With the end credits of the 2019 Tony Awards marking another season down, the Broadway community—from industry insiders to devoted fans—already have their eyes on what's set to light up the Great White Way next.
The 2019–2020 season kicked off with the May 30 opening night of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; the revival stars Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon. A handful of shows have already confirmed dates for their Broadway bow, with several more waiting in the wings.
Take a look at the list of productions to keep an eye on (which is, of course, subject to change) below.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following shows already have dates and/or a theatre booked.
MOULIN ROUGE!
Nearly 20 years after Baz Luhrmann brought Paris to Broadway with La Bohème, the director’s 2001 hit finally lights up the Great White Way—windmill and all. The musical adaptation, featuring the songs from the original film as well as more recent pop hits, debuted last year in Boston. The world premiere’s stars, including Aaron Tveit and Karen Olivo as star-crossed lovers Christian and Satine, will reprise their performances on Broadway. The company also features Danny Burstein, Robyn Hurder, Tam Mutu, Sahr Ngaujah, and Ricky Rojas.
The Alex Timbers–directed production begins June 28 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre before an official opening July 25.
SEA WALL/A LIFE
Following a run at The Public Theater in the spring, Sea Wall / A Life transfers to Broadway’s Hudson Theatre this summer with original stars Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal. The back-to-back monologue plays—by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne, respectively—explore the joys and pain of both love and loss as the men recall past events involving those they love. Carrie Cracknell directs.
Performances begin July 26 ahead of an August 8 opening.
LINDA VISTA
Tony-winning August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts returns to Broadway this fall with his new comedy Linda Vista. Previously seen at Chicago’s Steppenwolf and L.A.’s Mark Taper Form, the play introduces us to Wheeler (Ian Barford, reprising his performance), a 50-year-old man whose marriage is over, his job mundane, and the best years of his life apparently behind him. When he makes the move from the cot in his ex-wife’s garage to his own apartment, a world of new possibilities for love, sex, and redemption become available to him.
Dexter Bullard directs; performances begin September 19 ahead of an October 10 opening at Second Stage Theater’s Helen Hayes.
AMERICAN UTOPIA
David Byrne will hit the Broadway stage in a New York bow of his acclaimed tour. The Scottish-American musician teams up with Tony-nominated director Alex Timbers, who serves as production consultant, for a production that also features choreography and musical staging by Annie-B Parson. Audiences can expect songs from Byrne's 2018 album of the same name, along with hits from his time as Talking Heads frontman and throughout his solo career.
The production, featuring an eclectic group of international musicians, will begin at the Hudson Theatre (currently home to Burn This) October 4. Opening night is set for October 20.
TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL
Following a 2018 London premiere, Tina arrives on Broadway this fall starring Olivier and Tony Award nominee Adrienne Warren reprising her performance in the starring role. The bio-musical explores the life and legacy of the music artist, from humble beginnings in Tennessee to becoming a global phenomenon—all set to Turner's decades of hits.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, the production will begin previews October 12 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with opening night set for November 7.
THE INHERITANCE
Matthew Lopez's two-part epic, which premiered to acclaim in London last year, is making its way to Broadway this fall. Set in New York City a generation after the HIV/AIDS crisis of the '80s and '90s, the play centers on a group of gay men as they struggle to connect to the past and maintain a sense of history.
Stephen Daldry directs the production, which will begin previews September 27 ahead of a November 17 opening night at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
JAGGED LITTLE PILL
Following a run at Massachusetts’ American Repertory Theater, Jagged Little Pill will bring Alanis Morissette’s tunes, tears, and tirades to the Great White Way. The musical, featuring a book by Oscar winner Diablo Cody, tackles a bevy of contemporary issues and hot topics as a multi-generation, multiracial suburban family navigates the complexities of love, pain, and identity. Among the cast are Elizabeth Stanley, Derek Klena, Lauren Patten, and Celia Rose Gooding.
The musical, directed by Diane Paulus, will begin November 3 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Opening night is set for December 5.
