CNN —
Broadway babies, we’ve arrived at that spectacular stretch of the theater season when musicals and plays kick off in droves, vying for a chance to win a Tony Award – or 11.
There are tigers and killer barbers and cookouts and corn-centric fables opening on Broadway this year, and those are just the ones opening early enough to be considered for a 2023 Tony. Later in the year the music of Britney Spears will come into its own and a DeLorean will delight fans of a certain 80’s franchise.
Apart from that, stage fans can look forward to several theatrical treats this year. Here are some of the musicals and plays premiering in 2023 that are already wowing Broadway fans.
Yann Martel’s beloved novel gets a theatrical treatment this spring, continuing the new Broadway tradition cemented by “Into the Woods,” an animal puppet who steals the show from her human co-stars. How is Pi’s sea voyage with Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger, translated on stage? If you believe the reviews in London, it works effortlessly.
performances begin: 9th March
Officially opened: March 30
who knew It took seven people to bring the Richard Parker doll to life in the West End production, all sharing the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor. There are actors crouching under his spine and head and walking for him, another providing his voice, and more controlling his limbs and tail.
Doc Brown’s DeLorean is hurtling onto Broadway this summer. A hit in London’s West End, Back to the Future: The Musical promises sci-fi extravaganza, ’80s nostalgia and attempted unintentional incest. The musical retains all of the signature moments from the original film, from Biff’s bullying to Marty’s “Johnny B. Goode” performance, but spices them up with extended dance sequences and soaring solos.
performances begin: June 30th
Officially opened: 3.8
who knew The DeLorean seen on stage in the UK production is not a real vehicle – fewer than 10,000 DeLorean cars were ever made, so the musical’s crew meticulously recreated one for the production. What it is capable of doing on stage… well, we let the audience discover these delights for themselves.
There is an unofficial rule in musical theater that Andrew Lloyd Webber must always have a show on Broadway. And when his long-running musical Phantom of the Opera concludes later this year, his new take on Cindy’s rags-to-royalty story will take the mantle. Webber’s new take on Cinderella, with a book by Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Killing Eve), paints our protagonist not as a flawless princess-to-be, but as a scruffy and headstrong heroine.
performances begin: February 17th
Officially opened: March 23
who knew Webber caused a stir this summer when he called the London production a “costly mistake” in a letter read to the West End cast after its final performance. (Webber chose not to appear on the show in person.) His letter earned him boos in absentia, which he later acknowledged he apologized.
If you can, watch the story of Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd. One of the late Stephen Sondheim’s darkest works (and that’s saying something), this revival follows the ‘demon barber of Fleet Street’, his lovesick and insane assistant, an innocent pair of lovers and an evil judge who rules over them all. Expect bloodshed and upset stomachs, especially if you get a whiff of one of Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies.
performances begin: February 26th
Officially opened: 26th of March
who knew This production stars a host of TV stars including Gaten Matarazzo (the lovable Dustin from Stranger Things), Annaleigh Ashford (Paula Jones from American Crime Story: Impeachment) and Jordan Fisher (various Disney Channel series). and Netflix Originals). although Ashford outnumbers them all in the Broadway credits.
This new country musical invites audiences to embrace their inner corn kid. Yes, the title refers to the process of stripping corn from the cob, though the show’s vague description promises to deliver a “seed of hope for our divided nation.”
performances begin: 8th of March
Officially opened: 4. April
who knew This show boasts some southern bonafides. Two Nashville songwriters wrote the music for this quirky production – Brandy Clark, known for writing songs for Sheryl Crow and Reba McEntire, and Shane McAnally, who produced Kacey Musgraves’ debut album.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning “Hamlet” update earned unanimous acclaim during its Off-Broadway run. Set at a southern cookout, James Ijames’ play retains the basic tenets of Shakespeare’s plot – there’s a dead father and a duplicitous uncle – but focuses on a black, gay protagonist instead of a Danish prince.
performances begin: March 21st
Officially opened: 12. April
who knew When “Fat Ham” begins previews, it will be one of two Pulitzer winners on Broadway (the other being the indomitable hit “Hamilton”). Another Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Between Riverside and Crazy, is slated to wrap up in February, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, A Strange Loop, will wrap up this month.
Jessica Chastain stars in this new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s groundbreaking play about a wife and mother whose fragile existence begins to crumble under the weight of society’s expectations. Playwright Amy Herzog wrote the screenplay, which makes the original’s feminist themes “newly relevant.”
performances begin: 13th February
Officially opened: 9th March
who knew “A Doll’s House” has been performed at least 13 times in New York since the 1890s, according to the Internet Broadway Database. Playwright Lucas Hnath wrote a 2017 sequel, aptly titled A Doll’s House, Part 2, set 15 years after the original.
This Agatha Christie play is finally getting its Broadway premiere after running for a whopping 70 years in London’s West End. Expect plenty of delicious twists, period costumes and sets, and of course, shady characters with no alibis.
performances begin: 2023, no date set
who knew Because the show is notoriously long-lived, the UK theater it’s set in has installed a wooden counter that counts up a digit with each performance. As of November 25, 2022, “The Mousetrap” has been performed 28,915 times, making it by far the longest-running play in the world.
Many more plays and musicals are coming to Broadway in 2023, although some don’t have opening dates or theaters yet. Here are some of the most notable:
- A revival of “Camelot” starring Philippa Soo from “Hamilton” is coming to Lincoln Center. Now with an updated book by Aaron Sorkin, this classic musical became synonymous with the Kennedy administration during its original run.
- Jodie Comer comes to Broadway in “Prima Facie,” a one-woman show directed by a lawyer who is losing faith in the legal system.
- Britney Spears scores the jukebox musical Once Upon a One More Time, in which classic fairytale heroines experience a feminist awakening. Spears’ complicated personal life isn’t a plot point.
- ‘Merily We Roll Along,’ an infamous musical directed by Stephen Sondheim, is moving to Broadway after a successful Off-Broadway performance that began in November. Current stars Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe will rotate with the show.
A host of revivals, original musicals and classic plays ended in 2022. Here are some you may have missed that are still ongoing:
- A top contender for this year’s Tony for Best Musical, the bittersweet comedy Kimberly Akimbo is about a teenager with a medical condition that is causing her body to age many times faster, but she remains incredibly zestful and optimistic.
- A musical adaptation of the classic film, Some Like It Hot, co-written by comedian Amber Ruffin, features music by Hairspray songwriting duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Expect massive dance sequences and larger than life drag personas.
- The ever-bright Audra McDonald leads Ohio State Murders, a haunting play by Adrienne Kennedy, who had never seen any of her scripts on Broadway until this production.