broadway travel shows

What's On Tour? A Guide to Currently Running and Upcoming National Touring Productions

Learn more about all of the shows now playing or coming soon to a theatre near you!

Need some Broadway in your life in 2023 but can't make it to New York City? As a new year begins, theatre fans are flocking to their local theatres to check out a touring production of their favorite hit shows! Favorites like Hamilton, Wicked, Anastasia, and Beetlejuice have already announced planned stops around the country.

Want to know what's on tour now, or coming soon to a theatre near you? Enjoy Broadway locally with BroadwayWorld's full list of Broadway National Tours in 2023.

Currently Running Tours

A Soldier's Play

Equity Now on tour

This 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning thriller has rocketed back into the spotlight, thanks to this 2020 Tony Award®-winning Best Revival from Roundabout Theatre Company. In 1944, on a Louisiana Army base, two shots ring out. A Black sergeant is murdered. And a series of interrogations triggers a gripping barrage of questions about sacrifice, service, and identity in America. Broadway's Norm Lewis leads a powerhouse cast directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon .

Full Tour Dates Here

Ain't Too Proud

It was a sound that would change music history. Ain't Too Proud is the electrifying new musical that tells the story of The Temptations from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With their signature dance moves and unmistakable harmonies, everybody knows the Temptations' hits, but Ain't Too Proud brings the rest of the rocky history to life; how the founding members met, the unbelievable heights that they hit, and how personal and political conflicts threatened to tear the group apart as the country fell into civil unrest. With a book by Dominique Morisseau , choreography by Sergio Trujillo , and direction by Des McAnuff , this musical tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, featuring the toe-tapping hits hits like "My Girl," "Just My Imagination," "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," and many more.

You won't need a magic lamp to experience this crown-pleasing musical. Disney's beloved story about the Diamond in the Rough is brought to thrilling theatrical life in this exciting new Broadway musical. Just as it has on screen for decades, Aladdin's journey sweeps you into an exciting world full of daring adventure, classic comedy and timeless romance. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw , this stage adaptation of the beloved animated classic features the iconic film score by the legendary team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman , with new lyrics by Sir Tim Rice , along with book and additional lyrics by Chad Beguelin .

Non-Equity Now on tour

Inspired by the beloved films, Anastasia transports audiences from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her, Anya enlists the aid of a dashing conman and a lovable ex-aristocrat. Together, they embark on an epic adventure to help her find home, love, and family.

Holding onto hope when times are tough can take an awful lot of determination, and sometimes, an awful lot of determination comes in a surprisingly small package. Little Orphan Annie has reminded generations of theatergoers that sunshine is always right around the corner, and now the best-loved musical of all time is set to return in a new production - just as you remember it and just when we need it most. ANNIE, directed by Jenn Thompson , features the iconic book and score, written by Tony Award®-winners Thomas Meehan , Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin . This celebration of family, optimism and the American spirit remains the ultimate cure for all the hard knocks life throws your way.

Beetlejuice

It's showtime, folks! The ghost-with-the-most makes his Broadway return in this edgy and irreverent musical comedy based on Tim Burton 's dearly beloved film. BEETLEJUICE tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and Beetlejuice, a demon with a thing for stripes. When Lydia calls on Beetlejuice to scare away anyone with a pulse, this double-crossing specter unleashes a (Nether)world of pandemonium, and the biggest sandworm Broadway has ever seen.

The Book of Mormon

From the creators of South Park comes The Book of Mormon, the musical that lovingly breaks all of Broadway's rules. This story about a mismatched pair of Mormon missionaries took Broadway by storm in 2011. Book of Mormon is collaboration Trey Parker , Matt Stone , and Robert Lopez , and was co-directed by Parker and Casey Nicholaw .

Based on T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the show is set amongst a larger- than-life junkyard playground and is alive with our favourite feline characters including Rum Tum Tugger, Mr. Mistoffelees, Macavity, Jennyanydots, Old Deuteronomy, Grizabella and Skimbleshanks. The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year, the night of the Jellicle Ball. One by one they tell their stories for the amusement of Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, who must choose one of the Cats to ascend to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

After 25 years, CHICAGO is still the one musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you've ever seen. No wonder CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary -you've got to come see why the name on everyone's lips is still...CHICAGO.

Come From Away

COME FROM AWAY is the breathtaking new musical that played record-breaking engagements in La Jolla and Seattle. Written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein , this is the stunning production from Tony-nominated director Christopher Ashley (Memphis). In a heartbeat, 38 planes with 6,579 passengers were stranded in a remote town in Newfoundland. The locals opened their hearts and homes, hosting this international community of strangers- spurring unexpected camaraderie in extraordinary circumstances.

Dear Evan Hansen

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing heart's always wanted: A chance to finally fit in. Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the new American musical about life and the way we live it.

Fiddler on the Roof

Rich with musical hits you know and love, including "Tradition", "Sunrise, Sunset", "If I Were A Rich Man", "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" and "To Life (L'Chaim!)", FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is the heartwarming story of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, and life, love and laughter. Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher and the team behind South Pacific, The King and I and 2017 Tony-winning Best Play Oslo, bring a fresh and authentic vision to this beloved theatrical masterpiece from Tony winner Joseph Stein and Pulitzer Prize winners Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick . Featuring a talented cast, lavish orchestra and stunning movement and dance from Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter , based on the original staging by Jerome Robbins , FIDDLER ON THE ROOF will introduce a new generation to the uplifting celebration that raises its cup to joy! To love! To life!

Frozen, a full-length stage work told in two acts, expands upon and deepens the tale's indelible plot and themes through new songs and story material from the film's creators; in fact, this new stage production features more than twice as much music as the film. Based on the 2013 film written by a trio of Oscar winners, Frozen features music and lyrics by the creators of the film score Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Up Here, Winnie the Pooh, In Transit) and EGOT-winner Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, Up Here) and a book by Jennifer Lee (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph), the film's screenwriter and director (with Chris Buck ). Frozen won 2014 Oscars for Best Song ("Let It Go") and Best Animated Feature.

In Hadestown, a song can change your fate. This Tony-winning new musical by Anaïs Mitchell and innovative director Rachel Chavkin is a love story for today, and always. Intertwining two mythic Greek tales - that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and of King Hades and his wife Persephone - Hadestown invites you on a journey to the underworld and back.Mitchell's alluring melodies and Chavkin's poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love, with art perhaps being the one thing that can save it all. Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

It's 1962, and pleasantly plump Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad has only one desire - to dance on the popular Corny Collins Show. When her dream comes true, Tracy is transformed from social outcast to sudden star, but she must use her newfound power to vanquish the reigning Teen Queen, win the affections of heartthrob Link Larkin and integrate a TV network - all without denting her 'do! Don't miss Hairspray, Broadway's musical-comedy phenomenon that inspired a major motion picture and won eight 2003 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Hamilton (And Peggy Company)

HAMILTON is the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation's first Treasury Secretary. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, Hamilton is the story of America then, as told by America now.

The And Peggy tour kicked off in January 2019.

Hamilton (Angelica Company)

The Angelica tour kicked off in August 2021.

Hamilton (Philip Company)

The Philip tour kicked off in March 2017.

Jagged Little Pill

Joy, strength, love, courage, catharsis, LIFE: everything we want in a Broadway show can be found in this Tony and Grammy Award-winning new musical about a perfectly imperfect American family, based on Alanis Morissette 's world-changing music. You live, you learn, you connect, you jump out of your seat, you feel truly human... at JAGGED LITTLE PILL.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is an iconic musical phenomenon with a world-wide fan base. In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production comes to North America. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring. Featuring award-winning music by  Andrew Lloyd Webber  and lyrics by  Tim Rice , Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', 'Gethsemane' and 'Superstar'.

Legally Blonde

America's favorite blonde, Elle Woods, is ready to prove who's in charge (again) as Legally Blonde - The Musical takes America by storm! The ultimate Broadway tribute to girl power, Legally Blonde will take you from the UCLA sorority house to the Harvard halls of justice with the timely coming-of-age story of Broadway's brightest heroine. Based on the beloved movie, Legally Blonde follows the transformation of Elle Woods as she tackles stereotypes, sexism, snobbery, and scandal in pursuit of her dreams, and proves that you can be both legally blonde AND the smartest person in the room.

Les Miserables

Cameron Mackintosh presents the new production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg 's Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon, Les Miserables, direct from an acclaimed two-and-a-half-year return to Broadway. With its glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo , this breathtaking new production has left both audiences and critics awestruck.

Featuring the thrilling score and beloved songs "I Dreamed A Dream," "On My Own" "Stars," "Bring Him Home," "One Day More," and many more, this epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history. Seen by more than 70 million people in 44 countries and in 22 languages around the globe, Les Miserables is still the world's most popular musical, breaking box office records everywhere in its 32nd year.

The Lion King

Giraffes strut, birds swoop, gazelles leap - the entire Serengeti comes to life. And as the music soars, Pride Rock slowly rises from the stage. This is THE LION KING. A spectacular visual feast, this adaptation of Disney's much-loved film transports you to a dazzling world that explodes with glorious colors, stunning effects and enchanting music. At its heart is the powerful and moving story of Simba, and his epic journey from wide-eyed cub to his destined role as King of the Pridelands. The Lion King won six 1998 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Scenic Design ( Richard Hudson ), Best Costume Design ( Julie Taymor ), Best Lighting Design ( Donald Holder ), Best Choreography ( Garth Fagan ) and Best Direction of a Musical, making Taymor the first woman in theatrical history bestowed with the honor. The Lion King has also earned more than 70 major arts awards including the 1998 NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, the 1999 Grammy for Best Musical Show Album, the 1999 Evening Standard Award for Theatrical Event of the Year and the 1999 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Choreography and Best Costume Design.

MEAN GIRLS is now a ferociously funny new musical from director Casey Nicholaw , composer Jeff Richmond , lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and book writer Tina Fey . Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. How will this naive newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina's reign, she learns the hard way that you can't cross a Queen Bee without getting stung. Produced by Lorne Michaels , Stuart Thompson , Sonia Friedman , and Paramount Pictures, MEAN GIRLS gets to the hilarious heart of what it means to be a true friend, a worthy nemesis, and above all, a human being.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Baz Luhrmann 's luscious film comes to life on stage in one of the most eye-popping shows to ever hit Broadway. Enter a world of splendor and romance, of over-the-top excess, of glitz, grandeur and glory! In this breath-taking new musical, the Moulin Rouge comes to life onstage, in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. A theatrical celebration of truth, beauty, freedom and - above all - LOVE, Moulin Rouge! is more than a musical; it is a state of mind.

My Fair Lady

The most beloved musical of all time, Lerner & Loewe's MY FAIR LADY is back on Broadway in a lavish new production from Lincoln Center Theater , the theater that brought you the Tony-winning revivals of South Pacific and The King and I. Directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher , the stellar cast tells the story of Eliza Doolittle , a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a "proper lady." But who is really being transformed? The classic score features "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" and "On the Street Where You Live." The original 1956 production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, and was hailed by The New York Times as "one of the best musicals of the century."

