Broadway Buying Guide: October 23, 2023

Looking for the best deals on Broadway shows? Welcome to our new weekly guide to the most popular shows listed on BroadwayWorld.

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This Week's Top Broadway Shows

1) Wicked Buy Tickets from: $112 - Before Dorothy, before the flying house, and before the yellow brick road, there was Elphaba and Galinda. Born with emerald-green skin, Elphaba is smart, fiery, misunderstood and possesses extraordinary talent. When circumstances force her to room with the bubbly blonde and exceptionally popular, Galinda, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships. From the first electrifying note to the final breathtaking moment, Wicked tells the story of Oz that you've never heard.

2) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Buy Tickets from: $61.50 - From page to stage to screen, the magic is real at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. Prepare to see the characters that you've known and loved in a thrilling new adventure that begins 19 years after the events of The Deathly Hollows. The entirety of the Lyric Theatre has been transfigured to immerse you in this magical world where epic duels, extraordinary spells and beloved characters come to life. Filled with unprecedented stage magic and thrilling storytelling, this Tony Award-winning show, Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, is a unforgettable experience unlike anything else you will ever see.

3) Hamilton Buy Tickets from: $124 - A revolutionary story of passion, unstoppable ambition, and the dawn of a new nation. HAMILTON is the epic saga that follows the rise of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as he fights for honor, love, and a legacy that would shape the course of a nation. Based on Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography and set to a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, HAMILTON has had a profound impact on culture, politics, and education. HAMILTON features book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. In addition to its 11 Tony Awards, it has won Grammy®, Olivier Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and an unprecedented special citation from the Kennedy Center Honors.

4) 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.

5) 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.

6) Harmony Buy Tickets - Based on the unbelievable true story, Harmony tells the tale of the most successful entertainers you’ve never heard of. . . . until now. In the 1920s and 30s, The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, made dozens of films, and sold out the biggest theaters around the world. Their heavenly harmonies and musical comedy antics catapulted these six talented young men from singing in the subway tunnels of Berlin to international superstardom. What happened next is the story of Harmony. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, this timely and captivating rags-to-riches story lost to history comes to dazzling life with a sensational cast of Broadway favorites.

7) 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.

8) 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.

9) Mother Play Buy Tickets - Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) has written a bitingly funny and unflinchingly honest new play about the hold our family has over us and the surprises we find when we unpack the past. It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis (Jessica Lange) is supervising her teenage children, Carl (Jim Parsons) and Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger), as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures — or survives — the changing world around them. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful roller coaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness.

10) Merrily We Roll Along Buy Tickets from: $17.50 - 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.

This Week's Top Off-Broadway Shows

1) Here We Are Buy Tickets - Here We Are, legendary composer Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, features a book by Tony Award–nominee David Ives. It is inspired by Luis Buñuel’s films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. Here We Are is directed by Tony Award–winner Joe Mantello. The cast will include Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. The understudies for Here We Are are Bradley Dean, Adam Harrington, Bligh Voth, Adante Carter, Mehry Eslaminia, and Lindsay Nicole Chambers. Produced by Tom Kirdahy, its executive producers are Sue Wagner, John Johnson, and Jillian Robbins. Co-presented by The Shed. Performances begin in September 2023.

2) 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.

3) Once Upon a Mattress Buy Tickets - In 1959, two as-yet-untested stars made their Broadway debuts: Mary Rodgers, with a gorgeous score that put her on the map, and Carol Burnett, in her first stage role as the brassy, loveable Princess Winifred the Woebegone—or “Fred” to her friends. More than six decades later, musical theater legend Sutton Foster (The Music Man) returns to the City Center stage alongside an all-star creative team to recapture that same infectious energy and joy. Led by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet (Into the Woods, Lionel Bart’s Oliver!) and with a new concert adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Once Upon a Mattress sets an unapologetic free spirit loose in a repressed kingdom, reveling in Fred’s ability to charm and transform with willpower, honesty, and a little bit of help from her friends. Full of gloriously catchy melodies like “Shy” and “In a Little While,” this uproarious update of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” promises both classic charms and new delights.

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.

5) 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.

6) Danny and the Deep Blue Sea Buy Tickets from: $77 - In Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the two characters delve into a bitter argument at a bar. Roberta is a single mother of a teenage son who spends her evenings partying, hoping to boost her self-esteem. Danny is a misunderstood loner who lives with his mother. The two strangers share their self-destructive habits and battles with addiction. As the characters excavate their deep darknesses, they make room for empathy. Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley wrote Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, his second play, in 1984. Shanley is known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt: A Parable, and writes searing dramas that explore complex, human topics. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays at The Actors Theatre of Louisville before debuting in downtown New York with the Circle in the Square Theatre.

7) 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.

8) All The Devils Are Here Buy Tickets - Dubbed “The villain of Broadway” by Playbill, Tony Award® Nominee and Grammy Award® Winner Patrick Page has never shied away from exploring his dark side. Now, with this tour de force show, he turns his attention to the twisted motivation and hidden humanity at the heart of Shakespeare’s greatest villains. Moving swiftly through the Shakespeare canon, Page illuminates the playwright's ever-evolving conception of evil by delving into more than a dozen of his most wicked creations. Thrilling, biting, hilarious, and enlightening, what Page delivers is a masterclass on the most terrifying subject of them all: human nature.

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.

10) I Can Get It For You Wholesale Buy Tickets - It’s 1937 in New York City’s Garment District, and shipping clerk Harry Bogen (Tony-winner Santino Fontana) would love to sell you a bill of goods. In this dark musical comedy, Bronx-born Harry must choose between the comfort of community and his own ambitious dreams. He’ll have to do whatever it takes to get ahead, and even more to stay there. Better watch your back – sewing needles can be sharp. Last seen on Broadway in 1962, I Can Get It For You Wholesale showcases memorable Harold Rome tunes, including the iconic “Miss Marmelstein,” and a book based on his own novel by Jerome Weidman. CSC’s production features a reimagined book by his son, John Weidman (Assassins), helmed by director Trip Cullman (Choir Boy).

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