5 Shows to See in New York This Month

1. What to wear
What to wear is a collaboration between composer Michael Gordon and the late downtown auteur Richard Foreman, whose geometric scenic design, lightbulbs clusters, and alien-like performers comprise one of the most singular and instantly recognizable directorial styles of the 20^th century. I never pass up an opportunity to see one of his shows, so I cannot wait to see the New York premiere of this opera that was originally produced for the CalArts Center for New Performance 2006 (you can see a clip from that production here). Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar of Big Dance Theater have lovingly recreated the production for BAM, where it will run just this weekend, with singer-songwriter St. Vincent in the cast!

2. Kramer/Fauci
Daniel Fish’s Kramer/Fauci, which opens next month at NYU Skirball, will also have a short run (just two weeks) so you’ll want to mark your calendar. Tony winner Will Brill (Stereophonic) plays Dr. Anthony Fauci, Thomas Jay Ryan plays dramatist and activist Larry Kramer in this recreation of a 1993 televised debate between the two over AIDS policy. It promises to be a bracing reminder of Fauci’s polarizing reputation as a scientist and bureaucrat, long before Covid and Trump scrambled our national politics. Fish, who helmed the last Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, has a special talent for making us look harder at the things that were always right there, hiding in plain sight.

3. The Disappear
Of course, it’s often hard to see the obvious when your lifestyle depends on politely ignoring it. That’s one of the takeaways from Erica Schmidt’s The Disappear. Hamish Linklater and Miriam Silverman stars as a cultural power couple. He’s a moderately successful director, and she’s a bestselling author. They have a teenage daughter and live in a gorgeously rustic home upstate. They would seem to have everything, but dad wants more—specifically a passionate affair with an actress he wants in his next film. Hilarious, painfully recognizable performances undergird this comedy about the violent collision of consumer expectation and the ancient institution of marriage. Take your spouse! You’ll have plenty to discuss on the ride home.

4. Bug
The same goes for Tracy Letts’s Bug, which is also somewhat about marriage. It premiered in 1996, but in its excellent Broadway debut with MTC, it feels like it could have been written last year. Carrie Coon stars as Agnes, a woman living in a motel outside Oklahoma City, hiding out from her violent ex-husband (Steve Key). When a military veteran (Namir Smallwood) enters her life, both become convinced that the insect problem in their room is the product of a dark conspiracy. Are these delusions born out of trauma? Does obsession naturally create its own evidence? Or is it just the drugs talking? We could ask all these questions about American society in 2026 and Letts does in this must-see play—the only new drama on Broadway this winter.

5. The Honey Trap
Finally, I want to alert you to one of the best plays I saw last year, which is now enjoying an encore engagement at the Irish Rep. Leo McGann’s The Honey Trap is about two British soldiers stationed in Belfast circa 1979. One night, they go out to a pub and meet a couple of pretty Irish girls. Only one of them makes it back to the barracks alive. Told from the perspective of today, and an American college student collecting an oral history of the Troubles, the play probes the messy border between the truth and your truth, the convenient narrative one adopts to sleep soundly at night. The performances are riveting as McGann and director Matt Torney have us questioning everything we see right up until the final moment. It’s a masterpiece.