Dolly Parton’s Musical, ‘Inter Alia’ and More on Broadway, and Off, This Fall
On New York stages this season come the new musicals “Galileo” and “Wanted,” a “Shuffle Along” reunion with Audra McDonald, and Tom Hiddleston in “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a Broadway newbie this season. Tom Hiddleston is back, doing Shakespeare, while Billy Crystal gets personal in a solo show — and Dolly Parton’s biomusical, which she coauthored, arrives as a posthumous celebration. Welcome to New York theater’s bustling fall.
Broadway
‘SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY’ For the playwright Jocelyn Bioh (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”), this comedy was the breakout hit — a savvy examination of racist beauty standards and self-loathing, set in 1980s Ghana at an all-girls boarding school. Whitney White directs for Manhattan Theater Club. The cast includes Denée Benton, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Heather Alicia Simms and Patina Miller. (Through Nov. 1, Samuel J. Friedman Theater)
‘THE IMAGINARY INVALID’ Bill Irwin brings his clowning chops to the title role of Molière’s classic about an inveterate hypochondriac determined to have a doctor for a son-in-law. Brandon J. Dirden directs Irwin’s adaptation for Roundabout Theater Company. (Sept. 25—Nov. 22, Todd Haimes Theater)
‘OTHER DESERT CITIES’ A writer has a Christmas surprise for her prominent parents: the manuscript of a memoir certain to cause them pain. Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her Broadway debut as Polly, the mother, in John Benjamin Hickey’s revival of this Jon Robin Baitz play, opposite Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Lily Rabe and Joe Keery. (Sept. 29—Jan. 17, 2027, Hudson Theater)
‘860’ With his new solo show, Billy Crystal is making art from the ashes — reflecting on life and loss after the 2025 Palisades fire that consumed the Los Angeles home where he and his wife raised their children. Scott Ellis directs. (Oct. 1—Jan. 2, 2027, Imperial Theater)
‘A FEW GOOD MEN’ Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth star in the 1989 court-martial play that set in motion the high-powered career of its author, Aaron Sorkin, who adapted it into the screenplay for Rob Reiner’s 1992 movie. Michael Arden directs for Lincoln Center Theater. (Oct. 8—Jan. 10, 2027, Vivian Beaumont Theater)
‘WANTED’ Previously titled “Gun & Powder,” Angelica Chéri and Ross Baum’s new musical is an Old West tale spun from history, flavored with gospel and R&B. Solea Pfeiffer and Liisi LaFontaine star as sisters in 1893 Texas who are Black but can pass for white, and who turn vigilante to save their family. Stevie Walker-Webb directs. (Starts Oct. 15, James Earl Jones Theater)
‘DOWNSTATE’ Joe Mantello follows up his Tony-winning revival of “Death of a Salesman” by dipping into a different shade of darkness. In this unflinching tragicomedy by the Pulitzer winner Bruce Norris (“Clybourne Park”), housemates in an Illinois group home for sex offenders navigate post-prison exile and the limits of mercy. K. Todd Freeman and Francis Guinan, standouts as charmer-predators in the 2022 Off Broadway staging, are part of an ensemble that includes Liza Colón-Zayas and Thomas Sadoski. Scott Rudin and Barry Diller produce. (Oct. 17—Jan. 10, 2027, Booth Theater)
‘HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES’ Everyday collaboration with evil is at the core of this historically inspired play by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, in which a cache of World War II photographs from the Auschwitz concentration camp depicts the ordinary Nazis who built and ran it, showing them both at work and, blithely, at leisure. Kaufman directs for Tectonic Theater Project (“The Laramie Project”) and La Jolla Playhouse. (Nov. 2—Jan. 10, 2027, Barrymore Theater)
‘THE FANTASTICKS’ It has taken Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’s musical a mere 66 years to get to Broadway from Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village, where it played for generations. Using text that Jones revised, Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs this Second Stage production, in which the young sweethearts are men and the colluding parents are mothers. “Try to remember. …” (Oct. 22—Feb. 7, 2027, Helen Hayes Theater)
‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’ Tom Hiddleston returns to Broadway for the first time since “Betrayal,” playing Benedick opposite Hayley Atwell’s Beatrice in Shakespeare’s comic romance of recalcitrant lovers, enlivened by the director Jamie Lloyd with pop music, dance and a vivid color palette. (Oct. 31—Jan. 10, 2027, Winter Garden Theater)
