Broadway fall preview: Top theatre to see on Broadway this season
Check out our complete guide to everything opening on Broadway this fall, from starry revivals to thrilling new plays and musicals by celebrated writers.
It may be early in the year, but if you're taking a trip to NYC this fall, you're probably planning already, and seeing a Broadway show is a must. You can plan now for a trip to the theatre anytime this fall with our guide to all the most anticipated Broadway shows opening in the coming months. You probably already know about famous, long-running Broadway musicals like Chicago and The Lion King, but if you're looking for something new, you're in the right place.
Fall is a busy season on Broadway, with mega-musicals, revivals of award-winning classic shows, star-studded new plays, and more. There's something for everyone to enjoy — in fact, almost certainly more than one thing!
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Broadway musicals this fall
Whatever your taste in musical theatre is, you'll find it represented in the Broadway musicals opening this fall. Comedies, dramas, and various musical genres hit the stage this season. Discover all the Broadway musicals opening this fall, listed in order of start date.
Sunset Boulevard
Nicole Scherzinger is ready for her close-up — and to make her Broadway debut. Following a critically acclaimed run in London, director Jamie Lloyd's revival of Sunset Boulevard comes to New York from September 28. Scherzinger reprises her powerhouse performance in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as Norma Desmond, a Hollywood actress who can't accept that her star is fading, leading to extreme results.
Performances begin: September 28
Discover more:
- Guide to Sunset Boulevard on Broadway, starring Nicole Scherzinger
- How Sunset Boulevard blends film and theatre on Broadway
- All the songs in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway
- All the times Nicole Scherzinger did theatre
- A history of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals on Broadway
Get Sunset Boulevard tickets now.
Maybe Happy Ending
Boy meets girl, becomes friends with girl, falls in love with girl. That's the gist of Maybe Happy Ending — except in this case, boy and girl are robots. Emmy Award winner Darren Criss (American Crime Story, Glee), Helen J. Shen, and The Voice's Dez Duron star in this new musical about getting a new lease on life and love, even after you think your warranty's expired.
Performances begin: October 16
Discover more:
- Everything you need to know about Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway
- Darren Criss wants audiences to take a chance on Maybe Happy Ending
- Darren Criss theatre roles on Broadway and beyond
- The Maybe Happy Ending Broadway cast shares their favorite NYC date spots
- The Maybe Happy Ending cast shares the best Theatre District restaurants
Get Maybe Happy Ending tickets now.
A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Broadway's about to see la vie en rose with the arrival of A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical. Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart stars as the musician who not only reimagined jazz music, but blended it with pop, swing, Dixieland, and more to create a unique sound and defy racial and class barriers to become a legend.
Performances begin: October 16
Discover more:
- In A Wonderful World on Broadway, two Jameses make a Louis
- The Wonderful World Broadway cast's favorite live music venues in New York City
Tammy Faye
Hallelujah! Tammy Faye is on your stage from October 19, and she's ready to put the fun back into faith and love in your heart. This glitzy musical about the life of the famed televangelist features music by Elton John and the Scissor Sisters's Jake Shears, a script by Tony Award nominee James Graham, and a lead performance by Katie Brayben, reprising her role as Tammy Faye Bakker from the show's London premiere alongside two-time Tony Award winner Christian Borle as Jim Bakker.
Performances begin: October 19
Discover more:
- Everything you need to know about Tammy Faye on Broadway
- A history of Elton John musicals on Broadway and beyond
Death Becomes Her
Death became Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn in 1992, and it becomes Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in 2024. The Broadway favorites star in the new musical comedy adaptation of the hit movie Death Becomes Her, about two longtime frenemies whose feud seems like it will never die — and thanks to a magical anti-aging potion, perhaps they won't, either.
Performances begin: October 23
Discover more:
- Everything you need to know about Death Becomes Her on Broadway
- All the Death Becomes Her movie moments on stage
- What makes Death Becomes Her sing on Broadway
- Michelle Williams is coming alive in Death Becomes Her on Broadway
Get Death Becomes Her tickets now.
Swept Away
Experience an original story on the high seas, set to music by the rock band The Avett Brothers. Their 2004 album Mignonette, inspired by an infamous 19th-century shipwreck, is the basis of this story about four crewmen who rely on brotherhood, instinct, and unexpected sacrifices to make it out of a shipwreck alive.
Performances begin: October 29
Discover more:
- Everything you need to know about Swept Away on Broadway
- All the songs in Swept Away on Broadway
- Stark Sands and Adrian Blake Enscoe are riding the wave of Swept Away together
Elf The Musical
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear, so there's no better way to ring in the holidays than with the return of Elf The Musical to Broadway. Tony Award nominee Grey Henson (Mean Girls, Shucked) takes on the role made iconic by Will Ferrell on screen: Buddy the Elf, who travels from the North Pole to NYC to find his family.
