Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023

Top-selling shows this week include The Piano Lesson, New York, New York, Sweeney Todd, and more!

By: Jan. 09, 2023
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Looking for the best deals on Broadway shows? Welcome to our new weekly guide to the most popular shows listed on BroadwayWorld.


This Week's Top Broadway Shows

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 1) The Piano Lesson Buy Tickets Tickets from: $49 - The Piano Lesson is set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1936. A brother and sister are locked in a war over the fate of a family heirloom: a piano carved with the faces of their ancestors. Only by revisiting history can the siblings endeavor to move forward. The Piano Lesson, wrote Frank Rich in The New York Times, "has its own spacious poetry, its own sharp angle on a nation's history, its own metaphorical idea of drama and its own palpable ghosts that roar right through the upstairs window of the household where the action unfolds. Like other Wilson plays, The Piano Lesson seems to sing even when it is talking."

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 2) New York, New York Buy Tickets Tickets from $59 - A brand-new musical bringing Broadway legends back together, New York, New York is a glittering love letter to the greatest city in the world. Featuring an exhilarating new score by the incomparable John Kander and Fred Ebb, an original story by David Thompson with Sharon Washington, additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and visionary direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, New York, New York will whisk you right through the very heart of this city that never sleeps. It is 1946, the war is over, and a resurgent New York is beginning to rebuild. As steel beams swing overhead, a collection of artists has dreams as big and diverse as the city itself. But do these singers, dancers, musicians and makers have what it takes to survive this place, let alone to succeed? If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere. New York, New York is a spectacular show for a singular city. With a unique blend of dazzling new songs and big band classics ("New York, New York," "The World Goes Round"), this jubilant new musical is destined to become the talk of the town.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 3) Sweeney Todd Buy Tickets - Attend the tale. For the first time since 1980, Broadway audiences will experience Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award®-winning score as it was performed in the original production-with Jonathan Tunick's classic 26-player orchestration on an epic scale. Tony Award-winning director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) helms the return of this musical thriller starring Tony and Grammy® nominee Josh Groban (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) as Sweeney Todd, and Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford (Sunday in the Park With George, Kinky Boots) as Mrs. Lovett. Tony winner Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen) reunites with Kail as Music Supervisor, and Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) choreographs this new production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023

4) Funny Girl Buy Tickets Tickets from $69 - With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennart, Funny Girl was a Broadway smash which skyrocketed Barbra Streisand to stardom. The show follows Fanny Brice, who rose from the Lower East Side of New York to become one of Broadway's biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. While she was cheered onstage as a great comedienne, offstage she faced a doomed relationship with the man she loved. The score features now-classic songs such as "People", "You Are Woman, I Am Man" and "Don't Rain on My Parade."

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 5) Pictures From Home Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - Barlett Sher (To Kill a Mockingbird, My Fair Lady) brings together an all-star cast for this slyly poignant and inventive new play from Sharr White (The Other Place, Showtime's "The Affair") exploring manhood, fatherhood, and the truths only we can see.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 6) Bad Cinderella Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - In the exceptionally beautiful kingdom of Belleville, the fields are idyllic, the prince is charming, and the townsfolk are ravishing. Only one stubborn peasant stands in the way of absolute perfection: Cinderella. To the flawless residents and royals of Belleville, this damsel IS the distress. From Andrew Lloyd Webber comes "a big, colorful, fun fairy-tale rewrite" (The New York Times), featuring an original story and book by Oscar®-winning writer Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, "Killing Eve") and lyrics by Tony Award® winner David Zippel (City of Angels). Choreographed by JOANN M. HUNTER (School of Rock) and directed by LAURENCE CONNOR (Les Misérables).

