Off-Broadway Brings Back the American Masters

This fall, off-Broadway theaters are set to present classics by some of the most essential playwrights of the 20th century: Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets, August Wilson. Audiences can also expect, just in time for the midterm elections, a fresh political/domestic drama by Richard Nelson, no slouch himself, and other new works by rising talents such as Ryan J. Haddad and Lauren Yee.Where musicals are concerned, there will be a new offering from “Spring Awakening” composer Duncan Sheik, while another pop artist, John Legend, will make his full-length theatrical debut with “Imitation of Life,” inspired by the 1933 novel and subsequent films. A fantastical tale tracing a most curious life journey, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story that also became a movie, is on tap as well. A selective list from our critic — culled from too many options to mention here, unfortunately — follows. Dates and other details are subject to change.“Delirium” Igor Golyak, a Ukrainian-born director who in recent years has earned praise for his vivid, probing productions of “The Merchant of Venice” and “Our Class,” brings his new adaptation of Ionesco’s darkly absurdist “Frenzy For Two, Or More” to Brooklyn’s The Space at Irondale. (Previews begin September 8, opens September 24)“Midnight” Multimedia star Todrick Hall wrote and will direct, choreograph and perform in a new musical following a dozen characters, half of them black and the other half white, in the 19th-century South, at the Daryl Roth Theatre. (September 12, September 27)Writer, director, choreographer, and actor Todrick Hall in ‘Midnight.’ The Press Room“Good Time Charlie” At the Public Theater, Mr. Haddad, an Obie Award-winning writer and actor, reunites with Danny Sharron, who directed his acclaimed “Hold Me in the Water” last year, for an autobiographical account of a man who channels his unrealized dreams of a life on the stage into a gay nephew who now harbors such ambitions. (September 24, October 9)“The Hairy Ape” Irish Repertory Theatre co-founder and producing artistic director Ciarán O’ Reilly, who helmed O’Neill’s study of a ship laborer’s search for belonging and revenge 20 years ago, revisits it in a new production. (September 25, October 4)“Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen” Mr. Sheik wrote music and lyrics for this account of a Parisienne working girl who fulfills her own desires by writing, based on Moyoco Anno’ s manga novel. Leah Nanako Winkler penned the libretto and Tony and Emmy Award winner Rob Ashford will direct a cast led by “Beetlejuice” alumna Sophia Anne Caruso at The Night Egg at the Culture Club. (September 25, October 15)“A Ghost in Your Ear” The latest import from Jamie Armitage, the British director and writer who helmed“SIX: The Musical” on Broadway, is an “immersive horror show” that unfolds during an audiobook recording session gone awry. Ben and Max Ringham collaborated with Mr. Armitage on the show, which will make its New York premiere at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre. (September 29, October 8)“King of the Yees” Tony winner Francis Jue and “Star Wars” actress Kelly Marie Tran will play characters respectively based on Ms. Yee’s father and the playwright, who in recent years has given us the bitingly satirical gems as “Cambodian Rock Band” and “Mother Russia,” in a new piece set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Joshua Kahan Brody will direct for Signature Theatre. (October 6. October 19)“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Olivier Award winners Jethro Compton and Darren Clark’s musical adaptation of Fitzgerald’s tale about a fellow who travels backwards through life—previously the inspiration for a film starring Brad Pitt—arrives at the Public fresh from the West End, under Mr. Compton’s direction. (October 8, October 21)“The Heart” A new musical involving a surfer whose life is cut short and a stranger who gets a second chance, with a book by Kait Kerrigan and music and lyrics by Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath (based on French author Maylis de Kerangal’s “Réparer les Vivants”) teams veteran director Christopher Ashley with Mandy Moore, choreographer for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour. Roundabout Theatre Company presents the New York premiere. (October 8, October 29)“The Unbelievers” Manhattan Theatre Club presents the American premiere of a work by “Constellations” playwright Nick Payne, following a family’s struggle after the disappearance of a teenage boy. Lauren Ambrose and Tom Riley star, with Knud Adams directing. (October 13, November 5)“Ms. Blakk for President” Wayne Brady stars in a new play by Oscar winner Tarrell Alvin McCraney (“Moonlight,” “Choir Boy”) and theater veteran Tina Landau, based on the true story of drag performer and activist Terence Alan Smith, who as Joan Jett Blakk ran for that office in 1992. Ms. Landau directs for Vineyard Theatre. (October 15, November 1)“Waiting for Lefty” Steven Pasquale, best known for acting in musical theater and on television, makes his professional directorial debut at Classic Stage Company with Odets’s seminal string of vignettes, focused on cab drivers plotting a strike during the Great Depression. (October 15, November 2)“2:22—A Ghost Story” Stage and screen stars Anna Camp and Jasmine Cephas Jones appear alongside Marvel and “Game of Thrones” actor Finn Jones in the New York premiere of Danny Robins’s thriller, a West End hit, with Matthew Dunster directing. (October 20, November 5)“The Visitors” Second Stage Theatre presents the world premiere of Bryna Turner’s seriocomic study of a thirtysomething woman who, eager to become a mom, invites her siblings to her New York apartment to ask a favor. Jenna Worsham, who collaborated with Ms. Turner on “At the Wedding,” directs. (October 21, November 9)“We’ll See” The latest entry in Mr. Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama brings the Apple family back to the Public, just as anxious about the midterms as they were about previous elections, played by the superlative actors who have brought them to life before, among them Jay O. Sanders, Maryann Plunkett, Sally Murphy, and Laila Robbins, with the playwright directing. (October 25, November 3)“The Steel Man” In a Penguin Rep Theatre production at 59E59 Theaters, playwright Cary Gitter and director Joe Brancato, whose previous collaborations include “Gene & Gilda” and “The Sabbath Girl,” examine the relationship between a Holocaust survivor and the son who’s trying to help him find peace, and forge his own path. (October 28)“Seven Guitars” Lincoln Center Theater revives the 1940s chapter of Wilson’s American Century Cycle, with by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, one of the late playwright’s most astute interpreters as a director and actor, helming a cast that includes such estimable veterans as Michael Potts, Roslyn Ruff, and John Douglas Thompson. (November 5, November 23)“Elektra” At Brooklyn’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Theatre For a New Audience will host the New York premiere of poet Anne Carson’s translation of the Sophocles tragedy, with noted experimental director Daniel Fish on board and music by Ted Hearne. (Nov. 10)“The Conversation” Joshua Henry, a Tony winner last spring for his leading role in “Ragtime,” and rising performer and writer Julia Harrman conceived and will star in this new musical tracking a couple from its first date onwards; they also co-wrote a pop- and R&B-infused score, to accompany a book by Nick Green. Broadway veteran Kenny Leon will direct at the Astor Place Theatre. (November 17, December 7)“Imitation of Life” The famously multi-tasking Mr. Legend throws his hat into the ring as a musical theater composer and lyricist with this adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s novel and its cinematic offspring. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynne Nottage wrote the libretto, and in-demand director Whitney White will steer this story of race and identity in 1920s and ‘30s America, at The Shed. (November 21)‘A View from the Bridge’ at La MaMa. Instagram“A View from the Bridge” Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell will star as Miller’s tragic longshoreman in a new staging at La MaMa, the storied hub for experimental theater. Neil Pepe, longtime artistic director of the younger but similarly esteemed Atlantic Theater Company, will guide a cast also set to include Alfred Molina and Marin Ireland. (November 27, December 13)

Off-Broadway Brings Back the American Masters

Off-Broadway Brings Back the American Masters

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