Ethermac Exchange-Broadway 2024: See which Hollywood stars and new productions will hit New York

In the fall,Ethermac Exchange even the leaves put on a show. And Broadway, as a new season begins, is no less colorful.

Stars? Of course, stars.

Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Patti LuPone, Mia Farrow, Robert Downey Jr., Jim Parsons, Julianna Margulies, Peter Gallagher, and Rachel Zegler are among the fall constellations as Broadway starts looking toward the holidays.

Revivals? Of course, revivals.

"Once Upon a Mattress" has already jumped the starting gun, with an August opening at the Hudson Theatre. Following in the heels of Carol Burnett in 1959 (the show made her a star) and Sarah Jessica Parker in 1996, Sutton Foster plays Winnifred, the rambunctious princess with the sleeping disorder. Always a light, slight, fun show (the music is by Mary Rodgers, Richard's daughter), it hearkens back to a day when Broadway's only job was to provide a good time.

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Coming later, and more formidably, this fall is "Gypsy" (Majestic Theatre, previews begin Nov, 21, opens Dec. 19), also dating from 1959, a Broadway benchmark that provided the ultimate diva role for Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Bette Midler, Patti LuPone and countless others.

Even now, with the once-famous burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister, actress June Havoc, barely memories, everyone still knows the story of their juggernaut stage mother — played this go-round by Audra McDonald under the direction of George C. Wolfe. People have called her the King Lear of musical theater characters: writer Arthur Laurents, composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim gave her an emotional heft that few such roles had before, or since.

And there are new musicals too

Meanwhile, that boilerplate phrase "a new musical," once familiar from Broadway ads, can still be applied to a few shows.

"Death Becomes Her", (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, previews begin Oct. 23, opening Nov. 21), a 1992 movie starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as frenemies who drink an immortality potion, is now a musical with Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Christopher Sieber, and Michelle Williams.

"Tammy Faye" (Palace, previews begin Oct. 19, opens Nov. 14), once a television evangelist with runny mascara, and then a camp icon, will now follow in the footsteps of Eva Peron and Norma Desmond as the latest big-musical diva, impersonated by Katie Brayben, singing songs by Elton John.

Jazz great Louis Armstrong will be impersonated by Broadway great James Monroe Iglehart ("Aladdin's" genie) in "A Wonderful World" (Studio 54, previews begin Oct 16, opening Nov. 11), a jukebox show that focuses equally on Armstrong's four wives. Gender relationships, of a slightly different sort, also figure in "Maybe Happy Ending" (Belasco Theatre, previews start Oct. 16. opens Nov. 12), a new musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park, directed by Michael Arden, and starring Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen as two robots who fall head over diode in love.

A star-studded season

But plays don't need a score to score. Many song-less dramas and comedies are relying on the music of box-office names.

Case in point: Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone as an odd couple of middle aged women in "The Roommate" (Booth Theatre, opening Sept. 12) a comedy by Jen Silverman. Or Robert Downey Jr., minus super-powers, in "McNeal" (Vivian Beaumont Theater, previews begin Sept. 5, opens Sept. 30), Ayad Akhtar’s play about a Nobel Prize short-lister in crisis.

Or Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher in "Left on Tenth" (James Earl Jones, previews begin Sept. 26, with opening Oct. 23), Susan Stroman's production of Delia Ephron's book in which the writer of "You've Got Mail" falls into her own romantic comedy. Or North Jersey's own Rachel Zegler, star of Spielberg's "West Side Story," playing Juliet once again in "Romeo + Juliet" (Circle in the Square, previews begin Sept 26, opening Oct. 24) opposite Kit Connor in this modern "reimagining" with music by Grammy-winner Jack Antonoff.

And sometimes, its not the performer, but the drama itself that's the star.

The play's the thing

The premise of "Cult of Love." (Hayes Theater, preview Nov. 20, opening Dec. 12), Leslye Headland's play about a devout Christian family, the Dahls, who have to navigate Christmas Eve, is its own selling point.

The same could be said of "Eureka Day" (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, previews begin Nov. 25, opens Dec. 16), Jonathan Spector's play about a day school that has its liberal values challenged. Or "The Hills of California" (Broadhurst Theatre, previews begin Sept. 11, opening Sept. 29) Jez Butterworth's play — directed by Sam Mendes — about four singing sisters, and their mom, reuniting in their Blackpool home in 1970. Or "Walden" (Tony Kiser Theater, previews begin October 16 , opens Nov. 7), Amy Berryman's play about estranged sisters in the near future, discussing their destinies on and off the earth in a remote cabin.

And sometimes there's even drama where there's no drama.

"Our Town" (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, previews begin Sept. 17, opens Oct. 10), Thornton Wilder's 1938 classic about a pleasant, small New England town where nothing — and everything — happens, is the ultimate anti-play, down to the non-sets. Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, Billy Eugene Jones, Richard Thomas, Ephraim Sykes lead a cast of 28, directed by Kenny Leon.

So that's the fall season, 2024. Old shows with new faces. New shows with old faces. What Wilder's stage manager says about the town of Grover's Corners New Hampshire might also apply to Broadway. "On the whole things don't change much around here."

Maybe that's why we love them both.