New York Theater: Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway. There are revivals Off-Broadway of Tony Kushner’s first play, one of María Irene Fornés most beloved, and Ntozake Shange’s big Broadway hit; new musicals with books by David Henry Hwang and Enda Walsh, a wild new 24-hour play, and a modern rewrite of Medea starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale.
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This article is great for anyone who is interested in musical theatre, is planning a trip to New York City, and doesn’t want to/can’t pay big money to see a Broadway show. This article is a background on the difference between Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with whether it is actually on the street named Broadway or not; it regards the number of seats that the theatre has: <100 is Off-Off-Broadway, 100-499 is Off-Broadway, and 500 or more is a Broadway show. Not only does this article do an amazing job at organizing the shows by theatre, it also highlights the shows that Johnathon Mandell, the author, is excited to see this upcoming theatre. One thing I did not like about this article at first was that Mandell only included shows for the first half of the 2019-2020 season. After seeing how many shows that are going on in New York for the rest of 2019 for 100-499 people, I realize that including 2020 in that mix would make this article a novel. The article does feature some opinions on certain theatres and productions, which makes it unique.
It is really informative to read this article, and I could see it being beneficial to anyone who wants to know what is happening in the New York theatre scene (so I can see it appealing to a lot of people). I personally think some of the work that is done Off-Broadway can be more interesting than some of the things that are on Broadway, since they are often some of the starting point for Broadway shows. I also wanted to point out some of the particular shows that stuck out to me on this list. “Soft Power” at The Public Theater is incredibly interesting to me and sounds like a show that is going to be very different than Tesori’s past musical contributions, after hearing her speak about the process of writing it at my internship. “A Bright Room Called Day” at The Public Theater also stood out to me because I have a strong feeling it is going to make a powerful statement like the one made with their previous production of Julius Caesar. ‘History of Violence” at St. Ann’s Warehouse, though not fully flushed out in it’s description, sounds like it will be a moving piece that will receive mixed reviews from it’s audiences because of it’s international relationship. “Fefu and Her Friends” at Theatre for A New Audience will be an interesting production of an older work, especially with Fornés recent passing, and one that I would love to read a review about since we studied it in Foundations of Drama. Overall, this article listed some main productions at the major Off-Broadway houses, but the list of all the theatrical places and venues that will be producing incredible work this season is even more expansive.
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