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Christy
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Mickey Jo
So not to start 2026 on a pessimistic note, but it has been becoming apparent for some time now that the current Broadway season is looking just a little bit, how do I say it? Irredeemably dull. With a handful of exceptions. And also, increasingly, the world is on. But for those of you still wondering which are the best shows to see on Broadway right now, here's what I got oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. To all of you tiny people watching from inside of my camera as well as those of you listening in on podcast platforms, my name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a content creator and theatre critic here on social media and can you believe we are here in 2026? Having recently told you about the best and worst theatre that I saw in 2025, the time has come to stop looking in the rearview mirror and instead look bo boldly forwards at the next few months of theatre going in 2026 and the shows that I am particularly looking forward to and think that you should consider going to see as well. Now, today we're going to be focusing particularly on New York theatre Broadway shows, with some Off Broadway gems as well, amidst what has been shaping up to be something of a lackluster Broadway season, especially in comparison to the brilliant new plays and new musicals of last year. But that doesn't mean there aren't still some fantastic things for you to go and see. We're going to be talking through them today. All of the already open shows that you might want to make a return visit to or see for the very first time. Whether you are a New York native or a theatrical traveller, I have many recommendations for you over the next few minutes, and if you're wondering about the pieces of theatre I'm most looking forward to here in the uk, then I will be sharing those with you very, very soon. But in the meantime, you can actually hear some of my thoughts about the most exciting shows coming to London in 2026@londontheatre.co.uk or in copies of London Theatre Magazine, you can find me chatting about my most anticipated shows in their January issue. In the meantime, though, it won't be too long before I am back on Broadway. Here is what I'm looking forward to seeing. So let's start with the stuff that is already open. I'm taking a look at a list here to make sure I don't leave anything out, but as far as I'm concerned, my two biggest musical recommendations in New York right now are two sort of pseudo similar shows, Tony Award Winning, maybe Happy Ending and West End Transfer. Two Strangers carry a cake across New York, the latter of which is a new musical for this current season and right now, presumably the front runner for the Best New Musical Tony Award. Each of these shows captures small romantic stories with dynamic scores and fantastic charming performances. Two Strangers in particular, if you are someone who is in love with the city of New York, whether that's because you have lived there your entire life, moved there, or are simply visiting there for a magical few days, is a great way to sort of put a cherry on top of that experience. It's sort of perfect for anyone making their first ever trip to New York wanting to see a quintessential Broadway show because New York City is itself sort of a character in the musical. Both of those bear the Mikajo Theatre seal of approval, as does another originally British show, Operation Mincemeat down at the Golden Theatre, still starring its original West End cast, three of whom are among the show's co writers. It also features the Tony Award winning Jack Malone, whose performance of Dear Bill remains as show stopping as it has ever been. This is one of the smartest musicals, one of the wittiest currently on Broadway. If you want to go see something like that, go and check it out. All of these also, it's worth pointing out, are sort of smaller scale shows. If you're looking for something big and lavish and spectacular in that kind of a way, then you're looking at shows like Death Becomes her or Moulin Rouge, both of which have new principal casting coming in I think over the coming weeks. Betsy Wolf, set to join death, becomes her as Madeline Ashen, very intrigued about her performance. Bob the Drag Queen I think is going into Moulin Rouge. They have sort of rotating, exciting casting happening these days over at the Al Hirschfeld. And having told you about the sparkly purple show in the sparkly red show, let us not forget the sparkly green show, the Great Gatsby at the Broadway Theatre. Yes, that is actually what it's called, is sort of the perfect first Broadway show for someone looking for that sort of textbook Broadway experience. There are big, bold, huge vocals, declarative love songs. It's a classic story, gorgeous costumes, big dance numbers, scenery, fireworks on stage. It's very visually impressive of course, for a lot of people. They will be drawn to a Broadway show by its music. That might be songs that you're already familiar with. And there are a few jukebox musicals playing on Broadway right now. And Juliet, which also started its life in the UK, is an utter 90s 2000s party of a show. Very fun. You also have Mamma Mia, which I don't need to describe to you. You already know you're going to love Mamma Mia or you don't. It's entirely up to you. You're either a Mamma Mia person or you are not a Mamma Mia person. And there is just no overlap in that Venn diagram. Those are two distinct state of minds. It's like Marmite, really. There is also Hell's Kitchen serving you vocals down at the Schubert Theatre. And just around the corner, Buena Vista Social Club, another one which I am going to stamp with the Mickey Jo Theatre seal of approval. I loved this show. I thought it was great storytelling, gorgeous music, great