notbroadway.theater
mostly plays, mostly new york city & only $50 (or under)
LAST UPDATED: 11/8/2022
ALWAYS UPDATING! CHECK BACK REGULARLY! 👍
Friends always ask me how I see so many plays that they’ve never even heard of. The long answer is, “I get recommendations, pay attention to playwrights whose work I’ve liked in the past and most crucially, I also subscribe to (and skim) many, many individual theater’s newsletters.” The short answer is, “It’s weirdly hard and annoying!” And EXPENSIVE.1
This is a free newsletter, but it’s also an ever-updating landing page and a list of what I’m seeing, as well as what I’d like to see in-theater. But I am not a theater critic! Just a fan. And I’ll annotate when it feels right: a star* means I have tickets and a double star** means I saw something and really enjoyed it. If something disappears from this list, wellllllll, it wasn’t that good. This letter will appear in your inbox when there’s enough worthy of an update. Otherwise, please check back! Now get out there and buy some theater tickets.
currently running (and about to run)
peerless by Jiehae Park (Sept 24 - Nov 6, 59e59)
A take on Macbeth, but set in the world of “elite” college admissions…
Montag by Kate Tarker (Oct 12 - Nov 13, Soho Rep)* [EXTENDED]
“Montag is a domestic thriller, a sleep deprivation comedy, and a rebellion celebration under threat of annihilation.” (Confirmed: this one is very very very weird!)
Chester Bailey by Joseph Dougherty (Oct 12 - Nov 13, Irish Rep)
Starring an actual father-son pair (actors Reed and Ephraim Birney) as father and son! This show was also staged last year at Barrington Stage Company and got Critic’s Pick in the NYT.
The Unbelieving by Marin Gazzaniga (Oct 20 - Nov 19, The Civillians @ 59E59)
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (Oct 5 – Nov 20, BEDLAM @ Irondale)
Hedda is being done alongside Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale by a theater company called BEDLAM, who have won lots of awards and are known for their “innovative, stripped-down stagings.” (Like their take on Sense & Sensibility from 2016.)
Betsy by Neil Greenberg (Nov 12 - 20, The Downstairs at LaMaMa)
My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Oct 18 - Nov 27, Signature Theatre)
The Patient Gloria By Gina Moxley (Nov 16 – Dec 4, St Ann’s Warehouse)
Sandra by David Cale (Nov 3 – Dec 11, Vineyard Theater)*2
The Gett by Liba Vaynberg (Nov 9 – Dec 11, Rattlestick Theater)
Downstate by Bruce Norris (Oct 28 – Dec 11, Playwrights Horizons)**
La Race by Bleu Beckford-Burrell (Nov 22 – Dec 23, McGinn/Cazale Theater)
“Building on the sliding scale ticket model launched by Working Theater, and reflecting our commitment to accessibility for all audiences, there will be six ticket price points for audiences to choose from ranging between $85 and $0.”
Ye Bear & Ye Cubb by No.11 Productions (Dec 8 – 23, 59E59)
“…drops the fourth wall, immersing audiences in a colonial tavern for a high octane reimagining of the first known English-language play in North America — and the trial it ignites.”
YOUR OWN PERSONAL EXEGESIS by Julia May Jonas (Nov 18 – Dec 31, LCT)
Euphoria by Julian Rosefeldt (Nov 29 – Jan 8, 2023, Park Ave Armory)*
Is this a play? Not really, but a “multi-channel film installation Euphoria, which explores capitalism, colonialism, and the influential effects of unlimited economic growth in society.” That you walk through? I’m down.
FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER IS DRUNK AND THE SHEEP HAVE ALL JUMPED THE FENCES by Big Telly Theatre Company (Jan 11 – 28, 2023, 59E59)
ongoing, etc.
BAM’s Next Wave Festival (Starting in October, BAM)**
Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen have been courtesy of the BAM Next Wave Festival. But they often don’t run very long, so you gotta just go for it. Right now I have tickets to: A Little Life*, 300 el x 50 el x 30 el**, Trojan Woman,* Crowd** & Transverse Orientation.
Ensemble Studio Theater’s 38th Annual One-Act Plays (Oct 16 - Nov 13, EST)
Radical Acts Festival (Nov 10 - 19, JACK)
THE 18TH ANNUAL UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL (Jan 4 – Jan 22, 2023, various theaters)**
Under the Radar is amazing festival with shows from all over the world being staged all over NYC. I can’t wait to see quite a few of these. Here are a few I’ll def be grabbing tickets to: Are we not drawn onward to new erA*, seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Moby Dick (Plexus Polaire), The Indigo Room & Protec/Attac*
theater over $50 & probably worth it
Catch as Catch Can by Mia Chung (Oct 13 – Nov 20, Playwrights Horizons)*3
The Year of Magical Thinking: A Play by Joan Didion (Oct 19 - Nov 20, various)
This play adaptation of Joan Didion’s memoir will take place in real living rooms in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx; “the exact addresses will be shared with ticket holders on the morning of the performance.”
Plays for the Plague Year by Suzan-Lori Parks (Nov 4 - Nov 27, The Public Theater)
A “theatrical concert” by Parks based on her experience writing “a play every day” during lockdown.
You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz (Oct 14 - Dec 11, Roundabout Theatre)
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Will Arbery (Oct 25 - Dec 18, The Pershing Square Signature Center)*
Yet another play by Will Arbery this season — his last was the lauded Corsicana at Playwrights Horizons. (And the one before was the controversial(???), Heroes of the Fourth Turning.)
Straight Line Crazy by David Hare (Oct 18 – Dec 18, The Shed)
“Ralph Fiennes is Robert Moses…” Well, OK!
Camp Siegfried by Bess Wohl (Oct 26 - Dec 29, 2nd Stage)4
“Wohl has salvaged that history in “Camp Siegfried,” an intimate two-character play directed by David Cromer. It’s in previews now, and opens on Nov. 15 at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater. Over the course of a summer, a nameless boy, 17, and a girl, 16, fall in and out of what isn’t exactly love. It’s a play about seduction, Wohl believes — by bodies, by beliefs, by stories.” (NYT)
Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl (Oct 27 - Dec 31, Newhouse Theater @ Lincoln Center Theater)
Sarah Ruhl is a storied playwright (The Clean House, etc.) and Deidre O’Connell is theater’s It Girl right now after starring in the Lucas Hnath’s Dana H., and then Will Arbery’s Corsicana. This show premiered at Berkley Rep earlier this year.
Des Moines by Denis Johnson (Nov 29 – Jan 1, 2023, TFANA)
Sold as the final play by late American author Denis Johnson, this one has Hari Nef and Michael Shannon starring in it.
on the horizon
A Simulacrum by Lucas Hnath (May 25 - June 25, 2023, The Atlantic Theatre)
“Lucas is a playwright. Steve is a magician. Lucas asked Steve to show him some magic tricks. Steve did. And this is what happened.” (Lucas previously wrote the Vineyard Theatre-to-Broadway hit, Dana H.)
Quite a few theater companies have “Under 35” OR student discounts. I won’t be noting them here, but you should check for them when you’re buying tickets and you happen to be blessed with the gift of youth. (Or you have an active student ID.) Other ways to get cheaper tickets: sign up for the theater’s newsletter (they’ll often send out codes for discounts) or check TodayTix.
Use promo code SANDRA25 for $25 tickets to Sandra, valid only during previews through 11/19.
With a (free!) Young Membership (under 35), you can get tickets for $20.
2nd Stage has a $30 under 30 deal for people… under 30.