Closing Time! Last Chance to See Once On This Island, Head Over Heels, Taylor Trensch & More

The start of a new year spells the end for a whopping nine Broadway offerings and new horizons for some actors departing their roles. It's a Great White Way clearinghouse, but before we welcome in the new, make it your resolution catch these hit stagings and notable performances before it's too late.

JANUARY 6: Why We Tell the Story...
After opening on Broadway in November 2017, Once On This Island snagged eight 2018 Tony Award nominations and won for Best Revival of a Musical. To send the acclaimed show off, Lea Salonga returned to the role of Erzulie in December, joining fellow original cast members Hailey Kilgore, Isaac Powell, Alex Newell, Quentin Earl Darrington and more. Catch the immersive and innovative production, which Broadway.com named the top show of 2017, before it finishes its run at the Circle in the Square Theatre. 

JANUARY 6: Time to Go-Go
Head Over Heels was this season's celebration of inclusivity and diversity, with an interracial lesbian romance and the Broadway debut of trans drag superstar Peppermint. The jukebox musical, which was inspired by Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia and features the music of The Go-Go's, ends at the Hudson Theatre on January 6. 

JANUARY 6: Passing the Torch
In November, the revival of Harvey Fierstein's 1982 play Torch Song Trilogy opened at the Hayes Theatre, the same house where the original production made its Broadway bow. Back then, the theater was called the Little Theatre, Fierstein starred in the three-part play, and it was over four hours long. Today, the play is simply titled Torch Song, stars Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl as gay drag queen Arnold Beckoff and his intolerant mother, and it's a tight 160 minutes. Look out for the tour, complete with a reprise performance from Urie, launching in fall 2019 in Los Angeles. 

JANUARY 6: Fair-well 
Broadway favorite Norbert Leo Butz nabbed a 2018 Tony nomination for his performance as Alfred P. Doolittle, bringing the house down every night with the showstopper "Get Me to the Church on Time" in My Fair Lady.  He'll depart the Lincoln Center Theater revival to make room for recent Moulin Rouge! star Danny Burstein, who steps into the role on January 8 for a limited engagement through April 28.  

JANUARY 13: Face the Facts
Three phenomenal actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale, made their Broadway returns with The Lifespan of a Fact, a true story about a fact-checker and an author at odds over the truth. Sending a powerful message in the age of alternative facts and fake news, the play will end at Studio 54 this month, with a West End production and limited national tour in the works. 

JANUARY 20: School's Out
The final bell is about to ring at School of Rock, as it prepares to finish its over three-year run at the Winter Garden Theatre this month. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical take on the hit Jack Black movie is still rocking out with a cast that includes Justin Collette, Mamie Parris and a class of wildly talented kid musicians. 

JANUARY 27: A Memory Play 
2018 Broadway.com Star of the Year nominee Elaine May returned to the Broadway stage for the first time in 50 years with The Waverly Gallery, Kenneth Lonergan's 2000 memory play about his grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's. The Broadway production includes a stacked cast, featuring Hollywood darling Lucas Hedges, Tony winner Joan Allen, Michael Cera and David Cromer. 

JANUARY 27: Waving Goodbye!
Actual Broadway magic is a 29-year-old handing off the role of a high schooler to an actual high schooler. Dear Evan Hansen star Taylor Trensch is about to step out of the musical's titular role, making way for Andrew Barth Feldman, the 16-year-old who just won big at the 2018 Jimmy Awards. When he departs later this month, Trensch will have led the Tony-winning hit for almost a year. 

ALSO:

JANUARY 6: The Play that Goes Wrong leaves Broadway's Lyceum Theatre for a run off-Broadway at New World Stages starting February 11. 
JANUARY 6:  Two-time Tony winner Judy Kaye exits Anastasia. Penny Fuller steps in as the Dowager Empress on January 7. 
JANUARY 10: YouTube star Conor Maynard takes off his Kinky Boots.
JANUARY 13: The revival of Lynn Nottage's Fabulation, Or the Re-Education of Undine ends an extended run at off-Broadway's Signature Theatre.
JANUARY 20: Comedian Mike Birbiglia's Broadway debut in The New One finishes at the Cort Theatre
JANUARY 27: American Son, starring Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale and Jeremy Jordan, ends its Broadway run at the Booth Theatre.