On Your Feet!

ON YOUR FEET! is the inspiring true story about heart, heritage and two people who believed in their talent-and each other-to become an international sensation: Gloria and Emilio Estefan . Now their story has arrived on stage in an exhilarating original production that's already won the hearts of critics and audiences alike, with the Chicago Tribune declaring "IT'S A HIT!" and The New York Times cheering, "The very air in the room seems to vibrate in this undeniably crowd-pleasing musical!" "If you aren't humming a Gloria Estefan hit when you leave the theater, it might be time to check your pulse!" raves the Associated Press. Directed by two-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots), with choreography by Olivier Award winner Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys) and a book by Academy Award® winner Alexander Dinelaris (Birdman), ON YOUR FEET! features some of the most iconic songs of the past quarter-century, including "Rhythm is Gonna Get You," "Conga," "Get On Your Feet," "Don't Want To Lose You Now," "1-2-3" and "Coming Out of the Dark." Prepare to be on your feet from start to finish!

Pretty Woman

Once upon a time in the late '80s, unlikely soulmates Vivian and Edward overcame all odds to find each other... and themselves. Experience the moments you love from the movie - and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way - in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages. Brought to life by a powerhouse creative team representing the best of music, Hollywood and Broadway, Pretty Woman: The Musical will lift your spirits and light up your heart. Jerry Mitchell directs and choreographs, with book by Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton , and music & lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance .

SIX (Aragon Tour)

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, in SIX the wives of Henry VIII take the mic to reclaim their identities out of the shadow of their infamous spouse-remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a celebration of 21st century girl power.

The Aragon tour kicked off in March 2022.

SIX (Boleyn Tour)

The Boleyn tour kicked off in September 2022.

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Tina: The Tina Turner Musical

Experience Tina Turner 's triumphant story live on Broadway at the exhilarating, undeniable mega hit: TINA - THE Tina Turner MUSICAL. Celebrate the unstoppable woman that dared to dream fiercely, shatter barriers, and conquer the world-against all odds. Set to the pulse-pounding soundtrack of her most beloved hits, this electrifying sensation will send you soaring to the rafters.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee 's Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic To Kill a Mockingbird comes to Broadway for the first time in a new adaptation by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher . This new interpretation of the beloved, iconic American story retells the story of one of literature's towering symbols of integrity and righteousness, Atticus Finch, in a way made even more poignant for today. Told by Atticus' daughter Scout, based on herself, we see a world of pain and inequity through the eyes youthful innocence.

Non-Equity ​​​​​​​Now on tour

This New York Times Critic's Pick tells the story of Michael Dorsey, an out-of-work actor willing to do anything for a job -- even if it means playing way against type. When he disguises himself as an outspoken actress named Dorothy Michaels, he defies all odds to become a Broadway sensation. But as audiences fall for Dorothy and Michael starts to fall for the woman of his dreams, he's learning that the hardest part of show business isn't getting to the top... it's keeping up the act.

Equity ​​​​​​​Now on tour

Winner of over 50 major awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards, WICKED is the untold story of the witches of Oz. Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. Declared "The Best Musical of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly and "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety, WICKED is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire , has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz , and a book by Winnie Holzman . The production is directed by Joe Mantello with musical staging by Wayne Cilento .

Upcoming Tours

Disney's winnie the pooh: the new musical stage adaptation.

Non-Equity Tour launches January 12, 2023

Disney's iconic Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and Owl (oh... and don't forget Tigger too!) have come to life in a beautifully crafted musical stage adaptation. Featuring The Sherman Brothers ' classic Grammy Award-winning music with further songs by A.A. Milne , this beautiful fresh stage adaptation is told with stunning life-sized puppetry through the eyes of the characters we all know and love, in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood.

The Simon & Garfunkel Story

Non-Equity Tour launches January 14, 2023

The Simon & Garfunkel Story is a critically acclaimed concert-style theatre show about two young boys from Queens, New York who went on to become the world's most successful music duo of all time. Using state-of-the-art video projection, incredible lighting, and a full live band, this production is a moving and powerful concert featuring all the hits such as "Mrs, Robinson," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "The Sound Of Silence," and many more - not to be missed.

Equity Tour launches February 14, 2023

They knew they would make history, but not what history would make of them. Fed up with living under the tyranny of British rule, John Adams attempts to persuade his fellow members of the Continental Congress to vote in favor of American Independence and sign the Declaration. But how much is he willing to compromise in the pursuit of freedom? And to whom does that freedom belong? Direct from the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway, directors Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus reexamine a pivotal moment in American history in a re-imagining of the Tony Award®-winning musical 1776.

Into the Woods

Equity Tour launches February 18, 2023

Into the Woods first premiered on Broadway in 1987, winning three Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Book. It has since been produced throughout the world and was adapted into a major motion picture in 2014. This production marks its first time on Broadway in 20 years.

Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles

Non-Equity Tour launches March 3, 2023

RAIN - A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES performs songs from Abbey Road & the Rooftop Concert LIVE, in addition to all your favorites hits. This mind-blowing performance takes you back in time with the legendary foursome delivering a note-for-note theatrical event that is the next best thing to seeing the Beatles. Experience the worlds' most iconic band and get back to where you once belonged with RAIN - A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES.

Equity Tour launches August 1, 2023

He is one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Now, Michael Jackson 's unique and unparalleled artistry has finally arrived on Broadway in a brand-new musical. Centered around the making of his 1992 Dangerous World Tour, and created by Tony Award®-winning Director/Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage , MJ goes beyond the singular moves and Signature Sound of the star, offering a rare look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Jackson into legendary status.

Learn More Here

Equity Tour launches September 9, 2023

This bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice , a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she'd never be a star, but then something funny happened-she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway. Featuring some of the most iconic songs in theatre history including "Don't Rain On My Parade," "I'm the Greatest Star," and "People," Michael Mayer 's bold new production marks the first time Funny Girl has returned to Broadway since its debut 58 years ago.

The Kite Runner

Equity Tour launches in 2024

One of the best-loved and most highly acclaimed novels of our time, THE KITE RUNNER is a powerful play of friendship that follows one man's journey to confront his past and find redemption. Afghanistan is a divided country and two childhood friends are about to be torn apart. It's a beautiful afternoon in Kabul and the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither of the boys can foresee the incident which will change their lives forever. Told across two decades and two continents, THE KITE RUNNER is an unforgettable journey of redemption and forgiveness, and shows us all that we can be good again.

​​​​​​​Jersey Boys

JERSEY BOYS is the international musical phenomenon that takes you behind the scenes - and behind the music - of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. No wonder that for over 15 years, New York's favorite musical is the one about the boys from Jersey.

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Complete A-Z listing of Broadway shows in NYC

Want to see a Broadway show in NYC? Here’s the complete list of plays, musicals and revivals running now.

Broadway shows are practically synonymous with New York City, and the word Broadway is often used as shorthand for theater itself. Visiting the Great White Way means attending one of 41 large theaters concentrated in the vicinity of  Times Square , many of which seat more than 1,000 people. The most popular Broadway shows tend to be  musicals , from long-running favorites like  The Lion King  and  Hamilton  to more recent hits like Hadestown   and Moulin Rouge! —but new plays and revivals also represent an important part of the Broadway experience. There’s a wide variety of Broadway shows out there, as our complete A–Z listing attests. And for a full list of shows that are coming soon, check out our list of upcoming Broadway shows .

RECOMMENDED: Find the  best Broadway shows

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Broadway shows A–Z

• 3 out of 5 stars
• price 3 of 4
• Midtown West Open run

Aladdin: In brief Disney unveils its latest cartoon-to-musical project: the tale of a boy, an uncorked spirit and an aerodynamic rug. Composer Alan Menken adds new tunes to the 1992 original soundtrack, and Chad Beguelin provides a fresh book. Reputed highlights include James Monroe Iglehart's bouncy Genie and the flying-carpet F/X. Aladdin: Theater review by Adam Feldman What do we wish for in a Disney musical? It is unrealistic to expect aesthetic triumph on par with The Lion King, but neither need we settle for blobs of empty action like Tarzan or The Little Mermaid. The latest in the toon-tuner line, Aladdin, falls between those poles; nearer in style (though inferior in stakes) to Disney’s first effort, Beauty and the Beast, the show is a tricked-out, tourist-family-friendly theme-park attraction, decorated this time in the billowing fabrics of orientalist Arabian fantasy. “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home,” sings the genial Genie (a game, charismatic Iglehart) in the opening song, and that’s the tone of Aladdin as a whole: kid-Oriented. As in the 1992 film, the Genie steals the show from its eponymous “street rat” hero (Jacobs, white teeth and tan chest agleam). The musical’s high point is the hard-sell “Friend Like Me,” in which the fourth-wall-breaking spirit summons wave upon wave of razzle-dazzle to demonstrate the scope of his power. (The number matches the rococo cornucopia of the New Amsterdam Theatre.) Granted three wishes for freeing the Genie from a lamp, Ala

Broadway review by Adam Feldman “Keep it light, keep it tight, keep it fun, and then we’re done!” That’s the pithy advice that the indignant 16th-century housewife Anne Hathaway (Betsy Wolfe) imparts to her neglectful husband, William Shakespeare (Stark Sands), as a way to improve his play Romeo and Juliet, which she considers too much of a downer. It is also the guiding ethos of the new Broadway jukebox musical & Juliet, a quasi-Elizabethan romp through the chart-toppers of Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin. A diverting synthetic crossbreed of Moulin Rouge!, Something Rotten!, Mamma Mia! and Head Over Heels, this show delivers just what you’d expect. It is what it is: It gives you the hooks and it gets the ovations.  Martin is the preeminent pop hitmaker of the past 25 years, so & Juliet has a lot to draw from. The show’s 30 songs include multiple bops originally recorded by the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Katy Perry, as well as tunes that Martin wrote—or, in all but two cases, co-wrote—for Pink, NSYNC, Kesha, Robyn, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie J, Céline Dion, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Ellie Goulding, Demi Lovato, Adam Lambert, the Weeknd and even Bon Jovi. (Notably absent are any of his collaborations with Taylor Swift.) “Roar,” “Domino,” “Since U Been Gone”: the hit list goes on and on. As a compilation disc performed live, it’s a feast for Millennials; its alternate title might well be Now That’s What I Call a Musical! & Julietl | Photograph: Matthew Murp

Appropriate

• Midtown West Until Jun 23, 2024

In Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's dark comedy, which made its NYC debut at the Signature back in 2014, scattered members of an estranged Arkansas family return to their late patriarch's plantation to sort through the detritus and long-suppressed stories of multiple generations. Ryan Murphy muse Sarah Paulson stars in Second Stage's Broadway production, which is directed by Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery); the cast also prominently includes Corey Stoll, Michael Esper, Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold.

