Join the Puppet Co. for our 37th annual The Nutcracker! This time honored seasonal celebration includes Tchaikovsky's familiar story of Clara and her prince, with some Puppet Co. nursery rhyme spin.
Shows in DC: Current DC Theatre Productions
Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it's her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. This poignant and funny play takes its audience through the highlights, heartbreaks and extraordinary moments that make up one woman's ordinary life. "For my money, Birthday Candles is precisely why people go to the theater." - Chicago Tribune
When the lights go out during Chanukah, Max and family begin sharing songs, stories, and traditions - only to discover the lights they needed and the miracles they searched for were in their midst all along. Perfect for ages 5 and up.
The show is just what it sounds like: A mashup of the life of Edgar Allan Poe and the structure of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." It tells Poe's story up to the last days of his beloved wife Virginia Clemm - and the lessons he learned about love and happiness one fateful December night. It's a new spin on a timeless classic, and it's bound to be a new Baltimore holiday tradition.
Join the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as they lead the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey of transformation and redemption. Originally conceived by Michael Baron, this music-infused production captures the magic and joy of Dickens's Yuletide classic, with familiar characters, ghosts and a children's ensemble in the spirit of the holidays. Acclaimed actor Craig Wallace returns to play Ebenezer Scrooge in Ford's annual tradition heralded as a "rich visual and vocal treat" (TheaterMania) and "infectiously jolly" (The Washington Post).
This holiday season, Gregory Burgess once again brings Ebenezer Scrooge to life on the CSC stage as we celebrate over a decade of A Christmas Carol! Journey through Victorian Baltimore in this local reimagining of the beloved tale. Join us for a heartwarming experience that blends tradition, community, and the magic of the season — perfect for audiences of all ages.
Step back in time to Victorian London for one of the world’s most beloved stories, told with music, magic, humor, and heart in this acclaimed adaptation at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. Follow London’s most notorious miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, as he journeys through time with a host of spirits to re-discover his own humanity — and the spirit of the holidays.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Peter Orvetti Directed by Peter Orvetti and Jeff Poretsky
Michael Russotto returns to star for a second holiday season in this solo show that is a masterclass in theatrical storytelling. As he portrays nearly 50 different characters from the Charles Dickens classic, you'll find yourself swept up in a story that is funnier, more timely, and far more familiar to our modern-day circumstances than you could ever imagine. Even more impressive, Paul Morella's beloved adaptation stays true to Dickens' original language - making this perhaps the most authentic Christmas Carol out there. There's a reason our audience has made this part of their holiday tradition for the past 16 years.
Bella is seeing and hearing things that aren’t there. Her loving husband is concerned. Is she losing her mind, or is there something more insidious at play? In this gripping new adaptation of the famous psychological thriller Gaslight, we find a young woman desperately trying to unravel a dangerous mystery while a web of manipulation and lies forces her to doubt the relationships around her – and her own sanity! Filled with suspense and surprise, Deceived is the perfect addition to Everyman’s annual lineup of holiday mysteries. If you’ve ever wondered where the term “gaslight” came from before it was named Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in 2022, you’ve got to see this play.
From the creators of the hit comedy DRUNK SHAKESPEARE comes The Greatest (Drunk) Love Story Ever Told: DRUNK ROMEO & JULIET! The stage is set in a hidden library speakeasy. One professional actor has 5 shots of whiskey and then attempts to perform a major role in Shakespeare's greatest love story: Romeo & Juliet. Hilarity and mayhem ensue while the remaining sober actors try to keep the script on track. Every show is different depending on who is drinking...and what they're drinking!
Buddy, a young orphan who mistakenly crawls into Santa's bag of gifts, is transported back to the North Pole. Unaware that he is actually human, Buddy's size and poor toy-making abilities force him to face the truth. With Santa's permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father, discover his true identity, and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. This modern day holiday classic is sure to make everyone embrace their inner ELF.
Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman, his family and their tightknit community honor tradition but must contend with a changing world and a rise in anti-Semitism at their home in Czarist Russia. The glorious score with songs "Sunrise, Sunset" "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Matchmaker" unite with exquisite dance in this classic of the musical theater canon filled with humor, heart - and life.
