One of New York’s favorite summer traditions continued this week as Broadway in Bryant Park once again turned the Midtown lawn into an open-air theatre, bringing together performers from The Book of Mormon, The Great Gatsby, Heathers: The Musical and Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody for an afternoon of free performances.

Helen Little

Ashley De La Rosa

Ashley De La Rosa, Helen Little

Presented by 106.7 LITE FM, the afternoon was hosted by the station’s Helen Little, with Ashley De La Rosa joining as co-host. Broadway in Bryant Park has long been one of those quintessentially New York events: office workers on lunch breaks, theatre lovers and tourists gathering on the lawn while Broadway performers trade their usual proscenium arches for sunshine, skyscrapers and a decidedly less formal audience.

J. Casey Barrett. Vance Klassen, Andrew Nelin, Kevin Clay. Andrew Stevens Purdy, Thomas Doelger, Diego Enrico, Joshua Keen and Henry McGuiness

Diego Enrico and Kevin Clay

Thomas Doelger and Charlie Franklin

Diego Enrico and Kevin Clay

The Book of Mormon, still one of Broadway’s most irreverent long-running hits, was represented by J. Casey Barrett, Vance Klassen, Andrew Nelin, Kevin Clay, Andrew Stevens Purdy, Thomas Doelger, Diego Enrico, Charlie Franklin, Joshua Keen and Henry McGuinness. More than a decade after arriving on Broadway, the musical continues to demonstrate the remarkable staying power of a show that turned religious satire, outrageous comedy and an unexpectedly traditional musical-theatre heart into a theatrical phenomenon.

Alex Prakken, Brandon J. Large, Nathaniel Hunt, Traci Elaine Lee, Drew Lake, Justin Keats, Emily Anne Nester, Matt Wiercinski and Kurt Csolak

The Cast of The Great Gatsby that includes, Brandon J. Large, Nathaniel Hunt, Traci Elaine Lee, Drew Lake, Justin Keats, Emily Anne Nester, Matt Wiercinski and Kurt Csolak

Alex Prakken

Alex Prakken

Alex Prakken

The Cast of The Great Gatsby that includes, Brandon J. Large, Nathaniel Hunt, Traci Elaine Lee, Drew Lake, Justin Keats, Emily Anne Nester, Matt Wiercinski and Kurt Csolak

The glamour of the Jazz Age arrived courtesy of The Great Gatsby, with Alex Prakken, Brandon J. Large, Nathaniel Hunt, Traci Elaine Lee, Drew Lake, Justin Keats, Emily Anne Nester, Matt Wiercinski and Kurt Csolak taking the Bryant Park stage. The Broadway musical, inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quintessential American novel, brought a splash of Gatsby excess to the lawn—a fitting contrast to the decidedly democratic pleasure of seeing Broadway for free in the middle of Manhattan.

John Cardoza, Thalia Atallah, Ava DeMary, Jackera Davis, Zan Berube, Kiara Michelle Lee, Emma Benson and Syd Sider

John Cardoza and Kiara Michelle Lee

John Cardoza and Kiara Michelle Lee

John Cardoza

Jackera Davis, Zan Berube and Ava DeMary

Things became considerably darker—and deliciously more dangerous—with Heathers: The Musical. John Cardoza, Kiara Michelle Lee, Thalia Atallah, Ava DeMary, Jackera Davis, Zan Berube, Emma Benson and Syd Siderrepresented the cult musical, whose wicked combination of teenage cruelty, black comedy and infectious pop-rock music has given Heathers a devoted following that has only grown since the show first arrived in New York.

Jay Armstrong Johnson and Ryann Redmond

Kevin Clay

Ryan Duncan

Daniel Brackett, Ryan Duncan, Shelby Acosta, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Cherry Torres and Ryann Redmond

Daniel Brackett

Jay Armstrong Johnson

Ryann Redmond

Then came one of the afternoon’s cheekier offerings, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody. Daniel Brackett, Ryan Duncan, Shelby Acosta, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Cherry Torres and Ryann Redmond brought the parody to Bryant Park, adding another flavor entirely to a program that happily jumped from established Broadway blockbusters to cult favorites and irreverent new work.

Jane Fujita

Daielle Dellilo

Eyllah Babbitt, Danielle Dellilo and Kelly Branco

Also participating in the afternoon were Eyllah Babbitt, Danielle Dellilo and Kelly Branco, along with Jane Fujita

and representatives from Taiwan Tourism, adding to an event that has increasingly become as much a Midtown summer gathering as a theatrical sampler.

