Resolve to See More Theater in 2023 With These 19 Shows

The holidays are behind us and everyone’s looking to the year ahead, New York stages included. Theater lovers have a lot of options to choose from in 2023, from starry revivals to new musicals, an immersive 1920s party and exciting new plays. Want to see an Oscar winner take on Ibsen? Starting next month, you can. An Aaron Sorkin spin on Camelot? That too! A Pulitzer-winning Hamlet riff, or a Killing Eve star in a one-woman show? You get the idea —and we haven’t even mentioned the Britney Spears musical yet. This is all to say that there’s something for everyone. Consider these 19 shows —most arriving on Broadway, but not all —to delight and surprise you in the coming year.

The excellent acting trio of Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoë Wanamaker come together for this new Sharr White play —based on the photo memoir of the same name by Larry Sultan —which explores familial relationships through its story of a photographer who turns the lens on his parents. (Studio 54, performances begin Jan. 13)

Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan couple up for the first New York revival of this rarely produced play by Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun), portraying a pair of artists trying to save their marriage in 1960s Greenwich Village. (BAM, performances begin Feb. 4)

Reigning Best Actress Oscar winner Jessica Chastain returns to Broadway for this new spin on the groundbreaking Henrik Ibsin play, with a revised script from Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog and direction from Jamie Lloyd (who put 2019’s stunning Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox on the boards). (Hudson Theatre, performances begin Feb. 13)

Phantom of the Opera may be closing this year, but Andrew Lloyd Webber has a new musical about to grace (and spray paint) the Great White Way. Bad Cinderella, with a book from Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell, gives the classic fairy tale some contemporary flair —in this version, the title role (Linedy Genao) is envisioned as the “one stubborn peasant standing in the way of perfection” in the image-obsessed kingdom of Belleville. (Imperial Theatre, performances begin Feb. 17)

How about a soiree, old sport? This immersive experience —not to be confused with the Gatsby musical Florence Welch is writing music for — comes to New York after a smashing seven-year run in London putting on a Jazz Age party based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic. A 1920s dress code is encouraged; drinks, dancing and drama are to be expected. (The Mansion at The Park Central Hotel, performances begin March 9)

Stephen Sondheim’s killer musical comes back in a big way in this Thomas Kail-directed (Hamilton) production. John Groban and Annaleigh Ashford star as the vengeful Sweeney Todd and his cohort Mrs. Lovett, and the revival also boasts a 26-piece orchestra playing the Tony-winning score in its original, epic form. (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, performances begin Feb. 26)

Bring your “it’s corn!” jokes into 2023 for this new musical comedy with a book from Tony winner Robert Horn (Tootsie) and music from Grammy-winning Nashville songwriting team Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. Press notes describe Shucked as a “farm-to-fable” story that will “offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation.” We’ll find out in March if it has the juice. (Nederlander Theatre, performances begin March 8)

The classic Lerner & Loewe musical gets a new staging courtesy of director Bartlett Sher (My Fair Lady) and a revised book from Aaron Sorkin (who previously teamed with Sher on To Kill a Mockingbird). The cast includes Tony winner Andrew Burnap (The Inheritance) as King Arthur, Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) as Guinevere, and Jordan Donica (My Fair Lady) as Lancelot. (Vivian Beaumont Theater, performances begin March 9)

This stage adaptation of the acclaimed 2001 Yann Martel novel — about a teenage boy stranded in a lifeboat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan and Bengal tiger —sets sail stateside after winning five Olivier Awards in London, including Best Play. Expect to see impressive puppetry bring the animal characters to life in this play; it takes seven performers to play the tiger alone. (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, performances begin March 9)

The new Off Broadway musical from Pulitizer and Tony winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) is described as a "fever dream mashup of classic daytime and primetime soap operas, Lifetime movies, and red-hot melodrama." The show is set in the soap opera town of Allwhite, where Black residents are relegated to the “Blackground” —until one decides to insert herself into a central storyline. (Tony Kiser Theater, performances begin March 15)

Fresh off a Pulitzer Prize win and an Off Broadway run at the Public Theater last year, writer James Ijames’ razor-sharp contemporary riff on Hamlet —if Hamlet was about a queer, Southern college student named Juicy who’s visited by the ghost of his father during a family cookout —arrives for its Broadway bow. (American Airlines Theatre, performances begin March 21)

Start spreading the news: This new musical is loosely based on the 1977 Martin Scorsese film of the same name —following singers, musicians, and other strivers in post-WWII New York — and features a score from John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret) with additional lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Admit it, you’re already humming the title tune while reading this. (St. James Theatre, performances begin March 24)

Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht star in this new play from David Auburn (Proof) about the unexpected friendship that develops between two women in Ohio —Linney’s Diana, an artist and single mother, and Hecht’s Alice, a free-spirited but naive young housewife —as the nation celebrates its bicentennial. (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, performances begin April 4)

Sean Hayes returns to Broadway to play Oscar Levant —the actor, pianist, and personality known for his witty one-liners and appearances on talk shows during TV’s Golden Age — in this new play from Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright that examines the cost of fame. The plot takes place in 1958, when Jack Paar books Levant for an appearance on The Tonight Show that viewers will never forget. (Belasco Theatre, performances begin April 7)

Another West End export comes stateside, as Killing Eve star Jodie Comer makes her Broadway debut in a new play from Suzie Miller. Comer, who also performed the one-woman show in London last year, plays an ambitious young lawyer who discovers the limits of the legal system firsthand when she’s sexually assaulted. (Golden Theatre, performances begin April 11)

Larissa FastHorse’s satirical comedy, about a group of well-intentioned theater artists who attempt to stage a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving school pageant, first premiered in 2018 and became one of the most-produced plays around the country. Casting details for its Broadway debut haven’t been revealed yet, but the production is being directed by Tony-winning Hadestown helmer Rachel Chavkin. (Hayes Theater, performances begin spring 2023)

If the title didn’t clue you in, yes, we’re talking about a Britney Spears musical. The production takes Spears’ hit songs and weaves them into a storyline involving fairy tale heroines, a fairy godmother, and a book club reading The Feminine Mystique, which sparks a reevaluation of their happily ever afters. (Marquis Theater, performances begin May 13)

After scoring an Olivier win for Best Musical in London’s West End, the Delorian is officially Broadway bound. You can see this musical adaptation of the beloved 1985 time-travel classic — with Tony nominee Roger Bart (The Producers) taking on the role of Doc Brown —when it flies to New York this summer, boasting a score from Grammy winners Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard alongside hits from the original movie. (Winter Garden Theatre, performances begin June 30)

If you missed Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez in the sold-out run of Merrily at New York Theatre Workshop, you’re in luck. Maria Friedman’s acclaimed revival of the Sondheim-George Furth musical, which charts in reverse chronological order the falling out between three artists and lifelong friends, will get its first-ever Broadway revival in the fall. Suffice to say, they’ve (the cast, the musical, everyone who gets tickets) got a good thing going. (Theater to be announced, performances begin fall 2023)

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