#louis = gay little meow meow

[unamused-kookaburra]

My understanding of iwtv before the influx of posts on my dash: gay vampires

My understanding of iwtv now: toxic gay vampire theatre company

[moonisneveralone]

This fandom is simply annoying as hell. I can't describe it in any other way. And it's specifically that most of y'all have superiority complex and an addiction to be vindicated by internet randos with no care or wish to be vindicated on an interlectual level.

First of all there have been significant changes made to the source material. Important material changes. And it's quite frankly sad that most of y'all are so used to colorblind casting that you don't realize the significance of making a character black. It quite literally changes everything. And because most of y'all don't know anything about black history, culture, storytelling etc. and don't have black friends, y'all would have engage with that aspect of the series retroactively, but most of y'all don't want to do that. The story had to signigificantly change from the book, because Louis is not a slave owner, but black instead. And Lestat is not broke, but rich. The powerdynamic at the time of their meeting has completely changed, but y'all wanna keep ignoring that. Because that's work and there is no instant gratification from strangers online, so the black people who constantly post detailed analysis are wrong. Not you. Actually they're hysterical and so weak. They couldn't deal with what happens in the book. And you just wait flr season two. That'll show them.

And you aren't weak. You're strong because you're right. Right? They're gonna be so hysterical when they find out their little meow meow isn't all that innocent....but y'all are projecting. Cause y'all couldn't stand even the slightest criticism either.

Cause we watched the same series right? Louis almost ate his nephew, he accelerated a race riot, he turned a child to ease his guilt and then became a homebody, effectively doing nothing to help the black people he supposedly wanted to support. Everything about him screams conservative who is unfortunately a vampire, black and gay. If any of y'all knew anything about the black people in this fandom, you would know that.

Nobody has an issue with Louis being critcised. We criticise him all the time. Y'all just wanna absolve Lestat so bad it's making y'all look stupid as hell. I truely mean that. Louis isn't a perfect victim and neither is Claudia she's literally a serial killer. There are so many things that both of them have actually done, but somehow y'all only remember to mention that to salvage Lestats honor or something. Like you can't stand to have someone see him as anything but a perfect character who would never hurt someone he loves (physically). But black fans are weak though...wait till they find out though?

Right y'all were so strong and patient when episode five came out. I forgot 😒

[hoverboards-and-dragons]

Loui: It's always "poor little meow meow" or "evil bastard" or "I could make him worse." What about men who are normal? What about men who pay taxes and are well adjusted individuals and not at all insane?

Cali: Okay, husband of Florida, you clearly only enjoy the most hinged of men.

Loui: ...Don't know if I can defend myself here.

-----------------------------------------

Gov: You've never once done jury duty or paid your taxes.

Florida: Not until gay marriage is legal everywhere.

[avhies20]

Since the year is ending, I'd like to talk about my top 5 favorite shows of this year. There's a lot of really good show releases this year, but these are the ones that I personally loved. [Alt text are available in the images]

5. Interview with the Vampire

This is such a good adaptation. The writing, production, and casting is phenomenal. Also, I'd like to say props to them for acknowledging the issues Louis would have experienced during that time period. It brought so much depth to the character. I also love how Claudia came into the picture. That was a change that I personally loved more than the book version. The performance of Bailey Bass as Claudia made it even better. I think her episode was my favorite. It really showed how disturbing and tragic her situation was. I'd also like to appreciate Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson's electrifying chemistry together. Both of them made Louis and Lestat's story more interesting for me.

Lastly, I am beyond happy that they made this show so gay. Like they fully embraced it, without shame. I love this show for it.

4.1899

As a long time Dark fan, I was so excited for this show. Although I admit, I wanted more from it. Still I enjoyed watching this season and I truly believe that things would get even better once we get to the next season (if there is one 👀).

What I loved the most from this is the fact that the characters are speaking in different languages and are from different countries. Like they really spoke their native languages instead of making them just speak in english with foreign accents. Because of that we got to see the characters navigate their way through the language barriers and build meaningful connections.

Now I'd like to talk about what distracted me the most... Eyk and Maura's chemistry. There's just something about them that I really really dig (Angst? Longing? Them being so touchy together? All of the above?). Although, I'd like to say I still like Daniel. I feel like the whole story behind him would be heart breaking.

3.The Sandman

This was my most anticipated show for August, it was like an early birthday present for me. I truly enjoyed this show, especially Tom Sturridge's performance as poor little meow meow, baby girl, blorbo Morpheous. The way he made his eyes teary-eyed all the time is such a perfect acting choice. Kirby Howell-Baptiste also delivered as the lovely Death. She really made the character as loving and caring as possible. Watching her sibling dynamic with Sturridge as Dream is all I've ever wished for. Mason Alexander Park of course brought Desire truly come to life in this adaptation. I hope we get to see more of their performance next season.

My favorite episode would probably be episode 4 to 6. Those three episodes are a package deal considering the themes that they handled. Also, I'd like to acknowledge the wonderful surprise episode 11. I am totally in love with how they gracefully and respectfully they handled Calliope's story. They gave her agency and respected her as an actual character. I also loved the short interactions she had with Morpheus, especially the "you came" ...."you called" scene, that was so jdkfjeifjbcisibsjsjk ( I can't describe what I felt but I was a mess when that scene came up).

2.Severance

Wow, this show was a last minute watch for me and it was so good it made my top 5. This show had such a good mix of mystery, sci-fi, tension, drama, and a little bit of comedy. I also did not expect to love the characters of this show. Each of the characters had something equally interesting going on, it wasn't just the protagonist who had something to do. Honestly, I'm surprised with how well they fleshed out the characters, even though they're still in season 1.

What really cemented this show in my top 5 is its finale. My gosh, it was so thrilling and suspenseful. I also think that this show's finale is an example of a cliff hanger done right. They answered some questions, left out some unanswered ones, and ended the finale with a bang (not an action packed scene, but enough to make you stand up the couch and scream "NO! that's it!?).

