B'way Update: Second Stage Season

The 2026-27 theater season continues to take shape. Second Stage has announced its schedule for both its Broadway (at the Hayes Theater) and Off-Broadway (at the Signature Center) platforms. The company's Broadway shows will include a two productions of shows seen previously seen Off-Broadway: a revised version of the long-running favorite The Fantasticks and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer Prize finalist Gloria. So far there are only four new plays planned for the upcoming Broadway season with eight play revivals. This is a growing trend of Broadway companies reviving relatively recent Off-Broadway shows and marketing them as Broadway debuts (which they are). Examples include Lobby Hero, Mary Jane, Eureka Day, Becky Shaw, and Marjorie Prime. 

Neil McCaffrey and Jeremiah Porter
in the revised version of The Fantasticks
at Flint Repertory Theater
Credit: Mike Naddeo

The new edition of Fantasticks will feature young lovers Matt and Louis rather than Matt and Luisa. Their scheming fathers will be replaced by two scheming mothers. The late Tom Jones revised his own book and lyrics (to Harvey Schmidt's music) before he passed away in 2023. Christopher Gattelli (Schmigadoon) directs and choregraphs. The adaptation was presented in 2022 at Flint Repertory Theatre in Flint, MI, and was developed in subsequent productions at the Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, MA, and Coachella Valley Repertory in Cathedral City, CA. Previews begin at the Hayes on Oct. 22 prior to a Nov. 16 opening. The Fantasticks holds the record for the world's longest-running musical at 42 years and is a favorite of community and high-school productions. (I appeared as The Old Actor in a Brooklyn church production directed by Jeffrey Seller, who later produced Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton.) 

Purpose Wins Pulitzer

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill,
Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas 
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' drama about a prominent African-American family, has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The runners-up were Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola and The Ally by Itamar Moses. The Pulitzer jury for drama consisted of playwright David Henry Hwang, chairman, Tanya Barfield, Rebecca Gilman, Helen Shaw, and Jose Luis Valenzuela. 

Sara Horden, theater critic for New York Magazine, was a runner-up for the Pulitzer for Criticism. James by Percival Everett, a reinterpretation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, won for Fiction. Several of Donald Trump's favorite publications including the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal also won (sarcastic).

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Purpose, Last Call, Love Life

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill,
Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas 
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The family drama is making a dynamic comeback this theater season. Cult of Love, The Blood Quilt, We Had a World, and now Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose have taken the template of a family gathering where secrets are revealed and battle lines drawn to new heights. The production, directed with a sure hand by Phylicia Rashad, is now at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater after a successful run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. A powerful cast ignites the playwright’s intergenerational conflict within a prominent African-American family. 

Even though some of the plot devices are familiar, Jacobs-Jenkins breathes new life into them. One character spends a lot of time offering exposition in lengthly monologues to the audience, and, just as in Cult of Love, Second Stage’s earlier offering this season, a convenient heavy snowstorm keeps the combative characters from leaving the fray. Last season, Second Stage revived his Appropriate in which a white family must confront its history of racism. Here he shows the opposite side of the coin. The setting is the impressive Chicago home of the Jaspers (Todd Rosenthal designed the attractive set complete with many paintings and mementoes telling us important details about the residents.) Father Solomon or “Sonny” and mother Claudine were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and are still important members of the community and nationally famous. Sons Nazareth or “Naz,” a reclusive nature photographer, and Solomon Junior, a disgraced politician just out of jail for white-collar crime, are visiting. (Naz is the loquacious narrator, explaining the background for us.) Also in the house are Junior’s bitter wife Morgan, about to enter prison for charges related to her husband’s, and Aziza, a friend of Naz’s who is dazzled by his parents’ glorious reputations. 

Jon Michael Hill, Alana Arenas, Kara Young
and Glenn Davis in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

How these six come into conflict is the stuff of Jacobs-Jenkins’ drama. Both Naz and Junior have disappointed their demanding father. Junior and Morgan’s marriage is falling apart and that of Solomon and Claudine is showing cracks. Solomon’s past sexual indiscretions are beginning to resurface. The true nature of Naz and Aziza’s relationship is gradually brought to light, causing shock waves. The climate crisis, the racist prison system, the roadblocks and speed bumps against social justice erected by the Trump administration (though that name is never mentioned) all come in for full debate. And, of course, hidden agendas and secrets are revealed in an explosive dinner scene, staged with perfect building tension by Rahsad. Through the Jaspers’ struggles, Jacobs-Jenkins takes the temperature of the current African-American experience. He also leavens the proceedings by giving Solomon the unusual hobby of beekeeping which provides an important plot twist. Using humor and pathos Jacobs-Jenkins delineates the frustrations and ambiguities of the aftermath of the Civil Rights struggles and the current search for purpose.  

