: Tricia Baron

Manhattan Theater Club and The Public Theater have announced all or part of their 2025-26 New York theater season schedules.  MTC will present two plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors while the Public will deliver a plethora of world premieres. MTC will premiere The Balusters by David Lindsay-Abaire (Dinner with Friends, Rabbit Hole, Good People) at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theater in the spring of 2026. 

"Manhattan Theatre Club has been my artistic home since I was a baby-playwright, so of course I’m thrilled to be back with The Balusters, my newest play about well-intentioned people behaving really badly,” commented David Lindsay-Abaire. “The only thing more exciting than having a new show on Broadway? Having it helmed by the brilliant director Kenny Leon. After twenty-five years of plays with MTC, I’ve never looked forward to sharing a story with an audience more than I am with The Balusters." The play focuses on a small residential community which is thrown into turmoil when a newcomer suggests installing a stop sign at the corner of the neighborhood's prettiest block.

Queens by Martyna Marjok (Cost of Living) will open this fall at MTC's Off-Broadway City Center space. The drama follows a group of immigrant women occupying an illegal basement apartment in the title borough. “Queens means the world to me,” said Martyna Majok. “I first began writing it in 2016 and I’ve been searching for it ever since, in various workshops, productions, and late nights and early mornings. I worried I’d never write another original play again until I figured out this one; so haunted was I by these women, so driven to do right by them. It’s with tears that I now write that I finally feel like I’ve found their story. These characters are some of the dearest creations of my life. They’re like family. And I’m bursting with love and pride to share them with this city. I’m immensely indebted to the many generous artists and institutions that have supported and cared for this play over the years. And I’m especially grateful to MTC for encouraging me and producing this newly reimagined version of Queens. It moves me so very much that it’s finding a home in one of the theatres that first gave me one. As I read the headlines and witness this country, I hope this story can offer a place at the hearth of the impossibly complicated experience of immigrant women -- an experience that, for some, costs entire lives.”

John Leguizamo's The Other Americans
at Arena Stage.
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

The Public Theater has announced its entire roster for 2025-26. First up is a new play written by and starring Emmy and Tony winner John Leguizamo, The Other Americans previously presented at Washington DC's Arena Stage. (Sept. 11-Oct. 12, opens Sept. 25). Leguizamo stars as Nelson Castro, a Colombian-American laundry owner grappling with a failing business and family secret. When his son Nick returns home from a wellness facility after a traumatic experience, Nelson's world unravels.

Oh Happy Day! is a musical retelling of Noah's Ark from Tony-nominated writer-director pair Jordan E. Cooper and Stevie Walker-Webb (Ain't No Mo). Songs are provided by Grammy-winning gospel artist Donald Lawrence. (Oct. 2-26, opens Oct. 15).

Did You Eat? is Zoe Kim's solo autobiographical journey through Korean-American identity. (Oct. 14-Nov. 9, opens Oct. 24).

The Seats of Our Pants is a musical version of The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder's classic fanstasia through human civilization, adapted and with a score by Obie winner Ethan Lipton. (Oct. 23--Nov. 30, opens Nov. 13).

Inititative by Elsie Went follows seven teens from 2000 to 2004 as they wrestle with their potential, face loss and struggle to find their way in "Coastal Podunk, California" (Nov. 4-30; opens Nov. 20.)

Elevator Repair Service's Ulysses.

Elevator Repair Service returns to the Public following their revival of Gatz (a complete staging of The Great Gatsby), with the Mount Everest of literature, a staging of James Joyce's colossal classic of a day in Dulbin Ulysses. (Jan. 2026).

Annie Ziegler's Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) is a retake on Sophocles' classic with Tony winners Celia Keenan-Bolger and Tony Shalhoub. (Winter/Spring 2026).