GRAND HORIZONS
In December, playwright Bess Wohl (Continuity, Small Mouth Sounds) makes her Broadway debut with Grand Horizons, a new play about the unpredictable and enduring nature of love. The story follows a couple who retire in Grand Horizons after 50 years of marriage—only to find that one of them wants out.
Previews will begin December 20 ahead of a January 23, 2020, opening at the Hayes. Tony nominee Leigh Silverman directs.
MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON
Four-time Tony nominee Laura Linney (last seen on Broadway opposite Cynthia Nixon in The Little Foxes) returns to the Great White Way in January 2020 in Manhattan Theatre Club's production of My Name Is Lucy Barton. Adapted by Rona Munro from the novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, the solo play stars Linney as a woman who wakes from an operation to find her mother at the foot of her bed. The acclaimed production, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Linney, was seen last summer at London's Bridge Theatre.
The MTC engagement will play the company's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre beginning January 6 and open January 15.
WEST SIDE STORY
Directed by Tony winner Ivo van Hove with choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the reimagining of Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story will feature all-new choreography (a first for a major New York productions), with sets and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld.
Previews are scheduled to begin December 10 prior to an official opening February 6, 2020, at a Broadway theatre to be announced.
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Two-time Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee Laurie Metcalf (Hillary and Clinton) and Tony nominee Eddie Izzard (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg) will go head-to-head as Martha and George in a new production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello will direct the staging, which will also feature Russell Tovey and recent Olivier winner Patsy Ferran as young couple Nick and Honey.
Previews will begin March 2 prior to an official opening April 9, 2020, at a Broadway venue to be announced.
TAKE ME OUT
2ST continues its Broadway season next spring with a revival of Richard Greenberg’s Tony-winning baseball drama, the story of an athlete forced to contend with the challenges of being a gay person of color. The revival will co-star Grey’s Anatomy’s Jesse Williams as Darren Lemming and Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mason Marzarc.
Scott Ellis will direct, with performances scheduled to begin April 2, 2020, ahead of an April 23 opening at the Hayes.
STAY TUNED
Here's what has announced a planned Broadway bow, though no word yet on official dates.DON'T STOP ’TIL YOU GET ENOUGH
The upcoming Michael Jackson bio-musical, previously announced for a pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago, will now make its world premiere on Broadway, opening in New York in summer 2020. The producers (the Michael Jackson Estate and Columbia Live Stage) cited scheduling difficulties following the recent strike by Actors' Equity. Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph the show, which will reportedly focus on Jackson’s career in his 20s and 30s, incorporating the music icon’s hits. Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage is set to write the book and has gone on record to say she and the team are "really trying to figure out how do we tell this story in a way that’s respectful," noting the controversy surrounding the public figure.
MAGIC MIKE
Hold up before you start doing your crunches. A serious of creative team shakeups have halted Magic Mike’s journey to Broadway, from delayed lab presentations to the ultimate cancellation of the world premiere in Boston. Following the departure of book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and composers Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, the musical’s future plans remain unconfirmed. The movie franchise’s Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh are attached as producers on the long-gestating project.
ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME
Similar to the Go-Go’s musical Head Over Heels, this show will offer a radical, subversive twist on familiar tales—to the beat of a pop icon. A cannon of fairy tale princesses will belt Britney Spears as a copy of The Feminine Mystique magically makes its way to their royal book club. The show, featuring a book by Jon Hartmere and directed by Kristin Hangii, will open in Chicago in November with a Broadway bow expected to follow.
TEA AT FIVE
Faye Dunaway is poised to return to the Broadway stage for the first time in 37 years to play fellow Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn in the solo show. Playwright Matthew Lombardo has reworked his script to streamline the play into a 90-minute format, focusing on the Hollywood legend in 1983 as she recovers from a car accident. The production, helmed by original director John Tillinger, will play a pre-Broadway engagement at the Huntington Avenue Theatre in Boston beginning June 22.
