2026 started off with a bang for theater fans, with the Broadway premiere of “Bug,” Tracy Letts’s characteristically searing and freshly relevant account of conspiracy theorizing run amok, in a production starring the marvelous Carrie Coon, the Pulitzer Prize winner’s wife and his fellow spirit in her affinity for dry, dark humor.
Below, our critic surveys a smattering of new shows to look forward to in the weeks and months ahead, on and off-Broadway. (Dates and other
production details are subject to change.)
“Ulysses” — Elevator Repair Service, a company that earned wide praise with “Gatz,” featuring the complete text of a certain F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, brings its adaptation of James Joyce’s opus to the Public Theater (Previews begin January 13, opens January 25).
“The Unknown” — Sean Hayes plays a blocked writer seeking inspiration in a remote cabin in a one-man thriller by David Cale, a playwright and performer celebrated for his solo pieces (January 31, February 12).
“The Tragedy of Coriolanus” — McKinley Belcher III plays the title role and Mickey Sumner is his rival, Aufidius, in a multimedia production of Shakespeare’s political drama, set “just after now,” by Brooklyn’s Theatre for a New Audience (February 1, February 14).
“The Dinosaurs” — Kathleen Chalfant, Elizabeth Marvel, and Maria Elena Ramirez are among the estimable veterans cast in the world premiere of Jacob Perkins’s study of a women’s recovery group, at Playwrights Horizons (February 4, February 16).
“Marcel on the Train” — Ethan Slater plays Marcel Marceau in a new play following the mime as a young man in Nazi-occupied France, written by the “Wicked: For Good” star and Marshall Pailet, who directs for Classic Stage Company (February 5, February 22).
“Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)” — The Public presents a new take on Sophocles by Anna Ziegler, whose penetrating works have included “Photograph 51,” “The Minotaur,” and “The Wanderers”; Tony Shalhoub plays Creon in this world premiere (February 26, March 11).
“Every Brilliant Thing” — Daniel Radcliffe returns to Broadway in a solo work, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, that has been described as life-affirming even as it touches on sobering subject matter (February 21, March 12).
“Death of a Salesman” — Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf tackle Willy and Linda Loman in a new revival of Arthur Miller’s great American tragedy, directed by Joe Mantello (March 6, April 9).
“Dog Day Afternoon” — Another film adaptation, you may groan; but this one’s not a musical — mercifully — and with Pulitzer-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and famously stylish director Rupert Goold on board, there’s cause to hope it will capture some of the movie’s boldness and grit (March 10, March 30).
“Giant” — John Lithgow brings his portrait of Roald Dahl, the beloved author and notorious antisemite, to Broadway following a London run that earned Olivier Awards for the actor and playwright Mark Rosenblatt (March 11, March 23).
“Titus Andronicus” — Patrick Page, a heavyweight at playing heavies, takes on Shakespeare’s tragic protagonist in a staging by Red Bull Theater (March 17, March 29).
“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” — Directors Zailon Levingston and Bill Rauch’s giddy, drag-infused spin on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s gaudy T.S. Eliot tribute, which drew fans and critics of the original downtown in 2024, arrives on Broadway (March 18, April 7).
“Becky Shaw” — Trip Cullman directs a starry cast, including Patrick Ball and Alden Ehrenreich in their Broadway debuts, in the Broadway premiere of Gina Gionfriddo’s dark comedy, a Pulitzer finalist in 2009 (March 18, April 6).
“Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” — Luke Evans, the film star and West End alumnus, leads a new revival of the 1970s musical that inspired a camp film classic, helmed by Sam Pinkleton, a Tony Award winner last year for the zany “Oh, Mary!” (March 26, April 23).
“Fallen Angels” — The lovely and supremely talented Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara, who are aging with more grace and more fire than the vast majority of contemporary actresses, match wits in Noël Coward’s famously naughty comedy (March 27, April 19).
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” — Debbie Allen directs August Wilson’s look at Black American life in the 1910s, part of his towering 20th-century cycle, with a cast that includes Taraji P. Henson, Cedric “The Entertainer,” and Ruben Santiago-Hudson (March 30, April 25).
“Proof” — Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle star in a revival of Daniel Auburn’s Pulitzer-and-Tony-winning account of a young woman who has apparently inherited her father’s mathematical genius — and, she fears, his mental illness (March 31, April 16).
“The Balusters” — Kenny Leon guides top-notch troupers such as Marylouise Burke, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Richard Thomas in a new play by David Lindsay-Abaire, whose whimsical imagination and probing empathy have provided modern classics like “Kimberly Akimbo” and the Pulitzer-winning “Rabbit Hole” (March 31, April 21).
ELYSA GARDNER
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