BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL 2026 to Present World Premieres at AMT Theater

The Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (BBTF) opens next week at AMT Theater in the heart of Manhattan's Theater District. Over the course of the month-long festival, two musicals and ten plays will receive their world premieres. The festival runs July 23-August 16 at AMT Theater.

The festival is proud to announce the casts for this year's productions. Please see the lineup below for the complete cast lists for each show.

AI replaces every human job overnight. A queer musician is trapped in his childhood home in Tennessee during the pandemic. And a FDNY lieutenant spends Christmas Eve at Ground Zero, looking for the remains of his fallen brother at the 2026 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (BBTF). In this bold and eclectic lineup, the human condition is on full display as a dynamic mix of new plays and musicals light up the stage.

Over the past decade, BBTF has earned widespread acclaim, including recognition as one of New York City's Top Ten Theatre Festivals by Time Out New York. The festival remains committed to showcasing new voices and providing a platform for emerging and established playwrights to bring their work to the stage.

Performances take place at AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), New York, NY 10036. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $40 for premium seating, and are currently on sale at Broadway Bound Theatre Festival.

THE 2026 BROADWAY BOUND THEATRE FESTIVAL LINEUP & SCHEDULE

BE A MENSCH written by Dan Takacs (play)

Directed by Allison Choat

Featuring Andrew Winson, Angelina Russo, Sam Asa Brownstein, Alan Kuang, Luz Lopez, and Janis Greim Hudson.

When Abe, the eldest son and breadwinner of an impoverished, dysfunctional Jewish family, is accepted into his dream college, he turns to the adults in his life for help only to find they have no intention of letting him escape. Ultimately, he's forced to choose between his family's livelihood and his own future happiness.

Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 8pm, Friday, July 24 at 5pm*, and Sunday, July 26 at 2pm.

FUNERAL OF GOD written by Brian Brijbag (play)

Directed by Noa Brenner

Featuring Alyssa Naka Silver, Regina Palian, Hunter Thore, Cal Wright, Emma Anne Johnson, Shilpa Raju, and Mike McNulty.

A theatre company attempts to stage a burial for god-only to find they can't agree on what died, who should attend, or why the ritual even matters. What starts as a logistical problem‑solving becomes a reckoning with belief, grief, and responsibility. Personal histories surface, exposing how faith, silence, and meaning have been used to avoid facing what hurts.

Performances: Thursday, July 30 at 5pm, Friday, July 31 at 8pm, Saturday, August 1 at 2pm, and Sunday, August 2, at 2pm*.

HOMEBOUND book, music and lyrics by Zach Adam (musical)

Directed by Shea Sullivan

Featuring Jim Stanek, Nathan Quay Thomas, Sarah Dacey Charles, and Wonu Ogunfowora.

When a pandemic lockdown traps Jack, a queer musician, in his Tennessee childhood home with his estranged, secretly dying father, a decade of silence finally has an expiration date. Can two people who never learned to speak the same language forgive each other before time runs out?

Performances: Wednesday, August 5 at 8pm, Thursday, August 6 at 5pm, Friday, August 7 at 8pm, Saturday, August 8 at 2pm*, and Sunday, August 9 at 5pm.

JUGULAR written by Daniel R O'Brien (play)

Directed by Glory Kadigan

Featuring Leland Gantt, James Kennedy, and Brittany Halls.

Three apex combatants-a single-minded African-American attorney, a ruthless bureaucratic titan and an ambitious assistant -are locked in an ideological fight to the death in this political satire, when a newly appointed federal investigator challenges an entrenched government system and all hell breaks loose.

Performances: Wednesday, July 29 at 8pm, Thursday, July 30 at 2pm, Friday, July 31 at 5pm*, and Saturday, August 1 at 5pm.

THE KITCHEN written by Earl Crittenden (play)

Directed by Noel MacDuffie

Featuring Janine LaManna, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Deborah Unger, Kyle Glenn, Ryan Wright, and Corey Quinn Farrell.

Evelyn plots to secure her grandmother's coveted rent-controlled Manhattan apartment as her future home for her and her fiancé. But when the secret kitchen renovation triggers a legal battle, financial ruin and an avalanche of buried family secrets, Evelyn must learn she can't build a true home until she figures out why hers was broken.

Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 5pm, Friday, July 24 at 8pm*, and Saturday, July 25 at 5pm.

MAN IN MOTION written by Alan Brooks (play)

Directed by Greg Chwerchak

Featuring Rachel Deacon, Jake O'Connor, Tom Ryan, John Austin, Carter Winter, Stephen Reich, and Anna Neu.

