B'way Update: Logjam in Spring 2018; Early 2018-19 Announcements

Jim Parsons will star in a revival of The Boys in the Band,
which will be eligible for 2018-19 Tonys.

So many Broadway theaters are booked and so few shows are closing there is a logjam of venues this spring. Therefore many shows have announced their openings for the next fall. Usually a number of productions shutter right after the holiday season, but in addition to the perennials like Wicked, Lion King, and Chicago, a number of productions which received middling reviews but strong word of mouth are still going into 2018 including Anastasia, A Bronx Tale and School of Rock, as well as Tony winners Dear Evan Hansen, Come from Away, and Kinky Boots. Tracey Letts' The Minutes has an announced opening of March 8,

Glenda Jackson will return to Broadway
after a 30-year absence in Three Tall Women.

but no theater yet. They'd better hurry and grab one. The all-star revival of The Boys in the Band with Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and Andrew Rannells had originally been slated as an April opening in order to qualify for the Tonys, but it's just been announced as opening on May 31, meaning it will eligible for the 2019 awards. The shift may have been due to director Joe Mantello's heavy workload. He will also be staging the revival of Three Tall Women starring Glenda Jackson in her first Broadway role in 30 years (the Scottish play with Christopher Plummer in 1988 was her last) which opens just two months earlier on March 29. Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill are the other two women. 

Additional shows making early announcements for 2018-19 include To Kill a Mockingbird, Getting the Band Back Together, King Kong, The Prom, Pretty Woman, a Kiss Me, Kate revival from Roundabout starring Kelli O'Hara, and the Cher Show. Cher is not the only pop artist to have a musical based on her life and/or work in the planning stages. Others include Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (which has booked the Lunt-Fontanne for this April according to Michael Riedel of the NY Post), Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morrisette), and a Pat Benatar musical. 


Here's a rundown of Broadway and Off-Broadway openings as well as dates for award nominations and ceremonies for 2018 and beyond.

Jan. 8--Mankind (Playwrights Horizons)
Jan. 11--John Lithgow: Stories by Heart (Roundabout/American Airlines)
Jan. 30--He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
Feb. 1--Fire and Air (CSC)
Feb 5--Hangmen (Atlantic Theater Company)
Feb. 22--Hello Dolly with Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber (Shubert)
Feb. 22--Jerry Springer The Opera (Signature Theatre)
March 1--Amy and the Orphans (Laura Pels/Roundabout)
March 8--The Minutes (Theatre TBA)
March 8--Good for Otto (The New Group/Signature Center)
March 12--Admissions (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
March 15--Escape to Margaritaville (Marquis)
March 20--Rocktopia (Broadway)

March 21-Angels in America (Neil Simon)
March 22-Frozen (St. James)
March 26--Lobby Hero (Second Stage/Helen Hayes)
March 29--Three Tall Women (John Golden)
March-April--The Winter's Tale (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
April 8--Mean Girls (August Wilson)

April 11--Children of a Lesser God (Studio 54)
April 12--Carousel (Imperial)
April 19--My Fair Lady (Vivian Beaumont/LCT)
April 22--Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric)
April 23--Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Lunt-Fontanne)
April 24--Travesties (Roundabout/American Airlines)
April 25--Saint Joan (MTC/Freidman)
April 26--The Iceman Cometh (Bernard B. Jacobs)
April 26--Drama Desk Nominations Announced
May 1--Tony Nominations Announced

May 31--The Boys in the Band (Booth)
June 3--Drama Desk Awards (Town Hall)
June 10--Tony Awards 

June 21--Skintight (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

July 2018--Straight White Men (Second Stage/Helen Hayes)
Aug. 16--Pretty Woman (Nederlander)

Aug. 18--Getting the Band Back Together (Belasco)
Nov. 8--King Kong (Broadway)
Nov. 15--The Prom (Theater TBA)
Dec. 18--To Kill a Mockingbird (Theater TBA)

Fall 2018--The Cher Show (Neil Simon)
2019--Burn This
Feb. 2019--Kiss Me, Kate (Roundabout)

Future--Death Becomes Her, Hadestown, Moulin Rouge the Musical, Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, The Devil Wears Prada, Jagged Little Pill, Working Girl, Half-Time, Roman Holiday, The Wiz, Camp David, Photograph 51, An Enemy of the People, Sherlock Holmes, Singin' in the Rain, Pat Benatar Musical

2017-18 Broadway Season 

New Plays

1984

The Children

Farinelli and the King

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Junk

Meteor Shower

The Minutes

The Parisian Woman

New Musicals

The Band's Visit (transfer from Off-Broadway)

Escape to Margaritaville

Frozen
Mean Girls

Prince of Broadway

Spongebob Squarepants the Broadway Musical
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical

Play Revivals

Angels in America
Children of a Lesser God

An Enemy of the People

The Iceman Cometh

Lobby Hero

M. Butterfly

Marvin's Room

Saint Joan

Three Tall Women

Time and the Conways

Travesties

Musical Revivals

Carousel

My Fair Lady

Once on This Island

Specialties/Solos
Home for the Holidays
John Lithgow: Stories by Heart
Latin History for Morons

Michael Moore: The Terms of My Surrender
Rocktopia

Springsteen on Broadway

2018-19 Broadway Season

New Plays
To Kill a Mockingbird

Musicals
The Cher Show
Getting the Band Back Together
King Kong
The Prom
Pretty Woman

Play Revivals
The Boys in the Band
Straight White Men

Musical Revivals
Kiss Me, Kate