Do you want to build a snowman? How about watching him spring to life in front of you for one day of adventures before he melts away? In this merry wintertime romp, chock-full of chuckles and comic antics, Frosty gallops into the hearts of kids and adults alike - even the heart of one skeptical cop - through his uproarious antics.
The oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York just got busted and Nathan Detroit needs cold hard cash to get it up and running again. Enter high-roller Sky Masterson, who Nathan wagers can't get a date with the straightlaced Sarah Brown, a Salvation Army missionary trying to save them all from sin. Directed by Washington National Opera Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (Smash, Broadway's Bull Durham), dance the night away to "Luck Be a Lady Tonight," "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "A Bushel and a Peck," and more classic tunes in the must-see show of the holiday season.
Dolly Gallagher Levi is a woman on the make. And what's she making? Whatever you need. A husband? A wife? Dance lessons? Pierced ears? There's never been a more indefatigable figure in American musical theatre, and perhaps that's why the role has served as a vehicle for some of our greatest stars, from Carol Channing to Barbra Streisand to Bette Middler. Now, the DMV's reigning musical superstar, Nova Y. Payton, takes on the title role of a musical that churns out laughs, songs, and over-the-top antics as fast as humanly possible...and then goes a little faster. Audiences of all ages are guaranteed a great time at this classic musical about love, second chances, and the magic of an adventure to the big city!
Hershel just wants to celebrate Hanukkah with the community, but the Queen and King of the Goblins have forbidden the lighting of the candles. Can Hershel save the day and lift the curse for this shtetl (village)? Script by Stephen Laughton. Original book written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
This holiday season, Julia Masli returns to Woolly with a festive edition of her hit, award-winning show ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, now titled ho ho ho ha ha ha ha. Fresh off a global tour-with stops in New York City (at The Public), and previously in Edinburgh, London, and Melbourne-Masli invites audiences to bring their holiday problems to the stage for a hilarious and surprising solution. A completely different show every night, ho ho ho ha ha ha ha is a production like no other.
Based on one audience suggestion (a title of a show that has never been written), The Improvised Shakespeare Company creates a brand new, fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes!
On the eve of a visit from her estranged childhood friend, now an acclaimed painter, French ceramist Marie-Berthe Cazin recounts her life. From her early days as a gifted protegee discovering the art of pottery, to watching her husband rise to fame partly by claiming her work as his own, through the upheaval of World War I, Marie's unwavering spirit reveals the beauty in the broken.
AN IRISH CAROL is an homage to Dickens' classic - told as only the Irish can. This comic and touching play, set in a modern Dublin pub, follows one evening in the life of David, a wealthy pub owner who has lost touch with his own humanity in the interest of self-protection and material success. But on this Christmas Eve - challenged by a voice from the past, provoked by those in the present, and faced with the reality of a lonely future - David's life may change forever.
John Mulaney is a three-time Emmy Award, Critics Choice award and WGA award-winning writer, comedian and actor. Most recently, Mulaney can be seen as the host, writer and executive producer of his Netflix talk show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. The show serves as the continuation of the series Everybody's in LA. The series features monologues, guests, pre-taped sketches, musical segments and more. Everybody's in LA was a six-night live comedy series that explored Los Angeles during the Netflix Is A Joke Festival in 2024. In December 2024, Mulaney starred in the Broadway play All In: Comedy About Love, alongside a cast including Fred Armisen, Richard Kind and Renee Elise Goldsberry. Mulaney is currently on the first leg of his newest stand-up tour, JOHN MULANEY: MISTER WHATEVER, performing across North America.
Junie B. Jones, first-grader, is super-excited about the upcoming Holiday Sing-Along and Secret Santa gift exchange at ehr school. Too bad tattletale May keeps ruining all of Junie B.'s fun. SO, when Junie B. draws May's name for Secret Santa, she comes up with the perfect plan to teach her nemesis a lesson!
Past, present, and future collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five. Humorous and heart-wrenching, this beautifully written play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of How I Learned to Drive proves that magic can be found in the simplest breaths of life.
