This month The Broadway Blog offers an eclectic round-up of theatrical offerings that are sure to invigorate theatergoers during the cold winter months. The Great White Way is quiet as new productions prepare to move in, so we’re casting our focus on three off Broadway shows that are garnering plenty of buzz…
Hamilton at The Public Theater
The cast of “Hamilton” (photo: Joan Marcus via The Broadway Blog.)
The year was 1969 when the revolutionary 1776, won the Tony Award for best musical (and triumphed again with the 1998 revival.) But now American history gets a makeover thanks to the creative team behind the Tony Award-winning In The Heights, offering theatergoers a wildly inventive new musical about the scrappy young immigrant who forever changed America: Alexander Hamilton.
Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda wields his pen and takes the stage as the unlikely founding father determined to make his mark on a new nation as hungry and ambitious as he is. From bastard orphan to Washington’s right hand man, rebel to war hero, loving husband caught in the country’s first sex scandal to Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy, Hamilton is an exploration of a political mastermind.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Eliza Hamilton, and lifelong Hamilton friend and foe, Aaron Burr, all attend this revolutionary tale of America’s fiery past told through the sounds of the ever-changing nation we’ve become. Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail directs this new musical about taking your shot, speaking your mind, and turning the world upside down. The production is already sold out, but lottery tickets are available for certain performances.
Hamilton
The Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
Opening night: February 17
The Nether at MCC Theater
Things are getting otherworldly at MCC this winter with Jennifer Haley’s The Nether—a haunting thriller that will make you question when the fantastic becomes too real.
There is a new immersive realm for the senses online, a virtual playground where those who plug in are coaxed into acting out their darkest fantasies—with no consequences in the “real” world. Or so it seems… until a young female detective begins an investigation to determine if there is a point at which thought or intention may actually constitute a crime within—and outside of—this new frontier. Fans of Nurse Jackie will be excited to see Emmy winner Merritt Weaver alongside Frank Wood (Side Man) and Peter Friedman (Circle Mirror Transformation).
The Nether
MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher Street
Opening night: February 24
Brooklynite at the Vineyard Theatre
The powerhouse team of director Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening) and choreographer Steven Hoggett (Once, American Idiot) team up with composer/lyricist Peter Lerman for an unconventional story inspired by the real Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company located in Park Slope.
The plot follows Trey Swieskowski is an idealistic hardware store clerk who dreams of becoming a superhero. Astrolass, Brooklyn’s most celebrated superhero, is determined to throw in the cape and live like a normal Brooklynite. When they meet they hatch a plan that will change their lives forever. But can they save Brooklyn when it suddenly teeters on the brink of disaster?
Brooklynite
Vineyard Theatre
108 East 15th Street
Opening night: February 25