Tony winner Phylicia Rashad has been flexing her directing muscles more and more, having helmed productions at the Signature Theatre, Seattle Rep., the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf, and more. Next stop is Broadway for the multi-talented theatre artist, this time directing Charles Randolph-Wright's play Blue, with music by Nona Hendryx. Infused with a jazz and soul score, the piece explores the complexities of identity and trust behind the carefully constructed façade of the Clarks, a socially prominent family struggling with the legacy and pitfalls of their own good fortune. Blue is slated to arrive on Broadway in the spring, but a theatre, casting, and full creative team have yet to be announced.
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
An all-female cast will inhabit David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize–winning drama, set within a cutthroat Chicago real estate office where every woman is out for herself. Two-time Tony nominee Amy Morton (August: Osage County, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) will direct the Broadway revival, produced by Jeffrey Richards, Will Trice, Rebecca Gold, and Steve Traxler.
BORN FOR THIS
The Broadway-bound bio-musical about the life of BeBe Winans received its world premiere at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2016, with additional regional stops in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Featuring music and lyrics by the six-time Grammy Award winner and with a book written by director Charles Randolph-Wright, Winans, and Lisa D’Amour, the musical chronicles Winans’ struggles between family, faith, and fame. Hamilton cast member Donald Webber Jr. will star as Winans when the musical makes its New York debut.
SOME LIKE IT HOT
A new musical adaptation of the classic Marilyn Monroe film is in the works, with a Broadway premiere slated for 2020. The project hails from the Shubert Organization and Neil Meron, the team (with the late Craig Zadan) behind NBC’s roster of live musicals. The show will feature a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Smash), plus a book by The Inheritance playwright Matthew Lopez. Casey Nicholaw will direct and choreograph.
TITANIC
Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer, who helmed the recent revivals of Gigi and Follies, is poised to direct a chamber revival of the Maury Yeston–Peter Stone musical. Schaeffer first directed the show for Arlington, Virginia's Signature in 2016 and later directed an immersive production for South Korea's OD Company.
THE SECRET GARDEN
Tony winner Warren Carlyle was tapped to direct and choreograph the first Broadway revival of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden. Producers Gerald Goehring and Michael F. Mitri of Patriot Productions are attached to the production, which received a spring 2018 workshop featuring Sierra Boggess, Matt Doyle, Drew Gehling, Amber Iman, Adam Chanler-Berat, and more.
KEEP AN EYE OUT
The following shows seem to have legs and could possibly make it to the boards before next year's Tonys.SLAVE PLAY
After gaining significant buzz Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Jeremy O. Harris’ provoking exploration of historical and contemporary race relations could find itself on the Broadway boards. Among the commercial producers attached to the title is Seaview Productions, which is also behind the upcoming Broadway transfer of this year’s Sea Wall/A Life.
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Bob Dylan’s tunes were heard on Broadway in 2006’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, and they could make their way back to the Great White Way in this U.K.-born musical. Set in 1934, the show follows the residents and visitors of a small group in Minnesota, as the community gathers at a family-operated, rundown guesthouse. Penned and directed by Conor McPherson, the musical premiered in London before heading to the Public Theater downtown last year.
LEMPICKA
After Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and this season’s Hadestown, Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin could potentially continue her track record of bringing ambitious musicals to the Main Stem with Lempicka. The musical, written by Matt Gould and Carson Kreitzer, follows famed artist Tamra de Lempicka, focusing on her sexual awakening ignited by a free-spirited prostitute who becomes her muse. Eden Espinosa and Carmen Cusack starred in the world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer, with developmental labs subsequently taking place in New York.
MARIE, DANCING STILL
The new musical from the Tony Award-winning songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty tells the real-life story of the ballerina who inspired Edgar Degas’ iconic sculpture. Tony winner Susan Stroman directs and choreographs the production, starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck. Following a 2014 world premiere at the Kennedy Center (under the title Little Dancer), the work was most recently staged at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. A New York run is anticipated, though no official announcement has been made.
FAIRVIEW
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s widely acclaimed Fairview isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Following its extended, much talked about world premiere last summer—as well as winning the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize—the fourth wall–defying new play is back Off-Broadway for an extended run at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center through July 28. With productions scheduled in London, California, and D.C. lined up, is Broadway next?
