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(Bloomberg) — Earlier this month I found myself sitting in the dark in the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York’s West Village, frozen in place as I watched the actor Andrew Scott perform a love scene opposite himself.

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In case I didn’t say that clearly enough: It was a sex scene. And Scott was playing both sides of the equation. I have never understood Anton Chekhov’s crystalline intent more purely than I did the moment I witnessed that distilled staging. 

I think if it had been any other actor, in any play other than the triumphant, one-manVanya currently carving audiences to pieces under the surgical hand of director Sam Yates, I would have giggled. Instead, I couldn’t breathe. The scene was so intense that I wanted to reach over and grab my friend in the seat next to me. But I couldn’t budge. I was afraid that if anyone in the whole theater moved or made a noise, the spell would be broken.

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This is the kind of energy that’s capturing the stage right now in New York. Up on Broadway, Succession star Sarah Snook is breaking the rules of traditional theater (and bringing the house down while she’s at it) in a revolutionary production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Like Scott, she plays all the parts in the story—but in her case she’s opposite vast video screens that play her own prerecorded performances of the other roles. In our Big Culture Convo with director Kip Williams, he calls it “conducting a Sarah Snook orchestra.”

At Lincoln Center, you can hear a pin drop during the entire second half of Ghosts, a haunting nepo-baby phantasmagoria from the Swedish master of effete dismay, Henrik Ibsen. And in the aisles at Buena Vista Social Club, audiences dance wildly to the Cuban beats of the Grammy-winning album from 1997, made all the more infectious by the vibrant cast.

If you can manage to find a ticket to the last few performances of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Brooklyn Academy of Music—with Paul Mescal as Stanley and Patsy Ferran as Blanche DuBois—my prayer for you is that you sit close enough to get wet from the same stage rain that soaks Mescal’s shirt. Ferran’s heartbreaking Blanche is somehow brittle and defiant at once. 

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I can’t remember a season of theater with as many new shows as thrilling as the ones we have before us. And that’s on top of ongoing delights such as little-urchin-that-could Little Shop of Horrors, Titus Burgess’ chaotic twirl in Oh Mary!, adorable robots in love at Maybe Happy Ending and the dueling divas of Death Becomes Her. My one complaint is that tickets have gotten far too expensive ($900 for Othello? Please. You know who doesn’t need more money? Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington or William Shakespeare). But after some disappointing stretches in recent years, it’s a a pleasure to be able to recommend so many new shows the Pursuits team is excited about.

Here are the highlights:

Plays

‘Purpose’Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, playwright of the Tony Award-winning smash Appropriate, is back with Purpose, a scorching family drama directed by Phylicia Rashad. Following the fictional Jasper family, whose patriarch was on the front line of the Civil Rights movement alongside the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., the audience is taken on a thrilling journey, in part through narration that breaks the fourth wall. There are laugh-out-loud moments, many driven by the brilliant Kara Young, who won a Tony last year for her role in Purlie Victorious, and an explosive crescendo. The Hayes Theatre; ongoing.

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‘Ghosts’

A cast that includes Billy Crudup, married couple Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe, and celebrity offspring Ella Beatty (Warren Beatty and Annette Bening’s daughter) and Levon Hawke (Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman’s son) manages to turn this bleak drawing room drama into a howling lament against the mores of playwright Henrik Ibsen’s day. Don’t go if you need a cheerful distraction from the depressing news of 2025 America, but do if you want to be challenged and electrified. Lincoln Center Theater; through April 26.

‘John Proctor Is the Villain’I love a work of art where the title or a lyric says what everyone’s been thinking all along. (See also: “It’s me, hi. I’m the problem. It’s me.”) In Kimberly Belflower’s new work, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink (who once trod the boards as the titular character in Annie) plays one of a group of high schoolers studying The Crucible, putting it in the context of their modern lives and the secrets of their own small town. Booth Theatre; ongoing.

‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’

Speaking of that beloved Netflix sci-fi series, the streamer’s first Broadway production arrives in New York after a sensational debut in London. Before you dismiss this as just another intellectual-property stunt, consider that it was directed by Oscar-nominated Stephen Daldry and won the Olivier Award for best new entertainment or comedy play. As our Sarah Rappaport wrote in her preview, the show “brings theatergoers into the sci-fi world of the show with masterful use of stage magic from the team that did the illusions on Tony Award-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” It’s gonna be a hit for kids and adults alike. Marquis Theater; performances begin March 28. 