Performances begin: November 9
Gypsy
Ready or not, here comes Audra! Following in the footsteps of Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, and more Audra McDonald is set to be the latest actress to play Momma Rose in Gypsy on Broadway. The classic musical, with songs like "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Let Me Entertain You," centers on a mother who'll stop at nothing to push her daughters into stardom.
Performances begin: November 21
Discover more:
- Guide to Gypsy on Broadway starring Audra McDonald
- The Hills of California and Gypsy are sister shows in more ways than one
- All the songs in Gypsy on Broadway
- Audra McDonald career timeline: Look back on her Tony-winning roles and more
- A history of Stephen Sondheim musicals on Broadway and beyond
Get Gypsy tickets now.
Broadway plays this fall
If you're not a frequent Broadway-goer, you might gravitate toward musicals. But don't overlook plays — they often feature celebrity casts, so you might see an actor from your favorite TV show or movie up close. Plus, while many Broadway musicals run for a while, plays usually get limited runs, so catch them before they close!
Lots of the plays on Broadway this fall have won awards, whether from previous Broadway runs or even before debuting on Broadway, and they'll make you laugh, cry, and everything between with their writing and performances. Learn more about all the Broadway plays in fall 2024, listed in order of start date.
The Roommate
Getting talent like Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone in one room is rare. But they are the title roommates in Jen Silverman's comedy about two women in the second acts of their lives. Sharon, recently divorced, takes in Robyn, her first-ever roommate. These two vastly different women open each other up to new possibilities for their lives as secrets and desires bubble up.
Performances begin: August 29
Discover more:
McNeal
See Robert Downey Jr. on the Broadway stage for the first time. In this play about the humanity and inhumanity of storytelling, the Iron Man and Oppenheimer star plays a writer with a celebrated career — as well as an estranged son, an unhealthy interest in A.I., and grudges that affect his work.
Performances begin: September 5
Discover more:
- Guide to McNeal on Broadway starring Robert Downey Jr.
- Brittany Bellizeare stands with theatre legends in McNeal on Broadway
The Hills of California
When the Webb sisters return to their childhood home as their mother lays dying, they must grapple with the consequences of choices they made 20 years earlier, when they were aspiring singers offered a chance at fame and an escape. The Hills of California is the latest play from Tony and Olivier Award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth and Oscar, Tony, and Olivier-winning director Sam Mendes.
Performances begin: September 11
Discover more:
- Meet the cast of The Hills of California
- The Hills of California and Gypsy are sister shows in more ways than one
Yellow Face
Daniel Dae Kim is returning to Broadway, playing a stand-in for Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang in Yellow Face. Hwang based this comedy on something that actually happened to him: After protesting yellowface casting in Miss Saigon, the playwright mistakenly did the same thing by casting a white actor as an Asian character in one of his shows. Performances begin in September, with exact dates to be announced.
Performances begin: September 13
Our Town
This town is packed with talent. Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, Katie Holmes, Ephraim Sykes, Julie Halston, and more lead the latest revival of Our Town on Broadway, directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (Topdog/Underdog, Purlie Victorious, A Soldier's Play). Thorton Wilder's classic show about life and death, told through the story of one rural couple, returns for a new generation.
Performances begin: September 17
Discover more:
Romeo + Juliet
Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler are two actors alike in dignity. The fast-rising young Hollywood stars, known respectively for Heartstopper and Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, will star in a revival of Shakespeare's tragedy that features music by Jack Antonoff, the frontman of the band Bleachers and music producer for artists like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.
Performances begin: September 26
Discover more:
- Guide to Romeo + Juliet on Broadway, starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler
- The most famous Romeo and Juliet adaptations on stage and screen
Left on Tenth
Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher star in Left on Tenth, a play based on the same-named memoir by You've Got Mail screenwriter Delia Ephron. Not only is she known for writing rom-coms, but she also lived one herself when she met a man from her past, reignited a spark, and had to navigate those feelings while other aspects of her life took an unexpected turn.
Performances begin: September 26
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Cult of Love
Emmy Award-nominated writer Leslye Headland (Poker Face, The Acolyte) makes her Broadway debut with this play about a not-so-happy holiday. Four adult children and their partners reunite with their deeply religious parents at Christmas, trying to maintain family traditions. But tensions from their upbringing and beyond explode as they wait (and wait) for dinner.
And who's in that family, you ask? Big Little Lies's Shailene Woodley, Star Trek's Zachary Quinto, and Euphoria's Barbie Ferreira are just a few of the starry names in the cast.
Performances begin: November 20
Eureka Day
School is in session at playwright Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day, named for a fictional school with very relaxed policies to ensure inclusion of all. One of those is a forgiving vaccine policy, but when a mumps outbreak occurs, the school board has tough decisions to make.
Performances begin: November 25
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All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich
See John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Chloe Fineman, and Richard Kind return to the stage for a limited time only. Part of a rotating cast with additional members to be announced, this new show about love, marriage, and heartbreak is adapted from short stories by playwright Simon Rich.
Performances begin: December 11
Discover more:
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