I think this show has a potential to be one of the best sci-fi tv series of all time if they do it right until the end.

1.Andor

This year I thought my top favorite show would be The Sandman, but Andor came in and landed right at the top. I'm not even a Star Wars fan, just a casual viewer, but this show was excellent in a lot of ways. This show at its core, is a well-done spy thriller set in space. It's got 12 episodes with 4 different arcs that truly delivered. This show also managed to tackle social and political issues of today, with such care.

This show also had incredible production, writing, direction, set design, vfx, editing , and the soundtrack is *chef's kiss*. It is such a high quality show. I hope they get a lot of praise and awards because this show really deserves it. Also, this show is so quotable. I can't even pick a favorite because they're just so many.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about Cassian's development here because the finale came full circle. Episode 1 Cassian and Episode 12 Cassian had such a stark difference. I cannot wait where his arc is going in the next season. I hope we get to see something about his sister, because I want something happy for him at least.

[sunnydotjpeg]

king ludwig II of bavaria is the most pathetic little gayboy meow meow of any historical figure i've heard of so far

man lived as a recluse in his castle, ate meals alone and even refused to see his servants, spent his time designing other castles all while surrounded by portraits of his big gay crush king louis XV of france

[firegiftlouis]

The Groan showing up when Daniel mentions Marius, yeah I think the Groan and Armand are connected in some way like that meta said.

Lol Daniel immediately implying that he thinks Rashid and Louis are fucking, kinda begs the question what has he seen at this point to lead him to that conclusion 😂 like is it journalistic instincts? Gay dar? What?

Louis calling that single tear earlier an “outburst” you’re so unwell 💕

Although it does remind me that Louis was way more…impassioned last episode, more intense. Like when he’s describing wanting to slit Lestat’s throat or describing his turning. Now for a lot of this episode he’s almost weirdly detached, it’s like what someone said a while back, that he had Armand relobotomize him lol.

(TW for disordered eating just in case)

Since this is the dinner episode I’m tracking what Louis eats since we all know this man has a “complicated” relationship with food to say the least.

I forgot to mention this last week but even as a human we barely see him take a bite of food or anything, the most we see him do is drink alcohol but unless I’m mistaken I can’t think of a single moment he took a bite of something on screen. Which is interesting to note since his excuse for supposedly leaving the opera early was because he was hungry and went to get some dinner. Hmmm…..

Just looked up how much Blood a blood bag can carry and it’s somewhere between 250ml to 350ml (for the metrically challenged peeps like me that’s about 0.52 to 0.74 pints). So, so far Louis has had less than a pint of human blood tonight.

I’m also curious about when this episode takes place, it’s definitely session two but it’s hard to tell if this is the same day or the next day? Daniel doesn’t bother giving a date or time this time which seems to imply it’s the same day, since evening had just fallen by the end of the first ep.

So I think I’m gonna go with it still being the same day as episode one just the night time, Louis and Daniel took a break after Louis’ “outburst” and showered and got dressed for their lil dinner date (I mean look at all these candles? Romantic much?). Also Daniel asking for the music to be turned down never fails to take me out. This show is a comedy 💕

Louis choking and retching was literally me earlier when I tried taking a mucinex pill and nearly choked on it lol not to overstate but I’m going through it today 🙃

I feel like I said this a while ago but I like to think Louis seeing all those weird colors and lights was the point in his transformation where his brain (thinking it’s dying) started releasing those chemicals that are apparently really hallucinogenic when a person is dying, and that’s why he’s basically “high” during this night.

“You were fucking loaded” indeed Danny lol.

I don’t care what you say Lestat let Louis get some sailor dick!! You’d be avoiding so many problems if you had 😤

Ok but seriously tho, Claudia’s first kill got to be a cop (a fantasy plenty of Black people both then and now have lol) and she took to killing like a natural! Making Louis’ first kill some boring father of some kid somewhere that probably didn’t even taste good enough for the wait to be worth it (and overshadow the guilt) is at least some of why Louis hates killing, I’m convinced.

If he fucked and ate the sailor he would see that vampirism can be fun, sexy, and tasty, also he gotta learn how to lure away his prey at some point right? And there’s no way you couldn’t have made everyone forget where he was or something lol.

“Louis you’re scaring the hoe” I don’t know Lestat, that look you giving Louis is way scarier thank Louis’ little meow meow 🥺 look 😂.

“Just to be clear here gents, we are here to talk about farm equipment.” Lol sure man.

“I knew it I knew you-” lmaoooo you knew what sir? I seriously doubt you were thinking vampires, or even serial killers.

It’s giving “girl what we’re YOU doing at the devil’s sacrament gay vampire house 👀”

Ok starting the second episode today I’m fucking tired and have no idea if I can get through the third today as well but we’ll see 😭

[rinadragomir]

Poor book fan reacts to IWTV episode 1 🧛

Timeline in question. Daniel is an old man he always feared to be AND without his Armand🥺 and it's their 2 interview cause?... I don't understand, why you had to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place?

1910😒

God bless Jacob Anderson

Obsessively religious Paul check ✅

RIP Lestat's silky hair, you were forgotten by the showrunners, but never by me 🪦

Miss Lily who?

I must say all the actors do a good job but Sam Reid's acting is just on another level, he understood his character so well that it creates a problem. Every time he's not on the screen I'm getting bored. So far, he's the most charismatic character in this show. (I chose to ignore the hair yes ;-;)

"He's not white he's French" Louis—

Louis family at dinner was like

Lots of people say they made Louis less sophisticated and more rough without a reason. I would say that's pretty canon Louis but they made him more...resolute? That's not a bad change ONLY if in the future Louis doesn't accuse Lestat of manipulating him. Cause book Louis was kinda suggestible and show Louis makes all his choices consciously.

