RACHEL BLOOM: DEATH, LET ME DO MY SHOW, PAY THE WRITER & More Lead Top Off-Broadway Shows for September
Each month we're rounding up 10 off-Broadway recommendations for audiences not to miss!
By: Team BWW Sep. 01, 2023
What's happening off-Broadway? BroadwayWorld is helping you pick what to see next by rounding up our top recommended theatre each month.
Bite Me
WP Theater
September 23 - October 22, 2023
David Garelik (Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Geffen; The Good Muslim) and Malika Samuel(Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; WP’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord) will star in the world premiere of BITE ME by award-winning playwright Eliana Pipes (Dream Hou$e, Hoops), directed by Rebecca Martínez (The Comedy of Errors, WP’s Sancocho).
Nathan is ditching class when he stumbles on Melody crying in a storage closet - he’s a white boy with family money and dangerous habits, she’s the lone Black girl on campus, excelling academically and grappling with feelings of isolation. They form an unexpected bond and it’s not long before the heat between them boils over. Bite Me explores the drama (and trauma) of trying to fit in at high school, and the unfinished business waiting for them at their reunion a decade later. This captivating dark comedy dares to explore the raw undercurrents of youth, and the unspoken truths that bind us.
Infinite Life
Atlantic Theater Company
Running now through October 8
Atlantic Theater welcomes back both Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Baker (Body Awareness) and Obie Award winning director James Macdonald (Cloud Nine). Five women in Northern California sit outside on chaise lounges and philosophize. A surprisingly funny inquiry into the complexity of suffering, and what it means to desire in a body that’s failing you.
Pay The Writer
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Runing now through September 30, 2023
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
Pay The Writer is a new comedy-drama from New York Times Best Selling Author Tawni O’Dell, starring Bryan Batt (Mad Men), Ron Canada (The West Wing) and Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives). Focusing on the complicated relationship between a legendary literary agent and his best friend-turned-most-successful client, this dynamic and socially intuitive play explores how an artist’s life is controlled by their calling and talent.
Bruston Fischer is a young gay man trying to make it in publishing while suffering from social persecution when he first meets Cyrus Holt some 40 years ago. Cyrus is a gifted Black writer trying to get his talent noticed in a world that wants to ignore his existence. Through their unique friendship, the pair find literary success and the most stable relationship either will ever have. Yet, when talent, business, and love intertwine, missteps occur and inevitably, regrets often follow. Triumph and loss become blurred as we sort through the challenges of the human condition.
Pay The Writer is a heartrending and funny exploration of personal and artistic legacy while navigating life’s final chapter.
Egg Frame
American Theatre of Actors (Chernuchin Theatre)
September 1 -September 10, 2023
Egg Frame, a surreal dramedy, concerns Allen, a locksmith who seemingly can’t fix a mysterious broken door. What he also can’t fix is his wife, Dolores – who suffers from early onset dementia aided only by his soon-to-be-son-in-law, Jack, while his daughter, Janey, serves in Afghanistan.
Dig
September 2- October 22, 2023
59E59 Theatres [Theatre A]
From the author of Downstairs and Bernhardt/Hamlet, Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck is back with Dig, a new play about courage, redemption, and photosynthesis.
In a dying plant shop in a dying neighborhood, Roger receives a visitor from the past: Megan, the neighborhood screw-up, just out of rehab. He wants nothing to do with this disaster. Rebeck’s signature wit, intelligence, and depth brings us a riveting play that asks - can a soul beyond saving be saved?
Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Show
September 6- September 30, 2023
Lucille Lortel Theatre
From the co-creator and star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend comes a one-woman musical comedy that is definitely NOT about the ever-present spectre of death. Rachel Bloom’s new show is filled with raunchy and escapist material that will in NO way explore the pandemic and all the tumultuous events that ensued in her personal life. NOTHING will stop Rachel from partying like it's 2019!
Swing State
September 08 - October 21, 2023
Minetta Lane Theatre
Evenings on the prairie are relatively quiet for Peg, a recently widowed woman in rural Wisconsin who still cooks for two. Which doesn’t go to waste whenever Ryan, a dear friend with a troubled past, pays her a visit. However, after noticing her husband’s toolbox is missing, she places a call to the local authorities—unwittingly setting off a series of events that will forever reverberate through the small community. In a divided country where the lines separating family, friend, and foe have been further blurred in the wake of a global pandemic, Tony Award® winner Robert Falls and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Gilman masterfully unweave a complex, humanistic yarn the Chicago Sun-Times calls "an engrossing work of intense melancholy, filled with sympathy for its characters, and for the country."
Cross That River
September 13- October 08, 2023
59E59 Theatres [Theatre B]
The unsettled West of the 1860s provides a new life and new dreams for Blue, a runaway slave, who escapes to Texas to become one of America's first Black Cowboys. This compelling tale of freedom integrates fiction with historical fact, and each song presents a different page in this complicated chapter of American History.
The renowned jazz composer, musician, and singer Allan Harris returns to 59E59 to star as Blue.
The Refuge Plays
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September 14 — November 12
Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company will soon present the world premiere of The Refuge Plays by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Patricia McGregor, in association with New York Theatre Workshop.
The cast of The Refuge Plays includes: Ngozi Jane Anyanwu as "Joy," Jerome Preston Bates as "Reginald," Jessica Frances Dukes as "Gail," Jon Michael Hill as "Walking Man," Mallori Taylor Johnson as "Symphony," Lizan Mitchell as "Clydette," Nicole Ari Parker as "Early," Daniel J. Watts as "Crazy Eddie," Lance Coadie Williams as "Dax," and JJ Wynder as "Ha-Ha."
Late at night, deep in the woods of southern Illinois, a ghost tells Gail she will die within the next 24 hours. So begins The Refuge Plays, an epic tale that follows one Black family over 70 years. Written by Nathan Alan Davis, this bold reimagining of an American "family play" is full of humor, heart and surprises.
The Office! A Musical Parody
Now running
The Theater Center
It's a typical morning at Scranton's third largest paper company until, for no logical reason, a documentary crew begins filming the lives of the employees of Dunder Mifflin… Don't miss this hilarious, unauthorized parody of the hit TV show, "The Office" now playing at The Jerry Orbach Theater in New York City.
The Office! A Musical Parody features a book and lyrics by Bob and Tobly McSmith, music by Assaf Gleizner and direction and choreography by Donald Garverick. Scenic designer is Josh Iacovelli, lighting designer is Alex Stevens, sound designer is Matthew Fischer and costume designer is Dustin Cross.
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