A Guide to "Broadway Week 2016"
For two weeks each winter, tickets to Broadway’s top shows go on sale, as theaters hope to fill seats in New York’s low season. This year, 27 shows are selling two-for-one tickets between January 19 and February 5.
Below, find a guide for the best shows to see during 2016’s Broadway Week. Read, and then book your tickets!
For the Whole Family
Bringing the young ones to NYC? Broadway’s got multiple shows geared towards audiences of any age. Disney favorites like Aladdin and The Lion King are great options, as are family friendly musicals Matilda the Musical, Finding Neverland, which opened last spring and stars Glee actor Matthew Morrison, and Wicked, the untold “true” story of Oz before Dorothy’s arrival. Finding Neverland and The Lion King are gorgeous to watch, with fantastic costumes and scenery. Matilda and Aladdin have the most laughs, while Wicked’s got the quintessential Broadway music (“Defying Gravity,” for example). Photo by @isadomvaz.
For the Dark and Stormy Type
Brooding pieces abound this Broadway Week. A View from the Bridge is Arthur Miller’s 1955 tale of a Brooklyn dock worker and his family on the verge of self destruction in a lauded revival that the Times hails as “resplendent.” Misery, starring Bruce Willis in his Broadway debut, is a new stage production of Stephen King’s iconic novel-turned-film about a prominent author held hostage by an infatuated (and sadistic) reader. And just off Broadway (but still included in the ticket sales) is The Humans, a “beautiful, funny-sad and ultimately wrenching” play, says the Hollywood Reporter, that takes place over Thanksgiving dinner in a New York City apartment. Photo by @katerinaan_.
For the Trend Watcher
Some of the season’s most sought-after shows are participating in Broadway Week. Allegiance, a new musical starring George Takei and Broadway icon Lea Salonga, is a semi-biographical romance based on Takei’s time at a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming during WWII. It’s closing after Valentine’s Day, so Broadway Week may be your last chance to see the great performers in the musical. The Color Purple, a revival of the 2005 hit, just opened again, with an all-star cast featuring Jennifer Hudson, Orange is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks, and breakout star Cynthia Erivo. Fun Home, which opened last April and swept the Tonys soon after, is also on the Broadway Week lineup, as is the yet-to-open Noises Off, a farcical show within a show that’s returning to New York fresh after fourteen years. Photo by @bwaycolorpurple.
For the Musical Hater
Just because you hate musicals is no reason to skip Broadway week. See any of the “Dark and Stormy” recommendations above, or check out Our Mother’s Brief Affair, a new comedic family drama in which children attempt to figure out how much truth is in their senile mother’s sudden confession to having had an affair. Photo by @glassceilingsociety.
For Fans of the Tried and True
You know the story and the music, now’s your chance to finally see the Broadway classics. Tickets for Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Chicago and Fiddler on the Roof are up for grabs during Broadway Week. Photo by @phantombway.