Broadway: Matthew Broderick and André DeShields lead off-Broadway productions, ‘Romy & Michelle’ musical previewing, and more

Molière’s “Tartuffe,” first performed in French in 1664 and quickly banned for its audacious attack on religious hypocrisy, will receive two Off-Broadway revivals this fall featuring Matthew Broderick and André DeShields.

Written in verse and originally staged for Louis XIV’s court, the play is a cornerstone of French classical theater but is rarely performed today in the United States. Yet its satire of blind faith, self-delusion, and moral posturing feels strikingly relevant in an era marked by polarization, misinformation, and performative virtue.

On the Upper East Side, Tony Award winner André De Shields (Hadestown, The Wiz) will star in an immersive production at the House of the Redeemer.

Directed by Keaton Wooden with a new English translation by Ranjit Bolt, the staging will transform a historic Italian-imported library into the decadent world of Molière’s comedy. Limited to just 100 guests per night, the production begins previews Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, New York Theatre Workshop will present a new adaptation by Lucas Hnath (A Doll’s House, Part 2), directed by Sarah Benson. That production features a particularly starry ensemble, including Matthew Broderick, David Cross, Bianca Del Rio, Amber Gray, Lisa Kron, and Francis Jue. Previews begin Nov. 28.

Bundy and Lindsay lead ‘Romy & Michele: The Musical’

Kara Lindsay (l.) as Michele Weinberger and Laura Bell Bundy as Romy White in “Romy & Michele: The Musical,” previewing on Broadway in October.Photo by Valerie Terranova/provided

Laura Bell Bundy (“Legally Blonde”) and Kara Lindsay (“Newsies”) will star as Romy White and Michele Weinberger in the world premiere of “Romy & Michele: The Musical,” beginning previews on Oct. 14 at Off-Broadway’s Stage 42.

The musical is adapted from the 1997 cult comedy “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion,” which starred Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow as two inseparable friends who, in a desperate attempt to impress their classmates at their 10-year high school reunion, pretend to have invented Post-It Notes.

Like “The Wedding Singer,” another stage musical adapted from a quirky late-‘90s comedy with a retro pop score, “Romy & Michele” leans into nostalgia with an ‘80s- and ‘90s-inspired soundtrack.

Saul Rubinek steps beyond Shakespeare in ‘Playing Shylock’

Saul Rubinek in “Playing Shylock.”

Veteran actor Saul Rubinek (“Hunters,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) will lead “Playing Shylock,” a new solo play by Mark Leiren-Young.

“Playing Shylock” focuses on the actor playing Shylock in a production of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” (which is shut down over charges of antisemitism) who steps out of the play to confront the audience directly about prejudice, cancel culture, and whether theater can still serve as a place for difficult conversations.

Following earlier runs in Canada, the play will be produced at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, home of Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, beginning on Oct. 16. It will arrive on the heels of TFANA’s current production of Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck.”

MasterVoices to perform ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ with Esparza

MasterVoices will present a concert staging of the rarely seen musical “Sweet Smell of Success” with full orchestra and chorus on Nov. 21–22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

For this new concert production, Ted Sperling conducts the 120-member MasterVoices chorus and orchestra, with four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza as J.J. Hunsecker and singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine (“Floyd Collins”) as his younger sister Susan.

Each season, the ensemble offers one large-scale musical in concert. Past productions have included “Lady in the Dark” with Victoria Clark, “Anyone Can Whistle” with Vanessa Williams, and “The Frogs” with Nathan Lane.

With a brassy, jazz-tinged score by Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Line”) and Craig Carnelia, and a book by John Guare (“The House of Blue Leaves”), “Sweet Smell of Success,” which is based on the 1957 noir film of the same name, dramatizes the cutthroat world of a powerful New York gossip columnist and the press agent who serves him. The show premiered on Broadway in 2002 with John Lithgow, Brian d’Arcy James, and Kelli O’Hara, earning seven Tony nominations but closing after just three months.