And if you read books you know that LOUIS HAD SOME ANGER ISSUES when it came to Lestat so it's canon. I'm just upset he doesn't suffer enough, HE SHOULD SUFFER EVERY SECOND OF HIS LIFE it's his thing🤌🏻

"The Earth's a savage garden" NO YOU DUMB WHORE U WERE SUPPOSED TO SAY "Beauty was a Savage Garden" or "The mind of each man is a Savage Garden" YOU CHEAP COPYCAT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

I'm sorry I can't control it🙇🏼‍♀️

Sex scene was interesting. Everyone's talking about flying gays but I wanna talk about how Louis was eating Lily out and she just fell asleep. I know Lestat made her do it but if I were Louis I would cry���

Why does Louis react so casually to all Lestat's vampire shit? He's just like 🤷🏾"he's French" it's funny and all but why tho?

Paul's death was HILARIOUS 😭✋WHY DID THEY MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THIS my roommate laughed for like 3 minutes straight

Family blaming Louis check ✅

Thank God Lestat's back I was dying here. No wonder he's the main character in most books

Oh the final is honestly the best part of this episode. Lestat goes mad and violent so beautifully 😍 my little meow meow

Louis voice-over fucked up that scene. Like I'm not this stupid, I can understand what he's thinking right now without you explaining it to me thanks showrunners

My blood kink feels seen and appreciated 🥰

In conclusion: 7/10 - worth watching

Pros: Lestat's acting, Louis/ Lestat chemistry

Cons: old Daniel without his Armand; interview scenes (voice-over) pop up when we, as an audience, don't actually need them; not enough Lestat/Louis scenes where we could see their connection. It's a tv show, not a podcast, I don't wanna listen to what great moments they shared together, I WANNA ACTUALLY SEE IT OKAY? Like Louis was sitting in the car counting money with a satisfied smile bit the voice-over says he felt terrible 🥺 like WHERE

[zephyr-mew]

twitter: @ZyxousMew

fandoms I'm currently love very much

✨Yakuza (mainly Infinite Wealth)✨ Ichi ❤️ Masato 🖤 Zhao 💛 Nishiki ❤️‍🩹 (!!untagged spoilers will be happening!!)

I have SO MANY FEELINGS-- • kiryuichi when • polycule when • dub defender, hearing people actually speak like local boys is wild (it actually feels like here!! ;w;) dub obispo my beloved

fave boys: (I've got love in my heart for most of the boys tbh)

ichi • kiryu • masato • zhao • daigo • ryoma • majima • akiyama • nishiki • yamai • tomi • adachi • shinada • kaito •

fave ships: (I ship most things ngl, this is by no means an exhaustive list)

kiryuichi • masaichi • kiryuichitomi • kiryuichizhao • tomiyamai • nishikiryu • masadai • ichizhaohan • minedai • kirinan • ebisawa • yamaichi • shinakitani • shinadai •

honestly anything yakuza has consumed my soul, so that's uh,, kinda it right now lmao

×

faves of yore

📺 RTVS + Friends 📺

love all of them so much 💜

🌌 Arcana 💚Muriel💚❤️Julian❤️💜Asra💜

mash these boys together in every which way and I'll die happy 💜 also lucio/valerius fucks. unfortunately a simp for devil lucio

Jerma

jerma

Stanley Parable

ultra deluxe reignited my love for this :3 check out the demo, it's a completely separate thing from the main game + absolutely worth playing

Homestar Runner

a formative childhood experience + permanent vocabulary alterer

Jak and Daxter

Jak ✔️ Erol ✔️ Torn ✔️

Hotel Dusk + Last Window

thinkin bout Hyde... and Jeff... and Charles... and Louis... and Tony...

Dan Vs

official episodes are all free on youtube 👀 all my love for this fucked up little dude

Subeta

honestly the best avatar and pet site I've ever seen, hmu @ LyricZephyr for buddy gold account gifts :3 please they're just sitting there uselessly otherwise

Ace Attorney

Apollo best boy ❤️ haven't played anything past 5 tbh, they did my boy dirty and I needed a long break from the fandom

OFMD

izzy meow meow - particularly fond of steddyhands and rizzy

Hotline Miami

×

other things that I have liked at some point under the cut

A Way Out

acab ✌️

Animal Crossing

Kicks is bae, he's the only one who didn't make a Big Fucking Deal of me trying on femme stuff as a guy back in New Leaf

Be My Princess

Roberto my love my life ❤️

Beginner's Guide

Bugsnax

these bitches gay, your honor

Cause of Death

iOS game that shut down in like 2010 ;_; I miss Mal. and Kai. Fun fact, I shipped Mal with Hyde from Hotel Dusk - mainly bc they're both detectives lol. nevermind the fact that they're in different time periods

Créme de la Créme

from Choice Of games - literally writing up a whole rec post for this, there's so many queer options it's great

Dem Salty Bois + Friends

Pat 💜 Wade 🐔 Gar 🐺 JP 🍍 special guest BreadHeroDan 🍞

Dragon Age Origins + 2 + Inquisition

tbh I haven't personally played much, but I watched a lot of my sibling's playthroughs. I've got a soft spot for a lot of these guys. god I wish I didn't have to draw/commission stuff myself to see more of my inquisitor/warden/hawke

Dream Daddy

Damien especially 💜

Fire Emblem Awakening + Fates

admittedly weak for takumi. and a lot of the boys tbh. maaaybe someday I'll play 3H

Gabriel Knight 3

why this. damn my weakness for shitty 90s games and a sassy bitch boy with chaotic bi vibes

Journey

Legend of Dragoon

The Longing

the scronkly bab ;w;

Markiplier

look

Metal Gear Solid 1-3

I haven't played myself, but I grew up watching my sibling play these a lot. Ocelot's stupid hand guns gesture and Raiden slipping on bird shit are forever burned into my brain.

