6 Shows to See in New York This Month

There’s a lot of smart, funny theater happening in the city right now. I wanted to make sure these six gems don’t escape your attention.

1. We Live in Cairo
First, I hope you’re able to catch We Live in Cairo, the new off-Broadway musical about the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which is now entering its final week at New York Theatre Workshop. It’s a must-see for fans of new musical theater. Composers Daniel and Patrick Lazour tell the story of six young activists working to overthrow the Mubarak regime (and struggling to shape what comes next) through a vocally challenging score infused with traditional and modern Arabic sounds. It’s a beautiful tribute to the people behind a revolution that many outsiders consider a failure but that I believe is quietly still ongoing.

2. The Devil’s Disciple
That’s the theme of Gingold Theatrical Group’s gut-renovation of an old Bernard Shaw play, The Devil’s Disciple, which is set in New England during the American Revolution. The story is about Dick Dudgeon, a typically Shavian hero who saves the day and humiliates the British by flouting conventional manners. He also manages to fire off a barrage of delicious one-liners in the process. Director David Staller has reframed the play as the story of a 248-year-old house and its newest owner. Should she fix it up or knock it down? It’s surely a question many American will be asking themselves.

3. Music City
The mighty little experimental company Bedlam has undergone its own revolution, mounting a musical based on the work of country songwriter J.T. Harding, who has written for Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, and Blake Shelton. But Music City isn’t merely deep fried & Juliet. Director Eric Tucker and designer Clifton Chadwick have transformed the West End Theatre into a Nashville dive bar where songwriter TJ and his brother Drew hope to be discovered. The musical performances are superb, and Peter Zinn’s book artfully folds contemporary anxieties about poverty, success, and drug abuse into a big old-fashioned story that will linger in your mind for days.

4. Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!
Soho Rep will leave its longtime home on Walker Street beginning next year, and it feels only fitting that its final production there should be Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! This fantastical homage to weird and imaginative theater is co-written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (who had a major breakthrough with An Octoroon at Soho Rep a decade before he won a Tony for Appropriate) and Alina Troyano, who has been performing as Carmelita Tropicana for four decades. This is an action-adventure epic for the downtown theater set, and while the initial run is sold out, there are still tickets available for the extension through December 15.

5. Strategic Love Play
Audible Theater has been making very intelligent programming choices recently. Its latest is Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, a breathtaking and brilliant look at the transactional nature of dating in 2024. Heléne Yorke and Michael Zegen star as two busy singles on what at first appears to be a disastrous first date; but when they decide to ditch the small talk and get down to brass tacks (it feels like a contract negotiation) sparks of genuine attraction begin to fly. It’s Tinder Live! Counterintuitively, this might just be the best date night show playing in New York.

6. The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show
I know, I know…it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But I won’t put out another one of these letters until December 15 and I wanted to make sure my readers were aware of The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show, which has already started performing across the country (it comes to Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on December 5). I’ve been consistently impressed over the years with the way drag superstars Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme are able to fold plots about creative burnout and predictive AI into the delicious confection of a Christmas spectacular, and I’m sure they’ll have plenty to say with this year’s show — the true beginning of the holiday season.