That has always been the particular charm of Broadway in Bryant Park. Broadway can be expensive, carefully scheduled and sometimes intimidating to those who don’t regularly venture inside its theatres. Here, the walls disappear. There is no velvet rope separating the initiated from the curious. Someone can wander through Bryant Park, hear an extraordinary voice coming from the stage, sit down on the lawn and discover a show they had never considered seeing.

And for Broadway itself, that matters. A few songs performed on a summer afternoon can accomplish what an advertisement sometimes cannot: they allow an audience to experience the performers themselves. The theatre becomes immediate, accessible and wonderfully difficult to ignore.

Broadway in Bryant Park continues throughout the summer at Bryant Park, located along Sixth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets. Lawn seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

In a city where Broadway normally begins when the house lights go down, Bryant Park continues to prove that sometimes the best way to sell the magic of theatre is simply to bring it outside and let New York stumble upon it.

The curtain may come down, a production may close, and a performance may disappear into theatrical memory, but the cast album is where musical theatre gets its second life. This summer and fall, an unusually rich group of recordings is arriving across streaming platforms, CDs and increasingly coveted vinyl editions, preserving everything from intimate new musicals and Off-Broadway discoveries to major Broadway revivals, conceptual works and a Cats recording unlike any Andrew Lloyd Webber has made before.

Already available is Alone, a new concept album featuring music and lyrics by John Ertman and Joseph Mathusek and an impressive company that includes Taylor Iman Jones, Linedy Genao, Zachary Noah Piser, Adi Roy, Rachel Webb, Kim Onah, Michael Nigro, Nathan Levy, Claire Kwon, Cassidy Sledge, Ellis Gage, Andy Harman and Gray Watson. Released digitally August 7 by Picardee Records, the album introduces its musical world without waiting for a full production to arrive—a reminder that increasingly, new musicals are finding audiences through headphones before they ever find a theatre.

Also newly released is Sappho: The Poetess, a London EP written and performed by Hayley Canham. The August 12 Center Stage Records release gives the ancient Greek poet a contemporary musical voice, joining the continuing wave of theatre composers rediscovering women whose lives have survived history largely through fragments, mythology and the interpretations of others.

August 14 brought two dramatically different recordings. Good Guy With A Gun!, a concept album by Philip Labes and Micah O’Konis, arrives with one of the most eclectic casts of the season, including Chris Sullivan, Kimiko Glenn, Anthony Rapp, Yvette Nicole Brown, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Jason Alexander, Richard Kind, Kristen Schaal and Paul Walter Hauser. Even before a full stage production, that roster alone gives the project considerable curiosity value.

The same day, Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label released Empire: Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording, preserving Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull’s musical about the creation of the Empire State Building. Directed Off-Broadway in 2024 by Tony winner Cady Huffman, Empire looks at the audacity required to build upward during one of the most precarious moments in American history. Its characters include industrialists, immigrants and Mohawk ironworkers, turning the construction of a skyscraper into a story about ambition, labor and New York’s almost pathological refusal to believe something cannot be done.

The recording features Danny Iktomi Bevins, Devin Cortez, Morgan Cowling, Kaitlyn Davidson, Joel Douglas, Alexandra Frohlinger, Albert Guerzon, Kiana Kabeary, Howard Kaye, April Ortiz, Jessica Ranville, Paul Salvatoriello, J Savage, Robbie Serrano and Ethan Saviet, with an ensemble including Joseph Fierberg, Kennedy Perez, Matt Gibson, Julia Louise Hosack and TJ Newton. For a musical whose central character is essentially New York itself, the album gives Empire a chance to continue climbing long after its Off-Broadway run.

Then comes one of the most intriguing releases of August. Night Side Songs, Daniel and Patrick Lazour’s deeply human musical produced by Lincoln Center Theater at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater earlier this year, arrives digitally and on streaming platforms August 21 through Octoverse Media and Warner Music Group’s Arts Music. The first single, “My Stuff,” is already available, with CD and vinyl editions planned later in the year.

Night Side Songs occupied an unusually delicate place in the theatrical landscape when it played LCT3 from February 14 through March 29. Rather than treating illness, caregiving and mortality as dramatic devices, the Lazours created a folk-inflected musical concerned with the conversations that happen around bedsides, the things people say and cannot say, the jokes that break unbearable tension and the strange community that forms around someone whose life has suddenly changed. The recording features the original Lincoln Center Theater company of Robin de Jesús, Brooke Ishibashi, Jonathan Raviv, Kris Saint-Louis and Mary Testa, joined in the studio by an audience that sings along in keeping with the score’s communal folk tradition.

