Spring will soon be upon us, and with the season comes lots of exciting new theater in New York City. While numerous shows are opening in the spring months on Broadway — you can explore them in Broadway Direct’s Spring Preview — you can also check out the offerings Off-Broadway as well.

In the fall, we pointed out shows like Hell’s Kitchen, now slated for Broadway this spring, so you never know which future hit show you could catch in its infancy. Check out our 2024 spring picks Off-Broadway below.

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JOB at the Connelly Theater

If you missed this one in the fall, you’re in luck. After a highly successful sold-out, twice-extended Off-Broadway run late last year, JOB returns Off-Broadway this month. Written by Max Wolf Friedlich and starring Peter Friedman (Ragtime, Succession) and Sydney Lemmon (TÁR, Succession), the critically acclaimed psychological thriller will play at the Connelly Theater from January 19 through March 3.

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Oh, Mary! at the Lucille Lortel Theatre

Award-winning comic and writer Cole Escola makes their Off-Broadway debut this spring with Oh, Mary!, a new comedy written by and starring Escola. Audiences, who may know Escola from their work on Hulu’s Difficult People and HBO Max’s Search Party, will get to watch them take on the role of Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Conrad Ricamora (Here Lies Love, How to Get Away With Murder) as Abraham Lincoln in a dark and twisted comedy taking place in the weeks leading up to Lincoln’s assassination. As described by the production, this one-act play “finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot (Cole Escola).” Performances of Oh, Mary! begin January 26 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

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The Seven Year Disappear at The Pershing Square Signature Center

Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award winner Cynthia Nixon returns to the stage this spring in the world premiere production of The Seven Year Disappear. Starring alongside Nixon is Broadway favorite Taylor Trensch, recently seen in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Camelot. Written by Jordan Seavey and directed by Scott Elliott, the new play follows Naphtali (Trensch), who has dealt with the disappearance of his world-famous performance-artist mother (Nixon) for seven years until she suddenly returns. The New Group’s production of The Seven Year Disappear begins performances February 6 at The Pershing Square Signature Center.

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The Ally at the Public Theater

Itamar Moses’s The Ally, his first of two shows this season, will premiere this spring with How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor set to star. Radnor stars as a college professor and tells of what follows after a student asks him to sign a social justice manifesto. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, whose production of Appropriate recently opened on Broadway, The Ally will begin performances at the Public Theater on February 15.

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Dead Outlaw at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre

After their highly acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit, Tony Award winners David Yazbek, Itamar Moses, and David Cromer’s latest collaboration, Dead Outlaw, opens this spring Off-Broadway. With a score by Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, book by Moses, and direction by Cromer, Dead Outlaw follows the unusual true story of Elmer McCurdy, a man who died in the early 1900s whose corpse was used as a mummified sideshow attraction before hanging in a house-of-horrors ride. This story charmed Yazbek, leading to Dead Outlaw, which begins performances at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre on February 28.

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The Effect at The Shed

Jamie Lloyd has become one of modern theater’s most fascinating directors. With the 2023 productions of A Doll’s House starring Jessica Chastain and the buzzy West End revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger that will land on Broadway later this year, he’s also one of the busiest. His production of The Effect, which also premiered last year at London’s National Theatre, lands stateside this spring, with rising film star Taylor Russell making her New York stage debut. The Lucy Pebble play follows two participants in a clinical drug trial who begin an illicit romance, unclear if their attraction to one another is a side effect of the new antidepressant they’re taking. The Effect begins performance at The Shed’s Griffin Theater March 3, for a limited run through March 31.

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Illinoise at the Park Avenue Armory

Based on Grammy and Oscar nominee Sufjan Stevens’s concept album Illinois, Illinoise is being brought to life on stage by Tony Award–winning director-choreographer Justin Peck (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Carousel) and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole). The company also boasts a list of familiar faces, including Tony Award nominee Robbie Fairchild (An American in Paris), Ben Cook (West Side Story, Mean Girls), and Gaby Diaz (So You Think You Can Dance Season 12 winner). Set to take place in Wade Thompson Drill Hall and eliminate a traditional proscenium setting, Illinoise will invite audiences to gather around a campfire setting to enjoy the piece. The Park Avenue Armory production will begin performances March 2.

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Teeth at Playwrights Horizons

Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning writer Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) is back this spring with Teeth, a new musical based on the cult classic film of the same name, written in collaboration with Anna K. Jacobs. Featuring theater favorites Steven Pasquale, Jason Gotay, and Phoenix Best, this violent dark comedy tells the story of a girl with a secret power: “When men violate her, her body bites back.” Performances of Teeth begin at Playwrights Horizons February 21.

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The Lonely Few at MCC Theater

After a highly acclaimed premiere at Los Angeles’s Geffen Playhouse, the new musical The Lonely Few makes its New York premiere Off-Broadway this spring. The show follows a band, their name the musical’s namesake, and is described as rock musical about “the forces that launch us from home and the gravitational pull that can bring us back.” By award-winning film and stage composer Zoe Sarnak (A Crossing, Galileo) and Rachel Bonds (Sundown, Yellow Moon) and directed by Trip Cullman (MCC Theater’s Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow) and Ellenore Scott (Titanique), The Lonely Few begins performances at MCC Theater April 26.

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Three Houses at the Signature Theatre

The Signature Theatre has an exciting season approaching, with new plays Sunset Baby and Orlando by prolific playwrights Dominque Morisseau and Sarah Ruhl, respectively, starting off the spring. For the final show of the season, Dave Malloy’s newest musical project, Three Houses, will be presented. Malloy has consistently been an artist to look out for since his groundbreaking musical, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, as well as projects like Ghost Quartet and Octet. Three Houses will begin performances at the Signature Theatre April 30.

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In case you missed it, make sure to check out Broadway Direct’s Broadway Spring Preview.