Back to the Future: The Musical

• price 4 of 4

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Attending Back to the Future: The Musical is a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion, except for the part about not being able to look away. The star is a vehicle: a gull-winged silver DeLorean in whose image the Winter Garden Theatre has been tricked out with gleaming circuitry, and which—re-engineered into a time machine by the wild-haired inventor Doc Brown (Roger Bart)—transports 1980s teenager Marty McFly (Casey Likes) 30 years into the past, where he must help his father woo his mother. Audience members, meanwhile, may long for a device to jump them two hours and 40 minutes into the future.   There have been solid Broadway musicals adapted from hit movies, but this heap seems to have been assembled out of parts from previous film-to-stage flops. Bart played a mad scientist in Young Frankenstein, and Likes was a music-loving teen in last season’s Almost Famous. Director John Rando tried ‘80s kitsch in The Wedding Singer; Glen Ballard, who co-wrote the score, also co-composed the ghastly Ghost. Like Pretty Woman and Bullets Over Broadway, the script is by the source’s original screenwriter, in this case Bob Gale. And as in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Bang, the main attraction is a flying car.  Back to the Future: The Musical | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman What no one has remembered to include is the engine, which may explain why the cast is pushing so hard. The ever-present underscoring—drawn from Silvestri’s

A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  From the 1960s through the early 1980s, at the height of his long career, Neil Diamond shone very brightly indeed. As A Beautiful Noise, the jukebox biomusical based on his life, takes pains to inform us early on, he has had dozens of top-40 hits, and sold 120 million albums. “Biggest box office draw in the world, ahead of Elvis Presley, can you imagine? The King,” Diamond marvels later on. The Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter-showman was sometimes called the Jewish Elvis, and in that regard A Beautiful Noise is a suitable tribute to him; in its biggest numbers it resembles an old-school Vegas-style impersonation show, recreating concert moments for the benefit of an audience that is happy to embark on a musical nostalgia trip. A Beautiful Noise extracts as many pop gems as it can from the Diamond mine. From his early breakthrough as the writer of “I’m a Believer” for the Monkees to more than two dozen of his later hits (such as “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue” and “America,” though perhaps understandably not “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”), the show makes its subject’s oeuvre the central focus of attraction and investigation. His most enduring hit, “Sweet Caroline,” is prominently featured as both the Act I finale—when Diamond describes it as a visit from God himself, and Michael Mayer’s staging obliges with a chorus of dancers in gleaming white, à la Jesus Christ Superstar—and in a final send-’em-out-humming reprise after the curtain call,

The Book of Mormon

• 5 out of 5 stars

If theater is your religion and the Broadway musical your sect, you've been woefully faith-challenged of late. Venturesome, boundary-pushing works such as Spring Awakening, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Next to Normal closed too soon. American Idiot was shamefully ignored at the Tonys and will be gone in three weeks. Meanwhile, that airborne infection Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark dominates headlines and rakes in millions, without even opening. Celebrities and corporate brands sell poor material, innovation gets shown the door, and crap floats to the top. It's enough to turn you heretic, to sing along with The Book of Mormon's Ugandan villagers: "Fuck you God in the ass, mouth and cunt-a, fuck you in the eye." Such deeply penetrating lyrics offer a smidgen of the manifold scato-theological joys to be had at this viciously hilarious treat crafted by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, of South Park fame, and composer-lyricist Robert Lopez, who cowrote Avenue Q. As you laugh your head off at perky Latter-day Saints tap-dancing while fiercely repressing gay tendencies deep in the African bush, you will be transported back ten years, when The Producers and Urinetown resurrected American musical comedy, imbuing time-tested conventions with metatheatrical irreverence and a healthy dose of bad-taste humor. Brimming with cheerful obscenity, sharp satire and catchy tunes, The Book of Mormon is a sick mystic revelation, the most exuberantly entertaining Broadway musical in years. The high q

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Great expectations can be a problem when you’re seeing a Broadway show: You don’t always get what you hope for. It’s all too easy to expect great things when the show is a masterpiece like Cabaret: an exhilarating and ultimately chilling depiction of Berlin in the early 1930s that has been made into a classic movie and was revived exquisitely less than a decade ago. The risk of disappointment is even larger when the cast includes many actors you admire—led by Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee of the show’s decadent Kit Kat Club—and when the production arrives, as this one has, on a wave of raves from London. To guard against this problem, I made an active effort to lower my expectations before seeing the latest version of Cabaret. But my lowered expectations failed. They weren’t low enough. Cabaret | Photograph: Courtesy Marc Brenner So it is in the spirit of helpfulness that I offer the following thoughts on expectation management to anyone planning to see the much-hyped and very pricey new Cabaret, which is currently selling out with the highest average ticket price on Broadway. There are things to enjoy in this production, to be sure, but they’re not necessarily the usual things. Don’t expect an emotionally compelling account of Joe Masteroff’s script (based on stories by Christopher Isherwood and John Van Druten’s nonmusical adaptation of them, I Am a Camera); this production’s focus is elsewhere. Don’t expect appealing versions of the songs in

This John Kander–Fred Ebb–Bob Fosse favorite, revived by director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Ann Reinking, tells the saga of chorus girl Roxie Hart, who murders her lover and, with the help of a huckster lawyer, becomes a vaudeville sensation. The cast frequently features guest celebrities in short stints. RECOMMENDED: Complete Guide to Chicago on Broadway

An Enemy of the People

• 4 out of 5 stars

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  It’s not easy being Strong. Licking his wounds in the aftermath of a divisive 2021 magazine profile of him, Succession star Jeremy Strong found that he could relate to the maligned and besieged hero of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 social drama An Enemy of the People: Thomas Stockmann, a doctor who discovers that the spa water in his small Norwegian resort town is polluted with deadly bacteria. “Doing Enemy of the People is my response to what I experienced from the New Yorker article,” he told the New York Times in a recent interview, noting that Ibsen wrote the play out of a sense of betrayal by people he trusted. “I’m an actor: I want to channel things that I feel into a piece of work, and that’s why I’m doing this play.” The actor’s aggrieved but steadfast self-image is a succesful match for his role in this engrossing new production. Stockmann’s refusal to back down from his findings, even though they could destroy the town’s economy, alienates him from the locals at every level: the managers, led by his stuffed-shirt brother, the mayor (Michael Imperioli, imperiously contemptuous); the industrialists, such as his ornery father-in-law (David Patrick Kelly); the tradesmen, embodied by the chair of the landowners association (a hilariously complacent Thomas Jay Ryan); and the working class, represented by the firebrand editor of a local socialist newspaper (Caleb Eberhardt). Only his daughter—played with luminous composure by Victoria Pedretti—is rel

The Great Gatsby

Set your boats against the current and prepare to be borne back into the Jazz Age as F. Scott Fitzgerald's quintessentially American novel comes to Broadway. Jeremy Jordan (Newsies) and Eva Noblezada (Hadestown) headline this musical adaptation by Kait Kerrigan, Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen, directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical)  and choreographed by Dominique Kelley. The production originated at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse last year.

Theater review by Adam Feldman  Here’s my advice: Go to hell. And by hell, of course, I mean Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell’s fizzy, moody, thrilling new Broadway musical. Ostensibly, at least, the show is a modern retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy goes to the land of the dead in hopes of retrieving girl, boy loses girl again. “It’s an old song,” sings our narrator, the messenger god Hermes (André De Shields, a master of arch razzle-dazzle). “And we’re gonna sing it again.” But it’s the newness of Mitchell’s musical account—and Rachel Chavkin’s gracefully dynamic staging—that bring this old story to quivering life. In a New Orleans–style bar, hardened waif Eurydice (Eva Noblezada) falls for Orpheus (Reeve Carney), a busboy with an otherworldly high-tenor voice who is working, like Roger in Rent, toward writing one perfect song. But dreams don’t pay the bills, so the desperate Eurydice—taunted by the Fates in three-part jazz harmony—opts to sell her soul to the underworld overlord Hades (Patrick Page, intoning jaded come-ons in his unique sub-sepulchral growl, like a malevolent Leonard Cohen). Soon she is forced, by contract, into the ranks of the leather-clad grunts of Hades’s filthy factory city; if not actually dead, she is “dead to the world anyway.” This Hades is a drawling capitalist patriarch who keeps his minions loyal by giving them the minimum they need to survive. (“The enemy is poverty,” he sings to them in

Hamilton: Theater review by David Cote What is left to say? After Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s prodigious quill scratched out 12 volumes of nation-building fiscal and military policy; after Lin-Manuel Miranda turned that titanic achievement (via Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography) into the greatest American musical in decades; after every critic in town (including me) praised the Public Theater world premiere to high heaven; and after seeing this language-drunk, rhyme-crazy dynamo a second time, I can only marvel: We've used up all the damn words. Wait, here are three stragglers, straight from the heart: I love Hamilton. I love it like I love New York, or Broadway when it gets it right. And this is so right. A sublime conjunction of radio-ready hip-hop (as well as R&B, Britpop and trad showstoppers), under-dramatized American history and Miranda’s uniquely personal focus as a first-generation Puerto Rican and inexhaustible wordsmith, Hamilton hits multilevel culture buttons, hard. No wonder the show was anointed a sensation before even opening. Assuming you don’t know the basics, ­Hamilton is a (mostly) rapped-through biomusical about an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean who came to New York, served as secretary to General Washington, fought against the redcoats, authored most of the Federalist Papers defending the Constitution, founded the Treasury and the New York Post and even made time for an extramarital affair that he damage-controlled in a scandal-stanching pamphle

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Reducio! After 18 months, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has returned to Broadway in a dramatically new form. As though it had cast a Shrinking Charm on itself, the formerly two-part epic is now a single show, albeit a long one: Almost three and a half hours of stage wizardry, set 20 years after the end of J.K. Rowling’s seven-part book series and tied to a complicated time-travel plot about the sons of Harry Potter and his childhood foe Draco Malfoy. (See below for a full review of the 2018 production.) Audiences who were put off by the previous version’s tricky schedule and double price should catch the magic now.  Despite its shrinking, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has kept most of its charm. The spectacular set pieces of John Tiffany’s production remain—the staircase ballet, the underwater swimming scene, the gorgeous flying wraiths—but about a third of the former text has been excised. Some of the changes are surgical trims, and others are more substantial. The older characters take the brunt of the cuts (Harry’s flashback nightmares, for example, are completely gone); there is less texture to the conflicts between the fathers and sons, and the plotting sometimes feels more rushed than before. But the changes have the salutary effect of focusing the story on its most interesting new creations: the resentful Albus Potter (James Romney) and the unpopular Scorpius Malfoy (Brady Dalton Richards), whose bond has been reconceived in a s