The album is produced by Mara Isaacs, Todd Sickafoose and Andy Einhorn, with Daniel and Patrick Lazour co-producing. The stage production earned nominations from the Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel Awards, including recognition for its music, ensemble and production. The album should allow one of the season’s quieter musicals to find the larger audience intimate work sometimes struggles to reach during a limited theatrical run.

Also arriving August 21 is Schmigadoon! (Original Broadway Cast Recording), with music and lyrics by Cinco Paul. The Joy Machine Records release features Alex Brightman, Sara Chase, Ana Gasteyer, Ann Harada, Brad Oscar, Isabelle McCalla, Ivan Hernandez, Maulik Pancholy, Max Clayton, McKenzie Kurtz and Ayaan Diop. What began as a television series lovingly skewering—and embracing—the conventions of classic musical theatre has now completed the circle by becoming a Broadway musical with its own cast recording. There is something wonderfully appropriate about a show born from affection for cast albums becoming one itself.

On August 28, Evita gets another major recording, this time preserving Jamie Lloyd’s London production starring Rachel Zegler, alongside Diego Andres Rodriguez, James Olivas, Aaron Lee Lambert and Bella Brown. The full album will be released digitally and as a triple-vinyl edition through The Other Songs. With Zegler bringing her acclaimed Eva Perón to Broadway in 2027, the recording arrives as both documentation of the London production and something of a preview for New York audiences. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s score has been recorded many times, but Evita has always been unusually dependent upon the personality of the performer standing at its center. Zegler now gets her own place in that lineage.

August 28 also brings Sara Bareilles’ Good Grief  through Epic Records on CD, digital and vinyl. Bareilles long ago crossed the line between pop songwriter and major theatrical voice with Waitress, and anything she releases now carries interest for both audiences. Her music has always lived comfortably in the space between confessional singer-songwriter intimacy and theatrical storytelling, making a new Bareilles album part of the broader musical-theatre conversation whether or not every song is headed for a stage.

September 4 brings the physical release Broadway collectors have been waiting for: the 2025 Broadway cast recording of Chess on CD and vinyl from Ghostlight Records, following its April digital release. The album preserves Nicholas Christopher, Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit, Hannah Cruz, Bradley Dean, Sean Allan Krill and Bryce Pinkham in Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice’s gloriously oversized Cold War musical. Whatever one thinks of Chessdramatically, that score remains one of musical theatre’s great guilty-not-guilty pleasures, and this cast gives it formidable vocal ammunition.

On September 18, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody enters the recording studio canon with a digital and triple-vinyl release from Center Stage Records. Dylan MarcAurele’s score is performed by Jay Armstrong Johnson, Jimin Moon, Ryann Redmond, Cherry Torres, Ryan Duncan, Shelby Acosta and Daniel Brackett. The fact that a knowingly outrageous Off-Broadway parody is getting a triple-vinyl edition tells you almost everything you need to know about the current cast-album market: audiences increasingly want theatre not simply as something they attended, but as something they can collect.

September 25 brings another kind of theatrical souvenir with Rise Up! Hamilton: The Anthology, arriving from Atlantic/Rhino on CD, digital and vinyl. More than a decade after Hamilton permanently altered the commercial expectations for Broadway cast recordings, the musical remains one of the rare modern theatre properties capable of generating the kind of ancillary releases normally associated with major recording artists.

And then there is CATS: The Jellicle Ball.

Atlantic Records has opened pre-orders for the forthcoming Original Broadway Cast Recording of the Tony-winning revival, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alana da Fonseca. No firm release date has yet been announced, but this is arguably the recording collectors will be most curious to hear because The Jellicle Ball did something almost unimaginable: it made Cats culturally dangerous again.

The Broadway production reimagined Lloyd Webber’s musical through New York ballroom culture, transforming the Jellicle competition into a glittering collision of fashion, dance, queer history and theatrical spectacle. The company includes André De Shields, Ken Ard, Kya Azeen, Bryson Battle, Jonathan Burke, Baby Byrne, Tara Lashan Clinkscales, Bryce Farris, Elisa Galindez, Sydney James Harcourt, Dava Huesca, Dudney Joseph Jr., Junior LaBeija, Leiomy, Robert “Silk” Mason, Ernest Mingo, Tempress Chasity Moore, Primo Thee Ballerino, Xavier Reyes, Nora Schell, Bebe Nicole Simpson, Emma Sofia, Phumzile Sojola, Kendall Grayson Stroud, B Noel Thomas, Kalyn West, Garnet Williams, Teddy Wilson Jr., Darius Wright and Donté Nadir Wilder.

