Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023

Top-selling shows this week include Merrily We Roll Along, Chicago, and more!

By: Dec. 11, 2023
Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023
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Looking for the best deals on Broadway shows? Welcome to our new weekly guide to the most popular shows listed on BroadwayWorld.


This Week's Top Broadway Shows

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 1) Merrily We Roll Along Buy Tickets from: $84 - Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends — writer Mary and lyricist & playwright Charley. An inventive, cult-classic ahead of its time, Merrily We Roll Along features some of Stephen Sondheim’s most celebrated and personal songs. Directed by Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 2) Chicago Buy Tickets - Set amidst the razzle-dazzle decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago's slickest criminal lawyer to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today's tabloids. A true New York City institution, Chicago is the longest running American musical in Broadway history.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 3) Days of Wine and Roses Buy Tickets - Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James star in a searing new musical about a couple falling in love in 1950s New York and struggling against themselves to build their family. The New York Times calls Days of Wine and Roses “a jazzy, aching new musical with wells of compassion!” (Critic’s Pick) and The Washington Post raves, “Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James soar! One of the best new musicals this year.” Adapted from JP Miller’s 1962 film and original 1958 teleplay, composer & lyricist Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins) and playwright Craig Lucas (An American in Paris) reunite in their first collaboration since their acclaimed The Light in the Piazza. Directed by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen).

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 4) Shucked Buy Tickets from: $61.50 - What do you get when you pair a semi-neurotic, New York comedy writer with two music superstars from Nashville? A hilarious and audacious farm-to-fable musical about the one thing Americans everywhere can't get enough of: corn. Shucked is the new musical comedy that proves sometimes tearing down a few walls, rather than growing them, is the only way to preserve our way of life. Shucked is about to turn Broadway on its ear and offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation. The new original musical comedy features a book by Robert Horn and score by the Nashville songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 5) Sweeney Todd Buy Tickets from: $40 - Attend the tale! Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's landmark musical tells the tale of a resourceful pie shop owner and a vengeful barber out for blood. After he's sent away by a corrupt judge, Sweeney returns to London years later seeking his long-lost family, and forms an unlikely partnership with Mrs. Lovett, who serves up pies underneath his former shop. Together, they wreak havoc on Fleet Street and serve up the hottest - and most unsettling - pies in London. Director Thomas Kail helms the return of this musical thriller starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 6) Hadestown Buy Tickets from: $61.50 - In Hadestown, a song can change your fate. This Tony-winning new musical by Anaïs Mitchell and innovative director Rachel Chavkin is a love story for today, and always. Intertwining two mythic Greek tales - that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and of King Hades and his wife Persephone - Hadestown invites you on a journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell's alluring melodies and Chavkin's poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love, with art perhaps being the one thing that can save it all. Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 7) The Wiz Buy Tickets - Based on L. Frank Baum's children's book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", The Wiz takes one of the world's most enduring (and enduringly white) American fantasies, and transforms it into an all-Black musical extravaganza for the ages. Featuring a book by William F. Brown and a Tony Award-winning score by Charlie Smalls (and others), this entirely reimagined revival is directed by Schele Williams, choreographed by JaQuel Knight, additional material by Amber Ruffin, and music supervision, orchestrations, and music arrangements by Joseph Joubert.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 8) Spamalot Buy Tickets - SPAMALOT, the musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, returns to Broadway for the first time ever, following a record-breaking sold-out run at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Peter Marks of The Washington Post exclaims “It’s UNFAIR to make me laugh this much! SPAMALOT is a tightly packed clown car speeding to musical theater nirvana!” Everything that makes a great knight in the theatre is here, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the Lady of the Lake.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 9) A Beautiful Noise Buy Tickets from: $87 - The story of the legendary Neil Diamond comes to life on stage in a gripping and uplifting new musical featuring a score of his most beloved songs. With his first break into songwriting in the 1960s and his meteoric rise in the 1970s, and plenty of crushing disappointments and heart-stopping triumphs along the way, Neil Diamond has maintained an almost unthinkable level of superstardom for five straight decades. How did a poor Jewish kid from Brooklyn become one of the most universally adored showmen of all time? There's only one way to tell it: a musical set to his era-defining smash hits that entranced the world.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 10) Moulin Rouge! Buy Tickets Starting at $79 - Enter a world of splendor and romance, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur, and glory! A world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment. Pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular spectacular. Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage, remixed by director Alex Timbers and choreographer Sonya Tayeh in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. A celebration of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and — above all — Love, Moulin Rouge! is more than a musical — it is a state of mind.