Public Charge by Julissa Reynolda and Michael J. Chepiga chronicles the efforts of a US diplomat in 2009 as she works to deploy humanitarian aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, navigate the troubled immigration waters, and free a wrongly imprisoned American in Cuba. (Winter/Spring 2026).

Jesa by Jeena Yi focuses on four Korean-American sisters gathering to performed their father's Jesa--a ritual for the dead--as ghosts emerge and old wounds erupt. (Winter/Spring 2026). 

Broadway/Off-Broadway/Awards Season Calendar
Spring 2025
May 14--Bistro Awards (Gotham Comedy Club)
May 16--Drama League Awards (Ziegfeld Ballroom)
May 18--Bus Stop (CSC/NAATCO/Transport Group)
May 18--Bowl EP (Vineyard Theater/National Black Theater)
May 19--Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole (NYTW)

May 19--Chita Rivera Awards (NYU Skirball)
May 20--Goddess (Public Theater)
May 22--Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony

Summer 2025
June 1--Drama Desk Awards (NYU Skirball)
June 2--Theater World Awards (Hard Rock Cafe)
June 2--Eurydice (Signature Theater)

June 3--Lunar Eclipse (Second Stage/Signature Center) 
June 8--Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall)
June 11--Angry Alan (Studio Seaview)
June 12--Call Me Izzy (Studio 54)
June 16--Prince Faggot (Playwrights Horizons)
June 25--Trophy Boys (MCC Theater)
June 25--Low Country (Atlantic Theater Co./Linda Gross)
July 20--Joy (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Aug. 7--Ava: The Secret Conversations (City Center Stage I)
Aug. 14--Mamma Mia (Winter Garden)
Aug. 21--Twelfth Night (Public Theater/Delacorte)
Masquerade (Phantom of the Opera)--Lee's Art Shop

Fall 2025

Sept. 25--The Other Americans (Public)

Sept. 28--Waiting for Godot (Hudson)

Oct. 15--Oh Happy Day (Public)

Oct. 16--Ragtime (Vivian Beaumont/LCT)

Oct. 24--Did You Eat? (Public)

Nov. 10--Queen of Versailles (St. James)

Nov. 13--The Seat of Our Pants (Public)

Nov. 20--Initiative (Public)

Archduke (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Cottonfield

Little Bear Ridge Road

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Oedipus (Roundabout/Studio 54)

Oratorio of Living Things (Signature Theater Company)

Punch (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

Queens (MTC/City Center)

Saturday Church (NYTW)

Sugar Daddy

The Seat of Our Pants (Public)

Take a Banana for the Ride

Winter 2025-26

Jan. 2026--Ulysses (Elevator Repair Service/Public)

Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) (Public)

Chinese Republicans (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Jesa (Public)

Monsters (MTC/City Center)

Public Charge (Public)

Tartuffe (NYTW)

Mother Russia (Signature Theater Company)

What We Did Before Our Moth Days

2026

Dolly: An Original Musical

Wanted (formerly Gun and Powder)

Spring 2026

Animal Wisdom (Signature Theater Company)

The Balusters (MTC/Friedman)

Fallen Angels (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

The Lost Boys (Palace)

Montauk

My Joy Is Heavy (NYTW)

The Rocky Horror Show (Roundabout/Studio 54)

2026-27

Death of a Salesman

Private Lives

Future--10 Things I Hate About You; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; Coal Miner's Daughter; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Eurovision Song Contest; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Fahrenheit 451; Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Musical; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; Get Happy; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Pal Joey; Particle Fever; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Slumdog Millionaire; Soul Train; Studio 54; Waking Ned Devine; Working Girl.

2025-26 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

The Balusters

Call Me Izzy

Cottonfield

Little Bear Ridge Road

Montauk

Oedipus

Punch

New Musicals

Dolly: An Original Musical

The Lost Boys

Queen of Versailles

Play Revivals

Fallen Angels

Waiting for Godot

Musical Revivals

Mamma Mia!

Ragtime

The Rocky Horror Show