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 AMATEURS’ at the Vineyard Theater (previews start on Feb. 8; opens on Feb. 27). Jordan Harrison’s new play is a comedy about a group of actors who wander medieval Europe performing cycle plays. It’s also a serious-minded exploration about what art can and should do in times of plague. In the Vineyard’s production, directed by Oliver Butler, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Thomas Jay Ryan and Michael Cyril Creighton star as the players.
212-353-0303, vineyardtheatre.org
‘DRAW THE CIRCLE’ at Rattlestick Play (in previews; opens on Feb. 2). Running in repertory with Dael Orlandersmith’s “Until the Flood,” Mashuq Mushtaq Deen’s piece is an autobiographical solo show with a twist. Deen the character never appears. Instead we get the point of view of the parents, friends and girlfriend of a young Muslim transitioning from female to male. Chay Yew directs this exploration of gender and identity.
212-627-2556, rattlestick.org
‘HANGMEN’ at the Linda Gross Theater (in previews; opens on Feb. 5). Will the new Martin McDonagh play slay? The playwright and filmmaker arrives at the Atlantic Theater with his latest play, a London hit, directed by Matthew Dunster. Set in 1963 and 1965, its mysteries and yarns straddle the end of capital punishment in England. Reviewing an earlier production, Ben Brantley wrote, “I can think of few contemporary playwrights who infuse old-fashioned, precision-tooled dramaturgy with such fresh blood.”
866-811-4111, atlantictheater.org
‘HE BROUGHT HER HEART BACK IN A BOX’ at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center (closes on Feb. 11). Adrienne Kennedy’s brief, fragmentary play about an interracial romance in the Jim Crow South brings its lovers together and apart for the last time. Ben Brantley called Evan Yionoulis’s production “the most ravishing and organic that a Kennedy dreamscape has ever been given.”
866-811-4111, tfana.org
‘HEY, LOOK ME OVER!’ at New York City Center (performances start on Feb. 7). Man in chair, the beloved character from “The Drowsy Chaperone,” has sat down once again. In this Encores show, created by Jack Viertel, Bob Martin returns as the Broadwayphile who is eager to take the audience on a tour of neglected classics, “Greenwillow,” “Jamaica” and “Wildcat” among them. A starry cast sings out.
212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org
‘THE HOMECOMING QUEEN’ at Atlantic Stage 2 (closes on Feb. 18). In Ngozi Anyanwu’s drama, directed by Awoye Timpo, a Pulitzer Prize finalist (Mfoniso Udofia) returns to her native Nigeria. Now she ends her trip. As Jesse Green wrote, this play about separation nd reunion, “wrings all the pleasure possible out of its familiar tropes even as it revamps their meaning entirely.”
866-811-4111, atlantictheater.org
‘IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD’ at New York City Center Stage I (in previews; opens on Feb. 6). Eve Ensler, the author of the celebrated “Vagina Monologues,” turns her attention back to anatomy in this play adapted from her 2013 memoir, which discusses her treatment for uterine cancer. In this Manhattan Theater Club production, Ms. Ensler discusses her growing understanding between local illness and global concerns. Diane Paulus directs.
212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org
‘MILES FOR MARY’ at Playwrights Horizons (closes on Feb. 25). The Mad Ones’ devised theater work, about a group of high school teachers in the late 1980s meeting to plan a fundraiser, ends its telethon. Ben Brantley described this production, directed by Lila Neugebauer, as “a priceless portrait of accumulating anger in the workplace.”
212-279-4200, playwrightshorizons.org
‘AN ORDINARY MUSLIM’ at New York Theater Workshop (previews start on Feb. 7; opens on Feb. 26). In Hamaad Chaudry’s new play, mentored by Tony Kushner, a British-Pakistani couple wrestles with the conflicting pulls of upbringing and inheritance, culture and religion. The New York Theater Workshop production, directed by Jo Bonney, stars Purva Bedi and Sanjit De Silva.
212-780-9037, nytw.org
‘[PORTO]’ at the WP Theater (previews start on Jan. 28; opens on Feb. 6). Kate Benson’s play about a group of regulars at a Bushwick saloon bellies back up to the bar, when WP Theater, in partnership with the Bushwick Starr in association with New Georges, brings it back for another round. Reviewing an earlier run, Laura Collins-Hughes called it, “stealthily ferocious, comfortingly hopeful, very funny.”
866-811-4111, wptheater.org
Last Chance
‘THE CHILDREN’ at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater (closes on Feb. 4). In Lucy Kirkwood’s gripping eco-thriller, three physicists walk into a country cottage and worlds unfold. Of James Macdonald’s production, which stars Francesca Annis, Ron Cook and Deborah Findlay, Jesse Green wrote, “the play is as disturbing to replay in your imagination as it is to see in the first place.”
212-239-6200, manhattantheatreclub.com