The production earned nine Tony nominations and won three, including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design. Qween Jean’s costume win also marked a Broadway milestone as the first openly trans woman to win a Tony Award. The recording now has the unusual task of capturing a production whose impact was profoundly visual and physical—ballroom movement, fashion, attitude and audience energy—through sound alone.

Several other recordings remain on the horizon without firm release dates. Joy Machine Records will release Beau The Musical, with music by Ethan D. Pakchar and Douglas Lyons and lyrics by Lyons, featuring Matt Rodin, Jeb Brown, Max Sangerman, Miyuki Miyagi, Andrea Goss, Amelia Cormack, Ryan Halsaver and Derek Stoltenberg.

Ghostlight Records is also preparing a London concept album of Death Note, The Musical, with Frank Wildhorn’s music and Jack Murphy’s lyrics performed by a company including Adam Pascal, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Dean John Wilson, Aimie Atkinson, Frances Mayli McCann, Rachel Clare Chan and Christian Ray Marbella. Wildhorn and Death Notehave long seemed destined for one another—large emotions, operatic stakes and characters who consider moderation an unacceptable personality trait.

JAY Records has two particularly traditional theatre recordings waiting in the wings. A new studio cast recording of The Fantasticks features Brad Oscar, Telly Leung, Elizabeth Teeter, Lewis Cleale and Ron Raines, arriving just as the famously long-running Off-Broadway musical prepares, astonishingly, for its first Broadway production. The label will also release Lovesong, Michael Valenti’s setting of lyrics by Dorothy Parker and Sir Walter Raleigh, performed by Jenn Gambatese, Lauren Molina, Matt Bogart and Jeff Kready.

Also forthcoming is the studio EP Salem, with music and lyrics by Amanda Ribnick and Jennifer Lucy Cook and performances by Bryce Pinkham, Kuhoo Verma, John-Andrew Morrison, Gabi Carrubba, Lizzy Murray and Katherine Lynn-Rose, while PS Classics will release Ricky Ian Gordon’s Sycamore Trees, featuring a mouthwatering company of Farah Alvin, Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, Jessica Molaskey, Matthew Risch, Diane Sutherland and Tony Yazbeck.

What makes this particular stretch of releases interesting is how thoroughly the cast album has escaped its old definition. Once, the recording primarily existed to preserve the score of a Broadway musical. Now we have concept albums creating audiences before productions exist, limited-run Off-Broadway shows finding permanence after closing, London productions introducing themselves to American listeners, parody musicals getting elaborate vinyl editions and established Broadway properties becoming collectible objects in multiple formats.

Streaming should theoretically have made albums less precious. Instead, vinyl has made them objects again.

And musical theatre, perhaps more than almost any other form, understands why that matters. A performance is ephemeral by design. The actor sings the note, the orchestra plays the chord, the audience hears it—and then the moment is gone.

A cast album refuses to let it disappear.

This fall, there will be quite a lot worth keeping.

If New York theatre has been looking for a way to turn the coming season into an event, it may already have found it. The marquees are beginning to resemble an unusually eclectic awards ceremony, with movie stars, television favorites, Broadway royalty and even a genuine rock god heading for New York stages. Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Billy Crystal, Bowen Yang, Tom Felton, Jim Parsons, Jeremy Jordan and Julianne Moore are either already here or on their way. Add Guns N’ Roses legend Slash making his Broadway debut tomorrow night, and the 2026–27 New York theatre season is beginning to look very starry indeed.

Slash

The fun begins immediately. On August 13, Slash is making his Broadway debut in The Lost Boys at the Palace Theatre tonight, joining the musical for a one-night-only appearance. The Guns N’ Roses guitarist already has a connection to the show’s music, having contributed a guitar solo to “Have to Have You” for the musical’s Santa Carla recordings. Now one of rock’s most instantly recognizable figures steps onto a Broadway stage for the first time, giving Michael Arden’s vampire musical an irresistible collision of Broadway and rock-and-roll mythology. The Lost Boys was always going to live or die by its ability to capture the dangerous, sexy, slightly decadent pulse of the 1987 cult film. Putting Slash into that world, even for one night, feels less like stunt casting than somebody finally noticing that he looks as though he should have been living in Santa Carla all along.

Felton is in costume as adult Draco for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”Warner Bros., Manuel Harlan

At the Lyric Theatre, Tom Felton has accomplished something equally clever by returning to the character who made him famous. Felton became the first performer from the original Harry Potter films to reprise his role on Broadway when he joined Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as the adult Draco Malfoy. The casting could easily have been nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, except Cursed Child gives Draco something the films never could: age. Felton is now playing the schoolboy antagonist as a father, confronting both his history and his relationship with his son Scorpius. His engagement has proven so popular that it has been repeatedly extended, with Felton now remaining in the production through January 3, 2027.