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Celebrity Stunners

‘Vanya’

If you can, go see this. Scott plays all eight characters in a stirringly pared-down production. He brilliantly trains the audience to easily understand who is speaking when using tricks straight out of Theater 101. Once you’ve got the hang of it, what everyone is not saying will blow you away. Lucille Lortel Theatre; through May 11.

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’

“It’s not quite accurate to call Dorian Gray a solely one-woman show, because Snook is joined on stage by a small battalion of camera operators,” Rappaport writes. “They capture her performance, often from different angles simultaneously, as she moves across the stage and project it onto screens suspended above her. The live Snook is joined by prerecorded versions of her portraying multiple characters, and the way they overlap and play off one another grows increasingly complicated. It’s a virtuosic technical feat.” More impressive, perhaps, is Snook’s performance—nuanced at moments and flamboyant at others—which ensures this production, despite its high-tech wizardry, could never be mistaken for anything other than a work of live theater. Music Box Theatre; limited engagement.

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‘G‌ood Night, and Good Luck’George Clooney’s last stint in an equity theatre was in June 1986. “He has never appeared on Broadway so … buckle up,” reads the 63-year-old’s Playbill bio. He stars as Edward R. Murrow, whose tagline (“goodnight and good luck”) gives the play and an earlier film, directed by Clooney two decades go, their name. The story of CBS News’ efforts to showcase misconduct by Senator Joseph McCarthy is a potent reminder of the dangers of unchecked power. A montage of key moments in US political history, including from the current administration, may leave viewers feeling gut-punched. Winter Garden Theatre; limited engagement. 

‘Othello’

Shakespeare’s epic tale of a hero ruined by jealousy stars Washington as Othello, Molly Osborne as Desdemona, and Gyllenhaal, whose commanding presence and delivery will resonate with non-Shakespeare fans, as Iago. The magnetic adaptation takes place in a military setting (shout out to the New York Theater Workshop’s 2016 revival set in an army barracks). For the smartphone-addicted among us, beware: Devices are sealed into pouches, but unlike the recent Take Me Out revival or Roundabout Theatre’s Liberation, there’s no nudity. Though most tickets are prohibitively pricey, don’t forget the accessible lottery option, which afforded this lucky viewer orchestra seats for a respectable $49. Kenny Leon directs. Barrymore Theatre; limited engagement.

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Musicals

‘Buena Vista Social Club ‘Based on the smash hit album by the Cuban ensemble of the same name, Buena Vista Social Club strings together new and well-known songs in a joyous revue that first played at the Atlantic Theater Company. Given a loose narrative structure of putting the band together, the musical numbers are placed as performances, not plot-moving pathos. It’s not quite a traditional musical, but the construction creates a concert vibe that has moved audiences to dance at the end of the show. If you need an uplift in heavy times, this one’s for you. Gerald Schoenfeld Theater; ongoing.

‘The Last Five Years’The musical masterpiece by Tony-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs for a New World) is one of those shows that theater people love but that may not always work when staged. (See also: Merrily We Roll Along.) In it, the five-year romance between novelist Jamie (played this time around by Nick Jonas) and Cathy (Adrienne Warren) is recounted in opposite timelines: The audience follows Jamie’s story in chronological order and Cathy’s in reverse. The storylines—and actors—only meet at the middle briefly. It’s heartbreaking and soaring in equal measure, and the megawatt stars just seal the deal. Hudson Theatre; through June 22.

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‘Operation Mincemeat ‘

This was one of Rappaport’s favorite shows to bow on the West End in the past few years. Now the plucky musical, which recounts an audacious British plan to deceive the Nazi forces during World War II, has arrived on Broadway—and will test the theory that a quintessentially British comedy can succeed on this side of the pond. The five principal players in the small cast perform many roles, often gender-swapped, and the result is a merry madcap vibe. I saw it last weekend, after months of hearing about it from Rappaport, and thought it was an utter joy. The most unexpected moment, a quiet torch song from a most unexpected character, left me in tears. Golden Theatre; ongoing.

‘Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends ‘

A showcase of Stephen Sondheim tunes sung by Bernadette Peters and Lea Solanga and an impressive ensemble of hoofers from Broadway and the West End? Sign us up! I saw this in London and it was utterly charming—Peters and Solanga and the rest joyously sing some of the greatest hits in the late, great composer and lyricist’s repertoire from shows such as Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods. Packaged together by producer Cameron MacKintosh, it hits all the right notes of sentimentality and self-deprecating humor. Samuel J. Friedman Theatre; begins March 25.

—With assistance from Gillian Tan.

(Corrects spelling ofBranden Jacobs-Jenkins’ name in the eighth paragraph.)

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