choreography, a real visual spectacle and a lovely way to spend an evening. Go see Buena Vista Social Club. There is also six the Musical. I'm a big fan of six the Musical. Don't write off six the Musical just because it's smaller, because it's sort of within the structure of a concert. It's a deceptively clever, witty show with a great score. If you want to hear great vocals, that's probably one of your safest bets on Broadway is to go see six the Musical. What else do we have here? Oh, Hadestown over at the Wall to Kerr. It's a great time to go see Hadestown. I very recently saw the new replacement cast, including Jack Wolfe and Kurt Elling and Morgan Dudley. Fantastic performances. Jack's Orpheus is incredible. The dynamic that he has with Curtis Hermes is something I had never really seen before. This paternal bond that they find was beautiful and heartbreaking. Hadestown Heart as great as I've ever seen it. Go back to the Walter Kerr if you didn't think you had to. If you're looking for exciting, stylish dance, MJ the Musical celebrates the artistry of Michael Jackson. Chicago celebrates the artistry of Bob Fosse. With once again some exciting casting currently happening in that show. I think Chicago's gonna find a way to get you eventually. You can say you never need to go back and see Chicago, but they're gonna hire someone either from the Broadway realm, like when they recently brought in a couple of unexpected Broadway heavyweights, or from a reality that you watch as a guilty pleasure and never expect it to intersect with your Broadway theater going. Just when you think you don't need to see Chicago. They will pull you back into the Ambassador Theatre. What else do we have? We're nearly done. Chess is running at the Imperial. I shared my thoughts about Chess, but there are a lot of reasons to go and see the show. The powerhouse performances of this cast and their vocal talents being chiefly among them. Marjorie prime opened not too long ago at the Haze. June Squib starring on Broadway. I haven't heard an awful lot of conversation about it, which surprises me considering that it talks about artificial intelligence, which is obviously a really topical thing to be discussing. Don't know if that conversation came up around anyone else's Christmas tables. It happened at mine. What else do we have here? Oh, Liberation. Loved this play. One of my favorite shows that I saw last year. Not getting the audience that it deserves right now because not enough people want to go and see feminism on stage. Can't think why, but it's really fantastic. It's brilliantly well written, incredible performances. Please go and see Liberation over at the James Earl Jones Theatre. I know it's slightly harder to find than a lot of other Broadway theatres, but I believe in your ability to cross the street. Oedipus up at Studio 54. Compelling, engaging, gripping, dare I say brilliant performances from Mark Strong and Leslie Manville. If you don't want to be watching the Tony Awards in a few months time going, what was, what was Oedipus? And why are they saying it like that? You should probably go see it now at Studio 54, which of course you can find up at the top of the Midtown Manhattan Theatre district. But just a little bit further up you can find Ragtime at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. And Ragtime is one of my favourite book musicals of all time. It is always, I think, worth going to see any decent production of Ragtime. The cast is resplendent. The staging of this production has been, dare I say, just a little bit polarizing. But what I think is sort of shining through regardless is the strength of these performances and this material. It's sort of impossible not to enjoy Ragtime when it's done this well. It's also increasingly and troublingly very important. Now. Very interesting things are happening over at the Marriott Marquis Theatre, where Stranger Things, the first shadow, has started to become a slightly hotter ticket with enthusiasm around the Stranger Things brand having picked up a little bit with the release of the show's final season on Netflix. If you're a Stranger Things fan who is sad that Stranger Things is now over, you've probably already considered going to go see the play. If you're not a Stranger Things fan whatsoever, then I'm here to let you know that you can enjoy this story independently of your knowledge of Stranger Things. It sort of doesn't assume anything and a lot of the visual effects are really impressive. It is genuinely terrifying on a couple of occasions. Of course, if that's not what you're looking for and you just want joy and laughter on Broadway, then those things can be found at the Lyceum Theatre with the hilarious O Mary, soon to welcome back Jinkx Monsoon and then subsequently John Cameron Mitchell to the iconic role of Mary Todd Lincoln. Another Mickey Jo Theatre seal of approval for that one. Or just in time. Downstairs at the Circle in the Square Theater beneath the Gershwin, starring Jonathan Groff. Much chatter recently about who might be replacing Jonathan Groff in Just In Time. Is it going to be someone from the music world? Is it going to be a crooner? Is it going to be someone from the musical theatre world? Is it going to be someone from the musical theatre world who did a little bit of television and might be coming back to the musical theatre world? I sort of think, you know, that all of the names I've heard could do it, but none would be quite as great, as brilliant, as joyous, as fantastic in the role as Jonathan Groff, around whom it's sort of being written. So I'd be curious to see if anyone else can step into those shoes quite as comfortably. Equally, I think, you know, they could just conclude the show's run when Jonathan is ready to leave and call it a bright blue success. But another great show that I thoroughly recommend. Let's move on to the upcoming.
