Off-Broadway shows to see this spring
Discover the major plays and musicals coming to New York theatres this spring, including new shows from award-winning writers and star-led productions.
Spring is known as theatre's busy season, and that's not just true of Broadway shows vying for Tony Awards in June. Honors like the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards include Off-Broadway shows, too, so theatre companies regularly present major new works in the spring for consideration.
Off-Broadway theatre is a vast landscape, with venues scattered across Manhattan and beyond. It would be nearly impossible to round up all the shows opening off Broadway this spring, but we've named the shows premiering at major institutions, including Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theater Company, Second Stage Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, and more. Plus, check out buzzy revivals and star-led productions playing at additional New York theatres.
Learn about major Off-Broadway musicals and plays opening this spring below, listed in order of start date. To discover even more spring theatre, check out our roundup of all the spring Broadway shows premering this season.
Get Off-Broadway show tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Musicals off Broadway this spring
Off-Broadway musicals are rarer than plays, so when they come along, they're a treat. Now-celebrated musicals like Hamilton began as Off-Broadway spring headliners, so one or more of these shows could be the next blockbuster Broadway hit by next spring.
A Sign of the Times
Petula Clark said to go downtown, but you'll have to go to Midtown for this new musical that transports audiences back to the '60s, when the world was changing rapidly every day. The story of a photographer trying to find her place in this world amid anti-war, civil rights, and women's rights movements is set to the decade's biggest pop hits, like "Downtown" and "Rescue Me."
Performances start: February 7
Check back for information on A Sign of the Times tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Teeth
Based on the 2007 cult classic film, Teeth is a new musical with bite. Pulitzer and Tony winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs adapted the story of Dawn, a Christian teen whose body literally snaps back when men try to violate it, awakening long-suppressed confusion, rage, and desire in Dawn.
Performances start: February 21
Check back for information on Teeth tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
The Lonely Few
This tender, romantic show is New York-bound after premiering on the West Coast. Up-and-coming musician Lila gets a chance for her band to tour with well-known musician Amy. But instead of just finding her big break, Lila finds an unexpected romance with Amy. But can it survive beyond the road?
Performances start: April 26
Check back for information on The Lonely Few tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Three Houses
Dave Malloy, the acclaimed creator of Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812, is back with his newest original musical. During the pandemic, three people — one in Ireland, one in Latvia, and one in New Mexico — may be miles apart, but they undergo a common journey of confronting their pasts in isolation.
Performances start: April 30
Check back for information on Three Houses tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Plays off Broadway this spring
Off-Broadway is the place to find exciting new plays and see them in intimate venues. Multiple award-winning Broadway writers are premiering their latest works off Broadway this spring alongside exciting emerging playwrights telling stories you won't hear anywhere else this season.
Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy
Like any coworkers, Masha, Nikolai, and Egor have to deal with everyday challenges: interpersonal issues, office crushes, and the office raffle for a microwave. Except they do it while spreading disinformation and creating fake personas as part of Russia's internet manipulation agency. Political satire and workplace comedy collide in Sarah Gancher's new play.
Performances start: January 25
Oh, Mary!
Award-winning writer and comedian Cole Escola reimagines the story of former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in their new dark comedy. With Conrad Ricamora as "Mary's Husband" — i.e. former President Abraham Lincoln — James Scully as her teacher, and more, Escola explores the alcoholism, suppressed desire, and more that defined Mary's life just before her husband's assassination.
Performances start: January 26
Get Oh, Mary! tickets now.
I Love You So Much I Could Die
How does one speak the unspeakable? One way is to have AI voice-to-text software do it for you. performs creator Mona Pirnot's monologues about previously secretive stories from her life, while she provides live music accompaniment. Playwright Lucas Hnath directs Pirnot — his real-life partner — in this form-breaking, utterly unique multimedia show.
Performances start: February 1
Get I Love You So Much I Could Die tickets now.
Brooklyn Laundry
As if having two revivals — Doubt on Broadway and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea off Broadway — this season wasn't enough, Oscar-, Pulitzer-, and Tony-winning writer John Patrick Shanley is throwing a world premiere into the mix. He directs Cecily Strong, David Zayas, and more in his play about three sisters and a laundromat owner dealing with the wickedly funny challenges and curveballs of everyday city life.
Performances start: February 6
Get Brooklyn Laundry tickets now.