‘GALILEO’ Intellectual integrity meets mortal peril in this new musical, starring Raúl Esparza as Galileo Galilei, the astronomer persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century for insisting that Earth revolves around the sun. Zoe Sarnak, Michael Weiner and Danny Strong wrote the show; Michael Mayer directs, and David Neumann choreographs. (Starts Nov. 10, Shubert Theater)
‘INTER ALIA’ Rosamund Pike won a 2026 Olivier Award for her whirlwind performance as a London judge in this drama, Suzie Miller’s follow-up to “Prima Facie.” Here as there, the playwright considers misogyny, injustice, the brutality of sexual assault prosecutions — and how perspectives change when the law gets personal. Justin Martin directs. (Nov. 10—Feb. 21, 2027, Music Box Theater)
‘DOLLY: A TRUE ORIGINAL MUSICAL’ Dolly Parton spent her life setting stories to music. The only difference in this case is that the story is her life, made into a musical. With a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, and songs by Parton — country classics like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” as well as new tunes written for the show — Bartlett Sher directs. (Starts Dec. 7, St. James Theater)
‘AWAKE AND SING!’ Clifford Odets’s Great Depression dramaabout a Jewish family living in tight quarters in the Bronx gets a revival from Manhattan Theater Club, directed by Tyne Rafaeli and starring Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos, Micaela Diamond and Will Pullen. (Dec. 15—Feb. 7, 2027, Samuel J. Friedman Theater)
Off Broadway
‘THE HOLES’ Bubba Weiler, Grantham Coleman and Tina Benko star in this new dark comedy by Max Wolf Friedlich (“Job”), set in an upstate bar that has a mysterious back room. Michael Herwitz directs. (Sept. 8—Oct. 18, Wild Project)
‘IN HONOR OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT’ To the actor Roger Guenveur Smith, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat wasn’t some distant icon. He was a friend. This is Smith’s remembrance, with live sound by Marc Anthony Thompson. (Sept. 9—Oct. 4, New York Theater Workshop)
‘AMERICA, WHO HURT YOU?’ The shapeshifting Sarah Jones (“Bridge & Tunnel”) wrote and performs this solo show about Americans’ shared history and our crying-out-for-therapy culture. Presented by National Black Theater and Theater for a New Audience. Eric Ting directs. (Sept. 10-27, Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
‘MIDNIGHT’ Todrick Hall wrote, directs and choreographs this large-cast, sung-through musical, set in the 19th-century American South. He performs in it, too. (Sept. 17—Nov. 8, Daryl Roth Theater)
‘THE CHERRY ORCHARD’ An ensemble of Korean actors, including Jeon Do-yeon (“Secret Sunshine”) and Park Hae-soo (“Squid Game”), performs the director Simon Stone’s Korean-language adaptation of Chekhov’s play, relocated to contemporary Seoul. With English captioning. (Sept. 16-26, Park Avenue Armory)
‘ARIAS WITH A TWIST’ Joey Arias and Basil Twist marry drag and puppetry to surreal, spectacular effect in this extravaganza. (Sept. 17—Nov. 1, Here Arts Center)
‘THE INVENTION OF LOVE’ David Greenspan plays the poet A.E. Housman in this intimately scaled revival of Tom Stoppard’s sparklingly intellectual, romantically yearning play, directed by Zachary Elkind for the Map Theater. (Sept. 17—Oct. 3, Theaterlab)
‘RETURN OF THE BUFFALO: TATANKA OWE AKUPI’ A herd of 40 life-size buffalo puppets roams the city streets in this free event, presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse, KBH Arts and the Walk Productions, the company known for the refugee puppet Little Amal. (Sept. 18-19, Manhattan and Brooklyn)
‘SEPTEMBER L. DAVIS: THE APOLOGY TOUR’ Ana Gasteyer slips into her unhinged stage-star alter ego, September L. Davis, who is determined to make amends for past wrongs. (Sept. 20—Oct. 5, Studio Seaview)
‘GOOD TIME CHARLIE’ A stage-loving man nurtures his nephew’s theatricality in this comedy written by and featuring Ryan J. Haddad (“Hold Me in the Water”). Danny Sharron directs a cast that includes Timothy Bagley, Michael Cristofer, Beth Malone and Nael Nacer. (Sept. 24—Oct. 18, Public Theater)
‘ANON — A TEMPEST AT OUR KITCHEN TABLE’ The appearance of a gay pride flag in a suburban Texas neighborhood, and the reaction that greets it, figure in this new play by Anne Washburn (“Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play”), directed by Anne Kauffman. (Sept. 25—Nov. 1, MCC Theater)