John Riddle, Jim Parsons, Melissa Barrera Photo by Evan Zimmerman

Over at the St. James Theatre, Jim Parsons has been enjoying an entirely different sort of transformation in Titaníque, playing Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the imperious mother of Rose, in the deliriously irreverent Céline Dion-infused parody of Titanic. Parsons remains aboard through the show’s September 20 closing. The production has never suffered from excessive respectability, and watching the Emmy and Tony-winning actor surrender himself to its particular brand of lunacy is exactly the sort of theatrical casting that makes New York fun. Parsons is surrounded by a company that includes Marla Mindelle as Céline Dion, Melissa Barrera as Rose, Constantine Rousouli as Jack and Deborah Cox as Molly Brown—a Ship of Dreams considerably more deranged than James Cameron ever imagined.

Then comes Bowen Yang, who begins performances September 15 as Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre. Yang’s Broadway debut feels almost inevitable now that one thinks about it. Escola created a Mary who is vain, frustrated, wildly theatrical, sexually complicated and spectacularly uninterested in behaving like the respectable First Lady history handed us. The role has become one of Broadway’s most delicious revolving doors, attracting actors willing to throw dignity overboard and commit completely to the madness. Yang’s particular mixture of intelligence, absurdity and comic fearlessness should fit Mary like a very badly behaved glove.

Off-Broadway is assembling its own formidable company. At The Public Theater, Ryan J. Haddad’s Good Time Charlie begins performances September 24 in Martinson Hall, with a Joseph Papp Free Performance launching the run. Danny Sharron directs the world premiere, which officially opens October 9 and continues through October 18. The autobiographically inspired play follows Charlie, a man who once dreamed of a theatrical life before his parents steered him toward dentistry. Instead, he poured his love of culture into his nephew Ryan, another gay, theatre-loving kid with Broadway dreams. Spanning more than three decades, the play examines the people who give us permission to imagine lives larger than the ones prescribed for us.

And the cast makes the production particularly enticing. Haddad appears as Ryan alongside Timothy Bagley as Lou, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Michael Cristofer as Sheldon, Tony nominee Beth Malone as Janice, Nael Nacer as Charlie Sr./Bob, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Artemis Pebdani as Joan/Judy and The Band’s Visit‘s Jonathan Raviv as Charlie. That is an unusually rich ensemble for an intimate Public Theater world premiere, mixing actors from Broadway, television and some of New York’s most interesting recent plays.

Then Broadway brings out the heavy artillery. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe assemble at the Hudson Theatre for the first Broadway revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities, beginning performances September 29. John Benjamin Hickey directs the family drama, which takes place over Christmas in Palm Springs as Brooke Wyeth returns to her politically prominent parents with a memoir threatening to expose a long-buried family secret. The play requires actors capable of making civilized conversation feel like armed combat, and this company certainly qualifies.

Louis-Dreyfus makes her Broadway debut opposite Harris, with Janney entering the family battlefield as Silda. Rabe plays Brooke and Stranger Things star Keery takes on her brother Trip. There is celebrity casting, and then there is assembling three actors of the caliber of Louis-Dreyfus, Harris and Janney in the same living room and allowing them to start disagreeing. Other Desert Cities already contains the ammunition. This cast should have no difficulty lighting the match.

Billy Crystal returns to Broadway October 1 at the Imperial Theatre with 860, a new solo work whose title comes from the address of the Pacific Palisades home he and his family lost in the 2025 fires. Written and performed by Crystal and directed by Scott Ellis, the 14-week limited engagement officially opens October 21 and continues through January 3. The piece looks at family, friendship, love, loss and the memories contained within a home over decades—the seemingly ordinary objects and moments that become irreplaceable only when they disappear.

Crystal has been here before, though never with quite this story. 700 Sundays, his autobiographical exploration of his father and family, became one of Broadway’s most successful and affecting solo shows. 860 begins with another profound loss, but Crystal’s great theatrical gift has always been his ability to let humor and grief occupy the same sentence without diminishing either. At 78, he isn’t returning to Broadway simply to perform another victory lap. He is bringing back something personal.