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
(Fictional) fashion mag Runway will soon travel from page to stage. Inspired by the 2003 novel and the subsequent hit movie, the musical will feature a score by Elton John and Shaina Taub, with Paul Rudnick attached to write the book. Steppenwolf Theatre Company Artistic Director has been tapped to direct. No official word yet on a production timeline—or if Miranda Priestley will indeed have a number dedicated entirely to cerulean.
DREAMGIRLS
Hot off a three-year West End run at the Savoy Theatre, the hit London revival of Dreamgirls could now make its way to Broadway. The Henry Krieger–Tom Eyen musical made a star out of original cast member Jennifer Holliday, who won a Tony for her performance. Glee’s Amber Riley picked up an Olivier Award for her performance in the London revival, though it's possible New York audiences could expect all-new stars should the Casey Nicholaw–helmed production arrive on Broadway. Though an official announcement has not been made, Dreamgirls appears ready to bow sometime during the 2019–2020 season.
THE VISITOR
There have long been rumors that Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal and If/Then collaborators Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey will bring their musical The Visitor, based on the 2007 Thomas McCarthy film of the same name, to Broadway. The story of a widower who befriends a Syrian immigrant in post-9/11 New York City, the show was recently announced as part of The Public’s upcoming season, with Tony winners David Hyde Pierce and Ari’el Stachel attached.
CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
Following a critically acclaimed run at the Hampstead Theatre, a West End production of Caroline, or Change opened in London in December 2018. The production, directed by Michael Longhurst, starred Sharon D. Clarke, who won the 2019 Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical. The Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner musical, which focuses on a maid working in the sweltering basement of the Gellman household in 1963 Louisiana, debuted on Broadway in 2004 starring Tony winner Tonya Pinkins, who was Tony-nominated for her performance.
THE LEHMAN TRILOGY
Following a sold-out premiere at London’s National Theatre and a subsequent New York City production at the Park Avenue Armory, The Lehman Trilogy stars Adam Godley, Ben Miles, and Simon Russell Beale, who play the three title brothers, their sons, and grandsons. The Sam Mendes–directed production currently plates a limited West End engagement at the Piccadilly Theatre through August 31.
SIX
The rock musical, about the ill-fated wives of King Henry VIII, made its U.S. debut at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre last month, and heads to the American Repertory Theater—a frequent breeding ground for new Broadway shows—next season. Critics raved for the musical written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, which was originally mounted at the Edinburgh Fringe before a subsequent London transfer.
CHASING RAINBOWS
The new Judy Garland musical, tracing Garland’s early career through her casting as Dorothy in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz, will open the Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2019–2020 season. A recent workshop featured Ruby Rakos as Garland in a cast that also featured Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Daniel Reichard, and Karen Mason. Rakos originated the role in Goodspeed Musicals 2016 premiere of the musical, featuring a book by Marc Acito. Tony nominee Denis Jones directs and choreographs.
COMPANY
Will Patti LuPone re-create her Olivier-winning performance as Joanne in a Broadway production of the newly revised, gender-swapped version of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical? Marianne Elliott, in collaboration with Sondheim, re-imagined the 1970 show with several gender swaps for London audiences. The perpetually unmarried Bobby at the center of the story has become a woman, Bobbie (played by Rosalie Craig in London), and the character's three girlfriends (Marta, Kathy, and April) are now boyfriends (PJ, Theo, and Andy). Newlyweds Amy and Paul have also become the gay couple Jamie and Paul. The production won a total of four Olivier Awards, including Best Musical Revival.
MRS. DOUBTFIRE
Four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, most recently represented on Broadway with the Tony-winning revival of Hello, Dolly!, will direct the Broadway-bound musical Mrs. Doubtfire, based on Anne Fine's best-selling novel and the 1993 film. The musical is penned by the Tony-nominated creators of Something Rotten!: John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick (book) and Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick (music and lyrics). Before it reaches Broadway, the musical will make its world premiere this fall at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. A recent reading featured Rob McClure (Broadway's current Beetlejuice) and Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!), as well as stage and screen favorite Mario Cantone.
