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

‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM’ at the Delacorte Theater (in previews; opens on July 31). The course of true love never did run smooth, but it doesn’t usually get so bumpy that it includes magical flowers, squabbling fairies and lusty donkeys. After a protest-plagued “Julius Caesar,” Lear deBessonet soothes Shakespeare in the Park with this comedy starring Phylicia Rashad as Titania and Kristine Nielsen as Puck.
212-967-7555, publictheater.org

‘A PARALLELOGRAM’ at the Tony Kiser Theater (in previews; opens on Aug. 2). Most people’s lives don’t come equipped with buttons for rewind, fast forward or pause, but that’s the soft sci-fi that drives this play from Bruce Norris (“Clybourne Park”). Celia Keenan-Bolger plays a woman in her 30s suddenly confronted with what seems to be her future self. Michael Greif directs a cast for Second Stage Theater that includes Anita Gillette and Stephen Kunken.
212-246-4422, 2st.com

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’ at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater (previews start on Aug. 3; opens on Aug. 24). Manhattan Theater Club gives the celebrated director and producer Harold Prince a regal retrospective. Mr. Prince and his co-director, the choreographer Susan Stroman, put a cast that includes Chuck Cooper, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Tony Yazbeck and Karen Ziemba through its high-kicking paces. The composer Jason Robert Brown contributes orchestrations, arrangements and a few new songs.
212-239-6200, manhattantheatreclub.com

‘REALLY ROSIE’ at New York City Center (performances Aug. 2-5). It may not seem the season for a steaming bowl of chicken soup with rice, but it’s just about always a good time for a revival of this musical by Maurice Sendak and Carole King about a bunch of Brooklyn children and an alligator. Leigh Silverman (“Sweet Charity”) directs small actors in big parts.
212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org

‘THE TERMS OF MY SURRENDER’ at the Belasco Theater (previews start on July 28; opens on Aug. 10). It’s been a long time since a Broadway play started a riot, but maybe this one can start a revolution. The documentarian Michael Moore (“Roger & Me,” “Bowling for Columbine”) makes his Broadway debut in this new solo show, which he described to The New York Times as “a humorous play about a country that’s just elected a madman.” Michael Mayer directs.
212-239-6200, michaelmooreonbroadway.com

Last Chance

‘GHOST LIGHT’ at the Claire Tow Theater (closes on Aug. 6). The dance theater company Third Rail Projects will turn off the stage illumination when this immersive piece finishes its run. Ben Brantley described this “spectral tour” of theater’s “hoary legends, superstitions and rituals” — directed and choreographed by Zach Morris and Jennine Willett — as an “enchanted two hours.”
212-239-6200, lct.org

‘INDECENT’ at the Cort Theater (closes on Aug. 6). Paula Vogel’s play, which Ben Brantley described as a “heartfelt ode and elegy to a landmark of modern drama,” will finish its Broadway run, having earned a Tony for its director, Rebecca Taichman. An exploration of “God of Vengeance,” a Yiddish drama that became the subject of an obscenity trial, the play speaks feelingly to ideas of culture, censorship and freedom.
212-239-6200, indecentbroadway.com

‘OF HUMAN BONDAGE’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center (closes on July 28). 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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