Stages are alight this Spring with a deluge of exciting productions — some starry, as in the case of The Shakespeare Theatre’s Uncle Vanya featuring Hugh Bonneville, equally beloved in Downton Abbey and the joyous Paddington films.
The beauty of theater — and in all these inventive, upcoming works — is that it serves up various points of view with drama, wit, and intellect often concealed under the guise of boisterous entertainment. At its best, theater quenches our thirst for a deeper connection to our fellow human beings. At its worst, it’s Cats. Still, theater sometimes gives you a musical moment that makes your spirits soar.
hang — Three unnamed characters are present in the same room. One and Two are overseeing a judicial process, while Three, a Black woman, is determining the fate of a man who has committed a crime against her and her family. debbie tucker green’s provocative, darkly humorous play was a hit in London in 2015. Directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes (Closes 3/30)
The Piano Lesson — August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is the fourth in his extraordinary “American Century Cycle.” Set in Pittsburgh in the 1930s, Berniece and her brother Boy Willie navigate the complexities of their past centered around an heirloom piano. Directed by Danielle A. Drakes (6/5-22)
The Margriad — Séamus Miller weaves together four of Shakespeare’s history plays — Henry VI Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Richard III — to tel the complete, epic story of Queen Margaret of Anjou. Six actors take on all the roles, and three different actors portray Margaret at various stages of her life (Closes 3/29)
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark — Avant Bard closes its 35th season with a bold new interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Kathleen Akerley known for her cerebral and innovative approach to classical texts (5/1-24)
Akeelah and the Bee — Based on the acclaimed film, the charming play follows a young girl as she embarks on winning a spelling bee. The show kicks off a spring celebration of Center Stage’s youth programs and features cast members from the Baltimore School for the Arts. Directed by Cheryl L. West (Closes 4/30)
John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only — Emmy-winner Matthew Weiner’s one-person exploration into the man who shot Lincoln. Starring Ben Ahlers as Booth (5/15-6/15)
Woman on Fire — Marisela Trevinó Orta’s play follows a woman who moves to a new home in Arizona and, prodded by visions, reclaims her Mexican-American identity and answer the call of the ancestors (4/24-5/11)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf — Edward Albee’s explosive domestic masterpiece (Closes 4/20)
The Mystery of Irma Vep — Two actors play multiple roles with breakneck costume changes in Charles Ludlam’s definitive drag-horror spoof. Directed by Joseph W. Ritsch (5/18-6/22)
Testosterone — A macho son overcomes his inability to feel fear by putting himself in dangerous situations, and the resulting chaos disrupts his family’s life. Written by German playwright Rebekka Kricheldorf (Closes 4/6)
A Room in the Castle — Lauren M. Gunderson’s inventive play finds Hamlet‘s Ophelia, her handmaid, and Queen Gertrude on the other end of the wild prince’s antics and realizing just how dangerous life in this castle has become. As Ophelia withstands Hamlet’s assaults and insults, Gertrude comes to see how far gone her son truly is. Directed by Kaja Dunn (Closes 4/6)
Twelfth Night — A playful interpretation of the beloved Shakespeare comedy that brings gender fluidity, mistaken identities, and what it means to move between worlds into a joyful discovery of love. Direced by Mei Ann Teo (5/13-6/22)
Choke — This World Premiere tells the story of a family undergoing a medical crisis that unleashes intergenerational conflict as they fight against a corporation. family that mirrors the battle that the family has to fight against a corporation (4/24-5/18)
Columbia Heights Bolero Bar — The U.S. Premiere of Rubén León’s cabaret-style immersive musical mosaic featuring famous boleros (6/11-29)
#Charlottesville— Priyanka Shetty gives a tour-de-force performance about the power of witnessing, constructed from interviews with residents of Charlottesville impacted by events surrounding 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally and counter-protests (Closes 4/13)
Falsettos — William Finn and James Lapine’s Tony-winning musical traverses gay relationships, bar mitvahs, baseball and AIDS (5/10-6/15)
