New York theaters and dance companies are finding innovative ways to interrogate and revitalize canonical works during the season ahead, and this choice survey of 12 must-see performances offers ample evidence.
Venerable creators like Lorraine Hansberry and Arthur Miller are on the marquees, but audiences can still anticipate innovative storytelling. On Broadway, Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” will be presented with Black actors playing the Loman family, and at Lincoln Center Theater, playwright Sarah Ruhl’s “Becky Nurse of Salem” provides an implicitly feminist rebuttal to another Miller staple, “The Crucible. ” At the Public Theatre, playwright Robert O’Hara revisits Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” a classic text whose darker aspects O’Hara has plumbed previously.
Likewise, the city’s biggest ballet companies aren’t short on classics: American Ballet Theater will revive Frederick Ashton’s “The Dream,” a one-act retelling of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that premiered in 1964, while New York City Ballet will stage plenty of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Those companies will also showcase prominent contemporary Black artists: Christopher Rudd is creating a new work for ABT, while Kyle Abraham will produce his second piece for NYCB – which has also tapped the multi-hyphenate artist Solange Knowles (Beyoncé’s sister) for her ballet- world debut.
“Leopoldstadt”
Longacre Theater
Sept. 14-Jan. 29, 2023
Tom Stoppard’s latest work is uncharacteristically personal: spanning more than 50 years, he plumbs his family’s experience as Viennese Jews. The 85-year-old Stoppard, who has won more Tonys than any other playwright, said this will probably be his last play. Patrick Marber directs a cast of 38. leopoldstadtplay.com
“Death of a Salesman”
Hudson Theater
Sept. 15-Jan. 15, 2023
This version of Arthur Miller’s classic features, for the first time on Broadway, an African American family: Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke star as Willy and Linda Loman. As Pierce told the Washington Post Magazine in a recent interviewthe casting implicitly makes lines from the canonical tale about the underbelly of the American Dream land differently. salesmanonbroadway.com
“1776”
American Airlines Theatre
Sept. 16-Jan. 8, 2023
Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone’s American history musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence debuted more than half a century ago. But this revival, produced by Roundabout Theater Company, has a twist: The Founding Fathers are played by women and nonbinary actors. roundabouttheatre.org
“Topdogs/Underdogs”
John Golden Theater
Sept. 17-Jan. 15, 2023
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer-winning play returns to Broadway for its 20th anniversary in a new production directed by Kenny Leon and starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (in his Broadway debut) and Corey Hawkins. The work brothers Lincoln and Booth – names given by their father as a joke that nevertheless foreshadows what becomes a dramatic showdown between the siblings. topdogunderdog.com
“The Piano Lessons”
Ethel Barrymore Theater
Sept. 19-Jan. 15, 2023
August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is directed by LaTanya Richardson and stars her husband Samuel L. Jackson, along with Danielle Brooks and John David Washington. Set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1936, the show follows a brother and sister battling over an heirloom piano and the best way to honor their family’s legacy. pianolessonplay.com
“A Raisin in the Sun”
Public Theater
Sept. 27-Nov. 6
Robert O’Hara, who wrote “Bootycandy” and “Barbeque” and directed Jeremy O. Harris’ “Slave Play,” helms Lorraine Hansberry’s canonical “A Raisin in the Sun.” O’Hara – who in 2010 wrote his own sequel, “The Etiquette of Vigilance” – directed “Raisin” at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2019. That production highlighted the darker aspects of Hansberry’s play; this staging is not a direct replica. publictheater.org
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theatre, Lincoln Center
Sept. 28-Oct. 16
Singer, songwriter, and visual artist Solange Knowles — sister of Beyoncé — is composing an original score for a new piece that will premiere at New York City Ballet’s Fall Fashion Gala on Sept. 28. Gianna Reisen, who five years ago became the youngest person to create a ballet for NYCB, is choreographing. nycballet.com
“K POP”
Circle in the Square Theater
Oct. 13-Apr. 16, 2023
The previous off-Broadway, interactive version of this musical, which features a book by Jason Kim and music and lyrics by Helen Park and Max Vernon, drew sold-out crowds. Expect intricate choreography, bilingual songs, and pulsing music in this musical about the machinations behind a special one-night-only concert. K-pop star Luna headlines. kpopbroadway.com
“Catch as Catch Can”
Playwrights Horizons
Oct. 13-Nov. 20
Mia Chung’s play centers on two New England families who grew up together in a tight-knit working-class community. When the two clans gather in the lead-up to a “Pre-Christmas-Christmas party,” the arrival of an estranged son launches a crisis that upends their lives. Three Asian actors play two roles apiece: one character of roughly their own age, and that same character’s parent of the opposite gender. playwrightshorizons.org
American Ballet Theater
David H. Koch Theatre, Lincoln Center
Oct. 27-29
Last fall, American Ballet Theater featured choreographer Christopher Rudd’s “Touché,” the company’s first homoerotic male pas de deux. The work’s stage debut was part of ABT’s first-ever Pride Night, and the reception was raucous. This year, Rudd will make history again with “Lifted,” which will feature an all-Black cast and is set to music by Carlos Simon, a prominent young Black composer and bassist. abt.org
“Becky Nurse of Salem”
Lincoln Center Theater
Oct. 27-Dec. 31
The New York premiere of MacArthur Award winner Sarah Ruhl’s new play features a modern-day descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was accused of being a witch in Salem. Becky, a middle-aged woman who works at the local witch museum, is played by 2022 Tony-winner Deidre O’Connell. Ruhl grapples with misogyny and witchcraft – and provides an implicitly feminist response to Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” lct.org
“Between Riverside and Crazy”
2nd Stage
Nov. 30-Feb. 12, 2023
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 play makes its Broadway debut. The story concerns ex-cop and recent widower Walter “Pops” Washington and his freshly paroled son, Junior, as they host sketchy houseguests and struggle to hold on to one of the last great rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive. 2st.com
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, a photo caption misidentified the theater where “Death of a Salesman” will be presented. The production will be at the Hudson Theatre.