When heat waves sizzle their way into the Big Apple, take note: with enticing productions, noted actors, and generous blasts of A/C, Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres are NYC’s optimum chill-out havens.

When the subject turns to New York’s summer performance scene, there’s a nifty element of surprise lurking behind countless curtains (symbolic or real), from Broadway to the hidden-treasure reaches of Off-Off the Great White Way.