Broadway Shows Closing Soon

Come From Away

"Come From Away" is the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them.

The Kite Runner

A stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's bestselling book The Kite Runner, which has played in the U.S. and London, debuts on Broadway for a limited engagement in summer 2022. Get The Kite Runner tickets on New York Theatre Guide now.The Kite Runner play, like the novel, centers on a man named Amir, who grew up in Afghanistan. He and a boy named Hassan were childhood friends, finding fun and solace in each other and their shared love of kite-flying while Afghanistan is on the brink of war. On the otherwise joyful day of a kite-flying tournament, another boy attacks Hassan, believing Hassan's Hazara Afghan race is inferior to the Pashtun race he and Amir share. Amir witnesses the act, but is afraid to intervene, and their friendship breaks down.Years later, Amir is living in America and has a successful writing career, but his home country is deep in the throes of war and Taliban control. He receives word that Hassan's son is in danger there, so he makes the risky decision to return to Afghanistan to save him, in an attempt at redeeming his past failures.The Kite Runner novel, published in 2003, was Hosseini's first book. Though it was a modest success at first, the book soared in popularity in 2004 when it was printed in paperback and picked up by book clubs. The Kite Runner became a New York Times bestseller in March 2005 and remained one for two years, and seven million copies were sold as of 2013, when Hosseini published his third book. (His other works include A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed.)Matthew Spangler's stage adaptation of The Kite Runner premiered in 2009, two years after a 2007 film adaptation of the book was released; the two are unrelated. The play premiered at California's San Jose Repertory Theatre in 2009 and, five years later, received its U.K. premiere at Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company in 2014. The Kite Runner played two engagements in the West End: one at the Wyndham's Theatre in 2016, and another at the Playhouse Theatre in 2017. Croft directed all the U.K. productions, and he returns to helm the Kite Runner Broadway premiere.Tickets to The Kite Runner are available now.

Cost of Living

Martyna Majok's 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning play receives its Broadway premiere after a celebrated run at MTC's Stage I. Get Cost of Living tickets on New York Theatre Guide.Cost of Living is a play about caregiving, alienation, and connection. There are two central pairs of characters: Ani and Eddie, and John and Jess. Ani and Eddie are estranged spouses, but following an accident that leaves her a double above-the-knee amputee, he returns to care for her. Elsewhere, John, who has cerebral palsy, hires Jess to assist him with daily tasks. But Ani and John's disabilities, and their companions' roles as caregivers, are the least of what this play is about.The loud-mouthed firecracker Ani is bitter at Eddie for leaving her and equally bitter about his coming back, yet he persistently does his best to lighten her mood and be there for her. And John and Jess are both Princeton grads, but while John holds many privileges because of that education, his wealth, and his whiteness, Jess is barely making ends meet by working for John. As these two couples navigate their own issues of race, class, personality, and more, it gets less clear who exactly is caring for whom. And the pairs' stories eventually collide, too.After a world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club premiered Cost of Living off Broadway in 2017 to acclaim; the show was a New York Times Critic's Pick. Now, MTC is also mounting the Broadway premiere at its home venue, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. In between these productions of Cost of Living in New York, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018 and premiered in London in 2019, with original cast member Katy Sullivan as Ani.Sullivan also returns for the Cost of Living Broadway premiere, alongside fellow original cast member Gregg Mozgala and original Obie Award-winning director Jo Bonney. In a five-star review of Cost of Living in 2017, our critic said: "Cost of Living reawakens my belief in the poetry of theater and highlights its purpose as the critical eye on our human existence. On the face of it you might think that Cost of Living is a melancholy story, but Ms. Majok brilliantly infuses her characters and dialogue with biting humor."Coincidentally, in the 2021-22 season, MTC also mounted the Broadway premiere of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play with its original Off-Broadway stars and director: How I Learned to Drive, starring Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse and directed by Mark Brokaw.Majok is a Polish American playwright whose break came in 2014 with the play Ironbound. She followed it up with Cost of Living, Queens, and Sanctuary City, which debuted with New York Theatre Workshop in 2021 and earned a five-star New York Theatre Guide review. Cost of Living marks Majok's Broadway debut.Tickets to Cost of Living in New York are on sale now.

Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool on Broadway

Comedian Mike Birbiglia returns to Broadway for two months only with The Old Man and the Pool, following hit runs in California and Chicago. Get Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool tickets on New York Theatre Guide now. The Old Man and the Pool is a play written and performed by Birbiglia, which he describes as a "coming-of-middle-age story." Birbiglia learns he's inherited his family's history of heart problems, and his doctor recommends plenty of healthy habits to help. Birbiglia unpacks why he's reluctant to do any of them — particularly swimming, thanks to a childhood encounter at a YMCA pool — and how that doesn't mesh well with his fear of death. But yes, The Old Man and the Pool is a comedy show, and though there are profound reflections on life and mortality, there's plenty of Birbiglia's signature comic storytelling about growing older, and perhaps wiser. Dad jokes and other clever punchlines also abound — even the title of the show is a riff on the classic Ernest Hemingway novel The Old Man and the Sea. Birbiglia's first, and most recent, Broadway show was The New One, another one-man comedy show about a different life milestone: becoming a father. That show premiered off Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, a popular comedy venue in Greenwich Village, in 2018 and moved to Broadway's Cort (now James Earl Jones) Theatre later that year for a two-month stint. That show earned Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance. His last New York gig before The Old Man and the Pool on Broadway was behind the scenes, as presenter for fellow comedian Alex Edelman's hit show Just For Us off Broadway. Birbiglia himself has also performed other specials off Broadway including My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank God for Jokes and Sleepwalk with Me. My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend and Thank God for Jokes were filmed for Netflix, and My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend earned Birbiglia a Lucille Lortel Award. Sleepwalk With Me became an indie film which Birbiglia wrote, directed, and starred in. Birbiglia also directed, wrote, and starred in the film Don't Think Twice, and he has appeared in films and TV shows like The Fault in Our Stars, Trainwreck, Orange is the New Black, and Billions. Get tickets to Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool in New York. Top image credit: Craig Schwartz Photography

The Music Man

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster star in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, directed by Jerry Zaks with choreography by Warren Carlyle.

Into the Woods

Into the Woods had a sold-out run in May 2022 as part of the Encores! 2022 season, and now the musical transfers to the St. James Theatre on Broadway with a star-studded cast. Get Into the Woods tickets on New York Theatre Guide now.Into the Woods is a musical about fairytales — but this show tells them differently than you might remember them. Into the Woods draws on versions of fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers, whose stories often have dark themes and endings. The central story is a totally original one, though, of a baker and his wife trying to conceive. They've been having trouble for a long time, and they soon discover that because the baker's father angered a witch years ago, she put a curse on his family to make them barren.The witch tells the couple that she'll reverse the curse if they bring her four enchanted items: a red cape, a gold slipper, yellow hair, and a white cow. So they venture into the woods near their house to get these items and cross paths with classic fairytale characters like Cinderella and her prince, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, Rapunzel, and Jack (of the beanstalk), who are all trying to fulfill wishes and wants of their own. But nothing is as it seems in the wood, and the path to happy ever after isn't always a clear one.Into the Woods features a book by James Lapine and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and it's one of the composer's most well-known musicals. The premiere of Into the Woods on Broadway was in 1987, two years after Lapine and Sondheim's previous collaboration, Sunday in the Park with George, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and got nominated for Best Musical. Into the Woods had plenty of success of its own, winning three Tonys of its own including Best Book and Best Score. The show also further cemented the star status of Bernadette Peters (as the Witch) and propelled Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason (as the Baker and the Baker's Wife) to Broadway fame; Gleason won the production's third Tony.The last Into the Woods revival took place in 2002, and now 20 years later, Into the Woods returns. The current revival joins another Sondheim revival on Broadway: Company, which was nominated for nine 2022 Tony Awards and features a female Bobbie (Katrina Lenk) in place of the originally male lead, Bobby. Sondheim's Assassins was also revived off Broadway shortly beforehand, in winter 2021, just before Sondheim's death in November 2021.Tickets to Into the Woods in New York are on sale now.

1776

Roundabout Theatre Company, in association with the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, presents a Broadway revival of the Tony Award-winning musical 1776, directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus. 1776 tickets will be available on New York Theatre Guide soon. The year is 1776, and John Adams is trying to get his political contemporaries to support America's independence from Britain. The show opens at the Second Continental Congress, where Adams is prepared with his pitch — but as much of a no-brainer as independence seems now, it wasn't for the other delegates then, as Adams was a widely disliked politician. So he has the keep coming up with new ways to get people to back his cause, like having someone else present it and — the idea that finally gains traction — creating a formal Declaration of Independence. The musical traces the debates, agreements, inner conflicts, and surprising alliance shifts that led up to the eventual signing of that all-important document. The large ensemble cast of 1776 mostly calls for male characters, with only two female characters: those of Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson. The 2022 revival, however, is turning the musical on its head by casting only female, non-binary, and transgender performers in all the roles. The 1776 musical is also notable as one of two Broadway shows running at the same time that is inspired by revolutionary America. The other is, of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, which has occupied the Richard Rodgers Theatre since 2015 and even includes a lyric that references the title of 1776's opening number, "Sit Down, John." The musical holds the distinction of going the longest without a song — there are over 30 minutes between "The Lees of Old Virginia" and "But Mr. Adams" in the first act. 1776 premiered on Broadway in 1969 to positive reviews, and the show earned three Tonys, including Best Musical. (It also marked the Broadway debut of Tony winner Betty Buckley as Martha.) The show was revived on Broadway in 1997, and received a short Off-Broadway run in 2016 as part of New York City Center's Encores! program for seldom-revived musicals. That cast included actors like Tony winner André De Shields, Tony winner Santino Fontana, and Tony nominee Bryce Pinkham. 1776 also got a film adaptation in 1972, with a screenplay by the musical's bookwriter, Peter Stone. The 2022 pre-Broadway production of 1776 is set to go up at the American Repertory Theater in May before coming to Broadway's American Airlines Theatre in the fall. Are you ready for a revolutionary 1776 on Broadway? Tickets to 1776 will be available soon.