The Heart of Rock and Roll

Broadway review by Regina Robbins Broadway has been catching up with the News this season. The smoky-voiced, harmonica-playing Huey Lewis and his band racked up a dozen top-10 singles in the U.S. between 1982 and 1991, one of which—“The Power of Love”—was featured in 1985’s biggest movie, Back to the Future. A musical adaptation of that time-travel classic, which has been giving Broadway audiences a nostalgia fix since last summer, includes it alongside another song from the movie, “Back in Time.” Both songs are now also featured in The Heart of Rock and Roll, which goes all in on Lewis, using his catalog—singles and deep cuts, plus one song written for the show—to transport us to a hot-pink version of the 1980s, cheerfully unbesmirched by the Cold War, AIDS or cocaine. At a cardboard packaging company in Milwaukee, Bobby (Corey Cott) is a would-be rocker turned working stiff who channels his ambition into a 9-to-5 job. (Cue “Hip to Be Square.”) Determined to succeed at something, anything—unlike his father, a musician who died years ago—he’s gunning for promotion to the sales team. Also trying to prove herself is the boss’s daughter, Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz), a Princeton grad who crunches numbers but aspires to impress her father (John Dossett) in a leadership role. They may both get their chance at a trade convention in Chicago, where Owen Fjord (Orville Mendoza), a hotshot Swedish furniture mogul, will be the keynote speaker; making a deal with him would give the compan

Hell's Kitchen

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Hell’s Kitchen, whose score is drawn from the pop catalog of Alicia Keys, could easily have gone down in flames. Jukebox musicals often do; songs that sound great on the radio can’t always pull their weight onstage. But playwright Kristoffer Diaz, director Michael Greif and choreographer Camille A. Brown have found the right recipe for this show—and, in its vivid dancers and magnificent singers, just the right ingredients—and they've cooked up a heck of a block party.  Loosely inspired by Keys’s life, Hell’s Kitchen has the sensibly narrow scope of a short story. Newcomer Maleah Joi Moon—in a stunningly assured debut—plays Ali, a beautiful but directionless mixed-race teenager growing up in midtown’s artist-friendly Manhattan Plaza in the 1990s, a period conjured winsomely and wittily by Dede Ayite’s costumes. The issues Ali faces are realistic ones: tensions with her protective single mother, Jersey (Shoshana Bean); disappointment with the charming musician father, Davis (Brandon Victor Dixon), who yo-yos in and out of their lives; a crush on a thicc, slightly older street drummer, Knuck (Chris Lee); a desire to impress a stately pianist, Miss Liza Jane (Kecia Lewis), who lives in the building.  Hell’s Kitchen | Photograph: Courtesy Marc J. Franklin The show’s chain of Keys songs is its most obvious selling point, but it could also have been a limitation. Musically, the tunes are not built for drama—they tend to sit in a leisurely R&B groove

Kimberly Akimbo

Broadway review by Adam Feldman Sixteen is not sweet for the heroine of the bruisingly joyful new musical Kimberly Akimbo. Adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his own 2001 play, with music by Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change), the show has a central conceit that verges on magical realism: Kimberly Levaco suffers from an unnamed, “incredibly rare” genetic disorder that makes her age at a superfast rate. Played by the 63-year-old Victoria Clark, she is physically and psychically out of place among her high school peers, who have more conventional adolescent problems like unrequited crushes. “Getting older is my affliction,” the usually mild-mannered Kimberly sings in a rare burst of confrontation. “Getting older is your cure.”   Life at home in New Jersey with her boozy, incompetently protective father (Steven Boyer) and her pregnant, hypochondriacal and self-absorbed mother (Alli Mauzey) is even less appealing. But as Kimberly stares into a cruelly foreshortened future—the life expectancy for people with her illness is, yes, 16—two agents of disruption reframe her perspective. The first is her aunt Debra (the unstoppable Bonnie Milligan), a hilarious gale force of chaos who blows into town and quickly recruits her niece into an elaborate check-fraud scheme. The other is Seth (the winsome and natural Justin Cooley), a gentle, tuba-playing classmate with an affinity for anagrams that suggests, to Kimberly, that maybe he could shake her up and rearrange her too. Kimberly Aki

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Tamara de Lempicka is best known for the Art Deco portraits she painted in the 1920s and early 1930s: sculptural, imposingly sexy fusions of Cubism and Mannerism—her women’s conical breasts often press out from under luscious folds of bright fabric—that still present an enticing idealization of cosmopolitan life. In many of her works, the main figures’ heads are slightly bent to the spectator’s left, as though the paintings could not contain their subjects’ full size. And that, to less pleasing effect, is the feeling one gets from the messy new musical Lempicka, a portrait of the artist that tries to cram her into too small a frame, without the benefit of strong composition. Lempicka’s story, which spanned most of the 20th century, offers no dearth of drama. As a Polish-Jewish teenager summering in Russia, she married an aristocrat, Tadeusz Lempicki, then saved him from the Bolsheviks at considerable personal cost. She embraced the louche life in Paris, rising to artistic prominence while taking multiple lovers of both sexes. (“I live life in the margins of society,” she reportedly said. “And the rules of normal society don’t apply in the margins.”) But in the late 1930s, with the Nazis on the march, she was forced to flee again, this time to America—with a rich and titled new husband—where she spent most of her remaining four decades in cultural obscurity. Lempicka | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman The most persuasive

The Lion King

Director-designer Julie Taymor takes a reactionary Disney cartoon about the natural right of kings—in which the circle of life is putted against a queeny villain and his jive-talking ghetto pals—and transforms it into a gorgeous celebration of color and movement. The movie’s Elton John–Tim Rice score is expanded with African rhythm and music, and through elegant puppetry, Taymor populates the stage with an amazing menagerie of beasts; her audacious staging expands a simple cub into the pride of Broadway, not merely a fable of heredity but a celebration of heritage. RECOMMENDED: Guide to The Lion King on Broadway  Minskoff Theatre (Broadway). Music by Elton John. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi. Directed by Julie Taymor. With ensemble cast. Running time: 2hrs 40mins. One intermission.

• Midtown West Until Jun 2, 2024

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  “Nothing to do except wait,” explains Mary Jane (Rachel McAdams) to Amelia (Lily Santiago), a college student visiting her small Queens apartment. “I’m glad to have your company.” Mary Jane is a single mother with a severely disabled toddler named Alex; he is running a fever, and Amelia’s aunt Sherry (April Mathis), a nurse, is tending to him in the back room. Exactly what they might be waiting for is a question that hangs with gray menace in Amy Herzog’s exquisite and deeply moving Mary Jane: Alex is almost certainly not getting better, and even the best-case scenarios break your heart. Yet the play does not dwell in helplessness; it’s more interested in how people try to help. In addition to Mary Jane, there are eight other characters onstage. Mathis and Santiago reappear as, respectively, a doctor and a music therapist. Brenda Wehle is both Mary Jane’s sturdy superintendent and a Buddhist nun; Susan Pourfar plays two other mothers with disabled children. (The second, a blunt Hasidic woman, adds a welcome dash of comic relief.) There are no villains here, only people doing their best under sometimes crushing circumstances. Mary Jane | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy All are rendered in lovely detail by Herzog and the five women of the cast, directed by Anne Kauffman with characteristic attention to the importance of offhand nuance. Information is revealed in a steady drip of medical jargon, bureaucratic obstacles and personal history; t

Merrily We Roll Along

• Midtown West Until Jul 7, 2024

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Merrily We Roll Along is the femme fatale of Stephen Sondheim musicals, beautiful and troubled; people keep thinking they can fix it, rescue it, save it from itself and make it their own. In the decades since its disastrous 1981 premiere on Broadway, where it lasted just two weeks, the show has been revised and revived many times (including by the York in 1994, Encores! in 2012 and Fiasco in 2019). The challenges of Merrily are built into its core in a way that no production can fully overcome. But director Maria Friedman’s revival does a superb job—the best I’ve ever seen—of overlooking them, the way one might forgive the foibles of an old friend.   As a showbiz-steeped investigation of the disillusionment that may accompany adulthood, Merrily is a companion piece to Sondheim’s Follies, with which it shares a key line: “Never look back,” an imperative this show pointedly ignores. Adapted by George Furth from a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the musical is structured in reverse. We first meet Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff) in 1976, when he is a former composer now leading a hollow life as a producer of Hollywood schlock; successive scenes move backward through the twisting paths on which he has lost both his ideals and his erstwhile best pals, playwright Charley (Daniel Radcliffe) and writer Mary (Lindsay Mendez). The final scene—chronologically, the first—finds them together on a rooftop in 1957, as yet regardless of their doom,

Broadway review by Adam Feldman The authorized biomusical MJ wants very much to freeze Michael Jackson in 1992: It’s a King of Pop-sical. The show begins on a note of truculent evasion. Jackson, played by the gifted Broadway newcomer Myles Frost, is in rehearsal for his Dangerous tour—a year before the superstar was first publicly accused of sexually abusing a minor—and the number they run is “Beat It,” a song about the importance of avoiding conflict. “Showin’ how funky strong is your fight,” sings Michael, prefiguring the musical’s approach to his life. “It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right.”  When the song is done, Michael speaks with an MTV reporter (Whitney Bashor) who has landed a rare interview with him. “With respect, I wanna keep this about my music,” he says. “Is it really possible to separate your life from your music?” she asks, preempting a question on many minds, and his reply is a slice of “Tabloid Junkie”: “Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on a TV screen, don’t make it factual.” And that, more or less, is that. Expertly directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, MJ does about as well as possible within its careful brief. In and of itself, it is a deftly crafted jukebox nostalgia trip. Lynn Nottage’s script weaves together three dozen songs, mostly from the Jackson catalog. The music and the dancing are sensational. And isn’t that, the show suggests, really the point in the end? Doesn’t that beat all? MJ is manifestly aimed at peopl

Mother Play

• Midtown West Until Jun 16, 2024

The supreme Jessica Lange stars as the domineering mother of two teenagers—played by The Big Bang Theory's Jim Persons and that master child portrayer Celia Keenan-Bolger—in a surrealistic memory play by Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), one of the signal dramatists of our era. Tina Landau (SpongeBob SquarePants) directs the world premiere for Second Stage.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

• Hell's Kitchen Open run

Theater review by Adam Feldman Red alert! Red alert! If you’re the kind of person who frets that jukebox musicals are taking over Broadway, prepare to tilt at the windmill that is the gorgeous, gaudy, spectacularly overstuffed Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Directed with opulent showmanship by Alex Timbers, this adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie may be costume jewelry, but its shine is dazzling.  The place is the legendary Paris nightclub of the title, and the year is ostensibly 1899. Yet the songs—like Catherine Zuber’s eye-popping costumes—span some 150 years of styles. Moulin Rouge! begins with a generous slathering of “Lady Marmalade,” belted to the skies by four women in sexy black lingerie, long velvet gloves and feathered headdresses. Soon they yield the stage to the beautiful courtesan Satine (a sublimely troubled Karen Olivo), who makes her grand entrance descending from the ceiling on a swing, singing “Diamonds Are Forever.” She is the Moulin Rouge’s principal songbird, and Derek McLane’s sumptuous gold-and-red set looms around her like a gilded cage. After falling in with a bohemian crowd, Christian (the boyish Aaron Tveit), a budding songwriter from small-town Ohio, wanders into the Moulin Rouge like Orpheus in the demimonde, his cheeks as rosy with innocence as the showgirls’ are blushed with maquillage. As cruel fate would have it, he instantly falls in love with Satine, and she with him—but she has been promised, alas, to the wicked Duke of Monroth (Tam Mutu)

