On Broadway, the Stars Will Guide Us Through a Busy Fall Season

This fall theater season is set to be an especially starry one: Robert Downey Jr. and three young TV and film idols, Kit Connor, Rachel Zegler, and Zoë Chao, are all scheduled to make their Broadway debuts before Christmas; they’ll be joined by returning stage and screen luminaries Patti LuPone, Mia Farrow, Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, Julianna Margulies, Peter Gallagher, and Audra McDonald, among many others. A bevy of noted directors will be on hand to guide these players, in productions ranging from fresh takes on classic works to new plays and musicals inspired by controversial people and trends — from Tammy Faye Bakker to vaccine hesitancy. Here’s a quick guide to what’s on tap before spring brings out its own crop of name actors, among them George Clooney and Denzel Washington. (Dates and other production details are subject to change.)‘The Roommate’A five-time Tony Award winner (not including a special lifetime achievement award), Jack O’Brien, directs Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone in a new comedy by Jen Silverman centering on two very different women who end up living with and learning from each other. (Previews begin August 29, opens September 12)‘McNeal’Robert Downey Jr., fresh off his Oscar win for “Oppenheimer,” stars in a new play by a Pulitzer Prize winner, Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced,” “Junk”). He portrays a distinguished author who has become obsessed with artificial intelligence. An astute purveyor of classic and new American plays and musicals, Bartlett Sher, directs. (September 5, September 30)A scene from the London production of ‘The Hills of California.’ Mark Douet‘The Hills of California’Jez Butterworth, whose acclaimed epics have included “The Ferryman” and “Jerusalem,” focuses on four sisters — both as girls forming a singing act in the 1950s and, decades later, as women — and their ambitious single mother. Sam Mendes, whose most recent Broadway outing as director was the Tony-winning “The Lehman Trilogy,” helms Mr. Butterworth’s latest West End import. (September 11, September 29)‘Yellow Face’More than 15 years after its world premiere, David Henry Hwang’s Obie Award-winning farce about a playwright’s struggles with race finally arrives on Broadway, with Leigh Silverman directing a company led by Daniel Dae Kim as the semi-autobiographical DHH. (September 13, October 1)‘Our Town’One of Broadway’s busiest and most lauded directors, Kenny Leon, leads a revival of the Thornton Wilder classic featuring a multi-racial cast of established and rising stars, among them Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Michelle Wilson, Zoey Deutch, and Ephraim Sykes. (September 17, October 10)‘Left on Tenth’Peter Gallagher and Julianna Margulies team up for Delia Ephron’s adaptation of her best-selling memoir, which according to a press release is bound to delight “romcom aficionados and hopeless romantics.” Happily, director Susan Stroman, a master of musical comedy and comedic antics in general, is also on board. (September 26, October 23)‘Romeo + Juliet’ will feature Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler. Sam Levy‘Romeo + Juliet’Rachel Zegler, who rose to fame as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s screen adaptation of “West Side Story,” plays the model for that heroine in a new production of Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed young love. Kit Connor, known for Netflix’s “Heartstopper,” is her Romeo; with Sam Gold directing and pop savant Jack Antonoff providing music, fans can expect a raw, hip take. (September 26, October 24)‘Sunset Boulevard’Director Jamie Lloyd won raves across the pond for his characteristically stripped-down reading of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, inspired by the film classic; so did Mr. Lloyd’s leading lady, Nicole Scherzinger, a Pussycat Dolls alumna who will no doubt arrive at New York still looking infinitely more youthful and glamorous than Gloria Swanson did in the movie. (September 28, October 20)Nicole Scherzinger will be appearing in ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ Marc Brenner‘Maybe Happy Ending’Darren Criss and Helen J Shen play robots who face human challenges and longings in a new musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park, directed by Michael Arden, a recent Tony winner for his majestic revival of “Parade.” (October 16, November 12)‘A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical’James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony playing the Genie in “Aladdin,” stars as the jazz giant in a new show with a book by Aurin Squire, noted for TV’s “This Is Us” and “The Good Fight.” (October 16, November 11)‘Tammy Faye’Jessica Chastain earned an Academy Award playing her on screen; now Katie Brayben will reprise her Olivier Award-winning performance as the doomed televangelist’s wife in this musical account of her saga, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Scissor Sisters’s Jake Shears. Homegrown musical theater star Christian Borle will play Jim Bakker in the Broadway staging. (October 19, November 14)‘Death Becomes Her’Broadway favorites Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, and Christopher Sieber are joined by a Destiny’s Child alum, Michelle Williams, in this new musical comedy, based on the hit 1992 film tracing the consequences of two women’s pursuit of eternal youth and beauty. (October 23, November 21)‘Swept Away’A folk-rock outfit, the Avett Brothers, become the latest pop artists to bring a score to Broadway with this musical following the aftermath of a shipwreck. Theater veterans John Logan and Michael Mayer are on board as, respectively, librettist and director. (October 29, November 19)‘Cult of Love’Screenwriter, director, and playwright Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll,” “Sleeping with Other People”) makes her Broadway bow with a play focusing on a holiday reunion of siblings that grows contentious. Trip Cullman returns to direct after a string of off-Broadway successes. (November 20, December 12)‘Gypsy’Here she is, world: Audra McDonald, arguably the most celebrated musical theater actor alive — she holds the all-time record for most performance Tonys — steps into the genre’s most coveted role, that of Momma Rose, stage parent nonpareil. George C. Wolfe, who has guided groundbreaking plays and musicals for decades, directs. (November 21, December 19)‘Eureka Day’Jonathan Spector’s new play, already produced to praise in London, examines how an outbreak of the mumps challenges the hyper-inclusive policies of a private elementary school in California. Acclaimed director Anna D. Shapiro helms a cast that includes Bill Irwin, Amber Gray, and Zoë Chao. (November 25, December 16)

On Broadway, the Stars Will Guide Us Through a Busy Fall Season

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