Playbill proudly presents our special 2023 Fall Preview. Here, we take a deep dive into some of the most anticipated shows coming up in NYC. The short versions of these articles appear in our September print Playbill, but be sure to read the much longer versions below for more backstage stories, and original photography. Check back here as the month progresses for exclusive video performances.
First Preview: September 7, 2023
Opening Date: September 27, 2023
Leslie Odom, Jr. returns to Broadway for the first time since his Tony Award-winning performance in Hamilton.
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch is the rousing, laugh-filled comedy by Kennedy Center honoree Ossie Davis that tells the story of a Black preacher’s machinations to reclaim his inheritance and win back his church. Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, Topdog/Underdog), this inspiring and delightful comedic masterpiece became the source material for the beloved hit musical, Purlie.
First Preview: September 12, 2023
Opening Date: October 3, 2023
The world premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, written by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Whitney White, will be the first production of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2023-2024 Broadway season at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
First Preview: September 14, 2023
Opening Date: September 28, 2023
Grammy and Academy Award-winning rockstar Melissa Etheridge will debut her acclaimed theatrical event, Melissa Etheridge: My Window on Broadway in a limited nine-week residency at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
First Preview: September 15, 2023
Opening Date: October 12, 2023
The original stars of The Book of Mormon together again, in a hilarious new musical about an unintentionally hilarious new musical!
Need we say more? Okay we will! Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells – who became pretty famous on Broadway and then extremely super famous out in Hollywood – are coming back to their musical theater roots, putting on a show together because they just love each other so damn much. And what did they pick? A hilarious new musical from the guys who wrote Beetlejuice and the guy who directed Beetlejuice and Moulin Rouge.
First Preview: September 19, 2023
Opening Date: October 10, 2023
Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends — writer Mary and lyricist & playwright Charley. An inventive cult-classic ahead of its time, Merrily We Roll Along features some of Stephen Sondheim’s most celebrated and personal songs. Maria Friedman first directed the musical at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory – a production that subsequently transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre, where it garnered the most five-star reviews in West End history before going on to win the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival.
First Preview: October 13, 2023
Opening Date: November 2, 2023
Danny DeVito returns to Roundabout Theatre Company following his Tony Award nominated turn in Arthur Miller’s The Price, alongside his daughter, Lucy DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas in this deeply human new comedy from Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet).
First Preview: October 18, 2023
Opening Date: November 13, 2023
Berlin, 1927.
Six remarkably talented young men form a singing group who become international sensations: The Comedian Harmonists. They sell millions of records, star in major motion pictures, and play the biggest theaters around the world. By 1935, they were never heard from again. What happened? That’s the extraordinary true story of Harmony.
Harmony features an original score by Tony®, Grammy® and Emmy® Award winner Barry Manilow with lyrics and book by long-time collaborator and Drama Desk Award winner Bruce Sussman.
Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle (The Music Man, Hello Dolly!), this timely and captivating rags-to-riches story lost to history comes to dazzling life with a sensational cast of Broadway favorites, including Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera), Julie Benko (Funny Girl), and Chip Zien (Into the Woods).
First Preview: October 31, 2023
Opening Date: November 16, 2023
The Tony Award®-winning Best Musical that set Broadway back 1,000 years returns!
Spamalot, the musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, returns to Broadway for the first time ever, following a record-breaking sold-out run at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
First Preview: November 15, 2023
Opening Date: December 10, 2023
The new musical How to Dance in Ohio – inspired by Alexandra Shiva’s Peabody Award-winning documentary of the same name – will open on Broadway this fall at the Belasco Theatre. Reprising their roles from the world premiere engagement at Syracuse Stage, in the parts of the real-life autistic young adults featured in the HBO documentary, are a cast of seven autistic actors, all making their Broadway debuts.
First Preview: November 29, 2023
Opening Date: December 18, 2023
Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon) and Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery, 2ST’s Mary Page Marlowe) invite you to one helluva reunion in the darkly comic American family drama, Appropriate, starring Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award winner Sarah Paulson.
First Preview: December 19, 2023
Opening Date: January 9, 2024
Prayer for the French Republic, written by Drama Desk Award winner Joshua Harmon and directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer, comes to Broadway following Manhattan Theatre Club’s highly acclaimed, twice-extended, sold-out world premiere at New York City Center – Stage I. MTC commissioned this play, which was the winner of the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.