The Notebook

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Here comes the rain again. Fans of the 2004 movie The Notebook will remember its most famous scene: After gathering steam for years, the romance between Noah and Allie condenses into a downpour, and their drenched bodies fuse together in a passionate embrace. Not since the Bible, perhaps, has a Noah taken better advantage of a deluge.  Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter’s Broadway version of Nicholas Sparks’s 1996 novel (the first of several musicals this season adapted from books that became films) takes pains to get this moment right, and it does. Rain descends in sheets from above, Noah and Allie come through in a clinch, and a significant portion of the audience swoons. A little of the water even splashes onto spectators in the front row; this is a show that wants to make people wet. That The Notebook succeeds to the extent that it does—at the performance I attended, multiple people were moved to tears by the musical’s final scenes—is a testament to the power of the familiar, and of talented actors to make it seem new.  In the movie, Noah and Allie are played at different ages by two pairs of actors; in the musical, there are three pairs of actors, and their stories are interwoven less chronologically. Younger Noah (John Cardoza) and Younger Aliie (Jordan Tyson) fall in love as teenagers but are separated by fate and meddling parents; Middle Noah (Ryan Vasquez) and Middle Allie (Joy Woods) reunite a decade later. We learn of them as O

The Outsiders

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Deep into the new musical The Outsiders, there is a sequence that is rawer and more pulse-pounding than anything else on Broadway right now. It’s halfway through the second act, and the simmering animosity between opposing youths in 1967 Tulsa—the poor, scrappy Greasers and the rich, mean Socs (short for socialites)—has come to a violent boil. The two groups square off in rumble, trading blows as rain pours from the top of the stage, just as it did in the most recent Broadway revival of West Side Story. The music stops, the lighting flashes, and before long it is hard to tell which figures onstage, caked in mud and blood, belong to one side or the other. This scene succeeds for many reasons: the stark power of the staging by director Danya Taymor and choreographers Rick and Jeff Kuperman; the aptness of the confusion, which dramatizes the pointlessness of the gangs’ mutual hostility; the talent and truculent pulchritude of the performers. But it may also be significant that the rumble contains no dialogue or songs. Elsewhere, despite some lovely music and several strong performances, The Outsiders tends to attenuate the characters and situations it draws from S.E. Hinton’s popular young-adult novel and its 1982 film adaptation. Action, in this show, speaks better than words.  The Outsiders | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy Like Hinton’s novel, which she wrote when she was a teenager herself, The Outsiders is narrated by the 14-year-old Po

It's been nearly two decades since Michael Stuhlbarg, one of the great stage actors of his generation, last trod Broadway's boards (in The Pillowman). The vehicle for his overdue return is a modern-modern history play by Peter Morgan (The Crown) that depicts the machinations of Russia's oligarchs in the power vaccuum that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Stuhlbarg plays billionaire Boris Berezovsky in a transfer of Rupert Goold's hit London production; Will Keen (as Vladimir Putin) and Luke Thallon (as Roman Abramovich) reprise their acclaimed performances in that version.  

Broadway review by Adam Feldman Who doesn’t enjoy a royal wedding? The zingy Broadway musical Six celebrates, in boisterous fashion, the union of English dynastic history and modern pop music. On a mock concert stage, backed by an all-female band, the six wives of the 16th-century monarch Henry VIII air their grievances in song, and most of them have plenty to complain about: two were beheaded, two were divorced, one died soon after childbirth. In this self-described “histo-remix,” members of the long-suffering sextet spin their pain into bops; the queens sing their heads off and the audience loses its mind.  That may be for the best, because Six is not a show that bears too much thinking about. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss wrote it when they were still students at Cambridge University, and it has the feel of a very entertaining senior showcase. Its 80 minutes are stuffed with clever turns of rhyme and catchy pastiche melodies that let mega-voiced singers toss off impressive “riffs to ruffle your ruffs.” The show's own riffs on history are educational, too, like a cheeky new British edition of Schoolhouse Rock. If all these hors d’oeuvres don’t quite add up to a meal, they are undeniably tasty. Aside from the opening number and finale and one detour into Sprockets–style German club dancing, Six is devoted to giving each of the queens—let’s call them the Slice Girls—one moment apiece in the spotlight, decked out in glittering jewel-encrusted outfits by Gabriella Slade that are Tu

Stereophonic

• Midtown West Until Aug 18, 2024

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  David Adjmi’s intimately epic behind-the-music drama Stereophonic has now moved to Broadway after a hit fall run at Playwrights Horizons. At the smaller venue, the audience felt almost immersed in the room where the show takes place: a wood-paneled 1970s recording studio—decked out by set designer David Zinn as a plush vision of brown, orange, mustard, sage and rust—where a rock band is trying to perfect what could be its definitive album. Some fans of the play have wondered if it could work as well on a larger stage, but that question has a happy answer: Daniel Aukin’s superb production navigates the change without missing a beat. The jam has been preserved. With the greater sense of distance provided at the Golden Theatre, Stereophonic feels more than ever like watching a wide-screen film from the heyday of Robert Altman, complete with excellent ensemble cast, overlapping dialogue and a generous running time: Adjmi divides the play into four acts, which take more than three hours to unfold. This length is essential in conveying the sprawl of a recording process that goes on far longer than anyone involved had planned, but the play itself never drags. As the band cracks up along artistic, romantic and pharmaceutical fault lines—fueled by a constant flow of booze, weed and coke, often late into the night—we follow along, riveted by the details and the music that emerges from them. There’s nary a false note.  Stereophonic | Photograph: Courtes

Broadway review by Regina Robbins  When the women’s-rights activist Alice Paul, the central figure of Shaina Taub’s musical Suffs, starts planning a march down Pennsylvania Avenue ahead of Woodrow Wilson’s 1913 inauguration, a fellow protester volunteers to ride a white horse at the head of the procession. Paul and others are skeptical: With everything else on their plates, who has time to find a horse? But when the day arrives, their comrade does lead the demonstration astride a white steed—an amusing and historically accurate flourish in an otherwise earnest scene. This early triumph for the suffragists, however, is followed by a steep uphill climb toward the passage of the 19th Amendment. Their struggle is compounded by political and personal conflicts among women divided by age, race and class; alliances are strained, friendships are tested and blood is spilled for the cause of equality. When the curtain comes down for intermission, the returning image of that young woman on horseback may now put a lump in your throat. Suffs | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus After premiering at the Public Theatre in 2022, Suffs now marches to Broadway with its intrepid director, Leigh Silverman, still leading the way, and most of its principal cast intact: Writer-composer-lyricist Taub makes her Broadway debut as Paul; the invaluable Jenn Colella is Carrie Chapman Catt, the reigning grande dame of the suffrage movement, and Nikki M. James is the civil-rights leader Ida B. Wells. These p

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• Midtown West Until May 5, 2024

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  [Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster are now playing the leading roles.] Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served. Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s 1979 Sweeney Todd may well be the greatest of all Broadway musicals: an epic combination of disparate ingredients—horror and humor, cynicism and sentiment, melodrama and sophisticated wit—with a central core of grounded, meaty humanity. But while the show’s quality is baked into the writing, portion sizes in recent years have varied. Sweeney Todd’s scope makes it expensive to stage; its 1989 and 2005 Broadway revivals (and the immersive 2017 Off Broadway incarnation) presented the show with greatly reduced casts and orchestrations. Not so for the thrilling version now playing at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, directed by Hamilton’s Thomas Kail: This production features a 26-piece orchestra and a cast of 25 led by Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. It’s a feast for the ears.  Groban plays the title role: a Victorian barber, né Benjamin Barker, who returns to London after serving 15 years of hard labor for a crime he didn’t commit, hoping to reunite with his beloved wife, Lucy, and their young daughter, Johanna. But as he learns from his practical neighbor Mrs. Lovett (Ashford)—who operates the squalid meat-pie shop below his old tonsorial parlor—Lucy poisoned herself after being assaulted by the same lecherous judge (Jamie Jackson) who sent him away, who is now the guardian of the teenage Johanna (Maria Bilb

Uncle Vanya

• Upper West Side Until Jun 16, 2024

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  The fraying country estate where Uncle Vanya unfolds is peopled, in the main, by thwarted souls. Its characters wallow in regret, especially the loveless Vanya (Steve Carell). He has sacrificed his money and time, and what he believes to have been his great potential—”I could have been a Schopenhauer, or a Dostoevsky,” he sputters—to support his pompous brother-in-law, Alexander (Alfred Molina), an academic who once enjoyed a great reputation. But now, in middle age, Vanya feels that his reverence for the professor was misplaced. His dutiful work has taken him nowhere, and now he has nowhere to go.  Uncle Vanya is set in Russia at the end of the 19th century, but it is perhaps the Chekhov play that feels closest to 21st-century sensibilities, and it is sometimes strikingly prescient of today’s concerns: Vanya’s doctor friend Astrov (William Jackson Harper), for example, is an environmentalist who plants trees to replace those mowed down by industrial loggers, and his artwork paints a worrisome picture of impending “total obliteration.” It’s relatable. There is logic, then, to the decision to dispense with fidelity to Chekhov’s period and update the play to a contemporary setting for Lincoln Center Theater's new production, adapted by Heidi Schreck and directed by Lila Neugebauer. To some extent, the gambit succeeds: Many of the production’s most pleasurable moments are connected to this modernization. But it’s also, I think, where the producti

Water for Elephants

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Step right up, come one, come all, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up to the greatest—well, okay, not the greatest show on Broadway, but a dang fine show nonetheless. Although Water for Elephants is set at a circus, and includes several moments of thrilling spectacle, what makes it so appealing is its modesty, not glitz. Like the story’s one-ring Benzini Brothers Circus, a scrappy company touring the country in the early years of the Depression, this original musical knows it’s not the ritziest show on the circuit. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in wonder, and it’s pretty wonderful at making things up. Water for Elephants has a book by Rick Elice, who wrote the delightful stage version of Peter and the Starcatcher, and songs by the seven-man collective PigPen Theatre Co., which specializes in dark-edged musical story theater. This team knows how to craft magic moments out of spare parts, and so does director Jessica Stone, who steered Kimberly Akimbo to Broadway last season. Together—and with a mighty hand from circus expert Shana Carroll, of the Montreal cirque troupe the 7 Fingers—they have found the right tone for this adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 romance novel, which operates on the level of a fairy tale. The plot is basic. The impoverished Jake Jankowski (The Flash's Grant Gustin), a sensitive and floppy-haired fellow, is forced by family tragedy to drop out of his Ivy League veterinary school. With nothing

The Who's Tommy

Broadway review by Adam Feldman  “I’m a sensation!” declares the title character of The Who’s Tommy when, as a 10-year-old boy, he first stands before a pinball machine. We hear this feeling through narration sung by the grown-up version of Tommy (Ali Louis Bourzgui), because the child version is mute; in a psychosomatic reaction to trauma years earlier, he has become a “deaf dumb and blind kid,” albeit one with an astonishing gift for racking up points in arcades. It may be hard for the audience to relate to Tommy, who spends most of the show in the expressionless mien of a child mannequin. The sensation we experience in the trippy nostalgia of this 1993 musical’s Broadway revival is closer to that of a pinball: batted and bounced from one flashy moment to the next in a production that buzzes and rings with activity.  Tommy is based, of course, on the 1969 concept album that Pete Townshend wrote for his band, the Who. The plot of this rock opera is not entirely clear just from listening, so the stage musical—adapted by Townshend with director Des McAnuff—reorganizes a few of the songs and fills out the story in a different way than Ken Russell’s outré 1975 film did. During the overture, we see Tommy’s father (Adam Jacobs), an officer in the Royal Air Force, get captured by the German soldiers. (Between this, Harmony, Lempicka, Cabaret and White Rose, it’s quite a year for Nazis in musicals.) When Captain Walker returns to his wife (the very fine Alison Luff), he winds up kil

This musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz addresses surprisingly complex themes, such as standards of beauty, morality and, believe it or not, fighting fascism. Thanks to Winnie Holzman’s witty book and Stephen Schwartz’s pop-inflected score, Wicked soars. The current cast includes Lindsay Pearce as Elphaba and Ginna Claire Mason as Glinda.

