Top theatre to see in New York in October

Check out our guide to must-see Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre in October 2023, 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 2023, and see our list of New York shows that started in September for even more new theatre you can still catch.

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.

Merrily We Roll Along

Stephen Sondheim’s famous flop-turned-fan favorite about a friendship shattered by showbiz greed and ambition is back on Broadway for the first time since its 1981 premiere. Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez star as a trio of pals whose relationships fall apart as the days go by in director Maria Friedman’s acclaimed staging.

Get Merrily We Roll Along tickets now.

I Need That

Danny DeVito, an Emmy winner for Taxi and a Tony nominee for The Price, stars as Sam, a hoarder ordered by government officials to clean up his cluttered home – or else he’s out on his ear. Count on playwright Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet) to sort out the humor and humanity in the Roundabout Theatre Company production co-starring Lucy DeVito (the star’s daughter) and Ray Anthony Thomas.

Get I Need That tickets now.

Spamalot

Oh, what a knight! Arthurian legend gets soundly spoofed in this Tony-winning Best Musical by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, based on the 1975 comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Back on Broadway for the first time since its 2005 premiere, the show has a stacked cast including Taran Killam as Lancelot, James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, and Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake.

Get Spamalot tickets now.

Harmony

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Comedian Harmonists, a German sextet known for their freewheeling stage frolics and tight harmonies, ascended to popularity that spanned the globe. But when the Nazis rose to power, the group, which included three Jewish men, broke apart and fell into obscurity. Barry Manilow (music) and Bruce Sussman (book and lyrics) reclaim the group’s place in history in this show directed by Warren Carlyle.

Get Harmony 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.

All the Devils Are Here

Tony nominee Patrick Page is at his best when his characters are at their worst — such as Hades in Hadestown and Scar in The Lion King. In this 80-minute solo show subtitled How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, author and actor Page inhabits a dozen of the Bard’s notorious baddies – including Macbeth, Richard II, and more.

Get All the Devils Are Here tickets now.

Covenant

Did a struggling musician make some sort of devilish deal to make it big in the biz? That’s a burning question throughout York Walker’s play about the power of suspicion and half-truths making its world premiere in a Roundabout Theatre Company presentation.

Get Covenant tickets now.

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Christopher Abbott (Girls) star in this new production of this emotionally charged 1984 two-hander by John Patrick Shanley, the Oscar-winning writer of Moonstruck. The revival at the Lucille Lortel Theatre follows down-and-outers who meet at a bar in the Bronx and maybe – just maybe – make the kind of deep connection that could change their lives.

Get Danny and the Deep Blue Sea tickets now.

Hell’s Kitchen

Grammy winner Alicia Keys makes her Off-Broadway debut at The Public Theater in her semi-autobiographical coming-of-age musical set in her home neighborhood in Manhattan. Michael Greif (Rent, Dear Evan Hansen) directs the show, which features a mix of new songs and familiar hits by Keys and a book by Kristoffer Diaz about a 17-year-old girl named Ali, who’s considering life, love, and the future.

Get Hell’s Kitchen tickets now.

Here We Are

A Sondheim premiere? We’re there. The final musical from the late, great composer-lyricist, created with writer David Ives (Venus in Fur) and directed by Joe Mantello (Wicked) is drawn from two Luis Buñuel films – The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and The Exterminating Angel (1962) – with dinner parties that go sideways. Tony winners David Hyde Pierce, Rachel Bay Jones, and Denis O’Hare are just a taste of the delicious cast.

Get Here We Are tickets now.

Little Shop of Horrors

Boy meets girl – and a man-eating plant with a killer appetite. So it goes in this hit revival at the Westside Theatre of the Alan Menken and Howard Ashman cult fave musical that's perfect for Halloween season. Corbin Bleu and Constance Wu currently star as the adorable lovebirds Seymour and Audrey who pour out their hearts in great songs like “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly Seymour.”

Get Little Shop of Horrors tickets now.

The Gardens of Anuncia

Michael John LaChiusa seizes inspiration for his tango-infused musical at Lincoln Center from the early life of choreographer and director Graciela Danielle, one of his frequent collaborators. In the lead role, Tony winner Priscilla Lopez looks back at her girlhood in Argentina and marvels at the women in her life who helped her become an artist.

Get The Gardens of Anuncia tickets now.

Daphne

Soon after Daphne says goodbye to the city to live with her girlfriend in a woodsy setting, she finds herself confronting a thicket of unsettling events that make her question what’s real and what’s not. Boundaries blur and realities emerge in Renae Simone Jarrett’s play at Lincoln Center.

Check back for information on Daphne tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Merry Me

There’s something about Merry – and then some. Restoration comedy shakes it up with Greek drama in a trippy work at New York Theatre Workshop by Hansol Jung (Wolf Play) directed by Leigh Silverman that promises to be “an intoxicating queer cocktail.” The setting is a Navy base, where libidos race, an angel descends with an arresting prophecy, and humanity hangs in the balance.

Check back for information on Merry Me tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Stereophonic

David Adjmi (3C, Elective Affinities) flashes back to the groovy, gritty mid-1970s, where a rock band recording its latest studio album is poised to make a quantum leap into the the big leagues. Will they seize the moment for superstardom – or crack like vinyl under the pressure? Original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler headlines this Playwrights Horizons presentation.

Check back for information on Stereophonic tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

I Can Get It for You Wholesale

Antihero, anyone? Tootsie Tony winner Santino Fontana stars as Harry Bogen, an eager-beaver shipping clerk in 1937 New York City whose ambition is rivaled only by his unscrupulousness. This Classic Stage Company production marks the first revival of the 1962 musical in 30 years and is a bit of a family affair. Revisions to Jerome Weidman’s original book, based on his novel, are by his son, John Weidman. Songs are by Harold Rome.

Check back for information on I Can Get It for You Wholesale tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Photo credit: Spamalot. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)