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 7) Ohio State Murders Buy Tickets Tickets from $49 - When writer Suzanne Alexander (Audra McDonald) returns to her alma mater as a guest speaker, in which she explores the violence in her works, a dark mystery unravels. Adrienne Kennedy's Ohio State Murders is an intriguing and unusual suspense play, as well as a social pertinent look at the destructiveness of racism in our society.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 8) & Juliet Buy Tickets Tickets from: $87 - & Juliet flips the script on the greatest love story ever told, imagining what would happen next if Juliet hadn't ended it all over Romeo, and got a second chance at life and love - on her terms. Juliet's new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, all written by Max Martin and his collaborators, including "Since U Been Gone," "Roar," "Baby One More Time," "Larger Than Life," "That's The Way It Is," "Can't Stop the Feeling," and many more.

9) Fat Ham Buy Tickets Tickets from: $87 - FAT HAM, the deliciously funny, Pulitzer Prize-winning new play, comes to Broadway following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at The Public Theater. Playwright James Ijames and Director Saheem Ali reinvent Shakespeare's masterpiece, creating what The New York Times calls "a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy." Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. But here's the rub! Revenge doesn't come easy to Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man in search of his own happiness and liberation. From an uproarious family cookout emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 10) A Beautiful Noise Buy Tickets Tickets from: $87 - The story of the legendary Neil Diamond comes to life on stage in a gripping and uplifting new musical featuring his hit songs "Sweet Caroline", "America", and "Cracklin' Rosie". Directed by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), choreographed by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), and written by four-time Academy Award® nominee Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Two Popes), A Beautiful Noise debuts in Boston before heading to Broadway. Good times never seemed so good.

This Week's Top Off-Broadway Shows

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 1) Merrily We Roll Along Buy Tickets - Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez! Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends - writer Mary and lyricist & playwright Charley. An inventive, cult-classic ahead of its time, Merrily We Roll Along features some of Stephen Sondheim's most celebrated and personal songs. Maria Friedman first directed the musical at London's Menier Chocolate Factory which subsequently transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre to critical acclaim-the most five-star reviews in West End history-winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 2) Lucy Buy Tickets - Ashling is every busy parent's dream: a professional nanny with experience and a warm, sunny attitude. But from the moment Mary hires her to look after her young children, things start to feel a little...off. Are Mary's stressful work schedule and lack of sleep playing games with her own sanity, or has she welcomed an unstable troublemaker into her home? At once harrowing and hilarious, Erica Schmidt's LUCY explores the wild range of parents' emotions, asking if we can entrust others with the safety of our home.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 3) White Girl in Danger Buy Tickets Tickets from: $74 - Tune in to the epic and viciously funny new musical WHITE GIRL IN DANGER from Michael R. Jackson, the Tony Award ® and Pulitzer Prize winning creator of A Strange Loop (2022 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical). It's a fever dream mashup of classic daytime and primetime soap operas, Lifetime movies, and red-hot melodrama. The citizens of the soap opera town Allwhite face high-stakes drama and intrigue all the days of their lives. But Keesha Gibbs and the other Blackgrounds have been relegated to backburner stories of slavery and police violence for all of theirs. Keesha is determined to step out of the Blackground and into the center of Allwhite's juiciest stories. Can Keesha handle the Allwhite attention-especially from the Allwhite Killer on the loose? What role do the other Blackgrounds play in Keesha's Allwhite schemes? And just whose story is this anyway? Find out at WHITE GIRL IN DANGER.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 4) The FunikiJam Show Buy Tickets Tickets from: $32.50 - THE FUNIKIJAM SHOW: musical adventures for every season! Set a course for globe-spanning musical adventures with Captain Jam and the Agents of Jam. "A tuneful trip around the world" (The NY Times). "Fun for families, not just kids" (Mommy Nearest) "Best Kids Events" (Time Out Magazine) "Part rock concert, part stage show, and part puppet theatre"( Atlanta Journal Constitution), The FunikiJam Show changes with the seasons, so you can come back again and again. Touring since 2000 and off-Broadway since 2015, these original family musicals engage audiences in cultural exploration and celebration with infectious music, high-energy dancing, unique characters, and charming stories for the very young and young at heart. Inspired by the award-winning FunikiJam World Music classes, original kids music, and popular videos created by Brian Barrentine, The FunikiJam Show encourages audiences to use imagination and musical tools to complete "Special Missions" that explore world culture and open doors to conversations about diversity and our changing world. Up to 10 amazing shows are presented in repertory throughout the year: CITY OF HOPE: Mardi Gras to Motown SHENANIGANS: Irish Celebration MUSIC GARDEN: Spring Celebration TOTALLY AWESOME SUMMER: Vacation Around the World BABY LIKES TO ROCK: World Music Fair ROCK OR TREAT: Halloween Fair RHYTHM BOOM BOOM, HOLIDAY BEAT AROUND THE WORLD with Captain Jam OZ in the AMAZON: from Brooklyn to Brazil. The FunikiJam Show: 2022-2023 Creative Team: WORDS & MUSIC, DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY: Brian Barrentine COLLABORATIVE DIRECTOR: Rosemary Newcott MUSIC DIRECTOR: Joe Mazza

