NEW YORK — Ten Broadway shows, many with star names attached, are slated to open between now and the end of the year. Here’s an opinionated look at what you might want to see and why as Broadway’s 2026-7 season fires up for fall.

Note that many shows have preview performances in advance of the official opening nights listed here.

“860”

The title of this play is (or rather was) the address in Los Angeles of actor and comedian Billy Crystal, who lost his home in the 2025 wildfires. Crystal already had mined his personal history in “ 700 Sundays,” first seen on Broadway in 2004 and very much a show with a sense of place, so it certainly makes sense Crystal would process his loss by writing a new show about the experience of seeing your home of 46 years reduced to ashes. Scott Ellis directs.

Opens Oct 21 at the Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St.

“Downstate”

I’m a big fan of this intellectually rigorous Bruce Norris play, which I first reviewed in 2018 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. “Downstate” is set entirely in a male group home for sex offenders and it asks its audience to look at these detainees as complex people, not merely as monsters. That’s enough to make the play controversial, even painful to watch, but it’s overly simplistic to say it’s designed only to ignite controversy. On the contrary, “Downstate” is a deeply thoughtful, challenging piece of writing. The new Broadway production, produced by Scott Rudin, is to be directed by Joe Mantello.

Opens Nov. 15 at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St.

“A Few Good Men”

As plays go these days, this one comes with an uncommonly high level of audience recognition. Mention the title of this 1989 Aaron Sorkin courtroom drama, which became a 1992 Rob Reiner movie starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, and you’ll likely get the response, “You can’t handle the truth.” This revival is a vehicle for Bradley Whitford who certainly has the chops to make this role his own. Co-star Tom Blyth will surely hold his own in Michael Arden’s production of a play that debates whether the rule of law in a democracy can fully protect us from a dangerous world. Notably, said world has changed a lot since 1989 and it will be interesting to see how this work resonates today.

Oct. 29 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, 150 W. 65th St.

“The Fantasticks”

This 1960 musical comedy, best known for the beautiful ballad “Try to Remember,” was an unusual show for 1960 — a folky, quirky piece with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics and book by Tom Jones (not the Welsh crooner). It feels like “The Fantasticks” has been knocking around forever, always dispensing a certain sweetness as it trafficked in symbols and metaphors. But it felt dated, even decades ago. Now it’s back on Broadway and reconceived as a gay love story, presumably revising some of its old ideas about parenting and sexuality, but maybe with its guileless innocence intact. We will have to see; it is certainly an intriguing concept. The capable Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs a cast that includes Ruthie Ann Miles, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Zane Phillips making his Broadway debut as the swashbuckling narrator, El Gallo.

Opens Nov. 16 at Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th St.

“Galileo”

Mention the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei and your mind goes right to a Broadway rock musical, right? Well, probably not, though did get name-checked in Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” More importantly here, the seminal astronomer and physicist was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church by insisting on the rigors of scientific inquiry even when they conflicted with the established Biblical teachings. Formidable Broadway star Raúl Esparza returns to Broadway after a long absence in the title role, with Joy Woods and Jeremy Kushnier also performing in Michael Mayer’s production of a musical first seen at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2024. The book is by Danny Strong and music and lyrics are by the relatively unknown team of Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak.

Opens Dec. 6 at the Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 4th St.

“Inter Alia”

British actress Rosamund Pike is known for her work in complex psychological thrillers including the movie “Gone Girl” in 2014. She’ll star this fall in “Inter Alia” by Australian playwright Suzie Miller. Pike plays a judge with broad experience in sexual assault cases who then has a navigate a collision between her professional and personal lives when her son is accused of raping a classmate at a party. “Inter Alia” probes not just a mother’s nightmare but the inevitability and moral limits of a parent’s desire to protect their child. The director is Justin Martin. Pike, a big star in the U.K., attracted big crowds to London’s National Theatre and audiences appreciated the drama’s acute sense of balance.

Opens Dec. 1 at the Music Box Theatre. 239 W. 45th St.

“Much Ado About Nothing”

British director Jamie Lloyd is getting bigger billing than William Shakespeare in this contemporary exploration of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Shakespeare’s tribute to the eloquence of intelligent lovers, even if Beatrice and Benedick must get over themselves before they can win each other’s hearts. Hot names are on the stage: Tom Hiddleston plays Benedick and Hayley Atwell essays Beatrice. The pretty-in-pink concept (a hit in London) is the city’s clubland, replete with retro music, disco lights and lots of dancing in the aisles. Oh, and Shakespeare, too. I’d imagine few will feel neutral about the party unfolding before them. The question for me is whether or not Lloyd will also manage to capture the melancholy of a deceptively serious play, notwithstanding its reputation.

Opens Nov. 19 at Winter Gardens Theatre, 1634 Broadway.

“Other Desert Cities”

The cast for John Benjamin Hickey’s revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s intense family drama is stacked with stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe. Collectively, that’s more than enough star wattage to make this a hot ticket, especially since this is Louis-Dreyfus’ Broadway debut. Set in Palm Springs, Calif., and seen on Broadway in 2011, the play probes a rich, powerful, troubled and Reaganesque West Coast political family and makes much of the metaphor of the arid, infertile desert. Expect political fights, secrets spilled and truths finally broached. It’s a chatty play filled with over-articulate characters and it offers the juiciest of roles. And it would seem paired with the actors to give the lemons a squeeze.

Opens Oct. 18 at the Hudson Theatre, 141 W. 44th St.

“School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play”

I first reviewed this lively and highly original play by Jocelyn Bioh at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2021, just as the theater was limping back from the COVID crisis. Some five years later, a different production makes it to Broadway this fall. Bioh’s drama is set in 1980s Ghana and follows a group of teenage girls as they prepare for an all-important beauty pageant. Will the winner be the school’s longtime A-list queen or will it be a new arrival at the school from the United States with lighter skin, a mixed-race heritage and a far more affluent upbringing? And is a beauty pageant really a healthy way for teenage girls to judge themselves anyway?

Opens Sept. 28 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St.

“Wanted: The Legend of the Sisters Clarke”

Another new musical slated for the fall, “Wanted” is set in 1894 Texas and follows two Black sisters doing what they feel they have to do. Penned by Angelica Chéri and Ross Baum, this long-in-gestation show (a previous title was “Gun & Powder”) is based on the real-life pair of Mary and Martha Clarke, who set about trying to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and prevent her from losing their home. Ergo, they become outlaws, even passing as two white women. The show stars Liisi LaFontaine and Solea Pfeiffer, who have long been involved in the show, and the Broadway staging will add the Grammy Award-winning Ledisi to the cast. Although initially directed by Robert O’Hara, the show will be helmed on Broadway by Stevie Walker-Webb.

Opens Nov. 8 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 W. 48th St.

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