Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.
Previews & Openings
‘COAL COUNTRY’ at the Public Theater (in previews; opens on March 3). In 2010, a thousand feet underground in West Virginia, coal dust exploded, killing 29 of the 31 miners on site. The documentary playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen interviewed survivors and family members, learning how a community reckons with disaster and loss. Steve Earle supplies original music. Blank directs a cast that includes Mary Bacon and Michael Laurence.
212-967-7555, publictheater.org
‘COMPANY’ at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater (previews start on March 2; opens on March 22). Phone rings, door chimes and in comes a gender-bent version of the beloved Stephen Sondheim musical, with a book by George Furth. Marianne Elliot’s production, which originated in London, arrives with the Tony-winner Katrina Lenk as the bachelorette Bobbie, with Patti LuPone as the heavy-drinking, heavy-singing Joanne.
212-239-6200, companymusical.com
‘DIANA: A TRUE MUSICAL STORY’ at the Longacre Theater (previews start on March 2; opens on March 31). The people’s princess comes to New York. Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s musical, which debuted at La Jolla Playhouse, recreates the not-so-happily-ever-after fairytale of Prince Charles (Roe Hartrampf) and Princess Di (Jeanna de Waal). With Judy Kaye as Elizabeth II. Christopher Ashley directs, with choreography by Kelly Devine.
212-239-6200, thedianamusical.com
‘THE FRE’ at the Flea Theater (previews start on Feb. 28; opens on March 15). Having brought a dancing-penis kickline to Broadway, Taylor Mac has now sunk low. In this new work, set in and around a mud pit, a young aesthete tries to persuade his grubby hedonists to de-ooze. In this show, directed by Niegel Smith, “audiences will literally and figuratively jump into the mud,” the theater warns.
212-226-0051, theflea.org
‘GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY’ at the Belasco Theater (in previews; opens on March 5). This Bob Dylan jukebox musical, written and directed by Conor McPherson, now knocks on Broadway’s door. Set in a boardinghouse in Duluth, Minn., in 1934, it centers on various down-at-heart, down-at-heel residents. Ben Brantley wrote, “What’s created, through songs written by Mr. Dylan over half a century, is a climate of feeling, as pervasive and evasive as fog.”
212-239-6200, northcountryonbroadway.com
‘HANGMEN’ at the Golden Theater (previews start on Feb. 28; opens on March 19). Martin McDonagh’s morbid comedy flings its noose around Broadway’s neck. In Matthew Dunster’s production, Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey,” “Legion”) takes over the role originated by Johnny Flynn. When it ran Off Broadway, “Hangmen” was described by Ben Brantley as “criminally enjoyable” and “a juicy tale of capital punishment and other forms of retribution.”
212-239-6200, hangmenbroadway.com
‘THE HOT WING KING’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center (in previews; opens on March 1). A saucy comedy, Katori Hall’s new play, part of her Signature Theater residency, unfolds during the Hot Wang Festival in Memphis, with family and romantic conflict cooking alongside the chicken. Steve H. Broadnax III directs a cast that includes Toussaint Jeanlouis and Korey Jackson.
212-244-7529, signaturetheatre.org
‘THE PERPLEXED’ at New York City Center Stage I (in previews; opens on March 3). Before Richard Greenberg goes to the ballgame with the Broadway revival of “Take Me Out,” he premieres this uptown comedy about two families, alike in indignity, and the wedding that unites them. For Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow directs a cast that includes Margaret Colin and Frank Wood.
212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org
‘SANCTUARY CITY’ at the Lucille Lortel Theater (previews start on March 4; opens on March 24). Life could be a dream — with permanent residency status. In this new New York Theater Workshop play from the Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok, young immigrants, documented and otherwise, fight for citizenship and survival. Jasai Chase-Owens, Sharlene Cruz and Austin Smith star. Rebecca Frecknall directs.
212-460-5475, nytw.org
‘WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF’ at the Booth Theater (previews start on March 3; opens on April 2). Who’s afraid of Laurie Metcalf? Over the past few years, Metcalf, a longtime Steppenwolf member and a sitcom star, has made a home on Broadway. In Edward Albee’s martial, marital comedy she stars opposite Rupert Everett, with Patsy Ferran and Russel Tovey as the gettable guests. Joe Mantello directs.
212-239-6200, virginiawoolfonbroadway.com
[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]
Last Chance
‘GRAND HORIZONS’ at the Hayes Theater (closes on March 1). Bess Wohl’s comedy of divorce, directed by Leigh Silverman, calls it quits. Jesse Green questioned the wisdom of writing “a boulevard comedy for a cul-de-sac age.” However, he had particular praise for Jane Alexander, writing that “you haven’t lived until you’ve heard a woman who once played Eleanor Roosevelt sing the praises of cunnilingus.”
2st.com
‘MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON’ at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater (closes on Feb. 29). Rona Munro’s adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s glimmering 2016 novel, directed by Richard Eyre and starring a scarf-wrapped Laura Linney, reaches its final paragraphs. Ben Brantley wrote that “as embodied with middle-American forthrightness” by Linney, the play’s title character “may be the most translucent figure now on a New York stage.”
212-239-6200, manhattantheatreclub.com
‘HAMLET’ at St. Ann’s Warehouse (closes on March 8). Ruth Negga’s sweet prince bids his final good night as Yaël Farber’s shadowed version of Shakespeare’s tragedy closes. In an admiring review, Ben Brantley wrote that Negga “has created a portrait of the theater’s most endlessly analyzed prince that is drawn in lines of lightning.”
718-254-8779, stannswarehouse.org
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
