2012 Fall Broadway Preview

This fall brings perhaps the largest slew of Broadway openings in recent memory — with nearly 20 shows scheduled to open between September and December, featuring a wide array of classic and new plays, popular musicals, film stars making their Broadway bows, and even a dog for good measure.

Chaplin
Barrymore Theatre
Opening: September 10 (now in previews)
Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs this musical biography of Charlie Chaplin (played by Rob McClure) that charts the silent film legend’s life from his beginnings in the slums of London through to his time as the toast of Hollywood to his exile in Switzerland. The starry supporting cast includes Christiane Noll as Chaplin’s mother, Wayne Alan Wilcox as his brother Sydney, Erin Mackey as wife Oona O’Neill, and Jenn Colella as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

An Enemy of the People

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Opening: September 27 (previews from September 4)
Four-time Tony Award-winner Boyd Gaines and Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas star in this new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama about a doctor who finds his troubling revelations about his community’s top tourist attraction are greeted with anger — especially by his brother — rather than acclaim.

Grace
Cort Theatre
Opening October 4 (previews from September 13)
A dazzling quartet of actors, including film and stage stars Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon, seven-time Emmy winner Ed Asner, and Chicago favorite Kate Arrington, come together for Craig Wright’s drama about four people — including a young couple seeking to open a chain of hotels — whose destinies collide in Florida.

Lewis Black: Running on Empty
Richard Rodgers Theatre
October 9-14
The popular comedic performer will take on politics — and the presidential race in particular — as he brings his often hysterically dyspeptic insights on American life to the Broadway stage.

Cyrano de Bergerac
American Airlines Theatre

Opening: October 11 (previews from September 14)
Tony Award-winner Douglas Hodge returns to the Great White Way in Edmond de Rostand’s classic love story about a man, ashamed of his appearance, who woos the woman (Clémence Poésy) he loves on behalf of a younger and more handsome suitor (Kyle Soller). British director Jamie Lloyd helms this Roundabout Theatre Company production, which will also feature such stage favorites as Patrick Page and Bill Buell.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Booth Theatre
Opening: October 13 (previews from September 27)
Pam McKinnon’s acclaimed revival of Edward Albee’s landmark drama comes to Broadway 50 years to the day after the play first bowed on Broadway. The production stars the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright/performer Tracy Letts and the extraordinary Amy Morton (who earned a Tony nomination for her work in Letts’ August: Osage County), as the furiously battling George and Martha, along with Steppenwolf favorites Carrie Coon and Madison Dirks as Honey and George, the hapless young couple being “entertained” by their hosts during one booze-filled evening.

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
Broadway Theatre
October 19-27
The singing legend — whose big hits can be heard down the block in Jersey Boys — brings his popular concert to Broadway for a brief engagement. Audiences can expect the show to resound with such chart-toppers as “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Working My Way Back To You,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “Grease,” and “My Eyes Adored You.”

The Heiress
Walter Kerr Theatre
Opening: November 1 (previews from October 7)
Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain will make her Broadway debut in this timeless adaptation of Henry James’ Washington Square as Catherine Sloper, a young woman who has grown up under the thumb of a controlling father (David Strathairn) and who thinks she might have found a way out of her unhappy world when she meets a dashing (and opportunistic) young man (to be played by Downton Abbey favorite Dan Stevens). The cast will also feature Tony winner Judith Ivey, Kieran Campion, and Virginia Kull.

Annie
Palace Theater
Opening: November 8 (previews from October 3)
This ever-popular musical makes another return to Broadway with two-time Tony Award-winning Katie Finneran as the mean-spirited Miss Hannigan, Australian theater star Anthony Warlow as Daddy Warbucks, and the fresh-faced Lilla Crawford as Little Orphan Annie herself. Oh, and of course, there will be a new canine on hand to play her beloved pet, Sandy. Bow-wow, indeed!

Elf
Al Hirschfeld Theater
November 9-January 6
Need some cheering up? Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin’s buoyant musical — based on the popular Will Ferrell movie about a grown-up elf looking for some Yuletide cheer as he searches for his dad in the Big Apple — returns to Broadway just in time to enchant the holiday crowds.

Glengarry Glen Ross
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
Opening: November 11 (previews from October 16)
Award-winning actor Al Pacino — no stranger to plays by David Mamet — takes on the role of aging real estate agent Shelley Levene in Daniel Sullivan’s new production of the author’s hard-hitting, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Bobby Cannavale, David Harbour, John C. McGinley, Richard Schiff and Jeremy Shamos round out the impressive cast.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Studio 54
Opening: November 13 (previews from October 19)
This beloved show, based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished crime novel and featuring book, music and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, allows audiences to select whodunit. And what a group of suspects! The luminous cast features stage great Chita Rivera, two-time Drama Desk Award nominee Stephanie J. Block, Tony Award winner Jim Norton, Tony nominees Gregg Edelman and Jessie Mueller, former Smash star Will Chase, as well as Robert Creighton, Andy Karl, and Betsy Wolfe.

The Performers
Longacre Theatre
Opening: November 14 (previews from October 23)
Television legend Henry Winkler — forever “The Fonz” to some — comes back to the Great White Way as an adult film mogul in David West Read’s romantic comedy set at an unusual awards ceremony in Las Vegas. The show will also star Cheyenne Jackson, Ari Graynor, Alicia Silverstone, Daniel Breaker, and Jenni Barber.

Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson

Neil Simon Theatre
Opening: November 15 (previews from October 13)
Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello plays the controversial early 20th-century religious leader Aimee Semple McPherson in this new musical, which has book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford and music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman. The superb supporting cast includes Tony winner George Hearn, Drama Desk nominee Andrew Samonsky, Roz Ryan, Candy Buckley, and Edward Watts.

Rebecca
Broadhurst Theatre
Opening: November 18 (previews from October 30)
Daphne du Maurier’s haunting — and ultimately fiery — story of a shy young woman who must live with the ghost of her husband’s first wife (and a very protective housekeeper) will come to Broadway, in musical form. The lovely Jill Paice will play the meek young bride, known only as “I”, alongside Ryan Silverman, Karen Mason, James Barbour, Howard McGillin, and Donna English.

A Christmas Story, The Musical!
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
November 5-December 30
Inspired by the movie that has become a holiday staple, this new show — with a score by the white-hot songwriting team of Justin Paul and Benj Pasek (Dogfight) — will bring the story of Ralphie, the bespectacled boy in 1940s Indiana with a big imagination and one wish for Christmas, to the stage to the delight of audiences.

Dead Accounts
Music Box Theatre
Opening: November 28 (previews from November 3)
Screen star and recent divorcee Katie Holmes and Tony Award-winning actorNorbert Leo Butz head the cast of Theresa Rebeck‘s new play, directed by the great Jack O’Brien, about a brother and sister who are forced to confront a host of issues after a long estrangement.

The Anarchist
Golden Theatre
Opening: December 2 (previews from November 13)
Talk about a matched pair! Two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone and three-time Academy Award winner Debra Winger — in her much-anticipated Broadway debut — will square off in David Mamet’s new two-character play about one woman who has been put away for life, and the other who is making sure she stays there.

Golden Boy
Belasco Theatre
Opening: December 6 (previews from November 8)
Clifford Odets’ classic, rarely-revived drama about a young, gifted violinist (to be played by Seth Numrich) — who is torn between pursuing a career in music and earning big money as a prize fighter — gets a new staging under the direction of Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher. The cast will also feature Broadway favorites Danny Burstein, Jonathan Hadary, Daniel Jenkins, and Tony Shalhoub.