New Plays & Musicals in NYC: Holler If Ya Hear Me, Fly By Night, The Who & The What, Macbeth
Lindsay, Nicole, and David discuss four new productions, an epic Macbeth with Kenneth Branagh, a modern fairytale musical, a musical based on the music and lyrics of Tupac Shakur, and a play from recent Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar. But first we hear about Nicole and David’s walking tour of New York’s midtown theater district with Broadway Up-Close and as always we end with what we’re seeing this week.
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SHOWS DISCUSSED
Fly By Night
By Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
A musical tragic comedy with rock and roll influences, Fly By Night is a fairytale set in the 1960s. It follows two sisters from the Midwest who travel to New York and both fall in love with a man who works in a sandwich shop. It features Patti Murin, Allison Case, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Peter Friedman.
BUY TICKETSAt Playwrights Horizon
The Who & The What
By Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Kimberly Senior
In The Who & The What a Muslim Pakistani-American writer, Zarina, writes a controversial novel recasting a story central to the Muslim religion about the Prophet Muhammad. Zarina’s questioning of long-held truths about the ancient religion separates her from her family and raises questions surrounding her identity as a woman, intellectual, wife, future mother, and Muslim in the 21st century.
Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh
One of Shakespeare’s classics comes to New York from the Manchester International Festival in England. It is an immersive performance that transports the audience to Macbeth’s Scotland. Rain pours onto the stage, battles rage, blood spills (on the stage and sometimes the audience), mud cakes the ground, and mist floats in the air. It is cinematic production led by memorable performances by Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston.
Performances have ended
At Park Avenue Armory
Holler If Ya Hear Me
Music and lyrics by Tupac Shakur
Music supervision, orchestrations, and arrangements by Daryl Waters
Book by Todd Kreidler
Directed by Kenny Leon
John returns to his Midwestern home after a 6-year stint prison. He doesn’t want anymore trouble, but when the brother of his friend is shot dead, it makes his desire for peace seem like an impossible goal. A story mixed with the music and lyrics of Tupac Shakur, Holler If Ya Hear Me manifests the reality of present day violence in poor, urban areas in the United States.