This Week’s Picks! Get Freaky with Michael Shannon, Return to Phantom's Lair & Say Ciao to Madison County

Spring is finally, officially, here. Woo-hoo! But if Mother Nature suddenly plays some sick meteorological joke and New York gets blasted with a blizzard, that’s still no excuse to say inside. There’s plenty of great stuff happening this week, including the arrival of a new Phantom and Christine, the early departure of a new musical, and a Broadway belle’s one-woman show. It’s all part of this week’s must-see list!


See Norm Lewis Make History
May 12 at the Majestic Theatre
It’s time to go down to the Phantom's lair once more! Tony nominee Norm Lewis debuts as the first African-American to play the title role in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Even better: It’s the venerable actor’s dream role, so he’ll be primed. Even betterer: He’s playing opposite his Little Mermaid co-star, the returning Sierra Boggess, who is “the best Christine,” according to Andrew Lloyd Webber. So, yeah, this is a “dear diary” moment waiting to happen. Click for tickets!


Support the Classics
May 12 at the Hudson Theatre in the Millenium Broadway Hotel
Want to dress up like a million-dollar trooper and support the arts? Well, the Classic Stage Company provides the perfect opportunity with its annual Musical Masterworks Gala. This year, a collection of stage stars, including Jeremy Jordan, Brooke Shields and Santino Fontana, salute Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern and Lorenz Hart. Try your best not to sing along—or get mustard on your gown. Click for tickets!


Learn Lessons From Kate Baldwin
May 15 at 54 Below
Let’s be honest: we’d pay to hear Kate Baldwin sing a takeout menu. But the Tony nominee singing her Broadway favorites while sharing the lessons she learned in her journey from college student to the star of Finian’s Rainbow and Big Fish? We’re so in! That’s the focus of Baldwin’s Sing Pretty, Don’t Fall Down, her first NYC solo concert in three years. Click for tickets!


Get Creeped Out by Michael Shannon
May 17 at Theatre for a New Audience
The perpetually intense Michael Shannon is playing a “cheerful, well-meaning everyman?” What the what? Hold on. In Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play The Killer, Shannon begins as a man who discovers a dream city of beautiful gardens and stunning architecture near his own shabby digs. But there’s a catch. No, not sky high rents and limited parking. A serial killer is running amok! And you thought stalled subways were a pain. Click for tickets!


Swoon For Bridges One Last Time
May 18 at the Schoenfeld Theatre
It’s the end of the road for The Bridges of Madison County, the beautifully bittersweet musical by Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman. So make sure you catch Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale as the two strangers whose lives get thrown for a passionate loop over a heated four-day romance in the most exotic of locales: Iowa! If you need a fix afterwards, fear not—there’s the novel, the movie, and of course, this fan fiction. Click for tickets!