From director Mara Sherman (A Two Woman Hamlet) and the Coil Project (Strange Tales) comes an audacious take on Macbeth. Just three actors and a bare stage create all the characters and locations of Shakespeare’s classic tale of supernatural evil. Running December 5th through 20th, Macbeth offers a witchy counterbalance for your usual holiday sweetness.
Book and Lyrics by Jennifer Kirkeby, Music by Shirley Mier. A Holiday tradition at Creative Cauldron! "In an old house in Paris, covered in vines, lived 12 little girls in two straight lines." And with that familiar phrase, author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans sets in motion the adventures of the brave and resourceful Madeline! In this musical adaptation, Madeline's schoolmates and tutor are all sick in bed on Christmas Eve, unable to go home for Christmas to be with their families. So it's Madeline to the rescue! And with the help of a magical rug merchant she takes her friends on a Christmas journey they will never forget.
The latest semiautobiographical work from Pulitzer Prize-winner and DMV native Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) traces 40 years and five evictions in a very funny play about a very unhappy family. Siblings Martha and Carl are barely teens for their first eviction in 1962, growing up gay in the out-sized orbit of their glamorous, exacting, alcoholic mother. The family's odyssey through the DC suburbs takes them from one roach-infested apartment to another, and from the Sexual Revolution to the Disco Era to '90s New Age. A Broadway hit last season, Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions is wry, savage, and surprisingly tender, an exorcism as well as a ritual of forgiveness.
Prince John is desperate to become King, but his niece and nephew stand in his way. Urged on by his equally wicked wife, he orders the Sheriff of Nottingham to have them kidnapped and disposed of. After a failed kidnap attempt in a comedy classroom scene, the Babes are eventually kidnapped by Bashem and Thumpem and taken to the woods. However, they can’t go through with the dirty deed and abandon them in the wood. But help is at hand in the form of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, assisted by Robin Hood’s secret spy, Hayrick. Not to mention the Babes’ Nursie and her clever dog, Tyson.
A "raucous, unbridled" (The Guardian) hit at London's National Theatre, Rules for Living has its American premiere at Round House this holiday season! The holidays are all about family, but what happens when long-standing tensions, buried resentments, and hilariously disastrous coping mechanisms collide at Christmas dinner? In this inventive, high-energy comedy, the internal rules that the characters live by become visible, turning every awkward pause, biting remark, and outburst into a brilliantly choreographed meltdown. Wickedly funny and all too relatable, this is one family holiday gathering you won't want to miss.
Santa Claus Is Comin’ is a dazzling, family-friendly musical celebration by Nygel D. Robinson and Ken-Matt Martin, the powerhouse performer and co-creator of our breakout hit Mexodus. Packed with heart and groove, this spirited show features classic holiday favorites, reimagined with the unmistakable sound of Motown legends—from The Supremes to The Jackson 5.
A soaring new musical for the holiday season! This follow-up to Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman?" is based on the video of the same name. It is told with breathtaking theatre magic by talented actors, stunning puppetry, and beautiful projections. A boy has moved into a new house and lost his beloved dog. In the garden he builds a snowman and then, to keep it company, a snow dog. They both come to life during the night, and the three embark on a fantastic journey.
Everything that makes a great knight in the theater is here, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery-and of course, the Lady of the Lake. Spamalot features well-known songs such as "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," "The Song That Goes Like This," "Find Your Grail," and more that have become beloved classics in the musical theater canon.
Get ready to celebrate-Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is back for its fourth spectacular year at Arena Stage! Bring the entire family to join DJ Nutcracker and his Arctic friends for an electrifying journey packed with high-energy stepping, festive music, and non-stop holiday cheer with the award-winning Step Afrika! performers. This fan-favorite tradition promises laughter, joy, and unforgettable moments. Last year's production sold out, so snag your tickets early.
Everyone's favorite Christmas musical is coming to Riverside Center! Veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of beautiful singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which just happens to be owned by Bob and Phil's former army commander. Will the show go on? With a dazzling score featuring well-known standards including "Blue Skies," "I Love a Piano," "How Deep Is the Ocean" and the perennial title song, White Christmas is an uplifting, wholesome musical that will delight audiences of all ages.