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

‘THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN’ at New York City Center (performances July 26-27). Though the composer Kirsten Childs (“Bella: An American Tall Tale”) has molted a few more times since this semi-autobiographical musical opened in 2000, it ought to be fun to slip back into it. For this Encores! production, Robert O’Hara directs the luminous Nikki M. James as a West Coast hoofer stumbling on questions of individuality and identity.
212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org

‘SINGING BEACH’ at Here (previews start on July 22; opens on July 30). The playwright Tina Howe (“Pride’s Crossing,” “Coastal Disturbances”) gets back in the water with this play about climate changes both emotional and littoral. The play describes the descent of a Category 4 hurricane on a family already weathering its own tempests. Ari Laura Kreith directs.
866-811-4111, theatre167.org

‘THE SUITCASE UNDER THE BED’ at the Beckett Theater at Theater Row (previews start on July 21; opens on August 24). The romance between the Mint Theater Company and the neglected Irish playwright Teresa Deevy is still going strong. Having produced three of her full-length plays, the Mint now offers an evening of four one-acts, directed by Jonathan Bank. The plays explore questions of desire, disappointment and everyday dreams.
212-239-6210, minttheater.org

SUMMER SHORTS 2017 at 59E59 Theaters (performances start on July 21; Series A opens on July 30, Series B opens on Aug. 6). A vengeful god, tennis rivals, newlyweds and Ayn Rand congregate on the Upper East Side for this annual festival of short plays. This year’s lineup includes works from Melissa Ross; Alan Zweibel; the Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore; and Neil LaBute, a master of the form. They are directed by the likes of Mimi O’Donnell, Maria Mileaf and Alexander Dinelaris.
212-279-4200, 59e59.org

Last Chance

‘OF HUMAN BONDAGE’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center (closes on July 26). Vern Thiessen’s adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of emotional fetters and romantic entanglements finishes its run. Produced by Soulpepper, this work, which Ken Jaworowski described as a “beautiful and bittersweet play,” is here given an “exceptionally empathetic production.”
888-898-1188, soulpepper.ca

‘SPOON RIVER’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center (closes on July 29). The dead sing and dance — and they sure play a lot of instruments — in the Canadian theater company Soulpepper’s adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters’s “Spoon River Anthology.” Ben Brantley described the piece as exuding “a good-natured earnestness that stays shy of cloying piety.”
888-898-1188, soulpepper.ca

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