Broadway to preview new fall performances

Alys Murray, Contributing Writer

While some universities are revving up for tailgating and the start of football, many NYU students are looking forward to the start of a very different kind of season — the Broadway season. Boasting more stars than the Oscars, this Broadway season will have fans cheering from their seats.

The cool September breeze brings with it a multitude of Broadway openings beginning with “The Country House,” which starts previews on Sept. 9 and stars Blythe Danner as the matriarch of an eccentric family of artists. The next night, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” the West End transfer about a young man accused of murdering his neighbor’s dog, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Three days later, “Love Letters” opens — Mia Farrow, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston and Martin Sheen are just some of the stars who will interpret a lifetime of letters between an artist and a politician.

September will also see the opening of the second musical of the season (the first being the already-shuttered “Holler If Ya Hear Me”), “On the Town.” A revival of the classic Jerome Robbins production, the musical follows the story of three young sailors on leave for one day in New York City. This musical will also star Broadway darlings Alysha Umphress and Jay Armstrong Johnson, as well as winner of this season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” Ricky Ubeda, and opens for previews on Sept. 20 at the newly renamed Lyric Theatre.  

“How I Met Your Mother” fans will be happy about Josh Radnor’s Broadway debut in Pulitzer Prize-winning “Disgraced,” which starts previews on Sept. 27. Fans of British rock band The Police will be pleased to hear Sting’s original musical “The Last Ship” will be docking at the Neil Simon Theatre on Sept. 30, closing out the fall season’s busiest month of Broadway openings.  

While September might welcome the most shows, October is debatably the month of star power. Ewan McGregor faces off with Maggie Gyllenhaal in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing,” a play about sexual politics and the fictions or realities that they . They are joined by Cynthia Nixon and Josh Hamilton on the American Airlines Theatre stage on Oct. . Later, on Oct. 20, Glenn Close, John Lithgow and Martha Plimpton will strike “A Delicate Balance,” an Edward Albee play about two marriages that are falling apart.  

Classic musical fans need look no further than “Side Show,” based on the true story of vaudeville legends Daisy and Violet Hilton, which will be revived at the St. James Theatre after being reimagined in a production at La Jolla Playhouse and The Kennedy Center.

Bradley Cooper will open a new version of “The Elephant Man” in November. He is joined by Patricia Clarkson in this Williamstown Theatre Festival transfer smash. “Honeymoon in Vegas,” starring Tony Danza, will begin previews on Nov. 18.

This season on Broadway is full of exciting options for fans of types of shows.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Sept. 4 print edition. Email Alys Murray [email protected].