‘KRAMER/FAUCI’ A contentious back-and-forth in 1993 between the playwright-activist Larry Kramer and the federal government’s top AIDS researcher, Anthony Fauci, provides the script for this meditative and deeply felt piece, conceived and directed by Daniel Fish (“Oklahoma!”). Thomas Jay Ryan plays the fiery Kramer, and Will Brill the measured Fauci. (Sept. 27—Oct. 24, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
SENSATION OF 1921 AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED’ Much of George C. Wolfe’s original 2016 Broadway cast — including Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter and Adrienne Warren — reunites for this Lincoln Center concert performance, with music and lyrics by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, directed by Wolfe and choreographed by Savion Glover. (Sept. 27-28, Rose Theater)
‘COPPERFIELD!’ Bobby Conte plays the title role in Jeffrey Scharf’s new musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel. Gabriel Barre directs and choreographs. (Sept. 29—Dec. 6, the Duke on 42nd Street)
‘A GHOST IN YOUR EAR’ The sound design wizards Ben and Max Ringham (“A Doll’s House”) team up with the writer-director Jamie Armitage for this horror thriller, at which audience members don headphones and let the binaural sound envelop them. (Sept. 29—Nov. 15, Minetta Lane Theater)
‘KING OF THE YEES’ Blending autobiography with absurdity, this comedy by Lauren Yee (“Mother Russia”) stars Francis Jue as the playwright’s father, Larry — a role Jue originated in the 2017 world premiere. Joshua Kahan Brody, who directed that, directs this, too. Also in the cast: Jon Norman Schneider. (Oct. 6—Nov. 15, Signature Theater)
‘THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON’ Andrew Durand (“Dead Outlaw”) plays an old man aging in reverse in Jethro Compton and Darren Clark’s folk-musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tale, relocated to a fishing village in Cornwall, England. Compton directs. (Oct. 8—Nov. 22, Public Theater)
‘THE HEART’ After an accident leaves a surfer brain-dead, his still-beating heart awaits transplant to another patient in this new musical by Kait Kerrigan, Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath. Christopher Ashley directs. (Oct. 8—Dec. 6, Roundabout Theater Company)
‘ROPE’ Two grad students juggle murder cleanup with party hosting in this new adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s stage thriller, written by Gordon Greenberg and based also on the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case. Scott Elliott directs for the New Group. (Oct. 13—Dec. 6, Theater at St. Clement’s)
‘THE UNBELIEVERS’ Lauren Ambrose and Tom Riley star as the parents of a teenage boy whose disappearance alters his family and goes unsolved for years in this new play by Nick Payne (“Constellations”). Knud Adams directs for Manhattan Theater Club. (Oct. 13—Nov. 29, New York City Center Stage I)
‘MS. BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT’ History inspired Tina Landau and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play about the performer-activist Terence Alan Smith, who in his drag persona Joan Jett Black became a disrupter candidate in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. Wayne Brady stars; Landau directs. (Oct. 15—Nov. 22, Vineyard Theater)
‘WAITING FOR LEFTY’ Another Depression-era Clifford Odets play resurfaces, this one based on a 1934 taxi strike. The actor Steven Pasquale makes his directorial debut, with original music by Yeller Tooth. (Oct. 15—Nov. 22, Classic Stage Company)
‘THE 4TH WITCH’ In Manual Cinema’s stylized refraction of “Macbeth,” a witch gives refuge to a girl orphaned by war. Expect intricate shadow puppets, live actors, overhead projectors and a musical underscore. (Oct. 15-17, NYU Skirball)
‘I BECAME WE’ A monologue from the perspective of a 30-something woman is sung by a choir in this experimental play by Mona Pirnot (“I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan”), with music by Jack D. Coen. Sarah Benson directs. (Oct. 16—Nov. 15, Atlantic Theater Company)
‘2:22: A GHOST STORY’ Spooky sounds come from the baby’s room at the same time each night in Danny Robins’s home-renovation spine-tingler. (Oct. 20—Jan. 17, 2027, Lucille Lortel Theater)
‘THE RIPPLE, THE WAVE THAT CARRIED ME HOME’ The daughter of Black activists who battled swimming pool segregation in midcentury Kansas considers their legacy from the distance of adulthood in this decades-spanning play by Christina Anderson, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene. (Oct. 21—Nov. 29, Playwrights Horizons)
‘THE VISITORS’ A woman asks her three older siblings for a favor in this new play by Bryna Turner (“At the Wedding”), directed by Jenna Worsham for Second Stage Theater, with a cast including Mary Wiseman and Celia Keenan-Bolger. (Oct. 21—Dec. 6, Pershing Square Signature Center)