Apropos of Nothing, A Comedy — The D.C. Premiere of Greg Kalleres’s comedy about love, irony, and cliche (7/12-8/10)
Broadway Center Stage: Legally Blonde — Based on the hit movie. When the effervescent Elle Woods is dumped by her boyfriend, she follows him to Harvard Law School, determined to win him back and, in the process, uncovers her own inner-laywer (6/6-15, Eisenhower)
Les Misérables — Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony Award-winning phenomenon changed the world of musical theater. Now, Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production returns to the very Opera House where it had its pre-Broadway run in 1986 (6/11-7/13, Opera House)
cullud wattah — In 2016, a General Motors employee finds herself on the cusp of promotion until her sister begins participating in protests accusing the company of poisoning the water in Flint, Michigan, in Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s award-winning drama. Directed by Danielle A. Drakes (4/3-27)
Andy Warhol in Iran — In 1976, Andy Warhol was asked to create pop-art portraits of the royals in Tehran, but the artist is taken hostage by a University student eager to publicize his group’s demands. Based on a true story. Serge Seiden directs (5/29-6/29)
Kimberly Akimbo — The winner of 5 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, this sheer delight is about a 16-year-old girl forced to navigate family dysfunction, a rare genetic condition, her first crush, and possible felony charges (5/20-6/1)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — Broadway’s winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Play, continues the Potter saga in a magical theatrical spectacular that the New York Times called a “marvel of imagination” (7/8-9/6)
Wombat Drool — A quirky zookeeper with infectious enthusiasm and a penchant for storytelling, talks about wombats, red pandas, and tortoise poop, among other things. Drawn from David S. Kessler’s almost forty years of experience at the National Zoo (Closes 3/29, Dance Loft on 14th)
Waitress — Jenna is stuck in a lousy marriage and dreaming of an escape while she bakes pies and waits tables at her small town’s local diner. The regional premiere of the beloved musical by Grammy Award-winner Sara Bareilles (Closes 4/6, Mainstage)
Sleepova — Four Black British teenagers cope with their own unique challenges of disability, sexuality, religion, and family at a sleepover party. Written by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini and directed by Paige Hernandez (3/26-4/27, Theatre Lab)
Little Miss Perfect — Joriah Kwamé became a viral TikTok star with his song “Little Miss Perfect,” which garnered over ten million views and launched this new musical co-produced with Goodspeed Musicals (5/15-6/22, Mainstage)
Kim’s Convenience — The inspiration for the hit Netflix series of the same name (6/25-7/27, Theatre Lab)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — The currently nomadic Synetic Theatre pays Olney a visit with one of its greatest wordless Shakespeares. Adapted by Ben Cunis and Paata Tsikurishvili (7/17-8/10, Mainstage)
Uncle Vanya — Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville stars in the Anton Chekhov classic, freshly adapted by noted playwright Conor McPherson (3/30-4/20, Harman)
Frankenstein — Emily Burns reimagines Mary Shelley’s horror masterpiece as a chilling exploration of what it means to create a new life. The production will ride the edge of cinematic thriller and intense drama, giving thrilling new life to a familiar tale (5/27-6/22, Klein)
In the Heights— James Vásquez takes the reins on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rich, Latin-infused, ebullient musical about a Washington Heights neighborhood on the brink of gentrification and a life-changing winning lottery ticket (Closes 5/4, Max)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch — The intimate rock musical about a botched sex change operation, by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, finally gets the Signature treatment in the capable hands of director Ethan Heard (4/15-6/22, Ark)
The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical — Politics, counterculture, and rock and roll collide in the drug-fueled form of Thompson, the inventor of Gonzo journalism. Music and lyrics by Joe Iconis, book by Iconis and Gregory S. Moss. Directed by Christopher Ashley (6/3-7/13, Max)