Nearly half a century after its original Broadway production, William F. Brown and Charlie Smalls's groovy Black spin on The Wizard of Oz eases down the road once more in a revival directed by Schele Williams (who is also co-directing The Notebook this season). Newcomer Nichelle Lewis stars as Dorothy, and Kyle Ramar Freeman, Phillip Johnson Richardson and Avery Wilson are her travel companions; Deborah Cox and Melody A. Betts play the witches, and improv wizard Wayne Brady has the slick title role. JaQuel Knight (of “Single Ladies” fame) is the choreographer, and comedian Amber Ruffin peps up the script with new material.

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9 Great New Broadway Shows to See in NYC in 2023-2024

Plan your nyc adventure around broadway’s must-see shows making their debut in 2023 and 2024..

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The dazzling cast of Here Lies Love on Broadway

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Billy Bustamante, Matthew Murphy, and Evan Zimmerman

For live theater fans and those who simply want to experience essential New York City , there’s nothing like Broadway. And the 2023-2024 season boasts some brilliant new options. Make your trip to NYC a soul-stirring adventure by taking in some of the best new Broadway shows.

Whether you’re a fan of rousing musicals or looking for laughs along the way, there’s something to satisfy every taste in musical theater—for visitors and locals. The best way to secure tickets is before you travel through a trusted site, which you can find online through The Broadway Collection , your source for up-to-the-minute information on the best of Broadway. Below, find our picks for the must-see shows of the Broadway 2023-2024 season in New York, plus a few gems that opened in 2022. And be sure to check online for what’s current, too, as shows often change throughout the year.

Pop stars and pop cultural juggernauts come to Broadway

Arielle Jacobs in Here Lies Love

On the heels of his critically hailed, uplifting American Utopia , the legendary David Byrne is back in action on Broadway with Here Lies Love . It’s an electrifying disco-pop collaboration with beat master Fatboy Slim, based on the life of Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines. The Broadway Theatre has been transformed into a disco for this immersive experience. With a revamped version of The Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense in the movie theaters again, Here Lies Love —directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers—is further proof of Byrne’s continued virtuosity.

Zal Owen, Danny Kornfeld, Steven Telsey, and Eric Peters in Harmony

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Julieta Cervantes

Byrne’s not the only music icon with a new show on Broadway this season. Barry Manilow, along with Bruce Sussman, wrote the music for Harmony , in previews from October 18, 2023, with opening night November 13, 2023, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. With a cast of Broadway favorites, including the irrepressibly charming Julie Benko, Harmony tells the remarkable, true story of a group of entertainers known as the Comedian Harmonists, who rose from singing in the subway tunnels of Berlin to international stardom in the ‘20s and ‘30s. It’s a story that must be seen, and heard, to be believed.

Roger Bart and Casey Likes in Back To The Future

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Another rollicking time is Back to The Future: The Musical , winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Musical for its production in London. Hailed as a “jaw-dropping spectacle that hits all the right buttons,” by USA Today , the Broadway production staged at the Winter Garden Theatre generates one wow after the next, as Marty McFly time-travels in a major prop—a version of the souped-up DeLorean DMC from director Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 blockbuster movie. “Great Scott!” you’re in for a good time.

Big Broadway productions that elicit big laughs

Ashley D. Kelley and Grey Henson in Shucked

For a hilariously juicy evening, dig into the Tony Award ® –winning Shucked , a corn-fed, all-American musical comedy that opened on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater this April. The acclaimed team behind it features Tony Award winners including the writer Robert Horn ( Tootsie ), and director Jack O’Brien ( Hairspray ), and a score by Grammy Award–winning Nashville songwriting duo Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. With corn puns galore—the leading lady is even named Maizy (ba-dum ching)— Shucked is delightfully corny.

Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford in the 2023 Broadway production of Sweeney Todd

This year’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd , at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre sees the multi-platinum music star Josh Groban take on the role of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The baritone received a Tony nomination for best actor for this role, in a production The New Yorker hails as a “sonically thrilling revival.” Expect blood and gore—and plenty of laughs—as Groban and costar Annaleigh Ashford gloriously sing their guts out.

Older breakout Broadway shows that you need to see

A rousing scene from A Beautiful Noise

Courtesy of Broadway Collection

A handful of plays that opened in late 2022 are still wowing audiences in 2023 and promise to do the same in 2024. The jukebox musical A Beautiful Noise at the Broadhurst Theatre celebrates the life and music of Neil Diamond, a Jewish boy from humble beginnings in Brooklyn who rose to worldwide fame with his irrepressible, era-defining anthems and deeply moving love songs. With numbers like Sweet Caroline and America , you’re in for an exhilarating time.

A scene from Some Like it Hot

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Marc J Franklin

Based on the hilarious and iconic 1959 MGM Billy Wilder caper, the musical comedy version of Some Like It Hot at the Shubert Theater updates the material for today’s audiences, winning raves from the New York Times and more along the way. Knockout numbers by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the duo who wrote the songs in Hairspray and Smash , will delight fans of musical theater.

Betsy Wolfe in & Juliet

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Matthew Murphy

The five-time Grammy Award–winning team, songwriters and producers Max Martin and David West Read, along with the Emmy-winning writer from Schitt’s Creek , bring an uproarious new take on the classic Shakespearean love story to Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre with & Juliet , envisioning what would happen if Juliet didn’t end her life over Romeo. See for yourself why it won the prestigious Olivier award when it was first staged in London, as you bop along to pop anthems such as Since U Been Gone , Roar , and Baby One More Time .

Victoria Clark and Justin Cooley in Kimberly Akimbo

Courtesy of Broadway Collection/Joan Marcus

The irresistible Kimberly Akimbo swept the 2023 Tony Awards ® , netting a total of five awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Leading Actress for its breakout star Victoria Clarke in the titular role of a 16-year-old with a rare genetic condition who’s determined to find happiness. Audiences at the Booth Theatre certainly have, thanks to this production that The New Yorker extols as a “howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show.”

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Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

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7 Long-running Broadway Shows Everyone Needs to See Once

These shows have managed to thrive for thousands of performances for a reason.

Planning your first visit to New York City can be overwhelming. And if your plans include a Broadway show, it can get even more confusing. The good news: As pandemic regulations become less restrictive, theater is staging a major comeback in Manhattan.

In April, 15 shows opened on Broadway, with mega star power on stage, from Daniel Craig in "Macbeth" to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in "Plaza Suite." But if it's your first time in Manhattan, a safer bet might be one of the long-running shows that have managed to thrive for thousands of performances.

Here are seven, starting with the oldest, that have been running at least five years.

The Phantom of the Opera

Majestic Theatre, 245 W. 45th St.; thephantomoftheopera.com

The longest-running show in Broadway history has been astonishing audiences with bravura performances — not to mention its crashing chandelier — since Jan. 26, 1988. You'll recognize many of the songs in this musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the story of a mysterious masked maestro who lives beneath the Paris Opera and the soprano who falls under his spell. The 1988 Tony winner for best musical is the perfect show for a romantic weekend.

Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49 St.; chicagothemusical.com

The revival of the show about two sexy murderesses, set in the jazzy '20s, has been running since 1996, thanks in part to creative — and sometimes surprising — casting. Baywatch alum Pamela Anderson, who plays the leading role through June 5, is getting unexpectedly good reviews. But before she came along others gracing the stage in various parts included Christie Brinkley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Melanie Griffith, George Hamilton, Jennifer Holliday, Huey Lewis, Jerry Springer, Sofia Vergara, and Chandra Wilson. Still, even if there's not a famous name on the marquee, the show is great fun.

The Lion King

Minskoff Theatre, 200 W. 45 St.; lionking.com

The lavish spectacle came to Broadway in 1997, bringing the beloved Disney animated movie to the stage. It's the perfect entertainment if you're bringing the family, as the animals come to life in the form of more than 200 brilliant puppets, including an elephant worked by four actors. (Get an aisle seat if you can, because many of the animals march through the theater.) It's a beautiful show — just be warned that you'll be humming Elton John and Tim Rice songs like "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" for days.

Gershwin Theatre, 22 W. 51 St.; wickedthemusical.com

In the Land of Oz, pre-Dorothy, two witches — the nerdy (and very green) Elphaba and the extremely popular Glinda — become unlikely friends while at university. Many critics didn't love the show when it opened in 2003, but guess what? Word of mouth beat back the mixed reviews and the show has soared with gorgeous ballads ("Defying Gravity" and "For Good") and a life-affirming message about friendship and standing up for what you believe in.

The Book of Mormon

Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49 St.; bookofmormonbroadway.com

If you're on a business trip, this raunchy, irreverent show by the writers of South Park makes for an interesting night out with colleagues. Running since 2011, the satirical show is set in Uganda, where two Mormon missionaries try to spread the teachings of the church to local residents more concerned about famine, HIV/AIDS, and the actions of a warlord. Following the pandemic shutdown, writers tweaked the show to, as The New York Times put it, "elevate the main Black female character and clarify the satire." Note, the show remains unsuitable for children under 17.

New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 W. 42 St.; aladdinthemusical.com

Another good choice for the family, the Disney classic is stunning — yes, the magic carpet really flies — and the story is heartwarming as ever. The music is terrific; the stage version, which opened in 2014, adds new songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman written for the film but not used. But the show truly lives on the energy of the Genie, whose high-octane "Friend Like Me" still stops the show after all these years.

Richard Rogers Theatre, 226 W. 46 St.; hamiltonmusical.com

The hottest ticket in town for years after its 2015 opening, you can finally get tickets to Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony and Pulitzer–winning musical without requiring a second mortgage. With a rap-influenced score and a diverse cast of actors portraying Alexander Hamilton and other American founding fathers, the show is probably the most fun you'll ever have at a history lesson. Even if you saw the Disney+ movie, there's nothing like, as they sing in the show, being "in the room where it happens."

