Top theatre to see in New York in October

Check out our guide to must-see Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre in October 2024, a popular month for the openings of buzzy new Broadway plays and musicals.

Fall is underway and it's time to fall in love with some new theatre — or fall in love with your favorite shows all over again. Broadway's long-running favorites are still going strong, but they're joined by plenty of new Broadway plays and musicals, including world-premiere Off-Broadway shows and many offerings with starry casts.

Check out our list of theatre to see in October 2024 below. And don't forget — it's Halloween season, so be sure to check out our roundup of spooky, supernatural, and magical Halloween shows and events in New York to visit.

Broadway shows in October

Noteworthy musicals and plays start performances on Broadway this month, including exciting revivals and new shows by award-winning artists. Be sure to check out these widely celebrated shows, many with celebrities in the cast.

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

Sunset Boulevard

Nicole Scherzinger is ready for her close-up. The former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman is now reprising her award-winning performance from London as Norma Desmond, a fading film star obsessed with retaking the spotlight. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is adapted from Billy Wilder's classic film — and it's the event of the season.

Get Sunset Boulevard tickets now.

Maybe Happy Ending

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Darren Criss (Glee, American Crime Story), Helen J. Shen, and The Voice's Dez Duron star in an original robotic rom-com. Criss and Shen play HelperBots (humanoid robots) past their warranty — but when they meet, sparks fly.

Get Maybe Happy Ending tickets now.

Yellow Face

Daniel Dae Kim stars in a comedy of errors and identity through November 24 only. The Lost star plays a stand-in for playwright David Henry Hwang, who protests yellowface casting in Miss Saigon only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.

Get Yellow Face tickets now.

Our Town

Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Ephraim Sykes, Julie Halston, and more make up one talented town! Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon's revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning drama brings the time-old classic to a new generation. The show's themes, however — of the cycle of life and death, and making the most of life while we have it — remain timeless.

Get Our Town tickets now.

Romeo + Juliet

Heartstopper star Kit Connor and West Side Story Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler are Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers in a new production of Romeo + Juliet. This isn't just the play you read in high school, though — this revival features original music by Jack Antonoff, the Grammy-winning music producer behind the hit songs of Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, Sara Bareilles, and many more.

Get Romeo + Juliet tickets now.

Left on Tenth

Delia Ephron, the screenwriter of You've Got Mail, lived her own real-life rom-com when she found a second chance romance at an unexpected turning point in her life. Now, Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher star as Delia and Peter in the stage adaptation of her heartwarming, swoon-worthy story.

Get Left on Tenth tickets now.

A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

What a wonderful musical! The songs of music legend Louis Armstrong are getting a whole new life in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, which charts the icon's trailblazing life and career as a man who defied music genres and race barriers to make an everlasting mark.

Get A Wonderful World tickets now.

Tammy Faye

Hallelujah! Katie Brayben, Christian Borle, and Michael Cerveris star in this critically acclaimed musical featuring songs by Elton John and the Scissor Sisters's Jake Shears. You may know the name of televangelist Tammy Faye, but do you know what went on in her life when the cameras weren't rolling? This heavenly, glitzy musical spectacular will preach the good word.

Get Tammy Faye tickets now.

Death Becomes Her

Now a warning? The cult classic 1992 film Death Becomes Her is now a Broadway musical to die for. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn popularized the roles of Madeline Ashton and Helen Sharp, two frenemies who drink a magic potion to achieve eternal youth. Now, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard step into the ladies' high heels opposite Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams as potion keeper Viola Van Horn and Christopher Sieber as Ernest Menville.

Get Death Becomes Her tickets now.

Swept Away

Anchors aweigh! Swept Away is a seafaring adventure musical set to the songs of rock band The Avett Brothers and inspired by the story of a real-life shipwreck. When four men are marooned on a tiny lifeboat after their vessel sinks, what sacrifices will they have to make to survive?

Get Swept Away tickets now.

Off-Broadway shows in October

Off-Broadway theatres have it all this month: innovative new plays, comedy shows, and more. Whatever your taste in theatre, you’ll find it off Broadway, so check out these shows starting New York performances this month and find one that's best for you.

Get tickets to an Off-Broadway show on New York Theatre Guide.

Hold on to Me Darling

Don't miss your chance to see Adam Driver on stage through December 22 only. Hold on to Me Darling stars the Oscar nominee as Strings McCrane, a star musician who returns to his hometown with plans to abandon fame and restart his life following the death of his mother. Fame, however, isn't quite ready to abandon him.

Get Hold on to Me Darling tickets now.

Shit. Meet. Fan.

Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Constance Wu, Debra Messing, and more play a chaotic friend group in this world-premiere play by Robert O'Hara. At a party, the friends play a game: Leave your phones out with the volume up, and everyone must read every message they receive out loud. As the game progresses and liquor flows, shocking secrets spill.

Get Shit. Meet. Fan. tickets now.

Teeth

Take a bite out of this critically acclaimed musical adaptation of the cult classic horror comedy film. Teeth centers on Dawn, a devout Christian teen who discovers she has a bloody surprising secret: When men violate her body, her body literally bites back.

Get Teeth tickets now.

Drag: The Musical

A who's-who of RuPaul's Drag Race alums, led by drag queen Alaska Thunderfuck, work it in this fabulous, fierce new musical. After a bitter split, drag queens Kitty Galloway (Thunderfuck) and Alexis Gilmore (Nick Adams) each open their own clubs — but only one can survive. Also in the cast is New Kids on the Block star Joey McIntyre.

Get Drag: The Musical tickets now.

Bad Kreyol

Tony Award nominee Dominique Morisseau (Ain't Too Proud, Skeleton Crew) premieres her latest play about family and identity. When two cousins — one Haitian American, one Haitian-born and raised — meet at their dying grandmother's request, they unpack their different ideas about their heritage, their homeland, and themselves.

Get Bad Kreyol tickets now.

Walden

Blast off to the Tony Kiser Theater for this new play starring Emmy Rossum and Zoë Winters. They play sisters who are also NASA scientists — one current, one retired. Estranged for years, they finally reunite and must hash out their past while determining where their future lies.

Get Walden tickets now.

Safety Not Guaranteed

The new musical adaptation of the 2012 science fiction comedy movie starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass, Safety Not Guaranteed is taking audiences back in time. Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Tina — The Tina Turner Musical) and Taylor Trensch (Dear Evan Hansen) star in this story about a journalist researching a story about an unusual classified ad — but who also might have another motive.

Get Safety Not Guaranteed tickets now.

Little Shop of Horrors

There's no better time than October to revisit this smash-hit horror comedy, now celebrating its fifth anniversary off Broadway! A cult classic for decades, Little Shop of Horrors follows a shy flower shop worker, Seymour, who makes a devilish deal with a talking plant in exchange for fame and fortune. Seymour's end of the deal? He has to provide the plant with fresh meat.

Get Little Shop of Horrors tickets now.

Photo credit: Adam Driver and Heather Burns in Hold on to Me Darling. (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)