Off-Broadway News 13 Off-Broadway Shows Not to Miss June 15–30 As summer kicks into gear, see new musicals, some Shakespeare with a twist, and a Golden Globe-winning screen star downtown.

By Olivia Clement

June 14, 2017

June 15: Dominique Morisseau returns Off-Broadway following the success of last year’s sold-out Skeleton Crew. Her newest work, Pipeline, follows the relationship between an inner-city public high school teacher, played by Karen Pittman, and her only son, played by Namir Smallwood.

June 15: Don’t miss Alex Borinsky’s Of Government as part of Clubbed Thumb’s acclaimed Summerworks series at The Wild Project. The new play with songs has its final performance June 15.

June 15: Irish Rep’s second show of the summer, The Aran Islands, kicks off performances in the theatre’s smaller W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre. Adapted and directed by Joe O’Byrne, the play captures the spirit of Irish writer John Millington Synge, who, in 1898, went to live and explore the mystical land on the West Coast of Europe.

Read: WHY THIS OFF-BROADWAY SEASON IS THE STRONGEST IN YEARS

June 17: Performances begin in Brooklyn for Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Measure for Measure, helmed by Cherry Orchard director Simon Godwin. Leading the cast are Jonathan Cake as Vincentio, Cara Ricketts as Isabella, and Thomas Jay Ryan as Angelo.

June 18: British playwright Isla van Tricht captures the reality of contemporary dating in Underground, the story of a dating app rendezvous that takes an unexpected route. The play debuts Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters as part of Brits Off Broadway.

June 20: Fresh off his acclaimed Broadway productions of Glass Menagerie and Doll’s House, Part 2, Tony winner Sam Gold returns Off-Broadway to direct Hamlet at the Public Theater. In the title role is screen star Oscar Isaac. Joining the Golden Globe winner onstage are Keegan-Michael Key as Horatio, Peter Friedman as Polonius, Gayle Rankin as Ophelia, Matthew Saldívar as Guildenstern, and Anatol Yusef as Laertes.

June 20: Manhattan Theatre Club debuts the world premiere of Abe Koogler’s Fulfillment Center at New York City Center. In the new drama, Deirdre O’Connell leads the cast as a down-on-her-luck folk singer living in the New Mexico desert.

June 20: Terezin opens at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, the story of two Jewish girls locked in a struggle for survival in the Czechoslovakian concentration camp. When one of the friends disappears, the other must teach a Nazi officer to play the violin in exchange for her whereabouts. The play is written and directed by Nicholas Tolkien, the great grandson of fiction novelist J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy).

June 21: Julius Caesar, the Bard’s epic tale of jealousy and betrayal, is given a contemporary twist by Pocket Universe Off-Broadway. Set in an all-girls high school, a group of power-hungry teenagers engage in an unforgiving game of psychological warfare. Directed by Katie Young, the show is playing a limited engagement at the Access Theater Gallery Space.

June 21: Billed as “narcotic and eye-opening,” New York City’s newest immersive theatrical experience, Seeing You, opens in the Meatpacking district. From the producer of Sleep No More, the show takes place in a secret warehouse space underneath Chelsea’s High Line, and transports audiences to a haze of wartime anxiety filled with music, dance, and intimate encounters.

June 22: Cherry Lane Theater’s Founder’s Project and La Femme Theatre Productions’ revival of Horton Foote’s 1955 play The Traveling Lady opens at the Cherry Lane Theater. Jean Lichty stars as Georgette Thomas, a woman driving through Texas with her young daughter, on her way to greet her husband coming out of prison. Tony winner Karen Ziemba is also in the cast.

June 22: The world premiere of Bastard Jones—a new rock musical inspired by Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel, The History of Tom Jones—opens at The Cell Theatre. Created by Marc Acito and Amy Engelhardt, the show is a musical adventure of deception, bed-hopping, and self-expression. Hear a song from Bastard Jones here.

June 27: Ars Nova and Roundabout Underground alum Meghan Kennedy debuts her newest play, Napoli, Brooklyn, with Roundabout Theatre Company. Jordyn DiNatale, Lilli Kay, and Elise Kibler star as the Muscolino sisters at the heart of the play, a coming-of-age drama set in Park Slope during the 1960s.