B'way/Off-B'way Update: Awake and Sing; Playwrights Horizons

Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht and
Jeremy Shamos will star in an MTC
revival of Awake and Sing!

Manhattan Theater Club will present a Broadway revival of Clifford Odets' Depression-era family drama Awake and Sing! Previews begin at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater this December with an opening set for sometime in January 2027. The cast will be headed by Tony winner Danny Burstein (Moulin Rogue, Marjorie Prime), Tony nominee Jessica Hecht (currently in Dog Day Afternoon), and Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park). Tyne Rafaeli (Data) directs in her Broadway debut. 

“Awake and Sing! is one of the great masterpieces of our canon—it makes you laugh and breaks your heart in one fell swoop,” said MTC Artistic Director Nicki Hunter. “Though Odets wrote this story of a family caught between the life they imagined and the one they were saddled with nearly a century ago, its questions of ambition and sacrifice feel as timely as ever. I’m thrilled to bring the wildly talented Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, and Jeremy Shamos back to the Friedman stage. With Tyne Rafaeli—who will make her Broadway debut with this production—at the helm, I look forward to sharing the power of this play with our audiences.”

Zoe Wanamaker and
Mark Ruffalo in
the 2006 revival
of Awake and Sing!
Credit: Paul Kolnik

Awake and Sing! tells the story of three generations of the Berger family struggling to make ends meet and keep their dignity during the Depression. It was first produced on Broadway in 1935 by the legendary Group Theater and, after his Waiting for Lefty, established Odets as a major American playwright. There were Broadway revivals in 1939, 1984 (Circle in the Square) and 2006 (Lincoln Center Theater). In 2015, the Public Theater and NAATCO presented a production with an all-Asian cast. Walter Matthau starred in a PBS TV version in 1972.

Meanwhile, Off-Broadway, Playwright Horizons has announced its 2026-27 schedule. In the fall, there will be stagings of Degenerates about the incel (involuntarily celibate) on-line community by Else Went (Initiative); Christina Anderson's the ripple, the wave that carried me home which focuses on her parents' struggle to integrate public swimming pools in 1960s Kansas; and HOLE!, a satiric musical from American Sing-Song (Jake Brasch and Nadja Leonhard-Hooper which imagines a future where everyone wears butt plugs to keep from getting sucked up into the sun.

The winter sees Wold Meteor, a collaboration with Page 73 and Working Theater. Kate Attwell's play, with songs by Sunder Ganglani, depicts the aftermath of a meteor falling on a farm in 1795. Moving into spring, we find T. Adamson's The Annunciation, following three generations of Mexican-American women confronting crises of faith and identity. Alesha Harris' Feast of Rabbits satirizes the myth of the American frontier.  

In development are a new work from downtown theater artist Narcissister; MISS STEP, a dance musical from Kit Yan and Melissa Li set in the world of competitive aerobics; and an untitled work from dance-theater duo Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz di Viteri.

2026-27 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule

Summer 2026
June 2--Theater World Awards (Longacre)
June 2--Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? (NY City Center Stage I) (Previews begin, opening TBA)
June 4--Girl, Interrupted (Public)
June 7--Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall/CBS)
June 11--Romeo and Juliet (Delacorte)
June 17--La Cage Aux Folles (Encores!/City Center)
June 21--Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts (NAATCO/Public)
June 24--Birthright (MCC)
July 14--The Whoopi Monologues (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Bocking (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

Fall 2026

Sept. 8--School Girls or The African Mean Girls Play (MTC/Friedman) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Sept. 15--Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway (August Wilson)

Sept. 27--How Shakespeare Saved My Life (Public)

Oct. 9--Good Time Charley (Public)

Oct. 13--The Unbelievers (MTC/City Center)

Oct. 18--Other Desert Cities (Hudson)

Oct. 21--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Public)

October--Ms. Blakk for President (Vineyard)

Nov. 3--We'll See (Public)

Nov. 5--The Verge (Public)

Nov. 8--Wanted (James Earl Jones)

Nov. 19--Much Ado About Nothing (Winter Garden)

860 (Shubert theater TBA)

Degenerates (Playwrights Horizons)

Dreamgirls

The Heart (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

HOLE! (Playwrights Horizons)

The Imaginary Invalid (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Jackals (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Playwrights Horizons)

Winter 2026-27

Dec. 1--Inter Alia (Music Box)

Dec. 6--Galileo: A Rock Musical (Shubert) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Jan. 2027--Awake and Sing (MTC/Samuel Freidman)

Are the Bennett Girls OK? (Public)

Mix and Master (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

The Grief Eater Near North Bender (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Welcome Table (Public)

Wold Meteor (Playwrights Horizons)

Spring 2027

March 25--Evita (Winter Garden)

The Annunciation (Playwrights Horizons)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Damn Yankees

Feast of Rabbits (Playwrights Horizons)

The Full Monty (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Montauk (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

The Vagina Monologues (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

2026-27
Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo
Private Lives

Dates TBD

MISS STEP (Playwrights Horizons)

Narcissister (Playwrights Horizons)

New work by Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Playwright Horizons)

Future--10 Things I Hate About You; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; Coal Miner's Daughter; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; Dare To Be Stupid: The Weird Al Yankovic Musical; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Eurovision Song Contest; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Fahrenheit 451; The Fantasticks (Revised Version); 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.

2026-27 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

Inter Alia

Mix and Master

Montauk

Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway

New Musicals

Galileo, A Rock Musical

Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo

Wanted

Play Revivals

Awake and Sing

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The Imaginary Invalid

Much Ado About Nothing

Other Desert Cities

Private Lives

School Girls or the African Mean Girls Play

Musical Revivals

Damn Yankees

Dreamgirls

Evita

The Full Monty

Solos/Specialties

860 (Billy Crystal)

Celebrity Autobiography