Motorcity

lost before its time

My Little Pony

Braeburn 💛

Osomatsu-san

def a Karamatsu boy 💙

Oxboxtra

Persona 3/4/5/Q

tbh I've only fully finished 3s male mc route and q, the rest I've roughly half finished? I'm aware of 4s major spoiler, somehow never seen 5s I think - but honestly, I don't care about spoilers for this fandom. yusuke best boy

Portal

Professor Layton 1-6

Punch-Out Wii + Super

I don't know why I love these characters as much as I do, but hey

Return of the Obra Dinn

Sam & Max

alas I am not immune to Jergen the goth german vampire and his fucking doorknocker-ass nipple piercings

Sims 2 DS

I like Sims in general, but this particular weirdass game had a stranglehold on me for a hot minute

Smosh

Sorted Food

Stumpt

Tales Runner

Rough... Kai... Ocean... Maki... I forget what they changed their names to in the newest server, they're dumb and I'm not using them

TF2

trucks 👏 n 👏 vans // hmu for my decade-old playlist of sfms and music~

Wild Kratts

stg Chris looks like Apollo Justice, Martin looks like Chris Dan Vs, Zach looks like Dan Dan Vs... what is up with this

Witcher

I'm gay

Wolf Among Us

I just,, really like Bigby okay

~

for any youtube types, hmu for my most likely absurdly long playlists of them ✌️

[koko2unite]

bstars for the ask game!

blorbo is Louis because he is depressed and relatable

scrunkly is Legosi, i don't care what everyone says, he is my scrunkly he is not himbo he is scrunkly

my scrimblo bimblo is aoba and i think aoba and bill should hold hands maybe a little cuddle (oh wait, they already did)

my glup shitto is that zoe from the drama club

my poor little meow meow is MELON OFCOURSE HE IS MY meow meow i will protect him (goth text)

horse plinko and eeby deeby is (haha) yahya and yes i think it's funny the only canon gay main character from beastars goes to superhell

[couldyouspeakmyname]

For the mods:

FMK

1. Legosi, Jack, Louis

2. Ibuki, Free, Agata

3. Bill, Tao, Dom

This may be ~kontrovershal~ but here it goes 1. Fuck Louis Marry Jack Kill Legosi Louis is probably great in bed since he's so experienced. Jack is pretty close to the ideal personality type I'd want in a husband. I'm just not attracted to Legosi unlike 99% of the fandom. 2. Fuck Free Marry Ibuki Kill Agata While Free is my favoriiiite I don't think he'd make good marriage material. Ibuki seems like he'd be mature enough to be a good husband/father. I never got the hype around Agata and I just don't care for him. 3. Fuck Dom Marry Tao Kill Bill I don't hate Bill I just think he'd be awful in bed. Dom may be gay but idk I think he'd treat me better LOL. Tao is my beloved little meow meow. -Lexi 1. Marry Jack, Fuck Louis, Kill Legoshi...sorry y’all. Jack will always be the best husband. At least Louis is reasonable...Legoshi drives me bonkers

2. Why....Why would you do this to me. My bois. My babies. 

Marry - Free, I’m sorry I just love him and his chaos and how he can read those around him and I just-

Fuck - Agata. He’s a good boi and I-

Kill - No one, I’d rather yeet myself off the cliff and be eaten by the shark

3. Kill Bill. No hesitation. 

Fuck - Tao...I guess???

Marry - Dom, for the benefits of being married. We’d pool our finances and live deliciously with our side pieces 

-Maeve

[coconutbalm]

holy grail fic rec

since all i do is read fic i figured i should share my faves 

also these are all larry fics sorry

devil town a southern us au

so keep my candle bright  louis returns to his hometown after four years to find that the reverend’s son has done some growing up of his own.

this wicked game  An AU in which The Bachelor is gay, Louis is a contestant, Harry is the bachelor, everyone drinks a lot of champagne, the entire world gets to watch them fall in love, and no one plays by the rules.

tug-of-war  Louis' husband dies suddenly and he is left with nothing. Well, not really nothing. He has Harry. And a St. Bernard puppy named Link, whom his late husband left behind for him. Louis takes care of Link and Harry takes care of Louis. Everything is okay until suddenly, it isn't.

i’ll make this feel like home  Harry can't sleep because the cat next door won't stop meowing. He goes over to confront its owner, things go surprisingly well, and the cat ends up being the cutest thing that he's ever seen. Well, besides its omega owner.A love story quickly blossoms.

we’ll be the stars  When cleaning out his grandmothers art supplies, Harry finds a magical paintbrush that brings to life anything he paints. So he decides to paint his dead fiancé, Louis.

happiness comes in on tiptoes  the AU where Louis is new to the neighborhood and Harry is the angel living next door.

keep on dreaming, this is hollywood  A Pretty Woman AU where Louis is the high-powered businessman and Harry is the hooker. No, there is no necklace scene, but there is definitely piano sex.

have you coming back again It’s five o’clock in the morning. Louis has a lecture at half eight. He could be using this time to study or to do his readings or to go to the gym, but - well. He doesn’t have any exams coming up, he’s not going to his seminar today anyway and he hates the gym.Instead he’s using this time to fuck with Harry Styles’ poor little brain.

          just a feeling  The first time that Harry thinks about marriage in relation to Louis, he’s eighteen years old, standing in the middle of a crowded frat house, six drinks down and another in his hand

glitter/gold series

here in the afterglow  1970’s AU. In a tiny town in Idaho, Louis’ life is changed forever by the arrival of a curious stranger. 

if i should stay  Louis is a television actor who suddenly needs a bodyguard. Harry is the bodyguard he ends up hiring.