The Seven Year Disappear
Cynthia Nixon returns to the New York stage to play a wandering artist who unexpectedly returns to her son's (Taylor Trensch) life, forcing him to face long-suppressed memories. This production, presented by the New Group, marks a reunion between the Sex and the City star and director Scott Elliott, who previously directed her in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Performances start: February 6
Check back for information on The Seven Year Disappear tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Pericles
This Shakespeare classic gets a new staging this spring, reintroducing audiences to this tragicomic story of love, betrayal, and pirates. A certain death sentence sends the young title prince out of his homeland and on a thrilling adventure on the high seas.
Performances start: February 8
Get Pericles tickets now.
The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers
Beloved TV show host raised a generation of fun-loving fans on his Nickelodeon game show Double Dare and his Food Network show Unwrapped. Now, Summers steps back into his old gig — sort of — performing this game-show-meets-theatrical-memoir about the ups and downs of his life and career. In between little-known stories, Summers will enlist audience members in interactive challenges — watch out for the slime!
Performances start: February 14
Get The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers tickets now.
Corruption
When British Parliament member Tom Watson went after Rupert Murdoch's News International for publishing slander, he ended up uncovering something much bigger: a phone hacking scandal that rocked the company. First documented in the book Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and The Corruption of Britain, the story now gets the stage treatment in J. T. Rogers's play.
Performances start: February 15
Check back for information on Corruption tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
The Ally
For progressive professor Asaf, signing his student's social justice petition seems like a no-brainer at first. But in this new play by Tony Award-winning The Band's Visit writer Itamar Moses, he ends up caught in the middle of multiple conflicting agendas that challenge every facet of his identity — religious, political, familial, and personal.
Performances start: February 15
Get The Ally tickets now.
The Effect
It's been said that love is a drug, but what happens when love and drugs collide? When two patients a clinical drug trial fall in love, is it real, or is it just a side effect? Playwright Lucy Prebble probes these questions and more in her sharp show, coming to The Shed from a celebrated London run with its cast and creative team intact.
Performances start: March 3
Get The Effect tickets now.
Sally & Tom
Tom, the director and star of a play about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, is dating the woman playing Sally. What could go wrong? Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks's new play strikingly compares historical power plays with those of today.
Performances start: March 28
Get Sally & Tom tickets now.
Orlando
Taylor Mac stars in the latest revival of Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl's time- and gender-defying play based on Virginia Woolf's novel. Across centuries, the title character morphs from a 16th-century man to a 20th-century woman, rediscovering their social, romantic, and personal preferences and standards many times over in a continual process of becoming.
Performances start: April 2
Check back for information on Orlando tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Jordans
The lone Black employee at a white-dominated company is at first excited when another young Black woman gets hired. But in the cutthroat corporate world, they're pitted against each other to make it to the top. Obie Award winner Whitney White directs this ferocious play by Ife Olujobi.
Performances start: April 11
Check back for information on Jordans tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Staff Meal
A restaurant in the city acts as a kind of oasis for a ragtag group of folks seeking refuge from the outside world. At least until closing time, they're safe there — but what happens after? This world-premiere comedy by Abe Koogler is all about people searching for connection and comfort in a lonely world.
Performances start: April 12
Check back for information on Staff Meal tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Here There Are Blueberries
In 2007, one small photo collection sparked a huge nationwide debate. A U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum received pictures of Nazis frolicking and relaxing while atrocities raged on, prompting questions about what parts of history should be remembered and displayed — and what those decisions say about the people who make them. Moisés Kaufman, Amanda Gronich, and Tectonic Theater Project, creators of The Laramie Project, present this play based on true events.
Performances start: April 17
Check back for information on Here There Are Blueberries tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
The Welkin
Tony Award nominee Lucy Kirkwood returns to New York with her latest play about womanhood, truth, and democracy. In 1759 England, a convicted woman reveals she's pregnant, hoping to escape her death sentence — and it's up to 12 of her fellow townswomen to decide her fate.
Performances start: May 16
Check back for information on The Welkin tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
What Became of Us
Two siblings, each born in a different country, must figure out how to maintain their connections to both places and each other without losing any part of their identity. This Atlantic Theater Company production marks the Off-Broadway debut of playwright Shayan Lotfi.
Performances start: May 2024
Check back for information on What Became of Us tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
Wine in the Wilderness
Alice Childress is having a moment. Two seldom-produced plays by the accomplished writer — Trouble in Mind and Wedding Band — got New York stagings in the 2022-23 season, and now a third, Wine in the Wilderness, follows suit. Tony Award-winning actress LaChanze, who starred in Trouble in Mind on Broadway, makes her New York directorial debut with this show about the complex and fiery relationship between a Harlem artist and his new muse.
Performances start: Spring 2024
Check back for information on Wine in the Wilderness tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
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