‘GREEF’ A tragicomic work of physical theater, this is the clown artist Christina Gelsone’s reflection on the loss of her husband and collaborator, Seth Bloom, who died in 2024. Matthew Ferraro directs. (Oct. 22-24, Baryshnikov Arts Center)
‘WE’LL SEE: CONVERSATIONS AMONG THE APPLE FAMILY ON THE NIGHT OF THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS’ The playwright-director Richard Nelson’s latest installment of his politically minded Rhinebeck Panorama, with Sally Murphy, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins and Jay O. Sanders. (Oct. 25—Nov. 22, Public Theater)
‘THE VERGE’ Miriam Silverman (“The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”) plays an experimental botanist in this 1921 feminist drama by the Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Glaspell, directed by Jessie Austrian for Fiasco Theater. (Oct. 27—Nov. 22, Public Theater)
‘IN THE HEIGHTS’ Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s uptown-in-the-summer musical gets a brief, high-profile revival, directed by David Mendizábal (“Mexodus”). (Oct. 28—Nov. 15, New York City Center)
‘TRISTAN & YSEULT’ Romance, adultery, revelry, doom: The director Emma Rice’s singular spin on the medieval legend returns to Brooklyn. (Nov. 1-22, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘SEVEN GUITARS’ Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who has directed this August Wilson classic before, revisits it with a cast that includes Russell Hornsby, John Douglas Thompson, Roslyn Ruff and Kristolyn Lloyd. (Nov. 5—Jan. 10, 2027, Lincoln Center Theater)
‘ELEKTRA’ The director Daniel Fish puts his experimentalist stamp on Sophocles’ ancient tragedy of violence and revenge for Theater for a New Audience. (Nov. 10—Dec. 6, Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
‘DEAF REPUBLIC’ After occupying soldiers kill a deaf boy for not following verbal orders, the people of his town go deaf in this playfrom the Dublin company Dead Centre, performed in spoken English and American Sign Language by deaf and hearing actors. With captioning. (Nov. 12-15, NYU Skirball)
‘THE CONVERSATION’ Joshua Henry, a newly minted Tony winner for “Ragtime,” stars opposite Julia Harriman in this love-story musical, which they wrote with Nick Green. Kenny Leon directs. (Nov. 17—Jan. 24, 2027, Astor Place Theater)
‘LA DISTANCE’ Tiago Rodrigues (“Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists”) sets this play a half century in the future, when a daughter leaves the ailing Earth, and her father, for a life on Mars. Part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave festival and L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival; performed in French with English captioning. (Nov. 18-29, BAM Harvey Theater)
‘IMITATION OF LIFE’ Inspired by Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel, Lynn Nottage and John Legend’s new musical traces the lives of a Black woman, a white woman and the daughters they raise. Directed by Whitney White; co-produced with National Black Theater. (Nov. 21—Jan. 3, 2027, the Shed)
‘WILD ROSE’ Country music stardom is a Glasgow woman’s tantalizing dream in this jukebox musical, directed by John Tiffany and adapted by Nicole Taylor (“One Day”) from her 2019 film. (Nov. 24—Jan. 10, 2027, New York Theater Workshop)
‘SPRING AWAKENING’ Danya Taymor (“The Outsiders”) directs a revival of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s sex-spiked teen-rebellion rock musical, choreographed by Celia Rowlson-Hall. (Nov. 27—Feb. 15, 2027, Studio Seaview)
‘A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE’ Sam Rockwell, Marin Ireland and Alfred Molina star in Arthur Miller’s 1955 drama, in which a Brooklyn longshoreman develops a damaging obsession with his niece. Neil Pepe directs. (Nov. 27—Feb. 27, 2027, La MaMa)
‘SAIGON’ An epic from Caroline Guiela Nguyen (“Lacrima”) about colonialism and migration, set in 1950s Vietnam and 1990s France. Part of L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival; performed in French and Vietnamese with English captioning. (Dec. 3-20, St. Ann’s Warehouse)
‘PENELOPE’ The woman Odysseus left behind is a chanteuse with things on her mind in this smoldering chamber musical by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz. McLean (“Suffs”) plays the title role, backed by a band that’s also a Greek chorus. (Dec. 10-20, Classic Stage Company)
Corrected on Sept. 9, 2026 - An earlier version of this article listed Sept. 12 as the start date of the musical “Midnight.” It has been updated with the new start date, Sept. 17.