October then gets considerably more glamorous when Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell arrive at the Winter Garden Theatre in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Much Ado About Nothing. Performances begin October 31, with the strictly limited engagement continuing through January 10, 2027. The two reprise the roles of Benedick and Beatrice after leading Lloyd’s London production, bringing with them one of Shakespeare’s great romantic battles: two highly intelligent people using wit as armor while everyone around them conspires to make them admit the obvious.

Hiddleston already knows Broadway, having earned a Tony nomination for Betrayal, while Atwell makes her Broadway debut. Their screen fame inevitably brings another audience with them—yes, Loki and Peggy Carter are doing Shakespeare—but reducing either actor to Marvel celebrity misses the point. Both have substantial classical theatre backgrounds, and Much Ado lives or dies on whether its Beatrice and Benedick can make language feel like foreplay, combat and self-defense simultaneously. Lloyd has given them a very contemporary playground in which to do it.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Jordan continues his run as Bobby Darin in Just in Time at Circle in the Square through October 18. Jordan stepped into the role following Jonathan Groff, an unenviable succession on paper but a fascinating one theatrically. Bobby Darin requires swagger, musical command and the ability to make the audience believe that the performer needs the stage almost as much as he needs oxygen. Jordan possesses all three. The immersive production, which transforms Circle in the Square into something closer to a nightclub than a conventional Broadway house, also demonstrates that a star-driven musical can survive the departure of its originating star when the replacement has genuine theatrical firepower.

And the stars aren’t disappearing when the calendar turns. Julianne Moore returns to the New York stage in 2027 in the world premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Faydra, giving the coming season another fascinating collision between one of America’s finest screen actors and one of its most distinctive playwrights. Moore has been away from the New York stage for two decades, having made her Broadway debut in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour in 2006. Her return in a new Ruhl work immediately makes Faydra one of the most intriguing theatrical prospects of 2027.

What is striking about this season isn’t simply the number of famous people involved. Broadway has always used celebrity, sometimes brilliantly and sometimes disastrously. A recognizable name above a title can sell tickets, but it cannot manufacture theatrical presence. The more interesting casting happens when the identity of the performer adds another dimension to the material. Felton confronting Draco Malfoy as a grown man does that. Crystal turning the destruction of his actual home into theatre does that. Hiddleston and Atwell bringing an already-tested Beatrice and Benedick partnership across the Atlantic does that. Slash walking into The Lost Boys does it in the most wonderfully literal rock-and-roll way imaginable.

Even the season’s revolving-door casting is becoming part of the entertainment. Oh, Mary! has discovered that Mary Todd Lincoln can apparently regenerate indefinitely as long as Broadway keeps finding sufficiently fearless people to put on the dress. Just in Time has moved from Groff to Jordan. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, long after becoming an established Broadway attraction, found an entirely new event in bringing one of the original film actors home to his character.

Streaming was supposed to make leaving the house increasingly unnecessary. Instead, theatre appears to be answering by making being in the room the commodity. You can watch Louis-Dreyfus, Hiddleston, Atwell, Moore, Parsons, Yang, Keery or Crystal on a screen whenever you like. You cannot replicate sitting in a theatre while they do something live, eight times a week, with no editing room and nowhere to hide.

That may be Broadway and Off-Broadway’s smartest weapon going into the 2026–27 season. Not celebrity for celebrity’s sake, but event theatre—the sense that something is happening in a particular room, for a finite period of time, and if you aren’t there, you really did miss it.

And if Slash walking onto a Broadway stage tomorrow night doesn’t make that point rather spectacularly, nothing will.

Dakin Mattews and Mary Beth Peil. Joan Marcus

There is something fascinating about reviving a play whose central premise should feel more relevant now than when it was written and discovering instead how thoroughly it belongs to another time.

Dakin Matthews, Jean Lichty, and Robert Sean Leonard. Photo by Joan Marcus

Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter, which opened on Broadway in 1997 under the direction of Daniel Sullivan, was not particularly well received the first time around. Nearly three decades later, La Femme Theatre Productions has returned to the play at the Signature Center, and unfortunately this revival makes it easier to understand why.

Carmen Zilles, Ryan Spahn, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary Beth Peil and Jean Lichty. Photo by Joan Marcus

The problem is not that Wasserstein had nothing to say. Quite the opposite. Her subjects—female ambition, political power, media scrutiny, gender, race, privilege and the peculiar American pleasure of watching accomplished people publicly dismantled—have hardly disappeared. Yet under Sarna Lapine’s surprisingly listless direction, An American Daughter feels less like a play newly illuminated by our present moment than an artifact that has been taken out of storage without quite determining why we need to see it again.

