LAST UPDATED: 2/22/2025
Friends always ask me how I see so manyy 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. (But good news if you’re under 30, 35 or even 40: Quite a few theaters have great ticket discount programs.)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. I’ll annotate when it feels right: a star* means I have a ticket, two stars** means I liked it (or, honestly, a trusted friend-of-the-newsletter did) This letter will appear in your inbox when there’s enough worthy of an update. Otherwise, please check back regularly! If you’re looking to see something on stage (and off-Broadway) today, check out Stage Spotlight NYC.
SEEN ANYTHING GOOD LATELY? REPLY TO THIS EMAIL & TELL ME! PLEASE!
currently running (and about to run)
Night Sings Its Songs by Jon Fosse (Feb 7 — Mar 1, Theatre Row)
Between day and night, dream and nightmare, Night Sings Its Songs is a modern day tragedy about two people who love each other desperately, but in an attempt to find each other again, push each other into a downward spiral of miscommunication.
The Antiquities by Jordan Harrison (Jan 11 — Mar 2, Vineyard Theatre)* [EXTENDED]
At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, the curators are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again: What were humans really like? What did they wear, what did they eat, how did they die out?
On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco and Other Substances by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Lita Lofton (Feb 20 — Mar 2, Theaterlab)
On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco and Other Substances, director Lita Lofton masterfully reimagines Anton Chekhov’s hidden gems—short stories, letters, and lesser-known plays—into a vibrant tapestry of wit and humanity.
The Barbarians by Jerry Lieblich (Feb 14 – Mar 2, LaMaMa)
The Barbarians nestles in the valley between the word and the world, the declaration of war and the war itself — what if the President declared a war, but the words wouldn’t work?
SAFE HOUSE by Enda Walsh and Anna Mullarkey (Feb 15 — Mar 2, Irish Arts Center)*
In an outdoor handball alley in the Irish countryside—amongst rubbish and debris—a young woman, Grace, is living alone.
Grangeville by Samuel D. Hunter (Feb 4 — Mar 16, Signature Theatre)*
Across a void of thousands of miles and oceans of hurt, two half-brothers tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mother.
The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) by Nia Akilah Robinson (Feb 26 — Mar 23, Soho Rep)*2
1832: a mother and daughter stand vigil behind the African Baptist Church in Philadelphia at the grave of a recently deceased loved one. Today, on the same grounds: another strangely familiar mother and daughter work as counselors at what is now a sleepaway camp.
Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? by Michael Walek (Mar 3 — 30, Ensemble Studio Theater)
The Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in the wild under one condition - she must bring a chaperone. So, Jane invited her mother.
AMERIKIN by Chisa Hutchinson (Mar 1 — Apr 13, 59E59)
In small-town Maryland, Jeff Browning resolves to give his newborn son every possible advantage – by joining a local white supremacist group. When his attempt to join is thwarted by some surprising ancestry test results, the line between “us” and “them” gets incredibly blurry.
Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods by Emma Horwitz and Bailey Williams (Mar 28 — Apl 26, HERE)*3
A researcher collides with a librarian, paranormal investigators are abducted by aliens, and a pet shop owner receives a late-night visitor. Who are we to each other, really, when we are all so many things? T
festivals & series
theater over $50 & probably worth it (and sometimes there’s a discount if you’re young, so check the fine print!)
Mary Said What She Said by Darryl Pinckney (Feb 27 - Mar 2, Skirball)
Award-winning French actress Isabelle Huppert gives a tour de force performance in this remarkable production, directed and designed by the American theatre visionary Robert Wilson. Mary Said What She Said charts the life and torments of Mary Stuart, the sovereign whose passions cost her a crown.
Henry IV by William Shakespeare (adapted by Dakin Matthews) (Jan 30 — Mar 2, Theatre for a New Audience)
With vivid, indelible characters drawn from 15th-century England’s civil war, the Adaptation is gripping and epic, exploring timeless questions about legitimate authority and how the private lives of rulers conflict with their public lives.
On The Evolutionary Function of Shame by D.A. Mindell (Feb 12 – Mar 9, Second Stage Theater)4
In the beginning, two people got kicked out of a garden for eating fruit. Many years later, Adam—a transgender man expecting a child—meets with his twin sister, Eve, a pioneering scientist. She offers her brother prenatal services from her cutting-edge practice.