Beetlejuice

It’s showtime! The ghost-with-the-most comes to life on stage in this hilarious new musical based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film.

Death of a Salesman

Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell's acclaimed West End production of Death of a Salesman will transfer to Broadway in the 2022-23 season. Get Death of a Salesman tickets on New York Theatre Guide.Death of a Salesman is a play about an aging traveling salesman, Willy Loman. He is almost senile, disappointed in how his life turned out, and overall on the decline. The play takes a deep dive into the causes of his waning happiness and sanity, including infidelity, capitalism, and an unfulfilled American Dream.While most of the action takes place in the present, part of the action of Death of a Salesman unfolds through a series of Willy's memories, dreams, and arguments centered on his work and his family, which show how he got to the mental state he's in. He's surrounded by his supportive yet knowing wife, Linda, and his two sons, Biff and Happy. Each of the three offer him varying degrees of support as he declines.First performed in 1949, the show became a quick success for Miller and has since been called one of the best American plays of the 20th century. Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1949, and three of its revivals have won the Tony Award for Best Play Revival. The show has received 10 film adaptations in addition to countless stage productions in countries like the U.S., U.K., India, and Germany. In China, Miller directed the show himself.Death of a Salesman was last revived on Broadway in 2012, and multiple Miller revivals have followed in recent years. A 2019 production of All My Sons, starring Tracy Letts and Annette Bening, went up on Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company and received three Tony Award nominations. And in 2016, Saiorse Ronan and Bill Camp starred in a revival of The Crucible on Broadway.The 2022 production of Death of a Salesman on Broadway originated in London's West End, where directors Marianne Elliott (who also helmed the latest Company revival in New York and London) and Miranda Cromwell won the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Direction. Now, Cromwell is helming the production's Broadway transfer with its two original stars. Olivier nominee Wendell Pierce takes on his first Broadway role since 1988, and Sharon D Clarke returns to New York just after making her Broadway debut in Caroline, or Change, reprising her Olivier-winning role as Caroline Thibodeaux from the West End.Get tickets to Death of a Salesman in New York now.

Topdog/Underdog

Suzan-Lori Parks's Pulitzer-winning play Topdog/Underdog will have its first Broadway revival in fall 2022, starring Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Get on Topdog/Underdog tickets on New York Theatre Guide now.Topdog/Underdog is a play about two brothers, loosely based on the biblical brothers Cain and Abel. These two, Lincoln and Booth (so named by their father as a joke), had a harsh childhood and are still struggling with an equally harsh adulthood. Booth is out of work and uses his shoplifting skills to provide for himself and Grace, the woman he's trying to woo. He lives with Lincoln, who has a scamming skill of his own: he's a three-card Monte expert. However, he swore off that and now works as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator at an arcade, providing the household's only true income.Their cohabitation, after Lincoln's wife left him, was supposed to be temporary, but poverty forces the brothers to remain together. Throughout the course of the play, they clash as they discuss their own struggles with racism, romance, work, until their relationship reaches a breaking point. As Parks herself has said of the play, Topdog/Underdog is about the effect of outside expectations of who a person can become, and "what it means to be family and, in the biggest sense, the family of man, what it means to be connected with somebody else."The premiere of Topdog/Underdog in New York took place off Broadway at The Public Theater in 2001. Marvel Cinematic Universe star Don Cheadle and Angels in America star Jeffrey Wright played the brothers, and George C. Wolfe directed. He also led the next two productions: at the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway (with Wright and rapper Mos Def) in 2002 and at the Royal Court Theatre in London (also with Wright and Mos Def) in 2003.Topdog/Underdog was met with critical and awards success; it made Parks the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. (She was previously nominated for her play In the Blood, and had written 15 plays, won a MacArthur Genius Grant last fall, and received a Guggenheim fellowship by the time she won for Topdog/Underdog.) The play also won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Playwriting and got Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations. Wright and Wolfe won Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards for their work. In 2018, The New York Times named Topdog/Underdog the best American play since Tony Kushner's 1993 magnum opus, Angels in America.The two stars of Topdog/Underdog on Broadway in 2022 have lauded careers on stage and screen. Hawkins is known for his Tony-nominated stage role in Six Degrees of Separation, and for screen roles like Benny in In the Heights, Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton, and Heath in The Walking Dead. Abdul-Mateen won an Emmy Award for his role as Cal Abar on Watchmen, and he's also played acclaimed roles like Black Manta in Aquaman and Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7.Get tickets to Topdog/Underdog on Broadway, on sale now.