Dakin Matthews, Jean Lichty Photo by Joan Marcus

At its center is Lyssa Dent Hughes, a physician, fifth-generation descendant of Ulysses S. Grant and daughter of a prominent senator, who has been nominated for Surgeon General. She is played by La Femme Theatre Productions Executive Director Jean Lichty, whom I last saw as Hannah Jelkes in the company’s production of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana. Lichty has a recurring habit of casting herself in La Femme productions. It must be rather nice to possess that particular privilege, but it also makes the casting impossible not to scrutinize. Here and unfortunately in The Night of the Iguana, she doesn’t work.

Jean Lichty and Robert Sean Leonard. Photo by Joan Marcus

Lyssa needs to be formidable enough that we understand immediately why a president would nominate her to one of the country’s most visible medical positions, yet human enough that the gradual invasion of her private life carries emotional weight. Lichty never quite supplies either dimension. More damagingly, she seems strangely resistant to Wasserstein’s humor. The first act depends upon wit—sharp, socially observant, sometimes merciless wit—and while much of the company understands exactly where those lines need to land, Lichty rarely finds their rhythm.

Montego Glover and Jean Lichty. Photo by Joan Marcus

That becomes particularly noticeable whenever Montego Glover enters the room. As Judith B. Kaufman, Lyssa’s Jewish African-American oncologist friend, Glover is a scene-stealer in the best sense. Intelligent, alive and completely comfortable with Wasserstein’s verbal dexterity, she gives the production a charge it desperately needs. Every time she appears, the temperature rises.

Chris Ghaffari, Carmen Zilles, Dakin Matthews, Mary Beth Peil, Ryan Spahn, Robert Sean Leonard, and Jean Lichty. Photo by Joan Marcus

The household is populated by people who understand power because nearly everyone in the room wants some version of it. Quincy Quince (Carmen Zilles) an aggressively ambitious sociology professor whose bestseller, The Prisoner of Gender, has turned her into a television commodity. She has also had an affair with Lyssa’s husband, Walter Abramson, which is how Walter came to know her in the first place. Quincy isn’t merely interested in discussing the machinery of gender and influence; she understands how to use it.

Robert Sean Leonard, Ryan Spahn and Montego Glover. Photo by Joan Marcus

As Walter, Robert Sean Leonard remains, as always, worthwhile. He brings an intelligence and natural authority to the stage that doesn’t require announcing itself. Chris Ghaffari’s Timber Tucker, a magazine documentarian assigned to Lyssa, becomes another presence circling the increasingly embattled nominee, while Ryan Spahn’s Morrow McCarthy, Lyssa’s gay friend, proves considerably less appealing company.

Dakin Matthews, Jean Lichty, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary Beth Peil, Chris Ghaffari, and Will DeVary. Photo by Joan Marcus

The production’s real gravity arrives with Dakin Mathews as Lyssa’s father, Senator Alan Hughes. Mathews has always possessed that marvelous ability to command attention without appearing to demand it. The senator doesn’t necessarily agree with his daughter, but he believes absolutely in her right to the government position for which she has been nominated. That distinction—between agreeing with someone and defending that person’s right to stand—is one of the more intelligent ideas still living inside Wasserstein’s play.

Dakin Matthews, Jean Lichty, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary Beth Peil, and Chris Ghaffari. Photo by Joan Marcus

Then there is Mary Beth Peil, rather wonderful as Charlotte, the senator’s fourth wife, known as Chubby. Peil has the invaluable theatrical gift of making you want to watch her even when someone else has the line.

Carmen Zilles, Montego Glover and Jean Lichty. Photo by Joan Marcus

A completely unsolicited note to casting directors: put Mathews and Peil side by side and something rather extraordinary happens. They bear an uncanny resemblance to Winston and Clementine Churchill. Someone, somewhere, surely has a Churchill play waiting for them.

Chris Ghaffari and Montego Glover. c.Joan Marcus

All of these people converge in Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ handsome Georgetown living room, crossing and recrossing a world in which intellectual achievement, political access and social privilege are practically pieces of furniture. During the first act, Wasserstein fires wisecrack after wisecrack, and most still hit precisely the target she intended. The cast generally knows how to land them, with the conspicuous exception of Lichty, whose lack of comic instinct leaves a hole exactly where the play most needs its center to hold.

Jean Lichty , Montego Glover. Photo by .Joan Marcus

An American Daughter is a 1997 dram-edy, and eventually the -edy must surrender to the drama. That is where things become considerably stickier. Lyssa’s nomination begins to buckle under the weight of political scrutiny, and Wasserstein turns toward the more serious question beneath the jokes: what happens when an accomplished woman’s entire life becomes public property simply because she has been offered power? That question should land like dynamite in 2026.

