February brings a dense slate of new off-Broadway productions, with theaters across the city rolling out premieres that range from intimate character studies to politically charged dramas and formally adventurous work. Below are 16 new productions.
The Other Place: Alexander Zeldin’s reworking of the Greek tragedy “Antigone” follows two estranged sisters whose uneasy reunion on the anniversary of their father’s death exposes lingering grief, buried resentment, and the cost of refusing to move on. In previews at the Shed, theshed.org.
The Unknown: Sean Hayes stars as a blocked writer whose self-imposed retreat to a remote cabin turns destabilizing, as David Cale’s psychological thriller blurs the line between creative obsession and lived reality. In previews at Studio Seaview, theunknownplay.com.
The Monsters: Ngozi Anyanwu’s contemporary family drama uses the brutal world of professional fighting as a pressure cooker for an intimate sibling showdown. In previews at City Center, manhattantheatreclub.com.
Coriolanus: Theatre for a New Audience’s multimedia production places Shakespeare’s political tragedy in a near-present world shaped by screens and spectacle, incorporating video-game aesthetics to explore how violence, power, and public opinion are consumed and distorted. In previews at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, tfana.org.
Mother Russia: Lauren Yee’s dark comedy drops into post-Soviet St. Petersburg, where surveillance, capitalism, and romantic confusion collide as a disoriented generation struggles to reinvent itself after the collapse of an old system. Begins previews on Feb. 3 at Pershing Square Signature Center, signaturetheatre.org.
The Dinosaurs: Jacob Perkins’s drama unfolds inside a weekly women’s recovery meeting, where the same room and ritual frame years of shifting relationships, setbacks, and progress. Begins previews on Feb. 4 at Playwrights Horizons, playwrightshorizons.org.
Marcel on the Train: Co-written by and starring Ethan Slater, this intimate drama revisits the early life of Jewish mime Marcel Marceau, when he helped lead Jewish children to safety using silence and imagination in Nazi-occupied France. Begins previews on Feb. 5 at Lynn F. Angelson Theater, classicstage.org.
Chinese Republicans: Alex Lin’s workplace drama brings three powerful women and a young newcomer together for a lunch that exposes ambition, assimilation, and the generational cost of success. Begins previews on Feb. 5 at the Laura Pels Theatre, roundaboutheatre.org.
The Reservoir: Jake Brasch’s gently funny new play follows a young man newly sober who returns home and finds his struggles with memory mirrored by his aging grandparents, creating an unexpected cross-generational portrait of recovery and connection. Begins previews on Feb. 5 at Atlantic Theater Company, atlantictheater.org.
Bigfoot!: A knowingly absurd musical comedy drops an eight-foot-tall outsider into a paranoid, politically rotten town. Begins previews on Feb. 11 at City Center, bigfootthemusical.com.
Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood: Aya Ogawa’s genre-defying play plunges into the raw absurdity of motherhood, using satire, physical comedy, and discomforting honesty to interrogate what’s lost—and what survives—after giving birth. Begins previews on Feb. 11 at Pershing Square Signature Center, 2st.com.
Hate Radio: A documentary-style theatrical work that stages real broadcasts from a Rwandan radio station, the production immerses audiences in the rhetoric that fueled genocide. Begins previews on Feb. 12 at St. Ann’s Warehouse, stannswarehouse.org.
Bughouse: Conceived and directed by Martha Clarke with text adapted by Beth Henley, this visually driven world premiere enters the inner life of outsider artist Henry Darger, exploring the compulsive act of creation in isolation. Begins previews on Feb. 18, vineyardtheatre.org.
Cold War Choir Practice: Ro Reddick’s play with music blends Cold War paranoia, family secrets, and a children’s chorus into a surreal coming-of-age story steeped in Reagan-era anxiety. Begins previews on Feb. 21 at MCC Theater, mcctheater.org.
My Joy Is Heavy: Created and performed by The Bengsons, this small-scale musical memoir follows a couple living in rural isolation after the loss of a pregnancy. Begins previews on Feb. 25, nytw.org.
Antigone (This Play I Read in High School): Anna Ziegler’s contemporary riff on Sophocles reframes the Greek tragedy as a wry, restless portrait of a young woman pushing back against laws governing her body. Begins previews on Feb. 26 at the Public Theater, publictheater.org.