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Christy
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Mickey Jo
Openings shall we? So once you have been to go and see Liberation and Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, that was not an instruction, that was a demand, here is what else you can go see this spring, starting with one opening a little later this week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. This is the Tracy Let's Play Bug, starring Carrie Coon, Nemes Smallwood Randall, Amy, Jennifer Engstrom and Steve Key. Directed by the brilliant David Cromer. This is a Steppenwolf production of a cult classic, Tracy Let's Play, coming to Broadway for the very first time, and I have heard such spectacularly divisive things. This has proven in its previews, at least among my friends in New York, to be incredibly polarizing and to be provoking just generally really strong reactions across the board. Which I think is important and is sort of what we're missing in this current Broadway season. Even if people aren't liking it. I need more things to be generating conversation because so many things, plays especially are just happening and are decent and are fine. I want people to have that same energy that they had last season sent out onto the streets of Manhattan, talking about it animatedly. If you loved it, if you hated it, if there's so much for you to process and unpack, I'm excited to go and see Bug. I enjoy Tracy Letts writing. I haven't seen enough of it, but I am really curious to see broadly how this is going to play with audiences this season. How it's going to get reviewed, of course, in a few days time. If you have seen this already, maybe you could share with us down below some of your thoughts. Next up, even though I have not seen this particular performer do this one person play yet, it already bears the Mickey Jo Theatre seal of approval and that is because it's an extraordinary piece of theatre. I am talking about every brilliant thing which will see Daniel Radcliffe returning to the Hudson Theatre where he gave a Tony Award winning performance in Merrily We Roll Along a couple of years ago. This play, written and developed by playwright Duncan McMillan and Johnny Donohoe, who has been its prolific performer for many, many years, is finally coming to. I'm so curious about how it's going to work in the context of a Broadway theatre, because if you don't know, it engages the audience to participate in the play, to read things out from small distributed pieces of paper, and in doing so creates a sort of a theatrical congregation. You can go and check out my most recent review of every brilliant thing. I discovered it in a small yellow tent at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It recently played at at Soho Place with a rotating cast of performers, all different types of performers, because in heaven, apparently it is a play about humanity and choosing life and joy. I think it's going to be remarkable. I'm so curious about how it's going to work on Broadway, but it has to be seen. It absolutely has to. After which you have a play with sort of the opposite themes. It is a return of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and, you know, it does sort of harken back to a time when households were so persistently called upon by door to door salesmen that they would put up signs saying no cold callers. I sort of feel like putting up a sign that says no more productions of Death of a Salesman on Broadway. And it's a great play. And there are other great plays like who's Afraid of Virginia Walsh? That we just seem to do a little too often. But that's not even the real issue here. The real issue here is that this is another of the plays being produced. Amongst the comeback being perpetrated by Scott Rudin by the ousted producer. Scott Rudin, ousted because of revelations about his allegedly violent behaviour towards people who were working for him. And I expressed when this was announced and on multiple occasions since, that I do think Scott Rudin's ability to return to Broadway and be supported by all of these actors and the theater owners and everyone else who has come together in order to make now multiple productions happen this season is indicative of many of the industry's problems of a culture of power and abuse. And as such, I am still disinclined to promote and support any of these shows. And, you know, if you share that idea, then you similarly will not want to go and see this production. That being said, Little Bear Ridge Road, the Samuel D Hunter play that played at the booth, which I didn't see during its run, closed earlier than intended. People never really showed up for that one. This one's going to be a little bit different. Nathan Lane is starring alongside Laurie Metcalfe this time it's a bigger title. People are going to go and see this play. I'm starting to think that my silence around Scott Rudin productions is not the most effective form of protest. And if the New York Times are going to send critics to go and review these plays and say, you know, thank God Scott Rudin and his great taste have come back to Broadway, then I sort of don't want that to be the only authority speaking about these shows. And