B'way Update: Dirty Dancing, Macbeth, Rhino Rumors, Etc.

There is plenty of news and rumors of upcoming Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. 

Annalese Starzec and Blake Zelesnikar in
Dirty Dancing: The Musical in Chicago.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The current North American tour of Dirty Dancing: The Musical will make a stop on Broadway. Previews begin at the Lena Horne Theater on Feb. 12, 2027 prior to a March 14 opening in time for the 40th anniversary of the 1987 film. The engagement runs through Sept. 5. Lonny Price who appeared in the original film directs. The score features songs from the film including the Oscar-winning "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." This is the latest in a series of stage adaptations of the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman who falls in love with a dance instructor while vacationing with her family in the Catskills. 

According to Deadline.com, Anthony Mackie (the new Capt. America in the Marvel film franchise) will take on the lead in the 49th Broadway production production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. He will follow in the bloody footsteps of Maurice Evans, Paul Rogers, Philip Anglim, Nicol Williamson, F. Murray Abraham, Christopher Plummer, Kelsey Grammar, Patrick Stewart, Alan Cumming, Ethan Hawke, and Daniel Craig. Kenneth Branagh, Alec Baldwin, Raul Julia and Liev Schrieber are among those to essay the role Off-Broadway. Previews begin in late March or early April 2027 at a Broadway theater TBA. Further casting will be announced at a later date.

Anthony Mackie will switch from Marvel
to Macbeth.

This production is a transfer of a 2023 Donmar Warehouse staging in London starring David Tenant and Cush Jumbo. The staging featured an innovative sound design by Tony and Olivier winner Gareth Fry with the audience wearing headphones and the actors speaking into microphones so it feels as if they are right in the middle of the action. (Other than the Deadline report, there has been no official press release.)

Paul Giamatti and John Turturro in
Rhinoceros at ART.
Credit: Hawver and Hall

Rumor has it there might be a Broadway transfer of Diane Paulus' highly-praised recent production of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros at the American Repertory Theater. John Turturro, Paul Giamatti, and Tatiana Maslany starred in this allegory in which ordinary citizens are transformed into the title beast as a metaphor for political conformism. The play ran on Broadway in 1961 and Zero Mostel won a Tony for playing a man who changes onstage into the horned animal. Ironically, Giamatti who plays the Mostel role had a small role as a villain called the Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. 

Casting has been announced for the Broadway transfer of Here There Are Blueberries (opening Nov. 9 at the Barrymore). Tony winner Michael Cerveris, Montego Glover, Conrad Ricamora, Michelle Beck, and Brandon Flynn join returning cast members from the Off-Broadway production Kathleen Chalfant, Scott Barrow, and Delia Cunningham.

Off-Broadway, the Public Theater has announced several new productions including Henry IV, Parts I and II in Central Park next summer with Wendell Pierce of Elsbeth as Falstaff; The Surge, a docuplay on ICE's invasion of Minneapolis; Nathan Englander's Olivier winning play What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank; and Elevator Repair Service's musical Phil based on George Saunders' novella.

2026-27 Broadway and Off-Broadway Calendar

Fall 2026

Oct. 8--Triumph (Public)
Oct. 9--Good Time Charley (Public)
Oct. 9--A Ghost in Your Ear (Audible/Minetta Lane)
Oct. 11--Fish (Signature Theater Company/WP Theater)
Oct. 13--Rope (New Group/St. Clements) (previews begin, opening TBA)
Oct. 14--Anon--a tempest at our kitchen table (MCC)
Oct. 15--Midnight (Daryl Roth)
Oct. 15--Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen (The Night Egg/Culture Club) 
Oct. 18--Other Desert Cities (Hudson)
Oct. 19--King of the Yees (Signature Theater Company)
Oct. 21--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Public)
Oct. 21--860 (Imperial)
Oct. 22--The Imaginary Invalid (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)
Oct. 22--Magic Mike Live New York 
Oct. 22--2:22: A Ghost Story (Lortel)
Oct. 27--I Become We (Atlantic Theater Co.) 
Oct. 28--In the Heights (Encores!)
Oct. 29--A Few Good Men (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)
Oct. 29--The Heart (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
Nov. 1--Ms. Blakk for President (Vineyard)
Nov. 2--Waiting for Lefty (CSC)
Nov. 3--We'll See (Public)

Nov. 5--The Unbelievers (MTC/City Center)
Nov. 5--The Verge (Public)
Nov. 8--Wanted (James Earl Jones)
Nov. 9--Here There Are Blueberries (Barrymore)
Nov. 9--The Visitors (Second Stage/Signature Center)
Nov. 10--Elektra (Theater for a New Audience) (previews begin, opening TBA)
Nov. 12--The Good Thief (Irish Repertory Theater)
Nov. 15--Downstate (Booth)
Nov. 16--The Fantasticks (Revised Version) (Second Stage/Hayes)
Nov. 17--Blue Man Group: A New Holiday Surprise (Lunt-Fontanne)

