Live Performance in New York City: Here’s What to See This Spring

Broadway

OPERATION MINCEMEAT A sneaky compassion lies at the heart of this caper of a show, a deliciously eccentric London import that won the 2024 Olivier Award for best new musical. Starring the original West End cast, it’s a riff on a bizarre true story from World War II, when British Intelligence, keen to misdirect the Germans, dressed up a dead man as a Royal Marines major, planted a fake invasion plan on him and dropped him in the sea for the enemy to find. Through June 15 at the Golden Theater. (All theater listings by LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES)

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB This jukebox musical about the Cuban artists who made the Grammy Award-winning 1997 album of the title isn’t straight biography. Developed and directed by Saheem Ali (“Fat Ham”), it uses real people and events as a jumping-off point for its storytelling. Rooted in the recording sessions, and choreographed by Patricia Delgado and the Tony winner Justin Peck (“Illinoise”), it was an Off Broadway hit last season for Atlantic Theater Company. Performances begin Feb. 21 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

OTHELLO Denzel Washington made a Broadway box-office hit out of “Julius Caesar” two decades ago. On the big screen, he has played Macbeth. Now he takes on Shakespeare’s Othello — the honorable general and smitten newlywed. Jake Gyllenhaal is his foil as the perfidious Iago, who goads Othello into unreasoning jealousy with lies about his beloved Desdemona (Molly Osborne). Directed by Kenny Leon, a Tony winner for his revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” which also starred Washington. Feb. 24-June 8 at the Barrymore Theater.

PURPOSE Fresh off his Tony win for “Appropriate,” the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins returns with a new drama about the members of a famous, albeit fictional, Black political dynasty in Chicago, reckoning with history, morality and legacy as they gather for a celebration. Phylicia Rashad directs this Steppenwolf Theater production, whose ensemble cast includes Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix and another 2024 Tony winner, Kara Young. Feb. 25-July 6 at the Helen Hayes Theater.

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS David Mamet’s luxuriantly crude, bare-knuckled real estate drama, which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, gets its third Broadway revival. Kieran Culkin, last on Broadway a decade ago in “This Is Our Youth,” stars as Richard Roma — the Al Pacino role in the movie adaptation — opposite Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, Michael McKean, Donald Webber Jr., Howard W. Overshown and John Pirruccello. Patrick Marber, a 2023 Tony winner for his production of “Leopoldstadt,” directs. How’s that for a lead? March 10-May 31 at the Palace Theater.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Theatergoing admirers of the HBO drama “Succession” love to ascribe its savvy artistry partly to the considerable stage chops among its cast. Now Sarah Snook, the Australian actor who played Shiv Roy — older sister to Kieran Culkin’s Roman — makes her Broadway debut in Kip Williams’s intricately high-tech retelling of Oscar Wilde’s classic novel. Snook takes on all 26 characters, a feat that won her raves, and a 2024 Olivier Award, in the London run of this Sydney Theater Company production. March 10-June 15 at the Music Box Theater.

BOOP! THE MUSICAL The black-and-white 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop time-travels to a richly chromatic future in this new show, with Jasmine Amy Rogers making her Broadway debut in the title role, and Faith Prince and Stephen DeRosa among the supporting cast. Directed and choreographed by the Tony-winning Jerry Mitchell, the show has a book by Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”), music by David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and a set by David Rockwell. Performances begin March 11 at the Broadhurst Theater.

JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” a skewering of McCarthyism set amid the witch trials of 17th-century Massachusetts, John Proctor is meant to be the hero. This #MeToo play by Kimberly Belflower turns that presumption on its head, with a group of contemporary high school girls who detect similarities between Miller’s putative good guy and the men in their own world. Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) stars; Danya Taymor, a Tony winner for “The Outsiders,” directs. March 20-June 22 at the Booth Theater.

STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW Set in Hawkins, Ind., in 1959, this Olivier-winning sensory spectacle of a play is a prequel to the supernatural Netflix series “Stranger Things.” Directed by Stephen Daldry, it has a script by Kate Trefry, a writer on the hit series, and an original story by Trefry, Jack Thorne and the Duffer brothers, who created the series. Transferring from London’s West End, where it opened in 2023, the show is recommended for ages 12 and up. Performances begin March 28 at the Marquis Theater.

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES: THE MUSICAL Josefina López’s 1990 play has never been as well known as the 2002 film it spawned, which starred America Ferrera in her breakthrough role. Now both of those form the bases of this new musical about Ana (Tatianna Córdoba), an American teenager in 1980s Los Angeles trying to reconcile her aspirations for herself with her obligations to her undocumented immigrant family. Directed and choreographed by the Tony winner Sergio Trujillo, with music and lyrics by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez. Performances begin April 1 at the James Earl Jones Theater.