Three best friends, eager to sink their money into a surefire investment scheme, have two days to convince a fourth friend to invest with them, but they are stymied by his timidity and by one of their wives, who smells a rat. Convinced it's a scam, she fights to expose the truth and to save the men from themselves.

Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 2pm, Thursday, August 13 at 5pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 8pm.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME, AGAIN book, music and lyrics by Stephen Gardner (musical)

Directed by Misti Wills

Featuring Cooper Grodin, Thursday Farrar, and Jenny Lee Stern.

After his wife's death, Jesse is racked by guilt for choosing career over love. A workplace meltdown forces him into therapy, where songwriting becomes his unexpected doorway into truth. At 65, armed with hard-won insight and shaky courage, he stumbles into the bewildering dating world-an often comic, always tender quest to see whether a second great love is possible.

Performances: Wednesday, August 5 at 5pm, Thursday, August 6 at 8pm, Friday, August 7 at 2pm*, Saturday, August 8 at 8pm, and Sunday, August 9 at 2pm.

ONE NIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD written by Thomas Mullen and Maria Messias Mendes (play)

Directed by Michael Hagins

Featuring Aria Jackson, KC Wayne Simms, Xavier Rodney, Duane Ferguson, and Alexandria Thomas.

In the Seventh Ward funeral home where it's said that jazz was born, Lucy (ifer)-infamous banished angel and club owner-has hosted dead legends in her secret nightclub since the Civil War. Tired of the music, she's threatening to shutter it, despite the pleadings of her manager who's hellbent to change her mind.

Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 8pm, Friday, August 14 at 5pm*, and Sunday, August 16 at 2pm.

THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP IN BUSHWICK written by Adrian Crawford (play)

Directed by Juan Ramirez, Jr.

Featuring Carli Mejia-Vasquez, Brian Uceta, Natalia Peguero, Rafa Pérez, and Juan Pablo Toro.

Carmelo and Elisendo swear they're just roommates, despite living like a bickering married couple in a shabby sublet. But when a trick they both slept with and their nosy landlord stir the pot, the men's denials fray, revealing a tension neither has dared name and a bond more certain than the rent they can barely afford.

*Recommended for mature audiences, 18 and over.

Performances: Thursday, July 30 at 8pm, Saturday, August 1 at 8pm*, and Sunday, August 2 at 5pm.

RECOVERY written by Gary Marlon Gere (play)

Directed by Dennis Oliveira

Featuring Johnny Cannizzaro, Clara Bishop, Desiree Baxter, Michael Bertolini, Michael Basile, and Denise Lute.

On Christmas Eve, 2001, FDNY Lieutenant Leo Camp remains at Ground Zero, driven to find his missing NYPD brother. As pressure mounts from his superiors to remove him, Leo spirals into guilt, anger and obsession. His only counterforce is a British chaplain who quietly forces him to confront his faith and what he can't change.

Performances: Thursday, August 13 at 2pm & 8pm, Friday, August 14 at 2pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 5pm.

SAY MY NAME written by Jeff Perlman (play)

Directed by Reena Dutt

Featuring Eric Ruffin, Tim Redmond, Guiesseppe Jones, Imani Jones, Craig M. Cartwright, Jennifer Laine Williams, Richard Yarrell III, and Amanda Bailey.

When a small‑city mayor begins seeing the ghost of a Black teenager killed by police, his political life unravels. Driven to expose the systems that enabled the boy's death, he loses allies and safety as the silent apparition pushes him toward buried truths. To free the ghost, he must confront collective guilt, the limits of reform, and the courage required to let go.

Performances: Thursday, July 23 at 2pm, Saturday, July 25 at 8pm*, and Sunday, July 26 at 5pm.

SOCIETY 2.0 written by Eric Pzena (play)

Directed by Christopher Booth

Featuring Eric Ruffin, Tim Redmond, Guiesseppe Jones, Imani Jones, Craig M. Cartwright, Jennifer Laine Williams, Richard Yarrell III, and Amanda Bailey.

When AI replaces every human job overnight, millions-including meticulous ex‑accountant Greg-are left adrift. With 29 days of savings, Greg, with the help of a Support Bot modeled after his ex-girlfriend, must advance through absurd trials in a humiliating survival competition where the unemployed must justify their existence to billionaire elites.

Performances: Wednesday, August 12 at 5pm, Friday, August 14 at 8pm*, and Saturday, August 15 at 2pm.

Performances marked with an asterisk will be followed by a short talkback.

What sets BBTF apart from other festivals - Now in its 10th year, BBTF is one of the only fully curated festivals in New York City. Each script is considered with care and attention, undergoing a rigorous evaluation process in which structure, content, character development, and overall potential are thoughtfully reviewed and discussed. All submissions receive feedback, regardless of acceptance.

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