Nov. 18--It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Broadhurst)
Nov. 18--the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Playwrights Horizons)
Nov. 19--Much Ado About Nothing (Winter Garden)
Nov. 23--Seven Guitars (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Nov. 24--The Dead, 1904 (IRT/American Irish Historical Society)
Dreamgirls
HOLE! (Playwrights Horizons)
Jackals (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

Winter 2026-27

Dec. 1--Inter Alia (Music Box)

Dec. 3--Imitation of Life (The Shed/National Black Theater) 

Dec. 6--Galileo: A Rock Musical (Shubert) 

Dec. 7--A View from the Bridge (LaMaMa)

Dec. 13--Finn (Atlantic Theater Co.) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Dec. 14--Wild Rose (NYTW)

Dec. 17--Spring Awakening (Studio Seaview)

Jan. 9--Too Bad for Her (Atlatntic Theater Co. ) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Jan. 13--Honor, An Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra in Tandem with Lili Taylor (Theater for a New Audience) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Jan. 17--Full Gallop (City Center Stage II)

Jan. 19--Dolly: A True Original Musical (St. James)

Jan. 21--Texas in Paris (Signature Center)

Jan. 27--Mix and Master (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Jan. 28--Pretend It's Pretend (LCT/Clara Tow) (previews begin, opening TBA)

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

Jan. 2027--The Heart Sellers (MCC)

Feb. 3--You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Encores!)

Feb. 11--The Grief Eater Near North Bender (Roundabout/NYTW/Laura Pels)

Feb. 22--Work of Devotion (Second Stage/Signature Center)

Feb. 25--Faydra (MTC/City Center Stage I)

Feb. 28--King Lear (Theater for a New Audience) (previews begin, opening TBA)

Feb. 29--Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (CSC)

Feb. 2027--Three Days of Rain (Shubert theater TBA)

Feb. 2027--Petra (Vineyard Theater)

Feb. 2027--Miles for Mary (Signature Theater Company)

Are the Bennett Girls OK? (Public)

The Surge (Public)

Welcome Table (Public)

Wold Meteor (Playwrights Horizons)

Spring 2027

March 14--Dirty Dancing: The Musical (Lena Horne)

March 17--Let 'Em Eat Cake (Encores!)

March 18--Small Mouth Sounds (Barrymore)

March 18--Old Actress (Atlantic Theater Co.) (previews begin, opening TBA)

March 25--Evita (Winter Garden)

April 5--Gloria (Second Stage/Hayes)

April 12--Purple Rain (Majestic)

April 15--The Sound of Music (LCT/Vivian Beaumont)

April 18--Paddington the Musical (Al Hirschfeld)

April 20--Damn Yankees (Marquis)

April 20--What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Public)

April 25--The Full Monty (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

April 28--how to roll a blunt (Second Stage/Signature Center)

April 28--Kiss of the Spider Woman (Encores!)

April--Warriors (Lunt-Fontanne)

May 6--Born in the Dirt (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

May 12--Meet Me at the End of the World (Public)

May 24--Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret (CSC)

May 27--Push (Atlantic Theater Co.) (previews begin, opening TBA)

May--Angela's Mixtape (Signature Theater Company)

The Annunciation (Playwrights Horizons)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Feast of Rabbits (Playwrights Horizons)

Macbeth

Montauk (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

The Vagina Monologues (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Summer 2027

June 10--Phil (Public)

June 11--Beautiful Jolie Gabor (Transport Group/Theater 555) (previews begin, opening TBA)

June--What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (MCC)

Aug. 17--10 Things I Hate About You (previews begin, opening TBA)

Henry IV, Parts I and II (Public/Delacorte)

Counting and Cracking (Public/Delacorte)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Public/Delacorte)

Fall 2027

Annie

Dates TBD

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

MISS STEP (Playwrights Horizons)

Narcissister (Playwrights Horizons)

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

Playing Burton (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Future--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; 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; The Princess Bride; 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
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Mix and Master
Montauk
Paranormal Activity

New Musicals
Dirty Dancing: The Musical

Dolly: A True Original Musical
Galileo, A Rock Musical
Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo
Paddington The Musical
Purple Rain
Wanted
Warriors

Play Revivals
Awake and Sing
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Downstate
A Few Good Men
Gloria
Here There Are Blueberries
The Imaginary Invalid

Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Other Desert Cities
Private Lives
School Girls or the African Mean Girls Play
Small Mouth Sounds
Three Days of Rain

Musical Revivals
Damn Yankees
Dreamgirls
Evita
The Fantasticks
The Full Monty
The Sound of Music

Solos/Specialties
860 (Billy Crystal)
Blue Man Group: A New Holiday Surprise
Celebrity Autobiography