it would be distressing if, you know, five years, 10 years down the line, people glance back at the historic archive I.e. reviews and theatre criticism and only see praise for the work and for Scott Rudin's come back and think that this was, you know, an unchallenged success. And on that basis, I'm starting to think. And, you know, having said all of this, there seems very little likelihood that they're gonna let me come and review this one officially. But I'm starting to feel as though it's important that maybe I do watch this space. I haven't all the way decided what the best thing is to do there. I welcome your thoughts down below because I can certainly carry on with my life very easily. Not going to see another production of Death of a Salesman. I've seen that play many times now. The next opening after that at the August Wilson Theatre is Dog Day Afternoon. I plan to watch this film, this 1975 film, because I did one of these sort of overviews of the season, I think, back in September, what even is Time? And I said that this didn't seem to appeal to me thematically whatsoever because I knew nothing about it. And just the artwork and the initial marketing was kind of giving this very, like, masculine cinema on stage kind of equality. And my perception was that it was going to be maybe like a little David Mamet meets Tarantino, which maybe is an exciting prospect to you. It's not necessarily to me. And that video was flooded, flooded with comments of people saying to me, mickey, Jo, you have to go see Dog Day Afternoon. Clearly, this has been off my radar. I need to watch the film and then I need to go and see the play. So if, like me, you didn't think you needed to go and see this, maybe you do. Maybe it has important queer themes that I had not grasped because I did not know what this was. Now the next one I do know about, Giant, is opening at the Music Box Theatre after a very successful run in London's West End, where John Lithgow won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a play for playing the late author Roald Dahl. This accidentally, very timely play unpacks allegations of anti Semitism against the author during his lifetime. It's a really terrific piece of writing. Brilliant performance from Lithgow. I loved it at the Royal Court. I thought it was great. This absolutely has a little Mickey Jo Theatre seal of approval. You're going to want to go and check this one out. This is going to be another of the new plays that audiences are really going to be talking about this spring. And I think there will be even more conversation about its themes in New York than there were here in London. Although it resonates with a lot of conversation happening right now, now about everything playing out on the world stage. I think that's definitely going to come up a lot more when it's in Manhattan. What else do we have here? Becky Shaw at the Hayes Theatre. I spoke about this last time and I still don't know what this is. What is Becky Shaw? Gina Johnfredo's Becky Shaw, a Pulitzer finalist, premiered with second stage off Broadway in 2009. Directed by Trip Coleman. Is that really all we know? Oh, it's a comedy about a blind date gone wrong. Linda Emmond is starring. I like her. Patrick Ball, Alden Ehrenreich. I try and see new plays like this. I love to go see new plays at the Hayes. It doesn't have my seal of approval yet because I have no idea what this is. I haven't seen it previously. I will try and go and see it. I encourage us all to go out and and look up things about Becky Shaw or go see it cold and, you know, just walk into the theatre together knowing nothing. Sometimes that's the most fun thing to do. Now, if I said it was something of a lackluster year for new plays and new musicals, I meant to it. But it is an exciting year, particularly for musical revivals. And the two that haven't yet opened are the two I'm really watching because people were saying, like Mickey Jo, do you think it's going to be Chess or Ragtime for the Tony? Is it Ragtime or is it Chess? Is it going to be Chess? Is going to be Ragtime. I am going to go on record and say neither of them. I think it is Cats, the Jellicle Balls to lose. Potentially upset by the Rocky Horror Show. These are the next two openings that I'm really excited about. Cats, the Jellicle Ball has my seal of Approval. The Rocky Horror show show we know very little about. We are still trying to piece together what this production could be. My inclination is that it is going to have that kind of requisite subversive, countercultural, queer, anarchic energy. Under the direction of Sam Pinkleton, who of course directed oh Mary. Luke Evans has been cast as Frank N. Furter, which signaled to some people that this was going to be a more safe and traditional production. I think that that's a smart piece of casting for various reasons which I spoke about at the time when it was announced. And I think we've got to let Sam Pinkleton cook. We've got to wait and see who's in that supporting cast before we judge the entire production. I am curious if this could be something that is as much fun as Pirates of the Penzance musical was while being as racy and lively and exciting as the Rocky Horror show deserves to be. But to go back to