210 days  Harry is in the army and Louis is back in New York. Together, they get through Harry's six month leave by sending a series of letters back and forth. They've done it before, and they can do it again.

another hazy may  louis is a terrible poet and harry lives in the now and they have six weeks to fall in love but, really, it only takes six seconds. bookshop meets military meets summer romance au ft. marlboros, the backstreet boys, and underrated literary devices.

a love like war  the one in which Louis Tomlinson is a cliched rock star, he's got everything except for love. But then he meets Harry Styles; the man that, against all odds, saves him in every way a person can be saved, even when Louis didn't know he needed saving in the first place.

all the right moves  This is the third game in a row that Harry has been distracted by the noisy boy in the stands, five rows back.

do not go gentle into that good night the one 1997 AU where Harry is a bank robber and Louis falls in love with him

fading  Louis knows about beauty; the combination of qualities that pleases the aesthetic senses. He creates that combination every day in the garments he designs while studying fashion at uni. The cut of the design, the color of the fabric, the intricacy of the stitching; it all comes together to create something beautiful. When the science student with the long legs and dimpled smile agrees to model for him, Louis decides he’s found beauty personified. Harry just thinks Louis needs someone to show him how beautiful he is. (read the tags)

it’s in the love  Harry is sorta punk and never stops staring at Louis.

and i know these scars will bleed  Harry has anger issues and he meets Louis in a rehab center

love endless (the road to recollection) The year is groovy 1973, and eighteen-year-old Louis Tomlinson is perhaps the gayest teen to ever grace the gloomy, hateful town of Fortwright. Would be fine if he wasn't so viciously bullied at both home and school for such a "harmful" sexual preference.Yeah, yeah, we've all heard this story, haven't we? Believe him, Louis didn't think he was anything special either.Until he found the mansion. The notoriously haunted mansion hidden deep within the forests of his tiny blip of a town in Bumfuck Nowhere, Idaho. No one with a brain ever goes near it, but Louis could use a little excitement in his life...and possibly a Band-Aid or two.

autumn leaves  Harry is an American soldier in France during World War II, and Louis is a French waiter that doesn't mean to fall in love with him.

a life that we share (i owe it all to you)  Harry's son get bullied until Louis' son shows up

adore you  Against his wishes, Harry spends the holidays at his family’s summer estate, and is reluctantly pulled into a courtship he didn’t ask for. Harry doesn’t want to get married, but Louis does. They don’t fit, but then again they really, really do.

never be  The one where Harry Styles moves to Connecticut from England for nine months as a part of a study abroad program, and he just so happens to move in with Louis Tomlinson and family.

falling slowly  Louis is a quiet and shy famous football player who has a secret obsession with fish and Harry is a photographer who talks enough for the both of them.

since i’ve found you  Louis woke up on the morning he was meant to volunteer at the Feed the Homeless program at St. Mary's church hoping for an opportunity to give back a little to a city that has given him everything he could ever want. Little did he know, there was one more great thing waiting there for him; a boy with radiant green eyes in a weathered jacket and a beat-up backpack slung over his shoulders.

swim in the smoke “What about this, Captain?” Liam asks, nudging the boy kneeling between their feet with the toe of his boot. The boy hisses and swipes at him, slurring out something unintelligible around the makeshift gag Niall had to stuff in his mouth. He misses by a mile and tries again, just as ineffectively.Harry looks down at him, at the way the sun streams over his face and shoulders, at the way the gag stretches his mouth, lips pink and chapped. He’s lithe and pretty, smudged all over with dirt. They had found him tied up below deck, mostly unconscious, next to a barrel full of gold. He’s clearly a prisoner, but there’s something familiar about him, something that niggles at Harry’s brain. Something he can’t quite put his finger on.“Put him in my cabin,” Harry decides, turning back to deal with the rest of the loot. The boys screams out jumbled curse words at Harry’s back, muffled by the gag, and Harry can’t understand any of it.

but the world looks better through your eyes  Harry loves to see him doing things he loves. Whether it's being on stage in front of a crowd of thousands, playing football, reading to his sisters, or rubbing Harry's feet (maybe not that last one) Harry lives for the moments he gets to see Louis so completely in his element. Because, while Louis doing something as simple as brushing his teeth is breathtaking to Harry, watching him practice his knee kicks in the backyard is almost otherworldly. Louis seems to glow from the inside out- still is, even in this bar- and Harry can never get enough. (also my best friend wrote this so you have to read it) 

we’ll cast some light (you’ll be alright)   There’s a standard procedure for this. Scan, track, kill. But with a solar eclipse and a Greater Demon with unfinished business looming, the path to keeping England safe from harm becomes complicated and shadowed by mystery and secrets. For Harry and his team, times have never been harder, especially when a few old friends turned foes show up. Harry is left with just over forty days to overcome the hurdle of tension between them and reconcile their past, and figure out just what Louis is hiding from him before it’s too late.

have fun & read responsibly 

[newyorktheater]

Novenas for a Lost Hospital

Peter Dinklage, Cyrano

The Second Woman, a 24-hour play at BAM

Playwright Stephen Adly Gurigis

Cole Porter at the York

Tony Kushner at the Public

Samuel D. Hunter

Mfoniso Udofia

Ntoszke Shange

Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway. There are revivals of Tony Kushner’s first play, and Ntozake Shange’s best known “choreopoem,” new musicals with books by David Henry Hwang and Enda Walsh, a wild new 24-hour play, and a modern rewrite of Medea starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. There are new plays by Harvey Fierstein, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Lucas Hnath Samuel D. Hunter, Martyna Majok, Richard Nelson, Jack Thorne (of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”), Mfoniso Udofia, and Meow Meow.

Like Broadway, Off-Broadway has its share of stars — among them this season, Peter Dinklage, Raúl Esparza, Jonathan Groff, Judith Ivey… and every star on Broadway, in caricature, thanks to the return of Forbidden Broadway. Unlike Broadway, Off-Broadway doesn’t come neatly packaged. (See my Broadway 2019-2020 Preview Guide.) Instead of 41 theaters within a few blocks of one another, there are hundreds of Off-Broadway theaters and theater companies spread out throughout the city.

