NYC Theater Preview: Spring & Summer 2025

Summer may not be New York’s peak theater season, but this year, it’s making a serious play for attention with the long-awaited reopening of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park following major renovations, the return of Mamma Mia!, and stage appearances by Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, John Krasinski, and Maya Hawke.

NYC Theater for Spring & Summer 2025

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes & Creditors: A new partnership between Hugh Jackman and producer Sonia Friedman, intended to present affordable theater will kick off with productions of Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, a new play by Hannah Moscovitch with Jackman and Ella Beatty (Appropriate), and August Strindberg’s drama Creditors with Liev Schreiber and Maggie Siff (Billions). Performances begin on April 28 at the Minetta Lane Theatre.

Bus Stop: William Inge’s 1955 romantic comedy set in a Kansas diner during a snowstorm (which was then adapted into a film with Marilyn Monroe) will receive a new Off-Broadway production with an all-Asian American cast. Performances begin on May 8 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater.

Eurydice: Maya Hawke, who plays Robin on the Netflix series Stranger Things, will make her Off-Broadway debut in the title role of the Signature Theatre’s revival of Sarah Ruhl’s drama based on the ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, which also served as the inspiration for the Broadway musical Hadestown. Performances begin on May 13 at the Pershing Square Signature Center.

The Imaginary Invalid: Red Bull Theater, which scored eight years ago with Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of the Russian comedy The Government Inspector, will now present Hatcher’s adaptation of Moliere’s comedy about a hypochondriac (played by Mark Linn-Baker) who obsesses over nonexistent illnesses. Performances begin on May 21 at New World Stages.

Angry Alan: The production company, Seaview, which just took over the Second Stage’s Off-Broadway theater in Midtown, will inaugurate the space with a dark comedy by Penelope Skinner led by John Krasinski (The Office) and directed by Sam Gold (Romeo + Juliet). Begins performances on May 23 at Studio Seaview.

Call Me Izzy: Jean Smart, who currently plays stand-up comic Deborah Vance on the hit HBO series Hacks, will return to Broadway in a one-woman dark comedy by comedian and journalist Jamie Wax about a woman in rural Louisiana with a dark secret. Performances begin on May 24 at Studio 54.

Little Island: The public park on the Hudson River, which has multiple performance venues, will host its second summer season of 110 live performances, including new productions of the gospel-meets-Greek tragedy musical The Gospel at Colonus and Charles Ludlam’s Maria Callas parody Galas. Performances begin on May 29.

Viola’s Room: The first new production by the internationally acclaimed company Punchdrunk since the immersive hit Sleep No More. Viola’s Room will take audience members on a surreal and sensory journey through a maze-like installation that evokes the feeling of stepping into a teenager’s daydream, with headphone audio narration by Helena Bonham Carter. Begins performances on June 17 at the Shed.

Joy: Betsy Wolfe (& Juliet) will play Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano in a new biographical musical that is unrelated to the 2015 film Joy, in which Jennifer Lawrence portrayed Mangano. Performances begin on June 21 at the Laura Pels Theatre.

Heathers: The pop musical adaptation of the 1988 Winona Ryder and Christian Slater teen film, which was overlooked during its New York debut but became a major hit in London, will receive an encore run at the same Off-Broadway venue where it premiered in 2014. Performances begin on June 22 at New World Stages.

Mamma Mia!: The ABBA feel-good musical, the best-known and most successful of the now ubiquitous jukebox musicals, will return for a six-month limited run at the same Broadway theater where it debuted in 2001, shortly after 9/11. Performances begin on Aug. 2 at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Twelfth Night: The Delacorte Theatre, home of Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park, will reopen following extensive physical renovations with a starry new production of Shakespeare’s beloved romantic comedy with Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sandra Oh. Performances begin on Aug. 7 at the Delacorte Theatre.