B'way Update: Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga Will Star in Macbeth

Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga
will star in MacBeth,
opening on Broadway in April 2022.

Broadway is definitely back with Sunday night's  long-delayed Tonys followed by announcements of new productions. On Monday, Slave Play and Skin of Our Teeth released dates for openings. Today, we heard Daniel Craig will bounce back on stage after his fifth and final performance as James Bond in No Time to Die. The action and dramatic star will headline a revival of Macbeth opposite Ruth Negga, who played Hamlet at St. Ann's Warehouse. This new production of the Scottish Play will begin previews at the Lyceum Theater on March 29, 2022 in advance of an April 28 opening. Tony winner Sam Gold (A Doll's House, Part 2, Fun Home) directs. Craig has previously appeared on Broadway in A Steady Rain and Mike Nichols' production of Betrayal. Off-Broadway, he played Iago to David Oyelowo's Othello.

"Daniel is not only a great film actor but a magnificent theatre actor as well. I am thrilled that he will be supporting the return of Broadway playing this iconic role with the exquisitely talented Ruth Negga making her Broadway debut and under the expert direction of Sam Gold,” said producer Barbara Broccoli.

“I am beyond thrilled to be participating in this historic season as theatre re-emerges, and to be working with two such masterful actors on one of dramatic literature’s most challenging and epic dramas,” said director Sam Gold. “I can’t wait to get started!”  

This is the 48th Macbeth to play Broadway. Recent productions have starred Ethan Hawke, Alan Cumming, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Plummer, and Philip Anglim (1982). Off-Broadway Macbeths have included Corey Stoller, Kenneth Branagh, Liev Schreiber, John Douglas Thompson, Alec Baldwin, and Raul Julia. 

In addition, Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Frances MacDormand will play the bloody couple in a new film adaptation directed by Joel Coen, which just played the New York Film Festival.

In other news, the opening of Lackawanna Blues has been postponed to Oct. 7 due to an injury sustained by its sole actor and playwright Reuben Santiago-Hudson.

Calendar of 2021-22 Broadway/Off-Broadway Shows
Oct. 1--Diana premieres on Netflix

Oct. 3--Six (Brooks Atkinson)

Oct. 4--Letters of Suresh (Second Stage/Kiser)
Oct. 5--To Kill a Mockingbird (Shubert)
Oct. 7--Freestyle Love Supreme (Booth); Lackawanna Blues (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
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. 11--Is This A Room (Lyceum)
Oct. 13--Girl from the North Country (Belasco)
Oct. 14--The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlander)

Oct. 14--Fairycakes (previews begin; Greenwich House Theater)
Oct. 16--Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial)

Oct. 17--Dana H. (Lyceum)
Oct. 21--Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst); The Woman in Black (McKittrick Hotel)
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. 4--The Visitor (Public); Morning's at Seven (Theater at St. Clement's)
Nov. 5--The Book of Mormon (Eugene O'Neill)

Nov. 12--Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric)

Nov. 14--Assassins (CSC)
Nov. 15--Jersey Boys (New World Stages)

Nov. 17--Diana (Longacre); Cullud Wattah (Public)

Nov. 18--Trouble in Mind (Roundabout/AA)

Nov. 22--Clyde's (Second Stage/Hayes)

Dec. 2--Slave Play (August Wilson)
Dec. 5--Mrs. Doubtfire (Stephen Sondheim)

Dec. 8--Kimberly Akimbo (Atlantic Theater Company)

Dec. 9--Company (Bernard B. Jacobs)
Dec. 11--Dear Evan Hansen (Music Box)
Dec. 13--Flying Over Sunset (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

Jan. 12, 2022--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)

Feb. 14--Sleep No More (McKittrick Hotel)
March 20--Paradise Square (Barrymore)

March 28--Plaza Suite (Hudson)

April 4--Take Me Out (Second Stage/Hayes)
April 7--The Minutes (Studio 54)

April 8--Beetlejuice (Marriott Marquis)
April 10--Birthday Candles (Roundabout/AA)

April 13--Harmony (Museum of Jewish Heritage)

April 14--To My Girls (Second Stage/Kiser)
April 19--How I Learned to Drive (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

April 25--The Skin of Our Teeth (LTC/Vivian Beaumont)

April 28--Macbeth (Lyceum)
May 17--Golden Shield (MTC/City Center)

Spring 2022 (dates TBA)

Funny Girl 

Romeo and Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn (possibly)

No Dates Yet

(New Shows)

American Buffalo (Circle in the Square)

Sing Street

Fall 2022

1776 (Roundabout/AA)

Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)

2022

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Piano Lesson, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

2022-23

Dancin', Square One

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; A Strange Loop; The Who's Tommy

2021-22 Broadway Season Breakdown:

New Plays

Birthday Candles

Chicken and Biscuits

Clyde's

Dana H. (transfer from Off-Broadway)

Is This A Room (transfer from Off-Broadway)

The Lehman Trilogy (transfer from Off-Broadway)

The Minutes

Pass Over (previously presented Off-Broadway)

Skeleton Crew (previously presented Off-Broadway in a different production)

Thoughts of a Colored Man

Play Revivals

American Buffalo

How I Learned to Drive

Lackawanna Blues (previously produced Off-Broadway)

Macbeth

Plaza Suite

The Skin of Our Teeth

Slave Play (return engagement)

Take Me Out

Trouble in Mind

New Musicals

Diana

Flying Over Sunset

Mrs. Doubtfire

Paradise Square

Romeo and Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn (possibly)

Sing Street (transfer from Off-Broadway, possibly)

Six

Musical Revivals

Beetlejuice (return engagement)

Caroline or Change

Company

Funny Girl 

Waitress (return engagement)

Specialties

Bruce Springsteen on Broadway (return engagement)

David Bryne's American Utopia (return engagement)

Freestyle Love Supreme (return engagement)