The Summer Theatre Menu in New York City

Summertime theatre in New York City is a bit drowsy, they say, and you have to shoulder the crowds amid the traffic and muggy weather, still if you have saved up a pocket full of cash there are some wonderful events. To start with, the musicals. What about the Tony Award Nomination “The King and I” directed by Bartlett Sher at the Lincoln Center? Or “Something Rotten,” a real blockbuster comedy, at the St. James Theatre?

Speaking of the Lincoln Center, you might have the time of your life there at a festival featuring a full plate of international oddities: Japan’s Ninagwa Company in an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel “Kafka on the Shore” July 23 to 26; the Druid Theatre Company’s “DruidShakespeare: the History Plays” July 7 to 19. Mark O’Rowe’s marathon retelling of “Richard II,” both parts of “Henry IV” and “Henry V” from an Irish perspective. Then the globe trotting troupe Cheek by Jowl in a French language version of Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi.”

Some more off Broadway shows: “An Act of God,” by David Javerbaum, Studio 54, at 254 W. 54^th street; a play set in the future: “Afghanistan, Zimbawe, America, Kuwait” by Daniel Talbott, Gymn at Judson, 243 Thompson St.; “The Flick,” Annie Baker’s Pultizer Prize winning play, at the Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow St.; “The Qualms, a new play by Bruce Norris at Playwights Horizons, 416 W 42^nd St.

A bit out of town you’ve got the Williamstown Theatre Festival with William Inge’s “Off the Main Road” with Kyra Sedgwick June 30-July 19; Dominique Morisseau’s “Paradise Blue” with Blair Underwood July 22-August 2; and Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” with Will Swenson and Audra McDonald August 5-23.

If you have time to snoop around you certainly will find menus of your own making because the City is most fun when you discover it piece by piece!