New season, new shows to see! Spring is one of the busiest times on the New York theater calendar, and it’s not just on Broadway where things are heating up. Off-Broadway is already blooming with exciting new productions. Don’t sleep on these buzzy shows happening beyond Broadway, from a stateside transfer of a London smash to a party with an unmissable cast to a close-up star turn by Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Data, Lucille Lortel Theatre
Now in performances through March 29, 2026
This ripped-from-the-headlines thriller tackles the ethical quandaries of AI and the dark ambitions of Silicon Valley. A cast of hot young actors — including Brandon Flynn of 13 Reasons Why and Justin H. Min of The Umbrella Academy — stars in a tense morality play about a young programming wiz, the groundbreaking algorithm he creates, and the tech titan who wants to co-opt his work for a lucrative but morally questionable surveillance system poised to have a global impact.
Night Side Songs, LCT3
Now in performances through March 29, 2026
A sing-along about cancer? That’s the surprising concept of the new show by the musician brothers known as The Lazours, who turn this unexpected idea into a tender, intimate, and moving evening at the theatre. With a warm, folky score, the show tells the story of one woman’s experience with illness with an emphasis on humanity, solace, and the life-affirming act of giving care.
My Joy Is Heavy, New York Theatre Workshop
Now in performances
Indie-folk-punk duo The Bengsons (The Lucky Ones, Hundred Days) and Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1892) team up for a genre-bending, musical meditation on grief, healing, and the hard-won moments of joy that come in the wake of deep loss.
You Got Older, Cherry Lane Theatre
Now in performances
Downtown’s venerable Cherry Lane Theatre, freshly revitalized by beloved indie studio A24, pairs TV favorite Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Search Party) with stage stalwart Peter Friedman (Ragtime, Succession) for a show that’s funny, touching, and weird all at once. The story of a directionless young woman who returns home to live with her father, this play by Clare Barron (Dance Nation) confronts life’s biggest questions with the quirky, comic mundanity of the everyday.
Tru, House of the Redeemer
Now in performances
Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) plays Truman Capote in an Upper East Side mansion formerly owned by a Vanderbilt. Tony winner Rob Ashford (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) directs this revival of the 1989 Broadway bio, now reimagined as an intimate, immersive performance that plays to just 99 theatergoers per performance.
What We Did Before Our Moth Days, Greenwich House Theater
Now in performances
The legendary theatrical and cinematic duo of Wallace Shawn and André Gregory (My Dinner With André, Vanya on 42nd Street) reunite for a spare, revealing meditation on love and all the feelings left when it fades. Interlinked monologues are performed by the crackerjack cast of Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, John Early, and Josh Hamilton.
Titus Andronicus, Red Bull Theater
Now in performances
After showing off his Bardic expertise in the popular solo show All the Devils Are Here, Patrick Page (Hadestown) takes on the title role of Titus Andronicus. It’s a shocking, bloody tragedy of escalating revenge that serves as a contemporary, cautionary tale of human cruelty.
No Singing in the Navy, Playwrights Horizons
Now in performances
Three sailors make the most of $100 and a day of shore leave before they’re shipped off to war. Sounds like the setup for a classic golden-age musical, but here it’s given a knowing, contemporary spin in a new show by Milo Cramer that sardonically skewers stage conventions with three actors and one piano.
The Wild Party, Encores!
Begins performances March 18
The legendary Encores! series (Chicago, Ragtime) brings back Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s cult-fave adaptation of the flapper-era narrative poem. With a cast that includes Adrienne Warren, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Jelani Alladin, Jordan Donica, and Tanya Pinkins, this is one party that theater lovers won’t want to miss.
The Adding Machine, The New Group
Begins performances March 24
Off-Broadway’s The New Group has a knack for putting together starry, intriguing ensembles of actors, and the troupe’s new revival of Elmer Rice’s 1923 play is no exception. Jennifer Tilly, Sarita Choudhury, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Michael Cyril Creighton (Only Murders in the Building) star in this expressionist vision of a man driven to violence when he’s replaced at work by the titular machine.
Kenrex, Lucille Lortel Theatre
Begins performances April 15
Catch one of London’s buzziest new shows when this solo true-crime docudrama arrives in New York after three sold-out runs across the Atlantic. Actor and cowriter Jack Holden plays 35 characters in a breathless thriller about a 1981 killing in small-town Missouri.
The Receptionist, 2nd Stage
Begins performances April 15
Two-time Tony winner Katie Finneran stars in a black comedy about workplace bureaucracy and its lurking dark undercurrents. This timely new production of Adam Bock’s play raises unnerving questions of complicity and culpability with sharp, sardonic humor.
Animal Wisdom, Signature Theatre
Begins performances May 5
A new show by Heather Christian (Oratorio for Living Things) — MacArthur fellow, Obie winner, and one of downtown’s most visionary artists — is always worth a visit. Her latest uncategorizable outing is described as a genre-bending “musical séance” of memory and loss starring Kenita R. Miller (Once on This Island, For Colored Girls…).
Girl, Interrupted, Public Theater
Begins performances May 13
As the birthplace of shows including A Chorus Line and Hamilton, Off-Broadway’s Public Theater knows a thing or two about launching exciting new musicals. Next up: a hotly anticipated adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s trailblazing memoir about her time in a psychiatric hospital. Girl, Interrupted includes songs by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Aimee Mann and a book by Pulitzer winner Martyna Majok.
A Woman Among Women, LCT3
Begins performances May 16
Playwright-novelist Julia May Jonas, whose hit novel Vladimir was recently adapted as a starry Netflix series, earned raves in 2024 with this modern-day response to All My Sons. This spring, Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3, in partnership with The Bushwick Starr and New Georges, brings back this play about the timely tensions that surface at a backyard gathering thrown by the founder of a women’s wellness center.
The Maids, St. Ann’s Warehouse
Begins performances May 17
Fresh off her starring turn in the latest season of Bridgerton, Yerin Ha stars in a new production of Jean Genet’s explosive drama about two maids caught in a dark game of desire and disgust. Ultrahot director Kip Williams, whose cutting-edge reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray was a Broadway hit, jolts the story into the digital age with his signature contemporary flair.