So how to sort it all out?

The shows I just mentioned are being presented by the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop,  Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and some of the  other theaters that have proven reliable season after season, presenting shows I’ve consistently found satisfying, or at least worthwhile.

That is why, below, I present the Off-Broadway Fall season largely by grouping the shows together with the theater that’s presenting or producing them. I order the list of theaters more or less according to my preference for them (determined by such factors as their recent track record, the promise of the new season, and by the overall experience I’ve had with the theater as theatergoer and critic.) There is an added advantage to looking at the Off-Broadway season this way: Most of these theaters offer memberships or subscriptions. (Keep in mind this preview just lists the first half of their 2019-2020 seasons. I’ll put together a Spring preview in January..)

After my favorite theaters, I list some individual shows from other venues that look particularly intriguing.

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(The asterisk *, explained more fully at the bottom, indicates the four theatrical empires that are both on and Off Broadway. Listed here are only their Off-Broadway offerings. Again, go to my Broadway preview guide for the rest)

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially curious, and at least hopeful. (I’ll only know if I was right to be interested once I see them.)

THE PUBLIC THEATER

425 Lafayette Street and in Central Park. Twitter: @PublicTheaterNY

From A Chorus Line to  Hamilton, the Public has served as a kind of feeder theater for Broadway (Seawall/A Life and Girl From The North Country this season alone) but the downtown empire that Joe Papp created half a century ago is not successful because of its commercial aspirations, but largely in spite of them.  It often takes artistic risks that many institutions its size avoid.

Hercules

This staging of a 1997 Disney cartoon was the latest of the Public Works’ “pageants” involving hundreds of amateur performers who belong to community partner organizations from all five boroughs. My review.

Soft Power

An odd and hilarious fever dream imagining an American musical as created by theatermakexs in a future dominant Chinese society, created by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home; Violet; Caroline, or Change)

For Colored Girls

October 8 – November 24. Opens October 22nd.

A revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enough,” an unlikely Tony-nominated  hit on Broadway in 1976 that Shange (who died last October) called a “choreopoem.” It tells the stories of seven black women using poetry, song, and movement.

The Michaels

October 19 – November 17. Opens October 27

Richard Nelson, best-known for his multi-part, low key, in real time family sagas The Apple Family plays and The Gabriels:Election Year in the Life of One Family, brings us another one. In the kitchen belonging Rose Michael, a celebrated choreographer, she and those around her cook dinner, rehearse modern dances, eat and talk — about art, death, family, dance, politics, and the state of America. The seven-member cast includes Nelson regulars Jay O. Sanders and Maryann Plunkett.

√ A Bright Room Called Day

October 29 – December 8

A revival of this 1985 play by Tony Kushner, which was his first, and which he partially rewrites. Agnes, an actress in Weimar Germany, and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends, are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Her story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and a new character, facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America.

  BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC

Three buildings in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, including BAM Harvey at 651 Fulton St. Twitter: @BAM_Brooklyn

BAM dates back to 1861, but for decades now it has been known for its avant-garde offerings in dance, music, opera, film, and, yes, theater, primarily in its  Next Wave Festival  presented annually in the Fall.  The theater pieces — some are too sui generis to be called plays or musicals — have consisted largely of imports from Europe, and have short runs (sometimes just a day or two.) I list BAM high up this year because it’s under a new artistic director David Binder (indeed the first head of BAM with that title.) Binder is both a Tony-winning Broadway producer (a dozen shows starting with the 2004 revival of “Raisin in the Sun”) and an adventurous impresario — the original as well as the Broadway producer of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and producer of festivals featuring such groundbreaking theater artists as Anna Deavere Smith and Taylor Mac.

Swan Lake

October 15-20

Ireland’s Michael Keegan-Dolan deconstructs the classic love story between a prince and a female who’s a swan by day and a human by night.

The Second Woman

October 18

An only-at-BAM kind of show. Over a period of 24 hours, one woman and 100 men preform repeat the same scene 100 times, with different results. It’s inspired by Cassavetes’ meta-theatrical 1977 film Opening Night. Stay as little or as long as you want.

What If They Went To Moscow

Oct 23-27

Based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters,but experimental with audience reactions to two different media. Two audiences in different BAM theaters watch the live performance of the show — one on stage, the other as a film — and then switch at intermission.

√ Hamnet

October 30 – November 3

Irish theater company Dead Centre, inspired by Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11, creates a play about a boy searching for his father

User Not Found

Nov 6-16

A site-specific work that invites you to be a voyeur, and asks the question: What happens to your digital life after you’re gone?

The End of Eddy

Nov 14-21

A stage adaptation of the autobiographical novel by Édouard Louis, written when he was 21 years old, about being bullied for being gay. Part of a series of events celebrating Édouard Louis in collaboration with St. Ann’s Warehouse (See below.)

Barber Shop Chronicles

Dec 3 – 8

Nigerian-British playwright Inua Ellams weaves a rich tapestry of unfiltered stories about father-son relationships and black masculinity, set to an Afrobeat score, and set in barbershops in six different cities (none of them in the U.S.)

In Many Hands

Dec 11 – 15

Exploring our relationship to touch, New Zealand-bred artist Kate McIntosh does away with the stage and performers, convening a small group of spectators for an intimate shared adventure through the particularities and nuances of our tactile sense

A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show

Dec 12-14

Using satire and music, the performer known as Meow Meow meditates on the perils, pleasures, and actual point of the season

√ Medea

Jan 12 – Feb 23

(Technically not in the Fall season, but hard to omit) Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale star in writer-director Simon Stone’s rewrite of the Euripides tragedy.

LINCOLN CENTER THEATER*

@LCTheater

The shows at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway venues are inexpensive (especially at the Claire Tow theater, where initial-run tickets cost $20) and often rewarding. I’m hoping that someday they will be literally more inviting to independent New York theater critics. The two offerings this Fall look especially exciting.

