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8 Performances We Can’t Wait to Catch This March

March 1, 2023

From major Broadway transfers to a jazzy anniversary extravaganza (and much more in between), March’s performance calendar is chock-full of excitement. Here’s what we’re making time in our schedules to see.

Dancin’ Back to Broadway

Two dancers are caught mid-leap onstage, back legs bent in attitude. Their downstage arms reach with open palms overhead, while they gaze past their front legs with exhilarated smiles. The woman wears a flowing pink dress, the main khakis and a long sleeve shirt. The backdrop shops a blue grid pattern recognizable as a map of New York City.
Jacob Guzman and Mattie Love in the Old Globe’s production of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’. Photo by Julieta Cervantes, courtesy DKC/O&M.

NEW YORK CITY  More than four decades after its original Broadway bow, Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ returns to the Great White Way. Original 1978 cast members Wayne Cilento and Christine Colby Jacques direct and reproduce Fosse’s choreography, respectively, with additional reconstruction by Corinne McFadden Herrera, while a formidable cast tackles Fosse’s notoriously specific moves in the packed musical revue. Previews begin at the Music Box Theatre March 2, with opening night set for March 19. dancinbway.com. —Courtney Escoyne

Presence/Absence

A blurry image of four dancers, visible only from the waist up, as they create a square shape with their arms to the left of their heads, palms turned to the camera.
Keely Garfield Dance in The Invisible Project. Photo courtesy Keely Garfield Dance.

NEW YORK CITY  Inspired in part by her work as a hospital chaplain, Keely Garfield’s The Invisible Project looks for hope as it considers disappearing acts and the interplay of presence and absence. Garfield is joined in the ritualized performance, premiering at NYU Skirball, by frequent collaborators Molly Lieber, Paul Hamilton and Angie Pittman. March 10–12. nyuskirball.org. —CE

Facing Love

A dancer in a black mesh veil draped over her head and the long white dress she wears poses on a grey backdrop. She pliés and leans forward to twist over one leg, hands upturned and curving toward her torso as though gathering something to her.
Ballet 5:8’s Sarah Clarke in BareFace. Photo by Kristie Kahns, courtesy Ballet 5:8.

CANTON, MI  Ballet 5:8 premieres a new evening-length work this month. BareFace, choreographed by artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager, is inspired by C.S. Lewis’ final novel, Till We Have Faces, which was itself a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of the latter’s sister. March 11. ballet58.org. —CE

Time for a Reckoning

Downstage, a Black woman sits on a couch holding a glowing orb in her lap. To her right is a side table with an old-looking television. Upstage, four male dancers in yellow shirts stand in a line, facing the audience.
Francesca Harper’s The Reckoning. Photo courtesy ARRAY.

NEW YORK CITY  The Reckoning, Francesca Harper’s response to the 2010 killing of 7-year-old Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones­ by police, receives its live performance premiere at Works & Process, performed by members of Ailey II and FHP Collective and set to original music by Nona Hendryx. Commissioned by ARRAY’s Law Enforcement Accountability Project, the film and performance project is being presented in conjunction with the Guggenheim exhibition “Nick Cave: Forothermore.” March 11. guggenheim.org. —CE

Spanish Soul

Sara Baras stands alone in a spotlight on a darkened stage. She wears a red dress, fringe trailing from the V neckline. She faces the side, one hand drawing the fabric of her long skirt taut as it pulls back to her hip, the other hand peeking out from upstage, fingers splayed.
Sara Baras. Photo by Santana de Yepes, courtesy Arsht Center.

ON TOUR  When flamenco luminary Sara Baras lets loose with footwork, the floor breaks out in banter, protest, jubilation, firing up her onstage collaborators. Alma, her latest production, bares the soul of that art in numbers both intimate and expansive. Striking design and a tight team of dancers, singers and instrumentalists bring theatrical flash to illuminate flamenco’s embrace of Cuban bolero. The show kicks off its American tour by headlining Flamenco Festival Miami XIV (March 16–19), which also features acclaimed guitarist Rafael Riqueni and a premiere from rising bailaora Irene Lozano, before heading to New York City Center (March 23–26) and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (March 29–30). arshtcenter.org, nycitycenter.org and kennedy-center.org. —Guillermo Perez

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Latest

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber holds a pink can of hairspray with one hand, while his free arm wraps around Linedy Genao, who smiles at the camera. They are posed against a red poster with a title treatment reading "Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bad Cinderella."
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Linedy Genao (Cinderella). Photo by Emilio Madrid, courtesy DKC/O&M.

NEW YORK CITY  Broadway mainstay Phantom of the Opera may be set to close next month, but a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical arrives in its wake: Bad Cinderella, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, contemporizes the fairy tale, questioning traditional beauty standards and adding a few new twists. The production’s opening night at the Imperial Theatre is set for March 23. badcinderellabroadway.com. —CE

Squaring the Past

A small sacred indigenous statue is next to Christopher who lays on the concrete floor.
Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez. Photo by Maria Baranova, courtesy Abrons Arts Center/Núñez.

NEW YORK CITY  A journey through time, space and identity, Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez’s The Square: Displacement with no end recounts his nomadic Indigenous ancestors’ encounters with colonial geographies over the last two centuries. March 23–25. abronsartscenter.org. —CE

60 Years of Jazz

On a shadowy stage, a shirtless male dancer is lifted from the center of a cluster as he reaches one arm to the sky. A half dozen dancers form a circle around the cluster, pulling their long skirts up and to the sides to create a barrier. A line of silhouetted figures are visible upstage on a riser.
Giordano Dance Chicago in Randy Duncan’s Can’t Take This Away. Photo by Andy Flaherty, courtesy Giordano Dance Chicago.

CHICAGO  Giordano Dance Chicago is doing it up big for Celebrate Giordano, its 60th-anniversary extravaganza. The jazz institution will showcase notable works from across its history: founder Gus Giordano’s rarely seen Sing, Sing, Sing (1983), Randy Duncan’s Can’t Take This Away (1997), Ron De Jesus’ pivotal Prey (2003) and Liz Imperio’s La Belleza de Cuba (2013). Former GDC dancer and associate director Michael Taylor offers Celebrate 60, an opener crafted specifically for the occasion, while Kia Smith contributes a premiere honoring Homer Hans Bryant, featuring dancers from GDC, Giordano II and her own South Chicago Dance Theatre—the collaboration a notable first for GDC. March 31–April 1. giordanodance.org. —CE

abrons arts center ailey ii angie pittman array bad cinderella ballet 5:8 bob fosse bob fosse's dancin' bob fosses's dancin broadway christine colby jacques christopher "unpezverde" nunez corinne mcfadden herrera fhp collective flamenco festival miami francesca harper giordano dance chicago giordano ii guggenheim joann m. hunter julianna rubio slager keely garfield kennedy center kia smith michael taylor molly lieber new york city center nick cave nyu skirball paul hamilton randy duncan ron de jesus sara baras south chicago dance theatre wayne cilento works and process