Cats, the Jellicle Ball, this truly, I think is going to be the musical theatre event of the season. I'm so excited that it's going to Broadway. I hope that they can capture that same energy that they had at the pac. It's the kind of shake up I think Broadway really needs. It's going to platform so much exciting, diverse, new talent. I enjoyed it on two different levels because I enjoyed it as its own utterly creative, exciting, dynamic piece of theatre with this audience response that was euphoric, that was sort of church like. But at the same time time, I'm a huge unapologetic fan of the musical Cats. And even as someone who loves the traditional version of Cats, I love tradwife Cats, as I love to call it. I still loved this. So if you think that loving Cats is a barrier to this show, I don't think it is. I think that you're just going to find even more delight in the way they've reinterpreted it. And it's a take on Cats that on occasion feels like a square cat in in a hole made for a round cat cat. But it still works to my mind. Also, there's a fun companion game you can play which is Spot the tourist who didn't realize this wasn't just Cats. Oh, they're going to have fun. They're going to leave that theater radicalized. Now, interesting things are happening down on 44th street and I think it's sort of a sign of the times, but things are getting a little bit Wet down on 44th. On one side of the street at the very sought after St. James Theatre. You have off Broadway queer cult hit Titanique finally making its perhaps unexpected Broadway debut. I spoke about this at length and the reasons why it might be happening and the journey that the show has had from its initial underground oddball status to a genuine Olivier Award winning hit. Marla Mindel, one of the show's co creators, is once again attached to star as Celine Dion. And this absolutely has the Mickey Joe Theatre seal of approval. I have seen seen multiple productions of Titanique. I've seen it in New York, in London, in Chicago. I've loved it every single time. I hope they get the casting right. I hope that they don't try and appeal too much to a more heteronormative audience. I hope it still feels inherently queer. I think that's important to the identity of the show because they could just pull in a lot of more mainstream celebrities and that might be a little bit detrimental to the identity of the thing it's itself. But I told you the street was wet. And that's because on the other side of Titanique you have Beaches with Jessica Vosk starring in the Bette Midler role, which I think she already did regionally. I haven't heard the best things about Beaches. This is going to shock you now because I also haven't seen the film, but I'm absolutely gonna go see this on Broadway. I do find it a little bit interesting that, you know, Phantom was closed by the Schubert organization, whatever happened there. And obviously a renovation, refurbishment of the theater theatre was needed and it looks fantastic now. But subsequently a revival of gypsy starring Audra McDonald and then this ongoing dark period and now Beaches coming in at the Majestic. It does sort of feel like, you know, again, it's an indicator of what the season looks like and what the industry looks like now in terms of new musicals. But to go from being the home of long running Phantom to the Broadway home home of Beaches, and maybe that's a little unfair. Like I said, I haven't seen the show yet. Maybe I'll thoroughly enjoy Beaches. It's also going to launch a national tour after its Broadway run. I think both of these are strictly limited, which is increasingly a model that we are seeing in these financially trying times. Maybe that works for both of these shows. I think Jessica Vosk is going to be fantastic. And there are a few more shows that share a similar timeline with preview starting in late March, opening before the end of the season, before the cutoff for the Tony Awards eligibility in late April. One of them is a Revival of the Noel Coward play Fallen Angels at Todd Haymes Theatre. Starring Kelly o' Hara and Rose Byrne. Directed by Scott Ellis. All signs point towards this being a classy, witty delight. There is also Joe Turner's Come and Gone. It's an August Wilson play at the Barrymore Theatre. Don't get that confused. It's not an Ethel Barrymore play at the August Wilson Theatre. Great cast led by Taraji P. Henson and Cedric the Entertainer. I'd love to see Taraji P. Henson on stage. It's directed by Debbie Allen. I think that this could be be a surprise play revival contender. I really do. And it's personal goal of mine to see more of August Wilson's plays on stage because I've enjoyed all of the ones I've seen so far. Then over at the Palace Theatre we have probably this season's most anticipated new musical, which is the Lost Boys. I have only heard the most sensational things about this show's workshops and development productions. I've heard a lot of of excited people who have been in the room to see what they're building when it comes to the Lost Boys. In spite of all things Queen of Versailles adjacent, I still trust Michael Arden implicitly as a director. I think even though vampire narratives have struggled previously on Broadway, that it's not necessarily