B'way Update: Glengarry and Purpose Set Dates, Theaters, Etc.

Kieran Culkin

Two Broadway productions have set dates, theaters and casting to nail down the spring 2025 season. The star-studded revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross will begin previews at the Palace Theater on March 10 with an opening set for March 31. The play about ruthless Chicago real-estate salesmen will star Kieran Culkin (currently the Best Supporting Actor Oscar front-runner for A Real Pain), Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, Michael McKean, Donald Webber Jr., Howard W. Overshown and, in his Broadway debut, John Pirruccello. Tony winner Patrick Marber (Leopoldstadt) directs. The Palace is an unusual choice since its large size normally calls for large-scale musicals rather than intimate straight plays. The only straight plays to play the theater have been Frankenstein (1981) which closed after one performance, and Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1977) with Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Ashley, which ran 12 performances. Musicals such as Sweet Charity, Applause, La Cage Aux Folles, and Woman of the Year had longer runs.

Tony winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious) will star in

Kara Young

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose set to begin previews at the Hayes Theater Feb. 25 with an opening set for March 17. Tony winner Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun, Skeleton Crew) will make her Broadway directing debut, reprising her staging work with the play's world premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater of Chicago. LaTanya Richardson Jackson will also join the cast. Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas will repeat their Steppenwolf roles. The play centers on a prominent African-American family with each member hiding secrets. 

This accounts for all previously announced Broadway productions, but with the closing of Swept Away, the Longacre is available and a show might snap that one up before spring.

B'way Upate: Purpose; Gilded Age Cast

The cast of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins'
Purpose in Chicago.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony-and-Obie-winning author of Appropriate, returns to Broadway with the Steppenwolf Theater Company production of his new play Purpose. Previews begin at the Hayes Theater on Feb. 22 prior to an opening in mid-March. Tony winner Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun, Skeleton Crew) directs. The cast will be announced at a later date.

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home to Illinois with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black radicalism. Spirited, hilarious and filled with intrigue, Purpose is an epic family drama from one of the country’s most celebrated voices.

(Top row) Bill Camp, Merritt Wever,
Leslie Uggams, Lisagay Hamilton, 
(Bottom row) Paul Alexander Nolan,
Hattie Morahan, Andrea Martin and
Jessica Frances Dukes join
Season 3 of The Gilded Age.
Credit: HBO

Gilded Age 3rd Season Cast: Speaking of Phylicia Rashad, she will joined in the third season of HBO's The Gilded Age with a slew of additional New York theater actors. Emmy, SAG, and Tony nominee Bill Camp (Lincoln, The Night Of, Presumed Innocent), Emmy winner Merritt Wever (Unbelievable, Godless, Nurse Jackie), Tony winner Leslie Uggams (Roots, Deadpool), LisaGay Hamilton (The Dropout, Winning Time, The Practice), Paul Alexander Nolan (Water for Elephants, Bright Star), Hattie Morahan (Operation Mincemeat, Fool Me Once), Tony winner Andrea Martin (My Favorite Year, Pippin, Evil, My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark, Earth Abides) have all been cast in the third season of the HBO period drama.

They join new Season 3 cast members Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victoria Clarke and Jordan Danica and original cast members Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, Blake Ritson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Simon Jones, Debra Monk, Kristen Nielsen, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Kelli O'Hara, Jack Gilpin, Patrick Page, Ben Ahlers, and Michael Cerveris.

(pray), Comeuppance Win Big at 39th Lortels

(pray) won 3 Lortel Awards
Credit: Ben Arons

(pray), the musical on faith presented by Ars Nova and National Black Theater, and The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, were the big winners at the 39th Lortel Awards, winning Outstanding Musical and Play respectively. (pray) won the most awards with 3, also taking Outstanding Director and Ensemble. The awards for outstanding Off-Broadway theater and named for the legendary producer Lucille Lortel were presented on May 5 at the NYU Skirball Center. 