DOOM: House of Hope by Anne Imhof (Mar 3 – 12, Park Avenue Armory)
Utilizing the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, this all-encompassing work fuses space, performers, sound, and scenography in response to our present in which anxiety and hope find a fragile balance between apathy, activism, and resistance.
SUMO by Lisa Sanaye Dring (Feb 20 - Mar 23, The Public Theater)5
Akio arrives as an angry, ambitious 18-year-old with a lot to learn. Expecting validation, dominance, and fame, and desperate to move up the ranks, he slams headlong into his fellow wrestlers. With sponsorship money at stake, their bodies on the line, and their futures at risk, the wrestlers struggle to carve themselves—and one another—into the men they dream of being.
Deep Blue Sound by Abe Koogler (Feb 25 — Mar 29, The Public)**6
On an island in the Pacific Northwest, the community gathers to address the disappearance of the local orca pod. Friendships fray, tumors grow, new love blooms, wood is chopped, poems are written. The seasons change. Will the whales ever return?
Liberation by Bess Wohl (Jan 31 — Mar 30, Roundabout Theatre)**7
1970, Ohio. Lizzie gathers a small group of women to talk. But talking quickly becomes a necessary and bracingly funny attempt to change their own lives and the world. Fifty years later, her daughter is shocked to find herself asking the very same questions her mother did, and goes on a search through the past for answers.
Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard (Feb 4 — Mar 30, The New Group)
With their family home on the verge of collapse and the creditors closing in, the Tate family white knuckles to their past, while scratching and clawing their way towards a better future.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Feb 28 — Apr 6, BAM)**
In the sweltering heat of New Orleans summer, a woman's grip on the world begins to slip. When Blanche arrives at her sister Stella's doorstep, desperate and out of options, her complicated past ignites a smoldering tension within the walls of the stifling apartment.
Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress (Mar 6 — Apr 13, CSC)
Set against the backdrop of the 1964 Harlem riot on a hot summer night, Wine in the Wilderness is a rarely-seen play from the brilliant mind of Alice Childress, whose Trouble in Mind recently took Broadway by storm.
We Had a World by Joshua Harmon (Feb 25 — Apr 13, MTC)
A dying woman calls her grandson and asks him to write a play about their family. “But I want you to promise me something,” she says. “Make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible."
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (adapted by Mark O'Rowe) (Feb 13 — Apr 13, LTC)*
After several years abroad, Helena Alving’s son, Oswald has returned home. He carries with him a terrifying secret. Ibsen’s Ghosts is a devastating moral thriller in which ideas of love, duty and family are mercilessly put to the test.
All Nighter by Natalie Margolin (Feb 24 — May 17, MCC Theatre Space)*
A tight-knit group of roommates pull one last all-nighter to complete their final assignments. Holed up in an old ballroom, the hours pass, the pressure mounts, the Adderall flows, and the truths that have always bound this group together are put to the test.
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (May 13 — June 22, Signature Theatre)*
In life, Eurydice loves books…and a great musician. One of the few heroines who dies twice, she falls to the underworld on her wedding day. In death, she reunites with her father and remembers her life again.
Quite a few theaters have “Under 30”, “Under 35” or “Under 40”! programs OR student discounts. Check for them when you’re buying tickets — for example, Manhattan Theatre Club’s 30 Under 35, HIPTIX at Roundabout (if you’re under 40!), Lincoln Center Theater’s LincTix for Under 35s, Second Stage Theatre’s $30 Under 30, Irish Rep’s GreenSeats for Under 35s, Playwrights Horizons’ 30 & Under Membership, Vineyard Theater’s 40 Under 40 (where for $40 (once) you can get any ticket to any show for $20), and New York City Center’s “Access Club” just extended their age limit from 35 to 40(!) — according to this TikToker. 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 code tmtcharlem at check out for $20 Tix (this code is only good for the show on March 13th)
Use discount code HEARTS for $25 dollar tickets now until February 21st.
Get tickets starting at $39 with code EDEN.
Use code MAYISUMO for a small discount, and no fees.
Get tickets (for now) for $45 (no fees!) with code CTFAN25.