This Week’s Picks: Play Fetch with Annaleigh Ashford, Go Astray with Keira Knightley & More!

Hey, you freaking about decorative gourd season! It’s not like you live on a farm or are staging a production of The Crucible. There are better ways to invest your energy, like figuring out how to see all the great stuff that’s out there. There’s Terrence Mann’s debut in Finding Neverland, Jason Danieley’s romantic new show and a mess of debuts. Get ready for this week’s picks!


Meet the New Mann in Finding Neverland
Begins September 29 at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Credit luck, fortune, or good material but Finding Neverland has had no problem finding able replacements for Kelsey Grammer, who is officially out as American producer Charles Frohman. First, they secured the talents of Anthony Warlow. Now, Terrence Mann, he of the three Tony nominations, takes over for the immediate future—or until he’s needed for Tuck Everlasting. We can only imagine who’s next. The Pope? Bigfoot? Click for tickets!


Nyong’o Catch a Star
Begins September 29 at Joseph Papp Public Theater/LuEsther Hall
Lupita Nyong’o deservedly won an Academy Award for 12 Years a Slave. Now, New York audiences are getting a treat: the chance to see Nyong’o in a starring role. The actress makes her off-Broadway debut in Eclipsed. In this powerful drama, set against the backdrop of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer form a makeshift community. The balance, however, is thrown off when a new woman arrives. Click for tickets!


See a Great Actress Go Bad
Begins October 1 at Feinstein’s/54 Below
Wait, there’s another talented young actress in a Broadway or off-Broadway show this week? Forget about pumpkin spice coffee, this is why it’s wonderful time to be alive! Keira Knightley makes her Broadway debut in Thérèse Raquin, an adaption of Émile Zola’s novel. The Oscar nominee plays the title character, a woman stuck in a loveless marriage who falls for her childhood friend (Matt Ryan)—much to her ever-lasting regret. Click for tickets!


Sit. Stay. Watch Sylvia.
Begins October 20 at Cort Theatre
The love between a person and their dog is special, but how does the dog feel? That is addressed in A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, where a middle-aged New Yorker and empty nester (Matthew Broderick) finds a dog in Central Park—and brings it home to his wife. It gets better. Annaleigh Ashford plays the dog, Sylvia, and she talks! Expect to laugh and cry in this exploration of man and his best friend. Click for tickets!


Let Jason Danieley Share His Romantic Notions
October 2 to October 5 at Feinstein’s/54 Below
If someone “invites you to hear what’s in his heart,” your first instinct is to reach for your pepper spray and run like hell. But when it describes Jason Danieley’s new show, Romantic Notions, that’s a different story. You drop the restraining order and bring that special someone to hear Danieley (The Visit, Curtains)—backed by a jazz trio—sing an array of songs about love. Click for tickets!