DEAD OUTLAW The hapless Elmer McCurdy wasn’t much good as an Old West criminal, but the real-life, sideshow-attraction saga of his mummified corpse made for a rollicking sleeper-hit musical comedy Off Broadway last year. Once again starring Andrew Durand as Elmer, playing dead like nobody’s business, it’s a country-tinged tale with a conscience from the book writer Itamar Moses, the composer-lyricist David Yazbek and the director David Cromer — Tony winners all for “The Band’s Visit” — and the composer-lyricist Erik Della Penna. Performances begin April 12 at the Longacre Theater.

GODDESS The director Saheem Ali returns to a passion project with this musical inspired by the myth of Marimba, the goddess of music, which Ali heard as a child growing up in Kenya. Conceived by Ali, who directed the premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theater in 2022, the show has a book by Jocelyn Bioh (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”), music and lyrics by Michael Thurber and choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie, all of whom made “Merry Wives” with Ali for Shakespeare in the Park in 2021. April 29-June 1 at the Public Theater.

GHOSTS Nothing against nepo babies, truly, but the most unignorable thing about Lincoln Center Theater’s casting of this Henrik Ibsen drama is the critical mass of them. Lily Rabe (daughter of Jill Clayburgh and David Rabe) stars alongside Ella Beatty (daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty), Levon Hawke (son of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke) and her own partner, Hamish Linklater (son of the renowned vocal coach Kristin Linklater). Billy Crudup, who completes the cast of this Mark O’Rowe adaptation, is the odd man out. Jack O’Brien directs. Through April 13 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC Returning to form as a cultural hotspot, BAM has a blazing London import in the Almeida Theater’s Olivier-winning production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Feb. 28-April 6). Starring Paul Mescal as Stanley Kowalski and Patsy Ferran as Blanche DuBois, it’s directed by Rebecca Frecknall, whose revival of “Cabaret” is currently on Broadway. Then comes “Macbeth in Stride” (April 15-April 27). Written by the Obie Award winner Whitney White, and performed by her and an ensemble, it uses Lady Macbeth as a frame for examining Black womanhood and ambition. A live band plays White’s gospel, rock, R&B and pop score. Harvey Theater at BAM Strong.

AMERIKIN What if, to be accepted into a friendly local club you were eager to join, you had to pass a DNA test? And what if you were mistaken in thinking that you would ace it? In this play by Chisa Hutchinson, the exclusive group is made up of white supremacists, and their would-be recruit (Daniel Abeles) is a new father only now learning about his own family tree. Jade King Carroll directs for Primary Stages. March 1-April 13 at 59E59 Theaters.

WINE IN THE WILDERNESS In Harlem in 1964, a model (Olivia Washington) sits for a painter (Grantham Coleman) who means to depict her as a negative example in his otherwise idealizing triptych on Black femininity. This Alice Childress play had its premiere on public television in 1969. Now LaChanze makes her New York directing debut with it — a continuation of her championing of Childress, the author of “Trouble in Mind,” the play LaChanze starred in on Broadway three years ago. March 6-April 13, Classic Stage Company.

VANYA Among the recent spate of stagings of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” this is the one with Andrew Scott performing every role. Adapted by Simon Stephens as an eight-character solo piece and created with Scott, this is more than a party trick. It’s a cheeky, nimble, intimate interpretation that’s also a workout for the imagination. Sam Yates’s Olivier-winning production has been filmed for National Theater Live. But a camera can’t convey the feeling of experiencing it in the moment, let alone in a room as human-scale as this downtown space. March 10-May 11 at the Lucille Lortel Theater.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD Humor is to the fore in the Donmar Warehouse’s immersive production of this Chekhov classic, which wowed London audiences last year. Directed by Benedict Andrews, who brought his acclaimed production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” to Brooklyn in 2016, it stars Nina Hoss (“Tár”) as the entitled aristocrat Ranevskaya, an estate owner drowning in debt, opposite Adeel Akhtar as Lopakhin, the socially ascendant merchant who proposes a solution. March 26-April 20 at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

EURYDICE Maya Hawke (sister of Levon) plays the title role in this revival of Sarah Ruhl’s piercingly beautiful, comically offbeat retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Directed by Les Waters, who staged the play breathtakingly almost two decades ago, it is about love and connection, mortality and memory. When the just-married Eurydice dies, she descends in an elevator to the underworld, where her tender father takes care of her while Orpheus pines. May 13-June 22 at Signature Theater.

LUNAR ECLIPSE Reed Birney and Lisa Emery portray a long-married Kentucky couple, watching the summer sky and talking through the night, in this new two-hander by Donald Margulies, who won a Pulitzer in 2000 for “Dinner With Friends,” another play about enduring coupledom starring Emery. In “Lunar Eclipse,” Birney is reprising his role from a 2023 production at Shakespeare & Company in Western Massachusetts. Kate Whoriskey (“Clyde’s”) directs…