about the vampire of it all. It's more about making it work tonally with audiences. And this has a nostalgia factor that a lot of those other shows didn't. And it also has has a cool quality. I recently had it said that Broadway has a bit of a cool problem and you know, this could be a very cool show. It's also a wildly expensive production that's being built and that's not because they're courting huge name celebrity stars. So that makes me very excited about what we're actually going to get to see on stage. I remain cautiously optimistic about the Lost Boys. I think that this could be a really exciting new musical. Goodness knows we need one this season season now if a play comes in at the last minute to steal the Tony Award for best new play, I think it's going to be this one. This is the Ballisters at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, written by David Lindsay Abair, directed by Kenny Leon. It's got a great cast including Mary Louise Burke, Kaylee Carter, Ricardo Chevira, Carl Clemens Hopkins, Margaret Collin, Michael Esper, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Maria Christina Oliveiras, Richard Thomas and Gina Yee. I'm reminded of Appropriate and Eureka Day and other plays that through these interesting scenarios, talk about the way that we engage with each other and behave towards each other. And I think in the post Covid landscape, plays that dig into our relationships to each other and how we engage with each other are really interesting and also important and also a source of brilliant wild comedy, the likes of which have been very successful previously on Broadway. I'm thinking about a lot of the Yasmina Rays and plays. We also have Proof Starting previews late March, opening mid April, IO Edebiri, Don Cheadle, Samira Wiley and Jin Ha star in a revival of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play of a genius woman dealing with her father's legacy, written by David Auburn, directed by Thomas Kail. This feels like Prestige Theatre. I've heard an awful lot about Proof over the years and the title only leaves me the littlest bit triggered about my university mathematics experience. Another one about which which I'm quite optimistic. Finally we have Schmigadoon, and I don't think Schmigadoon is necessarily destined to be the new musical Tony Award winner. I think it's arriving sort of a couple decades too late to be groundbreaking in that kind of a way when Spamalot was being funny and silly and self referential in the early 2000s alongside Spelling Bee. I do think, however, that Schmigadoon is going to be an awful lot of fun and I think it's going to deliver what a lot of people maybe want wanted Smash to be, which is just a celebration of the TV show that we loved. But on stage, I didn't get to see Schmigadoon's regional premiere at a theatre that no longer exists. But I did hear great things about it from my friends who went to go see it who said it's the TV show on stage done very well thus far. Alex Brightman and Sarah Chase have been confirmed to star in the show. I anticipate more of that regional productions cast may join them. There may be exciting new casting, but I think Schmigadoon is going to be an awful lot of.
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Mickey Jo
The way you manage your people, money and agents so you can transform tomorrow Workday moving business forever forward. Fun. Now before we conclude this, there are a couple of shows that have announced or even just hinted at a Broadway run in the current season, but have yet to officially confirm dates. Kowalski, a play that I saw off Broadway about the night that Tennessee Williams met Marlon Brando and auditioned him for the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, had been suggesting a Broadway arrival in winter 2025 was the exact wording. And we're sort of in winter right now, but it's 2026 and so I think winter 2025 has kind of been and gone and no Kowalski. There's also Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a Jason Robert Brown scored musical with a book by Taylor Mack, an adaptation of the 1994 Pulitzer finalist novel. This had a regional premiere production in Chicago, and it's sort of out there alongside a handful of shows kind of rotating around Broadway waiting to see if they might land. Perhaps they're waiting for theatre availability. Perhaps they're just waiting to see what else announces. Perhaps they're trying to raise funds. Is the Heart from La Jolla Playhouse going to make it to Broadway this season, or will it be next season? Is mythic going to come to Broadway this season? I'm hearing an awful lot of shows are potentially eyeing 2026, 27, but might not make it in this year, in spite of the fact that it is, I think, pretty clearly a quieter Tony Awards race. It makes you sad for a show like Dead Outlaw that would probably be the Tony frontrunner if it was coming in this time around. Last year was just so busy and so brilliant. According to playbull.com, we also have Sugar Daddy, written by and starring Sam Morri, solo play about transforming grief into humour on a journey of love, loss, diabetes, seagull attacks, which I actually know all about, and a few extraordinary coincidences, which previously