Whereas numerous Broadway shows rush to open in April to meet the Tony Awards eligibility deadline, May tends to belong to Off-Broadway. Below are a dozen new Off-Broadway shows, including final offerings of the season from major nonprofit companies and ambitious new ventures by commercial producers.
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes/Creditors: Together, a new producing initiative which promises short runs, big names, and stripped-down stagings with ticket prices that won’t max out your credit card, is teaming up with Audible to present “Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes,” an unsettling professor-student drama starring Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty, and a new version of “Creditors,” a psychological chess match of seduction and revenge, with Liev Schreiber and Maggie Siff. Through June 18 at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, audiblexminetta.com.
Goddess: Afro-jazz, supernatural myth, and political obligation collide in a steamy musical set in a nightclub in Mombasa, Kenya, where a mysterious singer upends the life of a young man with big plans and a fiancée, which is directed by Saheem Ali (“Fat Ham”). Through June 8 at the Public Theater, publictheater.org.
Bus Stop: An all-Asian American cast leads a rare revival of William Inge’s 1955 diner-set charmer (best known for the Marilyn Monroe film adaptation), in which a snowstorm strands a busload of misfits in small-town Kansas, cueing up lonely hearts, drunken professors, and cowboy flirtations over hot coffee. Through June 8 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, classicstage.org.
Five Models in Ruins, 1981: In Caitlin Saylor Stephens’ dark comedy, Elizabeth Marvel plays a fashion photographer trying to shoot a Vogue cover amid the wreckage of a European estate in the wake of Princess Diana’s wedding. Through June 1 at the Claire Tow Theater, lct.org.
Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole: Dulé Hill slips into the velvet voice of Nat “King” Cole, alongside Daniel J. Watts playing Sammy Davis Jr. in Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor’s jazzy drama, which is set in 1957 during the final taping of Cole’s short-lived TV variety show. Through June 29 at New York Theatre Workshop, nytw.org.
The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse: In this world-premiere musical from Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, a trio of Gen Z sleuths investigates “Coco,” the forgotten fourth girl from the infamous Paris-Lindsay-Britney tabloid photo. Through June 1 at the Pershing Square Signature Center, thenewgroup.org.
Bowl EP: The Vineyard Theatre is transformed into a 360-degree skateboard park in the middle of a wasteland at the end of the galaxy, in a piece with original music, where the members of a rap duo grow closer over skating, smoking, and drinking. Through June 8 at the Vineyard Theatre, vineyardtheatre.org.
Eurydice: Two decades after premiering “Eurydice,” Sarah Ruhl and director Les Waters reunite for a fresh staging of the lyrical poetic myth, which takes place in a dreamlike underworld where it rains in elevators, with Maya Hawke (“Stranger Things”) in the title role and Broadway veteran Brian d’Arcy James as her father. Begins May 13, signaturetheatre.org.
Lunar Eclipse: Reed Birney and Lisa Emery play a bourbon-sipping, star-gazing Kentucky couple in a two-hander by Donald Margulies that drifts from the domestic to the cosmic. Begins May 14 at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 2st.com.
A Freeky Introduction: NSangou Njikam serves as preacher, poet, and hype man in a one-man sermon-meets-theater-piece-meets-club-set that’s equal parts spiritual revival and motivational freestyle. Begins May 16 at Atlantic Stage 2, atlantictheater.org.
The Imaginary Invalid: Mark Linn-Baker headlines Jeffrey Hatcher’s 80-minute adaptation of Molière’s hypochondriac farce about a man so obsessed with imaginary ailments he tries to marry off his daughter just to score lifetime medical care. Begins May 21 at New World Stages, redbulltheater.com.
Angry Alan: John Krasinski (“The Office”) returns to the New York stage in Penelope Skinner’s drama about a man who becomes caught up in a dangerous online movement led by a men’s rights influencer, marking the inaugural production at the newly renamed Studio Seaview (formerly the Tony Kiser Theatre). Begins May 23 at Studio Seaview, studioseaview.com.
