Broadway’s spring forecast: Traffic Delays Ahead. Between now and end of April (cutoff time for Tony Award eligibility) a whopping 18 shows will open on the Great White Way. Unless you’re a critic and Tony voter (guilty!) or an independently wealthy theater addict, that’s too darn many plays and musicals. And yet we’ll see ’em all, grateful that New York theater has so much talent—and faith that an audience exists for everything. Below you’ll find a cherry-picked dozen, less than half of the upcoming Broadway avalanche, plus a few choice Off Broadway items, since we can’t let Tony fever suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Teeth at Playwrights Horizons (playing through April 14)
Based on the 2007 horror-comedy about an evangelical Christian teen with a fang in her thang (we’re talking vagina dentata), this buzzy new musical has lyrics by Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and music by Anna K. Jacobs. The savvy stylist Sarah Benson directs. Playwrights Horizons has been on a tear recently (transferring Stereophonic to Broadway, below), so better get a ticket before they’re all, um, chewed up.
An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square Theatre (in previews; opens March 18)
Fresh off of playing an ambitious weasel with zero principals, Jeremy Strong (Succession) portrays a man who gives up everything for the truth. Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 social drama is about a doctor who declares the water of his spa town contaminated, threatening the local economy. Sam Gold directs this revival, with a translation by his wife, Amy Herzog—who had a hit last season with another streamlined Ibsen, A Doll’s House.
The Who’s Tommy at the Nederlander Theatre (previews start March 8; opens March 28)
Back in 1993, when rock wasn’t as common on........