Happy New Year! As we officially step into 2024, we know we are not alone in setting new goals and resolutions we endeavor to keep. To get in the spirit for a healthy new year, here is an exciting array of sports-themed titles just for you. Scroll down to explore!
Take Me Out by
Recipient of the 2003 Tony Award® for Best Play and the 2022 Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Play
Photo by Catherine Wessel at the Hayes Theatre
The Story: Darren Lemming, the star center fielder of the world champion New York Empires, is young, rich, famous, talented, handsome and so convinced of his popularity that when he casually announces he’s gay, he assumes the news will be readily accepted by everyone. It isn’t. Friends, fans and teammates react with ambivalence, and when the slipping Empires call up the young phenom Shane Mungitt to close their games, the ambivalence turns to violence. Angry, lonely, guilt-ridden and confused, Darren finds some unlikely solace in the form of friendship with his new business manager, Mason Marzac—a brilliant but repressed guy, who, as everyone around him copes with disenchantment, blooms in the ecstatic discovery of baseball.
Included in Broadway Book Club’s Tony Award® Winners Pack
King James by
Photo by Michael Brosilow at Manhattan Theater Club
The Story: “King” LeBron James’s years playing in Cleveland brings promise, prosperity, and renewal to a city in desperate need of all three. It also brings together two unlikely friends in a bond forged by fandom. Told over twelve years (from LeBron’s rookie season to an NBA Championship) King James is an intimate exploration of the place that sports occupy in our lives and relationships. This clever and fast-paced comedy traces the arcs of two friends whose turbulent relationship is best navigated through their shared love of basketball—and the endless amiable arguments that erupt from that love.
Red Speedo by
Photo by Sara Krulwich at New York Theatre Workshop
The Story: Ray’s swum his way to the eve of the Olympic trials. If he makes the team, he’ll get a deal with Speedo. If he gets a deal with Speedo, he’ll never need a real job. So when someone’s stash of performance-enhancing drugs is found in the locker room fridge, threatening the entire team’s Olympic fate, Ray has to crush the rumors or risk losing everything. A sharp and stylish play about swimming, survival of the fittest, and the American dream of a level playing field—or of leveling the field yourself.
Deuce by
Photo courtesy to New York Theater
The Story: Warmly funny and unexpectedly touching, Deuce tells the story of retired tennis stars Leona Mullen and Midge Barker, who once made up a championship doubles team. When they meet again at the U.S. Open, the women—now at the end of their lives—find themselves trying to make sense of the professional partnership that brought them to the top of the sports world in their youth.
All-American by
Photo by Sara Krulwich at the Duke, Lincoln Center Theatre
The Story: All-American is the story of a modern American family: suburban dad and former NFL star Mike Slattery works hard to make his daughter, Katie, the star quarterback at her new school while ignoring her brainy twin brother, Aaron. But Katie isn’t sure she wants to keep playing, and Mike’s wife, Beth, isn’t sure she wants to keep playing along.
Recipient of the 1973 Tony Award® for Best Play and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Photo by Sara Krulwich at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
The Story: Following their annual custom, five men—a high-school basketball coach, now retired, and four members of the team that he guided to the state championship twenty years earlier—meet for a reunion. The occasion begins in a light-hearted mood but gradually, as the pathos and desperation of their present lives are exposed and illuminated, the play takes on a rich power of rare dimension. One former player is now the inept mayor of the town—and facing a strong challenge for re-election. Another, the frustrated principal of the local high school, is his ambitious campaign manager. A third, now a successful (and destructive) businessman, is wavering in his financial support of the mayor. While the fourth is a witty, but despairing alcoholic. As the evening progresses all that these men were—and have become—is revealed and examined with biting humor and saving compassion. In the end self-preservation, abetted by the unconscious cynicism and bigotry of their coach, draws them together. But they are lost, morally bankrupt men holding onto fraudulent dreams that have poisoned their present lives and robbed them of the future that was once so rich in promise.