You’ve Got a Friend: Women Pop Songwriters — From Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Carly Simon to Brandi Carlile, Alicia Keys, Sara Bareilles and Adele, Signature celebrates the amazing women who not only sing but write their own music (7/2-13, Ark)
The Immigrant— A new project from Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili based on the classic 1918 silent comedy (4/11-27 at Theater J)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — A magical wordless production of Shakespeare’s beloved tale of fantasy, fairies, and romance. Adapted by Ben Cunis and Paata Tsikurishvili. Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili (7/17-8/10, Olney Theatre Center)
American Fast — Reginald L. Douglas directs Kareem Fahmy’s play about women’s basketball, March Madness and American Ramadan as a young Muslim woman balances the pressures of faith, fame, and family (Closes 4/13)
Your Name Means Dream— Playwright José Rivera directs his intimate tragicomedy that asks what it means to be human as we embrace the technology of our future. Starring the incomparable Naomi Jacobson (Closes 4/6)
Sofonisba — Callie Kimball’s play explores one of the first known female artists. A student of Michelangelo, 27-year-old noblewoman and renowned portrait artist Sofonisba Anguissola travels from Italy to Spain to paint for King Philip II. The play is about the hunger for creation and what it costs. Directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes (4/10-5/4)
Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live & active cultures!) — In Julia Izumi’s whimsical new play, the renowned Japanese filmmaker gives a lecture about his iconic filmography, the thrilling world of movies, and “culture.” But he can’t stop talking about yogurt (5/4-6/1)
Read Kate Wingfield’s and André Hereford’s stage reviews weekly in the magazine.
"Friends, Harlemites, countrymen, lend me your ears." The Folger has brought the Bard uptown, courtesy of Al Letson's Julius X, a deft reimagining of Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar as a depiction of the last days of Malcolm X.
As the playwright points out in the production's program notes, Shakespeare's drama of the betrayal and assassination of the political leader in ancient Rome overlaps pretty effectively, plot-wise and thematically, with an account of the betrayal and assassination of the civil rights leader in Harlem 1965.
Accordingly, for Letson's modernized mashup, stylishly staged by Nicole Brewer, the conspirators carry daggers not pistols to slay Julius X inside the Audubon Ballroom. Instead of robes and togas, they rock natty suits, courtesy of costume designer Danielle Preston, who keeps the cast dripping in Harlem swag.
Almost every reference to Ibsen's The Wild Duck starts with how rarely it's performed. You can see why: the play is basically a tragedy wrapped up in a comedy wrapped up in questions of class, status, gender, and whether deception is a necessary social glue. It's a Rubik's cube of a play but -- credit where it's due -- director Simon Godwin makes it look easy. In his hands, this is an intimate, tragic-comic domestic drama you can really get your teeth into.
And kudos to Godwin (and adapter David Eldridge) for seeing how relevant The Wild Duck is for a 21st century audience. Even if Ibsen writes as a man of his times, it's still true that a single mother today might push her daughter towards financial security, a young man might make an ideological break from an overbearing father, and a destabilized family might forget to protect its fledgling.
Speak, forgive, forget. It's one of the guiding principles of the Pennsylvania Amish community depicted in Chelsea Marcantel's Pulitzer-nominated Everything Is Wonderful, staged in a stirring if stilted production at Keegan Theatre.
As with many such moral doctrines, the phrase rolls off the tongue easily, but it's not always so easy to stick to those principles when being sorely tested. The family at the heart of the play is tested to painful extremes, and speak-forgive-forget, and even their deep-rooted faith, might not be enough to keep their bonds intact.
Tragedy has intruded on the peaceful, pious lives of farmer Jacob (Michael McGovern), wife Esther (Susan Marie Rhea), and their daughters Ruth (Sasha Rosenbaum) and Miri (Leah Packer), all grieving a devastating loss. Worse, their mourning is complicated by emotional fallout caused by a separate, also devastating event.
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