amBroadway | Ariana DeBose to lead ‘The Baker’s Wife’, Aubrey Plaza returning to the stage and more

Ariana DeBose is coming back to Off-Broadway.

The Oscar-winning dynamo of “West Side Story” and three-time Tony Awards host, will headline Classic Stage Company’s 2025–26 season opener: the first full-scale New York production of the 1976 musical “The Baker’s Wife,” which has songs by Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”) and a book by Joseph Stein (“Fiddler on the Roof”).

Loosely based on the 1938 French film “La Femme du Boulanger,” the show closed on tour before reaching Broadway despite a score that produced the much-recorded ballad “Meadowlark,” later developing a devoted cult following through cast albums and regional productions. Gordon Greenberg, who will direct the production, previously staged the musical at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse in 2005.

Aubrey Plaza returns to New York stage

Aubrey Plaza, who earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for “The White Lotus,” will return to the New York stage this fall in the world premiere of “Let’s Love!,” a trio of one-act comedies by Ethan Coen, at Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater.

Plaza made her stage debut in a 2023 Off-Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” The opening of “Let’s Love!” was delayed by a strike that rocked the Atlantic earlier this year and resulted in the postponement of multiple productions. Coen, best known for his Oscar-winning films like “Fargo,” has an enduring partnership with the Atlantic: the company produced his earlier collections of one-acts.

‘Hamilton’ film to finally play the big screen

The original cast of HamiltonPhoto by Joan Marcus

“Hamilton” is finally getting the big-screen release originally planned before the pandemic pushed the filmed version to Disney+ in 2020.

Disney will release the stage-filmed version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical in movie theaters on Sept. 5, 2025. The new cut will include a prologue titled “Reuniting the Revolution,” featuring fresh interviews with the original Broadway cast and creative team. Miranda announced the news on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” expressing excitement about giving fans the chance to experience “Hamilton” on the big screen after years of streaming.

‘Heathers’ plans ‘Big Fun Day’ for devoted ‘Corn Nuts’

The three Heathers in “Heathers: The Musical”: Elizabeth Teeter as Heather McNamara, McKenzie Kurtz as Heather Chandler, and Olivia Hardy as Heather Duke.Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade/provided

“Heathers: The Musical” will turn New World Stages into its “candy store” on Sept. 1 for “Big Fun Day,” a one-night-only celebration featuring a singalong performance, giveaways, and other surprises.

The event is a nod to the show’s unusually passionate fan base (dubbed the “Corn Nuts,” after a key line from the 1989 cult film). When “Heathers” premiered Off-Broadway in 2014, it played just a few months before closing. But thanks to devoted fans trading bootleg recordings, sharing the cast album, and embracing its dark humor and pop-rock score, the show grew into a global phenomenon, leading to a hit London production, a 2022 film capture, and its Off-Broadway return.

In a twist of irony, the show’s producers recently asked fans to refrain from making bootleg videos of the current Off-Broadway production, the very practice that helped propel the musical’s cult status in the first place.