How to Get Tickets

The simplest way to get advance tickets for Broadway is to consult the show's website, which in most cases will direct you to Telecharge or Ticketmaster. Get on the show's mailing list — you might get offered discounts. Or check out TheaterMania , TodayTix , or StubHub for other possible discounts. If you decide last minute, go directly to the box office at the theater on the day of the show and see if there have been any returns. Or have a real New York experience and line up for day-of-show discounted tickets at the TDF booth in Times Square (Broadway and 47th Street).

Worth seeing? Check out our reviews of current Broadway and off-Broadway shows

There's always something to see on and off-Broadway. Here's a look at some recent reviews from our critic Bill Canacci, plus a few more Broadway stories from our staff.

There’s a lot to like about the new Broadway musical “Lempicka,” the story of a bisexual artist who was born in Warsaw, married an aristocrat, and became known in the 1920s and 1930s for painting voluptuous nudes and Art Deco portraits of the wealthy. " But the book by Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould crams way too many bits and pieces into this decades-long story of political and personal turmoil — from the Russian Revolution to 1975 America. It's a lot to take in, but there's not much substance.

'Philadelphia, Here I Come!'

In celebration of Irish Rep’s 35th season, the off-Broadway theater is presenting The Friel Project, a retrospective of Brian Friel's work. Playing through May 5 is “Philadelphia, Here I Come!,” his first major success. Set in 1962 and directed by Ciarán O’Reilly, it’s an engaging and often moving tragicomedy revolving around 25-year-old Gar O’Donnell on the eve of his departure from Ireland to America.

'A Sign of the Times'

Now playing off-Broadway at New World Stages, this new work features several Petula Clark hits, as well as 1960s songs by Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield and Lesley Gore. The 2½-hour show touches on women’s rights, sexism, racism and the Vietnam War. But as is too often the case in jukebox musicals, the plot takes a back seat to the songs. Chances are, though, you’ll leave with a smile , humming "Downtown" or one of the many other familiar tunes.

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A mix of new and old opening this spring.

What's new? Under the sun, nothing. But on Broadway — surprisingly — quite a bit. "Suffs," "Lempicka," "Mary Jane," "Mother Play," "Patriots" and "Stereophonic" are among the spring offerings on the New York stage that are  not  revivals,  not  warhorses,  not  based on a movie, a book or somebody's song catalog. “We are thrilled to see so many productions from new playwrights and new voices on Broadway along with a number of incredible revivals opening up this season," said Jason Laks of  the Broadway League.

Ease on down the road to 'The Wiz'

Magic, as we learn in "The Wizard of Oz," can be found in the least likely places. A bucket of water. A pair of slippers. Or, in the case of "The Wiz," the 1975 Broadway musical, a 30-second TV spot. "Come on and ease on down, ease on down the road!" sang Stephanie Mills and her pals in the commercial, which was seen all over the New York market in the spring of 1975. "The Wiz is a wow!" declared the announcer. It was key to transforming "The Wiz" from a borderline failure, with mixed-to-negative reviews and a short life expectancy, to a Tony-winning phenomenon that spawned tours, TV specials, a 1978 film, and — this year — the first true Broadway revival , opening at the Marquis Theatre on April 17.

Complete list of Broadway shows opening this spring

Get ready, theater fans, because spring is just around the corner — and Broadway is bursting with new musicals, plays and revivals. While the fall only had eight shows opening on the Great Bright Way, there are 19 productions scheduled to open between now and April 25 , the cut-off to be eligible for this year's Tony Awards. Among the new musicals are shows based on "The Notebook," "Water For Elephants," "The Outsiders" and "The Great Gatsby." There's also "Hell's Kitchen," featuring the music of Alicia Keys, and "The Heart of Rock and Roll," featuring the songs of Huey Lewis and The News.

Why isn't 'The Mousetrap' on Broadway?

"The Mousetrap" was to have come to New York from London more than a year ago. It never arrived. There was simply no trace of the famed Agatha Christie thriller — the West End's longest-running stage success, which had famously played for 70 years without interruption. Its long-awaited Broadway debut had been announced, first for 2023, then for 2024. It should have been on the boards right now. There was an  official website . There was a hashtag: #IDunnit. But no "Mousetrap." No opening date announced. No cast. No theater. Has "The Mousetrap" been done away with?

From Millburn to Broadway

In the movie "42nd Street" (1933), the show opens in Philadelphia. In the movie "All About Eve" (1950), it opens in New Haven. And in the musical "Kiss Me Kate" (1948) it's liable to open anywhere: "In Philly, Boston, or Baltimo'." All these theater yarns were celebrating the same Broadway tradition: the "out-of-town opening." Shows, then as now, had "tryouts" — test runs, far afield from The Great Bright Way. Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey is now sending its fifth show to Broadway. "The Great Gatsby," which opens April 25, is helping to cement Paper Mill's status as a place where Broadway shows are born .

How to get discount tickets

Securing Broadway tickets can come with a hefty price tag. The good news is that there are discounted Broadway tickets everywhere, you just have to find them. Here's how you can get your hands on affordable Broadway show tickets this season:

'Merrily We Roll Along'

This story of the fractured friendship of three talented people — the lyricist Charley (Daniel Radcliffe), the writer Mary (Lindsay Mendez) and the fabulously successful composer-producer Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff) — is told chronologically backward. It starts in 1981, with the three of them middle-aged, disillusioned, and self-loathing. Then it winds backward in time. Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez star in this revival of Stephen Sondheim's most autobiographical, most problematic and possibly best musical . Runs through March 24, 2024.

'Back to the Future '

If you've seen the movie starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, chances are you're going to love the musical. In a story that interviews director John Rando, and set and costume designer Tim Hatley , we learn all about the DeLorean. "The fact that we got the car to light up, the wheels to spin, the steering, the front wheels to turn, ... the way that that then mixes with the video and triggers with the lighting and triggers with the sound and with an actor in it — ... all of those ingredients are like a very good recipe."

Shows opening in fall 2023 on Broadway

The list of Broadway shows opening this fall may be smaller than usual , but they certainly grab attention. One of the highlights is "Harmony," with music by Barry Manilow, book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman. Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, the show was a big hit last year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

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There’s a Bright Spot in New York Theater. It’s Not Where You Think.

Commercial Off Broadway, a long-dormant sector of the city’s theater economy, is having a banner season. But can it last?

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By Michael Paulson

Broadway is struggling through a postpandemic funk, squeezed between higher production costs and lower audience numbers just as a bevy of new shows set sail into those fierce headwinds. At the same time, New York’s Off Broadway nonprofits , long essential seedbeds for many of the nation’s most acclaimed playwrights, are shedding staff, programming and even real estate.

But there is an unexpected bright spot this season. Commercial Off Broadway, a small sector of New York’s theatrical economy and one that has for years been somewhere between difficult and dormant, is back in business.

“ Oh, Mary! ,” a madcap comedy that imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a daffy alcoholic, is selling out nightly at a 295-seat theater in the West Village, and is likely to transfer to Broadway this summer. Eddie Izzard’s solo “ Hamlet ” did well enough at a 199-seat theater in Greenwich Village that it relocated to a 349-seat house in the East Village, and next is planning runs in Chicago and London.

A commercial revival of “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” an early John Patrick Shanley play about two misfits who meet at a Bronx bar, had a profitable run downtown this season thanks to its two stars, Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott . A new play, “Job,” featuring two “Succession” alums , rode word-of-mouth to profitability, and is also exploring a Broadway transfer.

And a pair of good-time musicals, “ Little Shop of Horrors ” and “ Titanique ,” have settled in for open-ended Off Broadway runs.

“It’s interesting, because up to the pandemic, I think people had written off commercial Off Broadway entirely,” said George Forbes, the executive director of the Lucille Lortel Theater, which develops, presents and champions Off Broadway work. “The narrative was that it wasn’t financially viable. Commercial theaters were disappearing, and the not-for-profits were building new spaces.”

Now the tables have turned, although with plenty of caveats. Real estate is a limiting factor; there aren’t that many rentable Off Broadway venues with sufficient seating capacity for profit-minded producers. One long-running commercial Off Broadway hit, “Stomp,” closed last year after a 29-year run, and another, the immersive “Sleep No More,” is planning to close next month. And a number of factors could drive up costs: IATSE, the union representing stagehands, has been organizing Off Broadway crews , and Actors’ Equity Association, representing performers and stage managers, will begin negotiations later this year on a new Off Broadway contract.

The commercial Off Broadway boomlet seems to have been spurred by the success of “Little Shop,” a revival of the classic camp horror musical, which opened at the Westside Theater in 2019 and, with a long interruption caused by the pandemic, has been running since.

“Little Shop” is running in Midtown West, but most of the other new commercial Off Broadway successes are downtown, and that seems to be a key ingredient in their appeal.

“There are several generations of potential audience members who will not go above 14th Street for their Friday or Saturday or even Tuesday night out,” said Heather Shields, a founder of Business of Broadway, an organization that offers courses about theater producing. “Broadway has yet to capture their imagination,” Shields said, “but downtown is doing that very successfully.”

A vibrant commercial Off Broadway sector existed decades ago, but it shrank as the nonprofit theater movement grew, providing a home for adventurous art. It also contracted as Broadway surged, providing the temptation of bigger audiences and higher profits, and as some venues were lost for more lucrative real estate uses. In more recent years, there have been some successes — long-running entertainments like “Blue Man Group,” as well as a stream of television parody shows, murder mysteries and other fun-night-out shows that straddle the worlds of comedy, magic, nightlife and theater.

The new commercial Off Broadway ventures vary in content and tone but share the promise of an intimate experience (the houses are small, so the patrons tend to be close to the performers), a hip neighborhood (better restaurants and bars) and some kind of intangible quality of authenticity. The audiences are often younger, more local and more diverse than those on Broadway.

“There’s a genuine enthusiasm for going and discovering something off the beaten path,” said Lucas McMahon, a producer of “Oh, Mary!”

Producers and investors are finding themselves drawn to Off Broadway for several reasons. The primary one is economic: Production costs on Broadway have skyrocketed since the pandemic, making it significantly harder for shows to achieve profitability there, and causing producers and investors to look for lower-cost alternatives. (Many are also turning to Britain, where production costs are lower.)

How big are the cost differences? “Oh, Mary!,” which has five actors, period costumes and several set changes, cost $1.2 million to capitalize Off Broadway. By comparison, “The Shark Is Broken,” a three-character comedic look at the making of “Jaws” that was set entirely within a small fishing vessel, cost $5.15 million to capitalize earlier this season on Broadway.

The challenge is that the potential upside of Off Broadway is also lower, because the theaters are smaller.

Historically, Off Broadway tickets have been less expensive than tickets for Broadway shows, but these commercial hits have engaged in the same dynamic pricing practices as Broadway shows — meaning tickets are more expensive when they are more in demand. “Oh, Mary!” has a top price of $191. (That’s still vastly less than the top priced ticket on Broadway, which is $649 at “Merrily We Roll Along.”)