Power Strip

October 5 – November 17. Opens October 21.

In this new play by Sylvia Khoury, Yasmin, a young Syrian refugee, spends her days tethered to an electric power strip in a Greek refugee camp, discovering that she must forget everything she values in order to survive.

√Greater Clements

November 14 to January 19. Opens December 9.

Samuel D. Hunter’s new play takes place in the fictional town of Greater Clements, Idaho, a mining community where properties are being purchased by wealthy out-of-state people, forcing out lifelong residents. Judith Ivey portray Maggie, ready to shut down her family-run Mine Tour and Museum, when an old friend pays a visit. Although I’ve never been to Idaho,  I’ve liked every Hunter play I’ve ever seen, from Whale to Lewiston/Clarkston.

NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP

79 East 4th Street. Twitter: @NYTW79

NYTW has gotten much attention this past year for presenting three shows that (eventually) moved to Broadway, Heidi Schreck’s “What The Constitution Means To Me,” the multi-Tony winning  “Hadestown”  and now “Slave Play” — quite a roll.

In the new season, there are no dates listed yet for all but the first two of their 2019-2010 shows

Runboyrun & In Old Age

September 4, 2019—October 13, 2019

The latest two chapters from Mfoniso Udofia nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle, about a Nigerian-American family.  (Sojourners and Her Portmanteau from the cycle were seen at NYTW in 2017). The two dramas are performed as a single evening of work,

Sing Street

The same team that turned the movie “Once” into a beloved musical have now hope the reaction will be the same for their new musical based on a movie. With a book by Enda Walsh, “Sing Street” takes us to Dublin in 1985 and focuses on 16-year-old Conor and his schoolmates, who turn to music to escape troubles at home and impress a mysterious girl. Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) will direct.

Endlings

On the Korean island of Man-Jae, three elderly haenyeos—sea women—spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood. Across the globe on the island of Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, twice an immigrant, spends her days wrestling with the expectation that she write “authentic” stories about her identity.

Sanctuary City

What are we willing to sacrifice for somebody we love?  This is a new play by Martyna Majok, Putlizer winning playwright of “Cost of Living.,” who in such dramas as Ironbound and “queens” has given a voice to the new immigrant.  NYTW has put this play on its schedule twice before. Let’s hope it’ll be ready this time, though surely not until the Spring.

  PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

416 W. 42nd St. Twitter: @PHNYC

Annie Baker’s “The Flick” is one of six plays that originated at Playwrights Horizons that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The theater offers new plays and musicals that are consistently worthwhile, in an environment that feels dedicated both to the theater artists and the theatergoers.

Wives

Opens September 16

From the brawny castles of 16th Century France, to the rugged plains of 1960s Idaho, to the strapping fortresses of 1920s India, all hail the remarkable stories of Great Men! — and their whiny, witchy, vapid, veng

Heroes of the Fourth Turning

September 13 – October 27

Set in Wyoming a week after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville riot, the new play sees four young conservatives reunite for a backyard barbecue in Wyoming. Written by Will Arbery (“Plano”)

The Thin Place

“November 22” (dates unclear)

Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, c

  ATLANTIC THEATER

Cofounded in 1985 by David Mamet and William H. Macy, this theater entered in a whole new realm of achievement in my eyes with the acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit

Sunday

A new play by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 & 2), directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Friends gather for a book group, anxious to prove their intellectual worth, but that anxiety gets the better of any actual discussion as emotional truths come pouring out

√ Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven

November 14- December 22

Stephen Adly Guirgis (“Between Riverside and  Crazy“)  explores the harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City, helmed by John Ortiz (LAByrinth Artistic Director) in his off-Broadway directing debut.

MCC THEATER

 Twitter: @mcctheater

They moved from downtown to midtown, but I don’t hold that against them.

  The Wrong Man

September 18 – October 27

With book, music and lyrics by Ross Golan, direction by Thomas Kail (Hamilton), this musical is set in Reno, Nevada, and tells the story of Duran, a man just scraping by who is framed for a murder he didn’t commit,

September 18 – October 27

Seared

October 3 – November 10

Theresa Rebeck’s play about a talented by temperamental chef who scores a big mention in the press for his signature scallops,  but, much to the frustration of his business partner, refuses to repeat himself for the masses. Cast includes Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez

PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Although the Armory has been presenting theater for a decade, it only became must-see for me in the last few years, thanks to. A Room in India,  The Damned and The Lehman Trilogy (which is transferring this season to Broadway.). The theater they present is largely European, cutting-edge, often hybrids, and they require patience and a willingness to be lost. They also just have a handful of shows per season. But, offered in the vast expanse of the Armory’s Drill Hall, these aren’t just shows; they’re events. This year, for the first time, they have commissioned a play “from the ground up.”

Antigone

September 25 – October 6

Acclaimed director Satoshi Miyagi creates a new vision of Sophocles’s fabled mythology through the prism of Japanese culture: Noh Theater, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy.

Black Artists Retreat

October 11th and 12th

Bridging the gap between fine art and social activism, Theaster Gates hosts his renowned Black Artists Retreat for the first time outside of Chicago

Judgment Day

December 5 – January 11

Directed by Richard Jones (Hairy Ape) and adapted by Chris Shinn (“‘four”)  rom Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play, this productions marks the Armory’s first theatrical commission “from the ground-up” It explores morality and guilt in a small town.

  ST. ANN’s WAREHOUSE

Although it primarily presents avant-garde European exports,  this Brooklyn theater climbed up in my preference thanks to Taylor Mac’s homegrown   24-Decade History of Popular Music   and then “Oklahoma!” which transferred to Broadway.

History of Violence

November 13 – December 1

A German-language stage adaptation of Édouard Louis’s autobiographical novel about a traumatic event that began in desire. Louis is also the basis for BAM’s The End of Eddy.

