The New York Times chooses Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish as one of the weekend’s shows to see in New York City.
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last chance picks of shows that are about to close.
Previews and Openings
‘FIDLER AFN DAKH’ at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (in previews; opens on July 15). “Fiddler on the Roof” is a theatrical translation of Sholem Aleichem’s Yiddish language tales, and the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene has translated it right back, with English and Russian supertitles. Under Joel Grey’s direction, the first Yiddish production of this show in 50 years stars Steven Skybell and the kvetcher extraordinaire Jackie Hoffman. Mazel tov.
866-811-4111, nytf.org
Other picks:
‘FIRE IN DREAMLAND’ at the Public Theater (in previews; opens on July 16). In Rinne Groff’s play, a Dutch filmmaker sees the trash-strewn shores of Coney Island and envisions a paradise. In this three-character
drama about hope and disaster, directed by Marissa Wolf and starring Kyle Beltran, Enver Gjokaj and Rebecca Naomi Jones, real worlds clash with imagined ones.
‘GETTIN’ THE BAND BACK TOGETHER’ at the Belasco Theater (previews start on July 19; opens on Aug. 13). Strike it up. In this musical comedy, a finance bro falls off the corporate ladder and picks up his high school guitar. John Rando directs this battle of the bands, hearts and moms, with a book by the producer and blogger Ken Davenport and the theater troupe Grundleshotz, music and lyrics by Mark Allen, and additional material by Sarah Saltzberg.
‘THE ORIGINALIST’ at 59E59 Theaters (previews start on July 14; opens on July 19). A fresh Supreme Court vacancy greets John Strand’s play, based on the life of Antonin Scalia and starring Edward Gero. When the play, directed by Molly Smith, premiered at Arena Stage in 2015, a critic from The New York Times called it “a series of debates dressed up in the robes of drama.”
‘THE PECULIAR PATRIOT’ at the National Black Theater (in previews; opens on July 13). Liza Jessie Peterson draws on two decades of working with teenagers at Rikers Island for this one-woman show, in which she
plays Betsy LaQuanda Ross, a cheerful motormouth who devotes her time to visiting incarcerated friends. Reviewing a performance last year, Laura Collins-Hughes wrote that the play is “a comedy about a tragedy, and a patriotic call for reform.”
‘TRAINSPOTTING LIVE’ at Roy Arias Stages (in previews; opens onJuly 15). Ever wanted to creep a little closer to grime, disease and debilitating addiction? In Your Face Theater’s immersive adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel, set among heroin users in Edinburgh in the late 1980s, features nudity, violence, strong language and an intimate encounter with the worst toilet in Scotland.
‘TWELFTH NIGHT’ at the Delacorte Theater (previews start on July 17; opens on July 31). The whirligig of time has returned a reimagining of Shakespeare’s comedy to Shakespeare in the Park. Oskar Eustis and Kwame Kwei-Armah direct this musical visit to Illyria, conceived by the writer-composer Shaina Taub and Mr. Kwei-Armah. When the Public Works version premiered in 2016, The Times described it as a “freespirited, thoroughly delightful gloss on Shakespeare’s beloved comedy.”