Volleygirls by Rob Ackerman
The Story: The pressure is on for the down-and-out Saint Agnes girls’ volleyball team to defeat their biggest rival and to save their coach’s job. But with a limited number of players, a string of losses, an awkward confrontation with an angry parent, and two of the girls about to come to blows over a boy, things are looking rather grim. As their coach confronts his own nagging case of “loseritis,” the girls learn to work together, hatching a plan to turn their season around and learning to conquer any challenge thrown their way, on or off the court. Lively and heartfelt, Volleygirls captures the spirit and passion of everything you love about team sports.
Lombardi by Eric Simonson, based on the book When Pride Still Mattered — A Life of Vince Lombardi written by David Maraniss
Photo by Sara Krulwich at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
The Story: Sport produces great human drama and there is no greater sports icon to bring to theatrical life than Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi, unquestionably one of the most inspirational and quotable personalities of all time. Though football’s Super Bowl trophy is named for him, few know the real story of Lombardi the man—his inspirations, his passions and ability to drive people to achieve what they never thought possible.
Bronx Bombers by Eric Simonson, conceived by Fran Kirmser
Photo by Sara Krulwich at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
The Story: Bronx Bombers follows beloved baseball icon Yogi Berra and his wife Carmen through a century of the team’s trials and triumphs. The third installment of Eric Simonson’s sports trilogy (following Lombardi and Magic/Bird) spans the team’s history from Babe Ruth to the last game at Yankee Stadium in 2008, bringing generations of Yankees MVPs together on one stage. As it celebrates and explores the timeless legacy of baseball’s most iconic team, BRONX BOMBERS takes a fascinating look at how and why the Yankees have remained so undeniably great, and so powerfully inspirational.
Photo by Joan Marcus at the Laura Pels Theatre
The Story: Played out under the bright lights of the US Open semifinals, The Last Match pits rising Russian star Sergei Sergeyev against American great Tim Porter in an epic showdown that follows two tennis titans through pivotal moments in their lives both on and off the court. This gripping, fast-paced story captures the intense world of competitive sports, and human rivalry, and what it means to want something—and the lengths we will go to in order to feel relevant, important, and young.
Magic/Bird by
Photo courtesy to The Hollywood Reporter by at Longacre Theatre
The Story: Magic/Bird is the inspiring true story of basketball legends Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, their rivalry and touching friendship.
The Baseball Plays: 7th Inning Stretch
The Story: Celebrating and exploring themes from America’s favorite pastime, The Baseball Plays: 7th Inning Stretch is a collection of short comedies and dramas from the Mile Square Theatre’s annual event. From a couple arguing over the use of steroids (Off Base by Theresa Rebeck) to a priest’s fight to preserve the abandoned lot where the local children play ball (Asphalt Green by Rogelio Martinez), to a marriage dissolved over fantasy baseball (Fantasy League by Lee Blessing), this collection captures the love, frustration, and nostalgia surrounding this beloved sport.
National Pastime by Bryan Harnetiaux
The Story: National Pastime follows the journeys of Jackie Robinson, the first black player in major league baseball, and Wesley Branch Rickey, the white President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, as they shatter the color barrier in 1947. While offering insight into each man’s personal struggles, the play traces the evolution of race relations leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Against all odds, Robinson and Rickey join forces to bring about a benchmark cultural event in America’s history. (Note that this full-length play includes the short play, 215 Montague Street, which can be performed and licensed separately.)
Squad Goals by Don Zolidis
The Story: The crackpot coaches of a ragtag basketball team are looking for one more player, but if inspirational sports movies have taught us anything, it’s that winners don’t need to have superior talent–just the most heart. So these tryouts will test the hopefuls on the really important things: playing through an injury, giving a thrilling halftime speech, and, of course, moving exceptionally well in slow-motion to dramatic music. Scoring on the absurd cliches in every sports movie from Rudy to Air Bud, Squad Goals is a hilarious slam-dunk.
May the New Year bring the fulfillment of our resolutions and the joy of realizing the potential within ourselves. Cheers to a year of growth, resilience, and the pursuit of our best selves!