Keep

December 4 -19

British storyteller and comedian Daniel Kitson’s latest solo piece

    OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Forbidden Broadway The Next Generation (The Triad)

September 18 – November 30

After a five year absence, Gerard Alessandrini is back, roasting everything you’ve seen on Broadway since the last edition of Forbidden Broadway.

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes

√ Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)

September 5- October 13. Opens September 19

A play by Cusi Cram starring Kathleen Chalfant that serves as an homage to the women nurses over the 161 year history of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, which was at the epicenter of a cholera epidemic in the 19th century and the AIDS epidemic a century and a half later. The show features a prologue, in which theatergoers visit the garden of St. Johns in the Village, in the sight of the hospital site, now turned into condominiums, and an epilogue visiting he NYC AIDS Memorial Park.

Cyrano (The New Group at Daryl Roth)

October 11 – November 24

Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) stars in this musical version of Edmond Rostand’s  tale of unrequited love and ghostwritten letters,

Little Shop of Horrors (West Side Theater)

A revival hard to argue given that its cast includes Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Christian Borle,

A Celebration of Cole Porter (York Theater)

September 28 to November 3

Eleven performances each of “Fifty Million Frenchmen ,” The Decline and Fall of the Whole World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter” and “Panama Hattie”

√Bella Bella (Manhattan Theater Club)

October 21 – December 1. Opens October 22.

Harvey Fierstein stars as Bella Abzug in a solo-play he’s written set in 1976, on the eve of her bid to become New York State’s first female Senator,

Scotland, PA (Roundabout)

September 14 to December 8

A new musical adaptation of Billy Morrissette’s 2001 film riffing on Macbeth, set in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, involving the manager of a burger joint and his ambitious wife.

Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

National Black Theatre

  There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and starting this season, Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Some might argue there is little distinction anymore between Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially in a season when so many downtown darlings are moving to Broadway, such as Taylor Mac,Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dominique Morisseau, Anais Mitchell (See Spring 2019 Broadway Preview Guide: A Season of Theater Geniuses Making Their Broadway Debuts)  

Yet, Off-Broadway remains less expensive  and, frankly, potentially more rewarding. It’s also more sprawling — not quite possible to present all the riches of a season in a single post.

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially excited or intrigued. (I’ll only know if my excitement was justified once I see them.)

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(Also check out my monthly calendar of openings)

a surreal errand. “He gets mixed up with a giant lobster, Roman Polanski, a pornography ring, Walt Disney, stranded children, a murder, and Jorge Luis Borges…”

ROUNDABOUT* LAURA PELS

The empire that is now Roundabout includes three Broadway theaters, and that’s where most of the attention is focused, mostly on star-studded revivals, especially musicals.  But its fourth building houses two Off-Broadway theaters (one of them a tiny “Black Box” theater.) It is in its Off-Broadway facility that Stephen Karam’s The Humans originated, which went on to Broadway and Tony love. The Roundabout’s “Underground” series discovers new playwriting talent, with tickets priced at $35.

Merrily We Roll Along

January 12 – April 7. Opens February 19.

Fiasco Theater reimagines Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years, going backwards in time.

Something Clean

May 4 – June 30. Opens May 30.

Playwright Selina Fillinger’s new drama slips into the jagged cracks of a sex crime’s aftermath—the guilt, the grief, and the ways we grapple with the unthinkable.

√ Toni Stone

May 23 – August 11. Opens June 20

Uzo Adubi stars as the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues, in this play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story.

MANHATTAN THEATER CLUB*

This looks like a good lineup, but It’s hard to embrace a theater completely when you don’t get to see many of its plays.

The Cake

February 12 – March 31. Opens March 5

In what sounds like a recent Supreme Court case, Debra Jo Rupp portrays a baker in North Carolina who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The difference — one of the brides is the daughter of a dear friend, now deceased. The play is by Bekah Brunstetter (who writes for the TV series This Is Us.)

Continuity

May 7 – June 9. Opens May 21

Though the description doesn’t tell us very much —  a comedy “in six takes where storytelling and science collide…” — it is written by Beth Wohl (playwright of the odd but satisfying Small Mouth Sounds) and directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).

Long Lost

May 14 – June 30.  Opens June 4.

A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”

  SECOND STAGE*

This 40-year-old theater has became the fourth “non-profit” to produce theater both on and Off Broadway.

Superhero

January 31 – March 24.Opens February 28.

A musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and a book by John Logan (Red), about “a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and an unexpected hero…”

Dying City

“Begins May 2019”

Christopher Shinn’s play is set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. Dying City explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three characters

  OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish moves to Stage 42, opening February 21st.

Alice By Heart (MCC). January 30 to March 10. Opens February 26 Two friends who escape in the cherished story of Alice in Wonderland during the London Blitz of World War II. The musical is by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the team that came up with Spring Awakening.

Fleabag (Soho Playhouse) February 28 – April 7 The play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that inspired the BBC television series currently being shown on Amazon Prime.

Daddy (Vineyard/New Group at Signature) February 12- March 24. Opens March 5. In the second Off-Broadway play by Jeremy O. Harris (who gained some notoriety with his Slave Play in the fall), Alan Cumming plays Andre, an older white art collector who befriends Franklin, young black artist on the verge of his first show. Their bond creates a battle of wills with Franklin’s mother.

Diary of One Who Disappeared (BAM) April 4-6 In 1917, Czech composer Leoš Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle called Diary of One Who Disappeared, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Janáček’s opera.

Octet (Signature) April 30 – June 9 Dave Malloy, composer and conceiver of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, is not through experimenting.  His new musical is scored for an  a cappella chamber choir and explores high-tech addiction, his libretto inspired by Internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts and Sufi poetry.

  Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Off Broadway Fall 2019 Preview Guide Some of the most thrilling theater in New York this Fall, and certainly much of the weirdest, promises to be Off-Broadway.