The Best Broadway Musicals and Plays to See in New York

Please welcome to the stage, LIVE for the first time ever…BETTY BOOP! That sassy-sweet champion of empowerment, that spit-curled icon of joy, that songstress of strength comes alive in BOOP!, the new Broadway-bound musical-comedy extravaganza. Tony Award®–winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, La Cage aux Folles, Hairspray) brings the Queen of the Animated Screen to the theater with celebrated multiple-time Grammy®-winning composer David Foster (“I Have Nothing,” “After the Love Is Gone,” “The Prayer”), Tony-nominated lyricist Susan Birkenhead (Working, Jelly’s Last Jam), and Tony-winning bookwriter Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone, The Prom). For almost a century, Betty Boop has won hearts and inspired fans around the world with her trademark looks, voice, and style. Now, in BOOP!, Betty’s dream of an ordinary day off from the super-celebrity in her black-and-white world leads to an extraordinary adventure of color, music, and love in New York City—one that reminds her and the world, “You are capable of amazing things.” Boop-oop-a-doop!

It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or will this be their last Christmas together? Emmy® Award nominee Leslye Headland (Bachelorette, “Star Wars: The Acolyte,”) has written an equally heartwarming and heartbreaking new play about the things that bind families together... or tear them apart.

Wildly relevant and bitingly funny, Jonathan Spector’s play comes to MTC in an all-new production following an acclaimed London run. EUREKA DAY is a private California elementary school with a Board of Directors that values inclusion above all else – that is, until an outbreak of the mumps forces everyone in the community to reconsider the school’s liberal vaccine policy. As cases rise, the board realizes with horror that they’ve got to do what they swore they never would: make a choice that won’t please absolutely everybody. Anna Shapiro directs.

Forbidden Broadway, created by Gerard Alessandrini, makes its Broadway debut after multiple off-Broadway iterations. Weekly guest stars will join the five-person cast as they skewer recent hits and new shows like Back to the Future, The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, and Hell's Kitchen.

Straight — well, not exactly straight — from a smash-hit run in London's West End comes Rob Madge’s triumphant and hilarious celebration of identity, creativity, and the profound bond between a parent and their child.

When Rob was twelve, they attempted a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their grandma. As Rob donned wigs and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy. Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mom mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry. Grandma had a nice time, though.

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) is the joyous autobiographical story of social-media sensation Rob Madge as they set out to recreate that infamous parade – and this time, nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on it.

Celebrate one of Broadway’s true icons with this legendary theatrical event! Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is an irresistible celebration of the master himself, with a company headlined by none other than Tony Award® winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends comes to Broadway from London’s West End, where it earned a bevy of 5-star raves and was hailed by The Times as “unmissable musical theatre.” Starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Denzel Washington. Jake Gyllenhaal. Othello on Broadway. This spring, experience Shakespeare’s epic tale like never before. Tony® & Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington stars as Othello, the noble Moor of Venice and commanding warrior-general. Opposite him, Tony & Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Iago, the ambitious lieutenant and masterful manipulator. Spurned for promotion, Iago’s relentless quest for vengeance against Othello and his wife, Desdemona (portrayed by Molly Osborne), plunges them into a shocking web of deception and betrayal. Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon, this production of OTHELLO will play a strictly limited 15-week engagement next spring on Broadway.

Before the world turned upside down... Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. From Netflix and the multi-award-winning Broadway producer Sonia Friedman Productions comes Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Winner of two Olivier Awards including Best Entertainment, this landmark production is brought to life by an award-winning creative team including director Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Inheritance, The Hours, The Reader) and co-director Justin Martin (Prima Facie, The Inheritance). With stunning special effects, extraordinary performances, and a storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this gripping, stand-alone adventure will take you right back to the beginnings of the Stranger Things story.