As New York's Off-Broadway theatres prepare to usher in their spring productions, here's a look at some of the winter shows wrapping up performances this weekend.
In alphabetical order:
March 31: The Wooster Group's The B-Side: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons,” A Record Album Interpretation plays its final performance at St. Ann's Warehouse. Co-created by and starring Eric Berryman, the show is an original performance piece based on a 1965 LP of work songs, blues, and spirituals recorded by inmates in Texas’ segregated agricultural prison farms.
March 31: "Daddy," the second world premiere from Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris, wraps up its limited run at the Signature Center. Ronald Peet stars as a young artist who forms an irresistible bond with an older art collector, played by Alan Cumming. The co-production from The New Group and The Vineyard is directed by Danya Taymor.
March 31: Gloria: A Life, a new play by Emily Mann detailing the life and legacy of Gloria Steinem, ends its acclaimed, extended run at the Daryl Roth Theatre.
March 31: The world premiere of Hatefuck by Rehana Lew Mirza, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, ends at WP Theater. The play follows the collision—and attraction—between Layla, a literature professor, and Imran, a novelist she accuses of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. The production is a co-effort from WP, Colt Coeur, and Abingdon Theatre Company.
March 31: Tori Sampson’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka, concludes its world-premiere engagement in Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theatre. Directed by Leah C. Gardiner and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, the contemporary riff on a West African fable brims with live music and dance.
March 31: The Public Theater wraps up performances of Sea Wall / A Life, a double-bill of solo plays presented in a single evening in the Newman Theater. In Nick Payne's A Life, Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal presents an emotional examination of how sons become fathers; and in Simon Stephens' Sea Wall, Tony nominee Tom Sturridge explores love and the human need to know the unknowable. Both monologue plays are directed by Carrie Cracknell.
March 31: Second Stage Theater concludes its extended premiere run of the new musical Superhero. Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and lyricist Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, If/Then) and Tony-winning writer John Logan (Red) unite to tell a story about a fractured family, a mysterious stranger, and an unexpected hero. Jason Moore directs a cast led by Tony nominees Kate Baldwin and Bryce Pinkham.
March 31: Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake concludes its Off-Broadway premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club, directed by Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. Debra Jo Rupp stars as a North Carolina baker who’s forced to re-examine her deeply held beliefs when asked to make a cake for a lesbian wedding. Performances are at New York City Center.
Shows playing for another week, through April 7: LCT3's extended production of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Marys Seacole and Florian Zeller's The Mother at Atlantic Theater Company.
