B'way Update: Chicken and Biscuits, Plaza Suite, Harry Potter

A new show, a revival, and an altered previously-running show have been added to the 2021-22, post-COVID Broadway calendar. Chicken and Biscuits, a new play, will open at the Circle in the Square, the long-delayed Plaza Suite has announced preview and opening dates, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will resume performances at the Lyric as a condensed, one-evening presentation rather in its previous two parts. Only a few announced productions have not yet claimed dates, so the Broadway schedule is nearly complete.  

The cast of Chicken and Biscuits
at the Queens Theater
Credit: Dominick Totino

Chicken and Biscuits, a new play by Douglas Lyons, will begin previews at the Circle in the Square Theater on Sept. 23 with an opening set for Oct. 10. Tony nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess) and Drama Desk winner Michael Urie (The Temperamentals, Buyer and Cellar) star in this comedy which premiered at the Queens Theater in Flushing Meadows in Feb. 28, 2020, but had to close down two weeks into its run because of the COVID pandemic. The play is staged by Zhailon Levingston, who at 27 will be the youngest African-American director in Broadway history. Lyons is also making his Broadway debut as a playwright and has appeared on the Main Stem as an actor in Beautiful and The Book of Mormon. The comedy will have a limited run at Circle in the Square until Jan. 2, 2022. A revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo with Shia LaBeouf was scheduled for the theater before the pandemic and there are plans for the production to open there in March.

Matthew Broderick and 
Sarah Jessica Parker in Plaza Suite.
Credite: Joan Marcus

Neil Simon's Plaza Suite will begin preview performances at the Hudson on Feb. 25, 2022 with an opening set for March 28. Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker will star as three different couples occupying the titular hotel rooms in the 1968 comedy, directed by John Benjamin Hickey. The production played a pre-Broadway run in Boston from Feb. 5-22, 2020 and was to begin previews at the Hudson on March 13, the day after all the Broadway theaters shut down. 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Tony and Olivier-winning, two-part continuation of JK Rowling's phenomenally successful magical franchise, will re-open at the Lyric Theater on Nov. 16 as a single-

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Credit: Matthew Murphy

evening attraction. "Given the challenges of remounting and running a two-part show in the US on the scale of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the commercial challenges faced by the theatre and tourism industries emerging from the global shutdowns, we are excited to be able to move forward with a new version of the play that allows audiences to enjoy the complete Cursed Child adventure in one sitting eight times a week," producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender said in a statement.  The single-performance Harry will also play San Fransciso (opening Jan. 11) and Toronto (next May). 

The new season officially opened on June 26 with Bruce Springsteen's concert at the St. James. The opening was picketed by a group of anti-vaxxer protestors (theatergoers had to provide proof of vaccination to see the Boss.) Will all the upcoming Broadway shows in the fall require jab certification and will there be similar protests?

 

2021-22 Broadway/Off-Broadway Season Calendar:

June 26--Springsteen on Broadway (St. James)

July 27--Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park/Delacorte)
Sept. 2--Hadestown (Walter Kerr)
Sept. 3--Blue Man Group (Astor Place)
Sept. 12--Pass Over (August Wilson)

Sept. 14--Chicago (Ambassador); Hamilton (Richard Rodgers); The Lion King (Minskoff); Wicked (Gershwin)
Sept. 17--David Byrne's American Utopia (St. James)
Sept. 21--Little Shop of Horrors (Westside)
Sept. 22--Come from Away (Gerald Schoenfeld)
Sept. 24--Moulin Rouge (Al Hirschfeld)
Sept. 26--Tony Awards (CBS/Paramount +)

Sept. 28--Lackawanna Blues (MTC/Samuel Friedman); Aladdin (New Amsterdam)

Oct. 1--Diana premieres on Netflix
Oct. 3--Six (Brooks Atkinson)
Oct. 5--To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert)
Oct. 7--Freestyle Love Supreme (Booth)
Oct. 8--Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Lunt-Fontanne)
Oct. 9--Gazillion Bubbles Show (New World Stages)
Oct. 10--Chicken and Biscuits (Circle In the Square)
Oct. 13--Girl from the North Country (Belasco)
Oct. 14--The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlaner)
Oct. 16--Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial)
Oct. 21--Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst)
Oct. 22--Phantom of the Opera (Majestic)
Oct. 27--Caroline or Change (Roundabout/Studio 54)
Oct. 31--Thoughts of a Colored Man (Golden)
Nov. 3--Morning Sun (MTC/City Center)
Nov. 5--The Book of Mormon (Eugene O'Neill)
Nov. 15--Jersey Boys (New World Stages)

Nov. 16--Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric)
Nov. 17--Diana  (Longacre)
Nov. 18--Trouble in Mind (Roundabout/AA)
Dec. 5--Mrs. Doubtfire (Stephen Sondheim)
Dec. 6--Flying Over Sunset (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)
Dec. 11--Dear Evan Hansen (Music Box)
Jan. 9, 2022--Company (Bernard B. Jacobs)
Jan. 12--Skeleton Crew (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Jan. 27--Intimate Apparel (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Feb. 1--MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical (Neil Simon)
Feb. 10--The Music Man (Winter Garden)
March 20--Paradise Square (Barrymore)

March 28--Plaza Suite (Hudson)
April 7--The Minutes (Studio 54)
April 10--Birthday Candles (Roundabout/AA)
April 19--How I Learned to Drive (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
May 17--Golden Shield (MTC/City Center)

Spring 2022 (dates TBA)

Take Me Out (Second Stage/Hayes)

Romeo and Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn

No Dates Yet

(New Shows)

Clyde's (Second Stage/Helen Hayes)

American Buffalo (Circle in the Square)

Sing Street

(Old Shows)

West Side Story

Fall 2022

1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

2022

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Piano Lesson

2022-23

Dancin'

2023 and Beyond

Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby

Future--Our Town; Death of a Salesman; Funny Girl; K-pop the Broadway Musical; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Smash; Some Like It Hot; Soul Train; The Who's Tommy

2021-22 Broadway Season Breakdown:

New Plays

Birthday Candles

Chicken and Biscuits

Clyde's

The Lehman Trilogy (transfer from Off-Broadway)

The Minutes

Pass Over

Skeleton Crew (previously produced Off-Broadway)

Thoughts of a Colored Man

Play Revivals

American Buffalo

How I Learned to Drive

Lackawanna Blues (previously produced Off-Broadway)

Plaza Suite

Take Me Out

Trouble in Mind

New Musicals

Diana

Flying Over Sunset

Mrs. Doubtfire

Paradise Square

Six

Musical Revivals

Caroline or Change

Company

Specialties

Bruce Springsteen on Broadway (return engagement)

David Bryne's American Utopia (return engagement)