This Week's Top Off-Broadway Shows

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 1) Blue Man Group Buy Tickets - Blue Man Group combines music, technology and comedy to create a form of entertainment that defies categorization and appeals to people of all ages. Blue Man Group's shows have been described by critics as "innovative," "energetic" and "wildly entertaining." But the only way to truly understand Blue Man Group's global popularity is to see the show for yourself.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 2) Spain Buy Tickets - Step into a sophisticated, slippery world where the line between truth and fiction is all in the packaging. It's 1936, and a pair of passionate filmmakers have landed their next big project: a sweeping Spanish Civil War film with the potential to change American hearts and minds. It just happens to be bankrolled by the KGB. This seductive and funny new play about the art of propaganda and the dangerous ongoing Disinformation Age explores how art can change the world—for better and worse.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 3) Hell's Kitchen Buy Tickets from: $144 - Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys and Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Kristoffer Diaz bring their exhilarating coming-of-age musical HELL’S KITCHEN to The Public this fall. In a cramped apartment hanging off the side of Times Square, 17-year-old Ali is desperate to get her piece of the New York dream. Ali’s mother is just as determined to protect her daughter from the same mistakes she made. When Ali falls for a talented young drummer, both mother and daughter must face hard truths about race, defiance, and growing up. Ali feels trapped, until the sound of a neighbor playing piano opens the door to an unexpected friendship and a radically different future. Choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown and directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, HELL’S KITCHEN is an unforgettable new show featuring both newly created music and the soulful, iconic songs of New York’s own Alicia Keys.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 4) The Play That Goes Wrong Buy Tickets - Co-written by Mischief company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, The Play That Goes Wrong is a riotous comedy about the theatre. The play introduces The 'Cornley University Drama Society' who are attempting to put on a 1920s' murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong...does, as the accident-prone thespians battle on against all odds to get to their final curtain call.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 5) Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana Buy Tickets from: $46.50 - In Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana, a defrocked clergyman encounters inside disturbances amid outside disturbances during one stormy night at the Costa Verde Hotel in Acapulco as the world prepares for World War II. After four women of different ages and backgrounds, along with a 97-year-old poet, engage in the clergyman’s spiritual struggles, their lives leap dramatically forward. And the catalytic, defrocked clergyman survives the night.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 6) Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors Buy Tickets from: $99 - Drac is back and he’s ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple! DRACULA, A Comedy of Terrors is a Bram-new comedy that New Yorkers can really sink their teeth into. Filled with clever wordplay and anything-goes pop culture references, it’s a 90-minute, gender-bending, quick-changing, laugh-out-loud reimagining of the gothic classic, perfect for audiences of all blood types. In the treacherous mountains of Transylvania, a meek English real estate agent takes a harrowing journey to meet a new and mysterious client, who also just happens to be the most terrifying and ferocious monster the world has ever known: Count Dracula! As famed female vampire hunter Jean Van Helsing and company chase Drac from Transylvania to the British countryside to London and back, their antics are guaranteed to increase your pulse and cause bloodcurdling screams—of laughter.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 7) Little Shop of Horrors Buy Tickets from: $61.50 - Seymour is a down-on-his-luck florist with a crush on his co-worker Audrey. When he discovers a mysterious – and voracious – plant, suddenly Seymour and Audrey are thrust into an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. Little Shop of Horrors made its highly-anticipated return home to Off-Broadway, in an intimate new production directed by Michael Mayer that offers an unprecedented opportunity to get close — maybe too close — to an incredible plant with an insatiable appetite.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 8) Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice Buy Tickets - Tony® and Olivier Award-winning actor and songwriter Gavin Creel (HELLO, DOLLY!, INTO THE WOODS) had never been to The Metropolitan Museum of Art…until now. Inspired by the countless hours he spent wandering through the world-renowned collections of the museum for a MetLiveArts commission, WALK ON THROUGH is a thrilling new musical event featuring 17 original, infectious, pop-infused songs. In his theatrical songwriting debut, Creel takes us on an intimate, relatable journey of discovery and transformation through the lens of the art that captured his imagination. Whether you are a museum lover or a fellow novice, this show invites you to take a walk with Creel and engage with art, song, and the creative process in a fresh and new way.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 9) Sabbath's Theater Buy Tickets - When his secret life of debauchery comes to a heartbreaking end, disgraced puppet maker Mickey Sabbath plunges into increasingly mad and maddening encounters with people from his wild and wicked past. Part ghost story, part love story, Sabbath’s Theater unleashes Roth’s power to shock and amaze in this profound meditation on mortality and juicy celebration of life.

Broadway Buying Guide: December 11, 2023 10) Scene Partners Buy Tickets - Winter, 1985. 75-year-old Meryl ditches ice-cold Milwaukee for sunny Los Angeles, hell-bent on becoming a movie star. She’s got big dreams, a little money, and a whole lot of nerve. But will the world ever know her for who she really is? Starring two-time Academy Award® winner Dianne Wiest as Meryl, and directed by Tony Award® -winning director Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), John J. Caswell, Jr.’s (Wet Brain; Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award) Scene Partners is a wildly theatrical, hilarious and genre-twisting gallop through the experience of a woman reborn.


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