Will DeVary, Mary Beth Peil, and Jean Lichty. Photo by Joan Marcus

We live in a culture where a decades-old photograph, sentence, relationship or mistake can become ammunition within minutes; where public figures are examined simultaneously by television, social media, partisan media and millions of amateur investigators; and where women seeking power still encounter judgments their male counterparts frequently escape. Yet strangely, this production doesn’t make Wasserstein’s play feel prophetic. It makes it feel old.

Jean Lichty, Robert Sean Leonard. Photo by Joan Marcus

Part of that belongs to the text. The mechanisms of scandal have changed so radically since 1997 that the media ecosystem depicted here can seem almost quaint. But revival is supposed to create a conversation between the period in which a work was written and the period in which it is being performed. Lapine never discovers that bridge. Instead, the production proceeds with a curious lethargy, as if simply putting the play back onstage were sufficient reason for its return. It isn’t.

A revival needs to tell us why this play, now. There is potentially a terrific production of An American Daughter waiting inside our current political moment—one that could expose how much has changed since 1997 and, more disturbingly, how much hasn’t. It could examine the brutal evolution of public scrutiny, the commodification of outrage and the impossible standards applied to women who enter rooms traditionally controlled by men.

La Femme’s production never gets there. Instead, an unevenly cast company inhabits a handsome Georgetown living room while Wasserstein’s ideas flicker around them, occasionally reminding us of the sharper, funnier and more provocative play this might have been. Glover, Leonard, Mathews and Peil give us glimpses of it. Unfortunately, glimpses aren’t enough.

An American Daughter: La Femme Theatre Production, Signature Center,  runs through September 20.

There are Christmas traditions, and then there are New York Christmas traditions.

Nothing signals the arrival of the holiday season quite like the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, where dazzling precision kicks, the legendary Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, and a little Manhattan magic have captivated audiences for generations. Now, fans can bring a bit of that sparkle home.

Beginning September 22, Harper Celebrate and the Radio City Rockettes will release Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes: Recipes and Crafts to Bring Home the Magic, a beautifully curated keepsake that transforms one of New York’s most beloved holiday productions into an entertaining guide filled with festive recipes, creative DIY projects, and behind-the-scenes stories.

Think of it as the perfect companion for anyone who believes the holidays deserve a little extra glamour.

Inside, readers will discover an irresistible collection of seasonal recipes inspired by the iconic production, including whimsical Parade of the Wooden Soldiers cake pops, New York-inspired Big Apple galettes, and reindeer-themed chocolate cranberry treats that are guaranteed to steal the dessert table.

The celebrations don’t stop there.

The book also serves up a collection of festive beverages—from comforting hot chocolate creations to holiday cocktails and mocktails, including the signature Rockettini™ and the delightfully named Mrs. Claus Mule—perfect for everything from elegant cocktail parties to cozy nights by the fire.

For the creatively inclined, the volume is filled with charming craft projects designed to elevate holiday decorating. DIY snow globe ornaments, imaginative gift wrapping ideas, and festive door décor bring a touch of Radio City elegance into every corner of the home.

Perhaps the most enchanting feature, however, is the opportunity to step behind the curtain.

Packed with archival photography and backstage stories, the book explores the remarkable history of the Christmas Spectacular, which first dazzled audiences in 1933 and has since welcomed more than 73 million visitors from around the world. Longtime fans will appreciate the insider stories, while newcomers will discover why this production remains one of New York City’s defining holiday experiences.

The release also arrives as the Rockettes continue celebrating more than a century of precision, artistry, and athleticism. Since marking their centennial in 2025, the legendary dance company continues to embody the glamour and discipline that have made them one of America’s most recognizable performing arts institutions. Beyond Radio City Music Hall, the Rockettes have become synonymous with the holiday season through appearances in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Christmas in Rockefeller Center, the Tony Awards, Saturday Night Live, and countless televised celebrations.

If there is one thing New Yorkers understand, it’s that Christmas isn’t simply a date on the calendar—it’s an atmosphere. The lights, the music, the traditions, and yes, the Rockettes all contribute to that unmistakable feeling that the city has transformed into something magical.

This charming new collection allows that magic to continue long after the curtain falls.

Whether you’re planning an elegant holiday gathering, searching for the perfect gift for the theater lover in your life, or simply looking to add a little Radio City sparkle to your own celebrations, this festive volume promises to make the season just a bit brighter.

Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes: Recipes and Crafts to Bring Home the Magic will be available wherever books are sold beginning September 22, 2026.