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 5) Love Buy Tickets Tickets from: $37.50 - Having dazzled UK audiences at The National Theatre and garnered widespread acclaim around the world, this engaging new play makes its North American premiere and marks the New York debut of writer and director Alexander Zeldin. This powerful piece of drama-written after a years-long process of community collaboration and immersion, personal interviews, and first-hand accounts-draws attention to the cracks in the welfare system when several families are brought together in a shelter in the lead up to Christmas. The audience is invited to step inside their reality and bear witness to some of the touching, humorous, and profoundly human instances of their combined existence. Played with the house lights up and audience members seated amongst the company, the heart-breaking production reveals the cast seeming to live rather than act. The result is an engrossing and intimate story for our times that shows rather than tells and is born out of the daily rituals of survival, highlighting the link between homelessness, mental health, and austerity politics, but also the yearning for, and power of, love. North American Premiere By Alexander Zeldin Direction Alexander Zeldin Set Design Natasha Jenkins Lighting Design Marc Williams Sound Design Josh Anio Grigg Movement Marcin Rudy A Park Avenue Armory and A Zeldin Company Production

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 6) The Play That Goes Wrong Buy Tickets Tickets from: $74 - This Olivier Award-winning comedy is a hilarious hybrid of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes. Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. With an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can't play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines), it's "A RIOTOUS EXPLOSION OF COMEDY!" (The Daily Beast) and "TONS OF FUN FOR ALL AGES!" (HuffPost). Ben Brantley of The New York Times calls THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG "A GUT-BUSTING HIT," and Cindy Adams of the New York Post has just one word for you: "GO!" Get tickets now - it would be WRONG to wait!

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 7) Little Shop of Horrors Buy Tickets Tickets from: $61.50 - Seymour is a down-on-his-luck florist with a crush on his co-worker Audrey. When he discovers a mysterious - and voracious - plant, suddenly Seymour and Audrey are thrust into an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. The musical has made its highly-anticipated return home to Off-Broadway, in an intimate new production directed by Michael Mayer that offers an unprecedented opportunity to get close - maybe too close - to an incredible plant with an insatiable appetite.

Broadway Buying Guide: January 9, 2023 8) BATSU! The Live Japanese Gameshow Experience Buy Tickets Tickets from: $36 - In Japan, there is a style of comedy known as batsu game (罰ゲーム), where comedians compete in challenges of all kinds with the losers receiving a punishment. BATSU! NYC brings this comedy style to America, with comedians competing to avoid electric shocks, paintballs, a giant egg-smashing chicken, and many more hilarious jaw-dropping punishments! With a yokocho (横丁・横町) vibe, behind an unassuming door in the East Village, transport yourself to the alleyways of Tokyo with authentic food, drinks, and fun.

9) Titanique Buy Tickets Tickets from: $74 - When the music of Céline Dion makes sweet Canadian love with the eleven-time Oscar-winning film Titanic, you get Titanique, a musical celebration that turns one of the greatest love stories of all time into a hysterical and joyful slay-fest. Featuring powerhouse voices and show-stopping numbers (plus, contemporary pop culture and punchy odes to the 90s film), Titanique is a one-of-a-kind musical voyage bursting with nostalgia & heart. It's a pure love letter comedy, fun and all things joyful!



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