played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Off Broadway's SoHo Playhouse. And I dare say there are other rumours that I had been hearing as I sit here in early January, largely full of festive chocolate. Many of them have fallen out of my head, but if you remind me in the comments, then I'm happy to let you know whether I've been hearing that show is going to move forward forwards or not just yet. There are a lot of things which I think are heading for Broadway, but not necessarily at the fastest pace. I think we might see a more exciting season next year than this one, but there's still an awful lot to get excited about and because not everything is Broadway and Tony Awards, an awful lot to get excited about in the coming months Off Broadway, including the already open production of the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I recently shared a review here on social media. Wherever you're seeing or hearing this, go and check that out. I think it's a delight. I didn't it see Stop smiling the entire time. Go see it if you've never seen it before. Go sign up to be a guest speller. Have an utterly unique theatrical experience. Little Shop of Horrors Off Broadway at the west side Theatre Quintessential production of a brilliant show. One of the great musical theatre shows always worth seeing. If you're not entirely enchanted by the current cast, wait a few minutes and there'll be a new one. I've been hearing great things about the Off Broadway show Mexidus, which played a limited run a couple of months ago. I didn't get the chance to see it, but they been teasing something on social media. Are they making a New York return? Is it going to be off Broadway? Is it going to be on Broadway? Of course. Heathers continues to play at New World Stages. They recently welcomed and announced some new cast members and I do think that's a show with material that can appeal to youthful and experienced theatre goers alike. I know relatively little about these next few shows, but I am intrigued by Chinese Republicans and Marcel on the Train and Bigfoot, exclamation point as well as There was another one, There was another one, There was another one. Mother Rush very intrigued about that one as well. There are a few things at New York City Centre as part of Encores that I think are going to be quite promising as well. A rare opportunity to hear Lachiuse's the Wild Party with a great cast, as well as perhaps an even rarer opportunity to hear High Spirits, which I think is the musical adaptation of Blythe's Spirit, the Noel Coward play. And I generally am a little late to the party when it comes to great and exciting off and off off Broadway shows, but I will hope to catch a few over the next few months and let you know what I think. Which concludes my thoughts about some of the most exciting theatre that you can see this spring in New York. If anyone has a recommendation that I didn't mention, or you just want to share your thoughts about some of these shows, please let us know in the comments section down below. If you have a recommendation for me for something you want me to go and see, then definitely let me know about that as well. Stay tuned for my recommendations for UK theatre and maybe even some more theatre around the world over the coming weeks. We'll talk about it all in January. Tis the season for glancing forwards over the coming year, and stay tuned for more New York coverage from me. There's a very good possibility that I might be back in Manhattan sooner than you would expect, seeing more Broadway shows and letting you know what I thought about them here on social media. So if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my reviews, make sure that you're subscribed right here on YouTube. Turn on the notifications so that YouTube lets you know every time I share a new video or go follow me on podcast podcast platforms. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this. Share all your thoughts down below. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
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Episode Title: What to see on BROADWAY in 2026 | Mickey-Jo's guide to the plays and musicals of the New York theatre season
Host: MickeyJoTheatre
Date: January 6, 2026
Mickey Jo delivers a comprehensive, enthusiastic guide to the must-see shows—both musicals and plays—on and around Broadway for the 2026 season. With his characteristic wit and insight, Mickey Jo discusses the current Broadway landscape (noting its lack of spark compared to prior years), gives his recommendations for current hits and anticipated openings, and shares candid opinions on the state of industry conversations, power structures, and the necessity of both supporting and critiquing the scene. Also included are Off-Broadway picks and speculation on rumored productions waiting in the wings.
A. Must-See Musicals
A. Noteworthy Spring Openings
B. More Upcoming Plays & Musicals
Mickey Jo provides an expert, accessible, and refreshingly candid take on the 2026 New York theatre scene:
Signature sentiment:
“As always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day.” (End)
Missed a show? Want to know what’s next? Mickey Jo’s round-up is your essential Broadway companion for 2026.