Broadway’s New Fall Season 2011

By Deirdre Donovan

Whatever else it may hold, at least Broadway’s new season has got off to a bright start theatrically with a revival of Follies at the Marquis. When Stephen Sondheim’s musical premiered at the Winter Garden back in April 1971, it satisfied folks’ craving for nostalgia. It still does. In fact, the current revival may well out-shine the original, with the cast featuring the likes of Bernadette Peters, Elaine Paige, and Jan Maxwell. Though many a critic has groaned over its loose, and essentially plotless, structure, it has some endearingly memorable songs that are now fixtures in the Sondheim canon.

So what’s ahead for theatergoers? Follies will soon be joined by many other promising productions. There’s new musicals, dramas, and hard-to-classify shows enroute to the Great White Way. So now is the time to look over the new crop of shows, book your theater tickets, and plan that weekend trip to New York that you have been dreaming about for ages. Here’s a selective list of shows that will be opening in the next few months, with their venues:

Broadway’s Opening Dates Through December 31, 2011

Oct 9 – Man and Boy (American Airlines)

Oct 20 – Relatively Speaking (Brooks Atkinson)

Oct 13 – The Mountaintop (Bernard B. Jacobs)

Nov 3 – Other Desert Cities (Booth)

Nov 7 – Godspell (Circle in the Square)

Nov 8 – Venus in Fur (Samuel J. Friedman)

Nov 17 – Private Lives (Music Box)

Nov 20 – Seminar (Golden)

Dec 1 – Bonnie & Clyde (Gerald Schoenfeld)

Dec 8 – Stick Fly (Cort)

Dec 11 – On a Clear Day (St. James)

Dec 14 – Lysistrata Jones (Walter Kerr)

TBA - Chinglish – (Longacre)