amBroadway | ‘Damn Yankees’ to return to Broadway, Blue Man Group to get Broadway run and more

Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) will play Applegate, the Devil who transforms middle-aged baseball fan Joe Boyd into the youthful slugger Joe Hardy. Julianne Hough (“Dancing with the Stars,” “POTUS”) will play Lola, Applegate’s seductive accomplice, while Austin Scott (“Hamilton,” “& Juliet”) will play Joe Hardy. “Damn Yankees” will mark Hough’s Broadway musical debut.

Although “Damn Yankees” is regarded as a Golden Age musical comedy classic, its original book has often been viewed as dated and has been repeatedly reworked in later productions, including the 1994 Broadway revival. This latest reworking, directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, was first seen last season at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., with a different cast.

The new adaptation moves the action to the early 2000s and replaces the Washington Senators with the Baltimore Orioles. It also reimagines Joe as a Black man whose father was a Negro Leagues star who never had the opportunity to play in the majors because of baseball’s color line, adding a racial dimension to Joe’s desire for baseball glory. Major League Baseball and MLB Studios are partnering on the Broadway production.

Blue Man Group finally heads to Broadway

After more than three decades downtown, Blue Man Group is finally making the move to Broadway. The famously silent, cobalt-colored trio, which ended its 33-year run at the Astor Place Theatre in February 2025, will take over the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre this holiday season with “A New Holiday Surprise,” running Nov. 12 through Jan. 3.

Rather than simply transplanting its longtime Off-Broadway show, Blue Man Group has created its first holiday production, adding seasonal music to its familiar mix of percussion, visual comedy, custom instruments and audience interaction.

Blue Man Group began at Astor Place in 1991 and played more than 17,000 performances there before closing last year.

Richard Thomas to bring ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ to Town Hall

Richard Thomas will bring Hal Holbrook’s legendary one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight!” to Town Hall for a one-night-only benefit performance on Nov. 2, followed by a talkback with biographer Ron Chernow. Net proceeds will benefit the Entertainment Community Fund.

Thomas, best remembered as John-Boy Walton on “The Waltons” and recently seen on Broadway in “The Balusters,” is the only performer besides Holbrook who has been authorized to take on “Mark Twain Tonight!” Holbrook created the show and performed it for decades. Thomas toured the production during the 2025-26 season, playing 46 cities across North America.

Chernow, whose books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Washington: A Life” and “Alexander Hamilton,” which inspired the Broadway musical, published a biography of Mark Twain last year.

Bernie Williams to join ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ on Broadway

Former New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams will trade Yankee Stadium for the Schoenfeld Theatre, joining the band of “Buena Vista Social Club” from Oct. 22 through Nov. 29. Williams, a five-time All-Star and four-time World Series champion, is also a classically trained guitarist and Latin Grammy-nominated recording artist who studied at the Manhattan School of Music.

Williams will join another former major leaguer, José “Candelita” Iglesias, who made his Broadway debut with the show in August as the Narrator and has extended his engagement through Nov. 15.

The Tony-winning musical uses the landmark 1997 “Buena Vista Social Club” album to dramatize the lives and careers of the Cuban musicians associated with it. Williams, who grew up in Puerto Rico, said in a statement that the music was part of his childhood and recalled hearing his mother play it on Sunday afternoons.