Hosts included Rosalind Chao (Atlantic Theater Company’s “What Became of Us”), Jenn Colella (“SUFFS”), Michael Esper (The Creator, Drama Desk Award nominee, “Appropriate”), Eden Espinosa (Tony Award nominee, “Lempicka”), Nikki M. James (Tony & Lortel Award nominee, “SUFFS”), and BD Wong (Atlantic Theater Company’s “What Became of Us”). 

Special honorees this year included Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Ruben Santiago-Hudson, presented by Phylicia Rashad; Playwrights’ Sidewalk inductee Dominique Morisseau, presented by Kamilah Forbes; and Ars Nova, honored for their Outstanding Body of Work with a presentation by award-winning director Anne Kauffman.

The Lortels are the first theater awards to be presented this season, the Outer Critics, New York Drama Critics Circle, Theater World, Drama Desk and finally the Tonys will follow in the next weeks.

The Comeuppance was named 
Outstanding Play at the Lortels
Credit: Monique Carboni

A list of winners and nominees follows:

B'way Update: Roundabout and Purple Rain

Daniel Dae Kim will
star in Yellow Face
at Roundabout's 
Todd Haimes Theater.

Roundabout Theater Company has announced major productions for its 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway seasons and the new name for one of its flagship theaters. The American Airlines Theater will be renamed the Todd Haimes after the company's late artistic director. Three productions will make up the first season of the newly named Haimes. First up is the Broadway premiere of David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, a comedy inspired by real events. Daniel Dae Kim (TV's Lost and Hawaii 5-0) stars as a stand-in for the playwright who protests the casting of non-Asians in Miss Saigon and then accidentally casts a white actor in one of his plays. Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet) directs the production which will open in Fall 2024. Yellow Face opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2007. The events depicted in the play were based on the flop Broadway mounting of Hwang's play Face Value in 1993.

Next up is another Broadway premiere of a play previously seen Off-Broadway. Sanaz Toossi's English won the Pulitzer Prize after it opened at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2022 in a co-production with ATC and Roundabout. The play about an ESL class in Iran will open in the winter of 2024-25 with Knud Adams repeating his directing chores.

B'way Update: Year-End Rumors; Best Play Tony Contenders

Will Stereophonic move to the Golden?
Credit: Chelcie Parry

The calendar for the 2023-24 Broadway and Off-Broadway season appears to be set, but there could be a few additions before the Tony deadline of April 25. There are rumors that Stereophonic, David Adjmi's well-reviewed, three-hour play about a rock group not unlike Fleetwood Mac recording an album vital to their careers, which recently closed at Playwrights Horizons, may move into the Golden Theater. Playwrights has coyly announced that if you had missed the show, exciting news was on the way. This could mean a Broadway transfer, but it could also mean the release of a CD with Will Butler's songs from the play. 

Another rumor puts forth the possibility of the current minimalist London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger (former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls) moving to Broadway, perhaps in November 2024. The musical version of Billy Wilder's classic film of faded silent film Norma Desmond was last seen on Broadway in 2017 with Glenn Close recreating her Tony-winning performance from the 1995 production.

Nicole Scherzinger in
the London Sunset Boulevard
Credit: Marc Brenner

B'way Update: Cabaret, Purlie, Second Stage, Cats, etc.

Eddie Redmayne in the
London revival of Cabaret which
may be transferring to Broadway in 2024.
Credit: Marc Brenner

It's not official, but according to a report by Philip Boroff in Broadway Journal, the hit London revival of Cabaret will transfer to Broadway with previews beginning in March of 2024 ahead of an April opening. According to Boroff, Oscar, Tony and Olivier winner Eddie Redmayne is slated to repeat his award-winning performance as the Emcee in this immersive staging. Rebecca Franknell will repeat her staging which included an immersive experience in the world of the Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Berlin. This will be the fifth Broadway production of the musical based on John Van Druten's I Am a Camera which was in turn derived from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories about the reckless Sally Bowles in the decadent German capital before the rise of the Third Reich. Harold Prince's original 1966 production starred Jill Haworth, Joel Grey, Jack Gilford, Lotte Lenya and ran for 1,165 performances. The 1972 movie version directed by Bob Fosse won 8 Oscars including Best Actress for Liza Minnelli and Best Supporting Actor for Grey. Grey returned to the Emcee role for a 1987 revival. Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson headlined a 1998 revival which also originated in London and ran for 2,377 performances. This staging was revived in 2014 also with Cumming and ran for 388 performances.