ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who wrote most of the disco-pop group's enduring hits, are most closely associated with Broadway thanks to the sunny rom-com Mamma Mia! — but they scored another musical, too. That would be Chess, a darker drama about people caught in a game of love, loyalty, and power amid an American-Soviet chess match. Both shows are having their first revivals this fall, making you, the audience, the winners who can take it all (in).

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Some performers get little stage time, but make a big impact. The same can be true for creatures. A massive striped sandworm makes a few memorable cameos in the musical adaptation of Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice — it just wrapped its third Broadway run), while the spider-like Mind Flayer descends upon the stage in a climatic moment in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a stage prequel to Netflix's sci-fi series. It's a scream.

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Hadestown is a retelling of the tragic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting their love story to folk and jazz music. But did you know it's not the only show inspired by those fabled lovers? Moulin Rouge! The Musical's Christian and Satine are inspired by multiple pairs of star-crossed lovers, including Orpheus and Eurydice. And instead of a jazzy score, their tale is set to dozens of chart-topping pop hits, just like in Baz Luhrmann's hit film.

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If you love movies like Wall-E and Big Hero 6, then these two futuristic Broadway shows will tug at your heartstrings (heart-wires?). The 2025 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Maybe Happy Ending follows two obsolete, humanoid robots who spark an unexpected romance, and Marjorie Prime sees an elderly woman turn to an AI version of her late husband to relive her memories with him.

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An unusual trend emerged in the 2024-25 Broadway season: musical comedies involving corpses. Two are still alive on Broadway: Death Becomes Her, in which two frenemies take a potion that gives them eternal youth but stops their heartbeats, and Operation Mincemeat, about a daring WWII operation that hinged on disguising a dead body as an Allied soldier.

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For better or worse, some shows age like wine as their themes become more resonant in step with America's sociopolitical landscape. The 1998 musical Ragtime, back on Broadway following a 2024 Off-Broadway concert staging, is one such show, exploring class differences, racism, and social change in early-1900s New York — and suggesting the progress that still has yet to be made. Similarly, Bess Wohl's award-winning play Liberation, also straight from off Broadway, examines what progress has and hasn't been made since the 1970s feminist movement.

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You're never too old to feel like a child again. The Disney musicals Aladdin and The Lion King are timeless favorites both for kids and kids-at-heart who grew up with the animated films, and even adults will be wowed by the inventive animal puppetry of The Lion King and the unbelievable magic behind Aladdin's flying carpet.

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Sometimes, an unexpected circumstance leads to an unlikely connection. That's the common thread in two wildly different new shows this fall. The Laurie Metcalf-led drama Little Bear Ridge Road sees an aunt and her estranged, gay nephew inch toward a newfound relationship as they sort out the aftermath of a family death, while Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is a musical rom-com about two previously unacquainted wedding guests — a no-nonsense New Yorker and a cheery, visiting Brit — who bond en route to the big event.

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It's one thing to relive a historic figure's heyday; it's another to dive into their mind and discover how they became an icon in the first place. MJ The Musical frames the King of Pop's songs in the context of his meticulous creative process, while Hamilton (written by modern-day creative genius Lin-Manuel Miranda) uses hip-hop music to tell the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton: writer, speaker, and originator of America's financial system as we know it.

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