“It is true you can’t make a fortune Off Broadway unless you run for years and years, but with the right equation there’s a pretty good chance you can get your money back and make a little,” said Greg Nobile, one of the producers of “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.”

The dire straits confronting the nonprofit theater sector also contribute to the interest in commercial Off Broadway.

“As the nonprofits have had to produce far less, instead of waiting to be produced, theater artists are taking careers into their own hands and doing it their way,” said Leigh Honigman, one of the producers of “You Don’t Have to Do Anything,” a small play that ran Off Broadway earlier this year.

Because multiple nonprofit theaters are now saddled with underused theaters, the boundaries are blurring. Money from commercial producers is often used to finance shows at nonprofit theaters, and nonprofit theaters are increasingly renting their spaces to commercial producers. The Lucille Lortel Theater, for example, is run by a nonprofit foundation, and until the pandemic rented only to nonprofit productions. Then it decided to rent to commercial productions as well, and now that is where “Oh, Mary!” is running.

When the actress Annaleigh Ashford reached out to the producer Aaron Glick for help breathing more life into “The White Chip,” a play about alcoholism recovery that stars Joe Tapper, her husband, they quickly found a home for their commercial production at MCC, a nonprofit theater. “We didn’t want to wait for a nonprofit season — we wanted to carve our own path,” Glick said.

The potential growth of commercial Off Broadway is limited by a shortage of available downtown theaters with several hundred seats. Over time, theaters have been lost to redevelopment, and in recent years the Minetta Lane was taken over by Audible (which has become a very active commercial Off Broadway producer at the theater) and the Cherry Lane was bought by the indie film studio A24 (which has yet to resume programming at the building).

“It’s pretty clear that commercial Off Broadway is back and viable — it’s just hit after hit that we’re seeing — but the problem is that there are no spaces,” said Oliver Roth, who last year produced an impossible-to-get-into adaptation of “Uncle Vanya” (staged at first in a 40-seat loft and then in a 95-seat space) that turned a profit. “I would have run that forever if there wasn’t a mattress company coming in for New York Fashion Week to use the event space we were in.”

There are other challenges too. It’s harder to get press coverage for Off Broadway shows, and they are not eligible for Tony Awards, another potential source of attention. But with fewer seats to sell, it’s easier to have sold-out houses, which creates a sense of scarcity that can help fuel box office demand. Some of the shows have underwhelmed critics but have thrived nonetheless.

“Twenty to 30 years ago you had to hope for reviews, and then word-of-mouth kicked in over four to six weeks,” said Arnold Engelman, a longtime producer of Eddie Izzard’s shows, including the current “Hamlet.” “Now, word-of mouth is immediate — you have 200 people in there, and after the show a large number of them rush to their phones.”

The producer Daryl Roth (no relation to Oliver Roth), who owns the commercial Off Broadway theater that currently houses “Titanique,” said one sign of health is that she keeps getting calls from producers looking for space. “There are more productions looking for homes than there ever have been,” she said.

Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times. More about Michael Paulson

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The Moscow Metro Museum of Art: 10 Must-See Stations

There are few times one can claim having been on the subway all afternoon and loving it, but the Moscow Metro provides just that opportunity.  While many cities boast famous public transport systems—New York’s subway, London’s underground, San Salvador’s chicken buses—few warrant hours of exploration.  Moscow is different: Take one ride on the Metro, and you’ll find out that this network of railways can be so much more than point A to B drudgery.

The Metro began operating in 1935 with just thirteen stations, covering less than seven miles, but it has since grown into the world’s third busiest transit system ( Tokyo is first ), spanning about 200 miles and offering over 180 stops along the way.  The construction of the Metro began under Joseph Stalin’s command, and being one of the USSR’s most ambitious building projects, the iron-fisted leader instructed designers to create a place full of svet (radiance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant future), a palace for the people and a tribute to the Mother nation.

Consequently, the Metro is among the most memorable attractions in Moscow.  The stations provide a unique collection of public art, comparable to anything the city’s galleries have to offer and providing a sense of the Soviet era, which is absent from the State National History Museum.  Even better, touring the Metro delivers palpable, experiential moments, which many of us don’t get standing in front of painting or a case of coins.

Though tours are available , discovering the Moscow Metro on your own provides a much more comprehensive, truer experience, something much less sterile than following a guide.  What better place is there to see the “real” Moscow than on mass transit: A few hours will expose you to characters and caricatures you’ll be hard-pressed to find dining near the Bolshoi Theater.  You become part of the attraction, hear it in the screech of the train, feel it as hurried commuters brush by: The Metro sucks you beneath the city and churns you into the mix.

With the recommendations of our born-and-bred Muscovite students, my wife Emma and I have just taken a self-guided tour of what some locals consider the top ten stations of the Moscow Metro. What most satisfied me about our Metro tour was the sense of adventure .  I loved following our route on the maps of the wagon walls as we circled the city, plotting out the course to the subsequent stops; having the weird sensation of being underground for nearly four hours; and discovering the next cavern of treasures, playing Indiana Jones for the afternoon, piecing together fragments of Russia’s mysterious history.  It’s the ultimate interactive museum.

Top Ten Stations (In order of appearance)

Kievskaya station.

Kievskaya Station went public in March of 1937, the rails between it and Park Kultury Station being the first to cross the Moscow River.  Kievskaya is full of mosaics depicting aristocratic scenes of Russian life, with great cameo appearances by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.  Each work has a Cyrillic title/explanation etched in the marble beneath it; however, if your Russian is rusty, you can just appreciate seeing familiar revolutionary dates like 1905 ( the Russian Revolution ) and 1917 ( the October Revolution ).

Mayakovskaya Station

Mayakovskaya Station ranks in my top three most notable Metro stations. Mayakovskaya just feels right, done Art Deco but no sense of gaudiness or pretention.  The arches are adorned with rounded chrome piping and create feeling of being in a jukebox, but the roof’s expansive mosaics of the sky are the real showstopper.  Subjects cleverly range from looking up at a high jumper, workers atop a building, spires of Orthodox cathedrals, to nimble aircraft humming by, a fleet of prop planes spelling out CCCP in the bluest of skies.

Novoslobodskaya Station

Novoslobodskaya is the Metro’s unique stained glass station.  Each column has its own distinctive panels of colorful glass, most of them with a floral theme, some of them capturing the odd sailor, musician, artist, gardener, or stenographer in action.  The glass is framed in Art Deco metalwork, and there is the lovely aspect of discovering panels in the less frequented haunches of the hall (on the trackside, between the incoming staircases).  Novosblod is, I’ve been told, the favorite amongst out-of-town visitors.

Komsomolskaya Station

Komsomolskaya Station is one of palatial grandeur.  It seems both magnificent and obligatory, like the presidential palace of a colonial city.  The yellow ceiling has leafy, white concrete garland and a series of golden military mosaics accenting the tile mosaics of glorified Russian life.  Switching lines here, the hallway has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel, impossibly long with decorative tile walls, culminating in a very old station left in a remarkable state of disrepair, offering a really tangible glimpse behind the palace walls.

Dostoevskaya Station

Dostoevskaya is a tribute to the late, great hero of Russian literature .  The station at first glance seems bare and unimpressive, a stark marble platform without a whiff of reassembled chips of tile.  However, two columns have eerie stone inlay collages of scenes from Dostoevsky’s work, including The Idiot , The Brothers Karamazov , and Crime and Punishment.   Then, standing at the center of the platform, the marble creates a kaleidoscope of reflections.  At the entrance, there is a large, inlay portrait of the author.

Chkalovskaya Station

Chkalovskaya does space Art Deco style (yet again).  Chrome borders all.  Passageways with curvy overhangs create the illusion of walking through the belly of a chic, new-age spacecraft.  There are two (kos)mosaics, one at each end, with planetary subjects.  Transferring here brings you above ground, where some rather elaborate metalwork is on display.  By name similarity only, I’d expected Komsolskaya Station to deliver some kosmonaut décor; instead, it was Chkalovskaya that took us up to the space station.

Elektrozavodskaya Station

Elektrozavodskaya is full of marble reliefs of workers, men and women, laboring through the different stages of industry.  The superhuman figures are round with muscles, Hollywood fit, and seemingly undeterred by each Herculean task they respectively perform.  The station is chocked with brass, from hammer and sickle light fixtures to beautiful, angular framework up the innards of the columns.  The station’s art pieces are less clever or extravagant than others, but identifying the different stages of industry is entertaining.

Baumanskaya Statio

Baumanskaya Station is the only stop that wasn’t suggested by the students.  Pulling in, the network of statues was just too enticing: Out of half-circle depressions in the platform’s columns, the USSR’s proud and powerful labor force again flaunts its success.  Pilots, blacksmiths, politicians, and artists have all congregated, posing amongst more Art Deco framing.  At the far end, a massive Soviet flag dons the face of Lenin and banners for ’05, ’17, and ‘45.  Standing in front of the flag, you can play with the echoing roof.

Ploshchad Revolutsii Station

Novokuznetskaya Station

Novokuznetskaya Station finishes off this tour, more or less, where it started: beautiful mosaics.  This station recalls the skyward-facing pieces from Mayakovskaya (Station #2), only with a little larger pictures in a more cramped, very trafficked area.  Due to a line of street lamps in the center of the platform, it has the atmosphere of a bustling market.  The more inventive sky scenes include a man on a ladder, women picking fruit, and a tank-dozer being craned in.  The station’s also has a handsome black-and-white stone mural.

Here is a map and a brief description of our route:

Start at (1)Kievskaya on the “ring line” (look for the squares at the bottom of the platform signs to help you navigate—the ring line is #5, brown line) and go north to Belorusskaya, make a quick switch to the Dark Green/#2 line, and go south one stop to (2)Mayakovskaya.  Backtrack to the ring line—Brown/#5—and continue north, getting off at (3)Novosblodskaya and (4)Komsolskaya.  At Komsolskaya Station, transfer to the Red/#1 line, go south for two stops to Chistye Prudy, and get on the Light Green/#10 line going north.  Take a look at (5)Dostoevskaya Station on the northern segment of Light Green/#10 line then change directions and head south to (6)Chkalovskaya, which offers a transfer to the Dark Blue/#3 line, going west, away from the city center.  Have a look (7)Elektroskaya Station before backtracking into the center of Moscow, stopping off at (8)Baumskaya, getting off the Dark Blue/#3 line at (9)Ploschad Revolyutsii.  Change to the Dark Green/#2 line and go south one stop to see (10)Novokuznetskaya Station.

Check out our new Moscow Indie Travel Guide , book a flight to Moscow and read 10 Bars with Views Worth Blowing the Budget For

Jonathon Engels, formerly a patron saint of misadventure, has been stumbling his way across cultural borders since 2005 and is currently volunteering in the mountains outside of Antigua, Guatemala.  For more of his work, visit his website and blog .

Photo credits:   SergeyRod , all others courtesy of the author and may not be used without permission

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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