Concluding Dec. 16
The Anarchist (Broadway at the John Golden Theatre). The world premiere of Tony Award-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet's two-woman drama The Anarchist stars Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. According to producers, "LuPone plays the title character and Winger plays a prison official. These actresses will make theatrical fireworks as one character, put away for life, wants out while the other wants to make sure she stays inside. This explosive new work by Mamet is about passion, redemption, deception, and revolution." Visit TheAnarchistBroadway.com.
Murder Ballad (Off-Broadway at New York City Center Stage II). Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash's new rock musical, Murder Ballad, stars John Ellison Conlee, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Karen Olivo and Will Swenson. Here's how MTC bills the musical: "A love triangle gone wrong, Murder Ballad centers on Sara [played by Olivo], an Upper West Sider who seems to have it all, but whose downtown past lingers enticingly and dangerously in front of her. This sexy, explosive new musical explores the complications of love, the compromises we make, and the small betrayals that can ultimately undo us." Visit ManhattanTheatreClub.com.
The Twenty-Seventh Man (Off-Broadway at The Public Theater). The world premiere of Nathan Englander's The Twenty-Seventh Man, adapted from his short story of the same title, features Happy Anderson, Byron Jennings, Daniel Oreskes, Ron Rifkin, Noah Robbins and Chip Zien. "In a Soviet prison in 1952, Stalin's secret police have rounded up twenty-six writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in Russia," according to the Public. "As judgment looms, a twenty-seventh suddenly appears: Pinchas Pelovits, unpublished and unknown. Baffled by his arrest, he and his cellmates wrestle with the mysteries of party loyalty and politics, culture and identity, and what it means to write in troubled times. When they discover why the twenty-seventh man is among them, the writers come to realize that even in the face of tyranny, stories still have the power to transcend." Visit PublicTheater.org.
Giant (Off-Broadway at The Public Theater). Giant, the new Texas-set musical by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, features Kate Baldwin, Brian d'Arcy James, P.J. Griffith, Natalie Cortez, Miguel Cervantes, John Dossett, Michele Pawk, Katie Thompson and Bobby Steggert. According to the Public, "Giant is a new American musical that spans generations in an epic chronicle of the state that’s like no place else on earth: Texas. Amid a turbulent culture of greed, bigotry and money, a powerful cattleman, his new East Coast bride, their family and friends — not to mention their enemies —embrace and confront the joys and sorrows that loom as large as the state they call home." Visit PublicTheater.org. Golden Child (Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre). Drama Desk Award nominee Jennifer Lim and Tony Award nominee Julyana Soelistyo are among cast members of the new Off-Broadway production of David Henry Hwang's Golden Child. The drama concerns a Chinese businessman who returns home after working abroad and "sets off a dangerous power struggle in his polygamous Chinese household," according to Signature. "Inspired by his own family history, David Henry Hwang's 1997 Obie Award-winning and 1998 Tony-nominated Golden Child explores the often-painful process through which change comes to people and cultures." Visit SignatureTheatre.org.
Oy Vey! The Play (Off-Broadway at The Lion Theatre at Theatre Row). Oy Vey! features Jonathan Cantor, Bari Hyman, Nina Leese, Jack R. Marks, Jed Peterson, Carolyn Seiff, Christine Verleny and Sandy York. The play, according to press notes, concerns "a wealthy widow, her three daughters, her son, her Rabbi, and the hilarity that ensues after a handsome stranger enters their lives." Visit OyVeyThePlay.com.
