What’s New in NYC Theater

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Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages — and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.

Previews and Openings

‘CHARM’ (previews start on Aug. 31; opens on Sept. 18). For several years Gloria Allen, a transgender woman then in her 60s, ran an informal charm school for queer and transgender youths in Chicago. The playwright Philip Dawkins pays tribute to that exemplar of social grace with this comedy-drama, directed by Will Davis and starring Sandra Caldwell as the etiquette expert, Mama.
866-811-4111, mcctheater.org

‘INANIMATE’ at the Flea (in previews; opens on Aug. 30). For years anticipation has built around the Flea Theater’s move to a permanent, purpose-built home. To celebrate, the theater will kick off its season with a play about an enthusiastic response to an inanimate object. This Nick Robideau story, directed by Courtney Ulrich, explores objectophilia: Its protagonist has a passionate attraction to part of a Dairy Queen sign.
212-352-3101, theflea.org

‘THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN, BY GRACE B. MATTHIAS’ at the Duke on 42nd Street (previews start on Aug. 25; opens on Sept. 10). Let’s say you’ve founded a new city-state and you need to populate it. Why not simply abduct the women of a neighboring tribe? Now let’s say you’re a modern-day young woman who has just been sexually assaulted. Do you turn to Roman mythology for answers? In Michael Yates Crowley’s dark comedy for the Playwrights Realm, an adolescent rape survivor looks to myth, the law and Wikipedia.
646-223-3010, playwrightsrealm.org

Last Chance

‘HAMLET’ at the Public Theater (closes on Sept. 3). Cue the flights of angels as Sam Gold’s revival of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, starring Oscar Isaac, is sung to its rest. Ben Brantley praised the “gloriously involving” production and the “majestically impudent” Mr. Isaac, writing, “the show’s intimidating four hours pass as quickly as a night at a bar with some of the best storytellers you’ve ever met.”
212-967-7555, publictheater.org

‘MARVIN’S ROOM’ at the American Airlines Theater (closes on Aug. 27). The Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Scott McPherson’s 1991 play about illness, death and wig styling goes to its final rest. Jesse Green praised Anne Kauffman’s thoughtful direction and the keen performances of Lili Taylor and Janeane Garofalo, but called the production itself “fatally mild.”
212-719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org

‘NAPOLI, BROOKLYN’ at the Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater (closes on Aug. 27). Meghan Kennedy’s drama about three Italian-American sisters in 1960s Brooklyn will serve its final Feast of the Seven Fishes. Jesse Green called this play, which hinges on a historical disaster, “very eventful, often sweet but ultimately overwrought,” praising Alyssa Bresnahan’s “smoldering-volcano performance” as the family matriarch.
212-719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org

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