Top Broadway plays

Check out our guide to the best Broadway plays on right now, featuring celebrity stars and time-honored stories that are often on for a limited time only.

Broadway is famous for its long-running hit musicals, its plays are just as exciting. Many successful musicals stick around for decades, but plays regularly rotate, ensuring there's always a new show to discover. Plus, you can often catch celebrities in Broadway plays — but only for a limited time.

Check out the top Broadway plays to see right now, including starry revivals of classic plays and fan-favorite modern hits.

Get tickets to a Broadway play on New York Theatre Guide.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has put Broadway audiences under its spell since 2018. Harry Potter fans will recognize all their favorite characters, and some new ones, in this stage sequel to the books centered on the next generation of wizards.

And even non-Potterheads are bound to be amazed by the daring plot about time travel and the unbelievable special effects. All together, the performances and stagecraft of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will make you believe magic — or theatre magic, at least — is real.

Get Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets now.

The Shark Is Broken

In 1975, Steven Spielberg released Jaws and changed the film scene forever. His movie about a man-eating shark at an idyllic beach town was the first true "summer blockbuster" movie and propelled his career to new heights. But before any of that success happened, it almost didn't.

The mechanical sharks kept breaking down, the weather wasn't cooperating, and the film's stars — Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roy Scheider — were all at their wits' end. The Shark Is Broken, co-created by and starring Robert Shaw's son, takes a deep dive into that true story, and it's making waves on Broadway this summer.

Get The Shark Is Broken tickets now.

The Cottage

There's a lot of talent under one roof in this play. At the helm is Jason Alexander of Seinfeld, making his Broadway directorial debut with Sandy Rustin's new farce. His cast includes Will & Grace's Eric McCormack, Saturday Night Live's Alex Moffat, Legally Blonde: The Musical's Laura Bell Bundy, Tootsie: The Musical's Lilli Cooper, and more. They're taking Broadway audiences to the English countryside, where a woman having an affair decides to come clean to her husband and her lover's wife. All at the same time. Predictably, chaos ensues.

Get The Cottage tickets now.

I Need That

You need to see Danny DeVito in his return to Broadway. The Taxi and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star takes the stage alongside his daughter, Lucy DeVito, in the latest comedy by Theresa Rebeck. Sam (Danny DeVito) prefers the company of things to people, but he must decide once and for all what's actually worth keeping when faced with eviction if he doesn't clean up. DeVito's specialty is offbeat but captivating characters, and there's no doubt he'll shine as this one.

Get I Need That tickets now.

Jaja's African Hair Braiding

Ever bonded with your fellow patrons at a beauty salon? Overheard a juicy piece of local gossip while getting your hair done? You'll feel right at home in Jaja's African Hair Braiding, about a group of Harlem women doing just that in their neighborhood hair studio. But Jocelyn Bioh's comedy is about much more than just shallow chatter — as the women chat, this tight-knit community grapples with their fears about being pushed out of the neighborhood they've always called home.

Get Jaja's African Hair Braiding tickets now.

Purlie Victorious

The last time Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch was on Broadway, its writer, Ossie Davis, starred opposite his wife, Ruby Dee, and Martin Luther King, Jr. went to see it. That was in 1961. Now, this classic, sharp satire finally gets its first revival with Hamilton's Leslie Odom, Jr. in the title role. Purlie is on a mission to reclaim his inheritance and his hometown church from a white landowner, and hilarity and mishaps ensue as his schemes go haywire.

Get Purlie Victorious tickets now.