Shows in DC: Current DC Theatre Productions

This brand new adaptation based on the beloved children's novel by Lewis Carroll will take the audience on a delightful journey into wonderland using rod puppets. This one-of-a-kind performance blends music and humor to create a new version of a familiar story.

alight, sweet hearted is an immersive performance interweaving food, lyrical prose, and gestural dance. It retells the story of Hansel and Gretel from the perspective of how the characters mistreat each other through food, and aims to draw parallels between the famine of the original fairytale and the realities of our modern day food deserts. It engages all five senses by creating a tactile environment for the audience to walk through, where they taste the food from the world of the story and encounter characters who are represented through sound, scent, and light.

Carlo crashes her ex's wedding with three simple goals: Don't get drunk. Don't make any kids cry. Don't try to win back the bride, no matter how boring the groom is. (She'll ultimately fail at all three.) A very, very funny play about loneliness, estrangement, and a slow-burn romance with being alive.

"Be Our Guest" for this tale as old as time. Featuring the animated film's Academy Award-winning score, this breathtaking musical is the story of Belle and the Beast, who happens to be a handsome prince cursed by a beautiful enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will be lifted. If not, he and his servants will be doomed for all eternity. Will their love bloom before time runs out?

When four friends come together in a rural southwest Virginia town for a reunion, it's a happy gathering filled with remembrances and ritual. But when a local boy sets fire to the van of one of the friends, clashes magnify and challenge old declarations of magic and friendship. At its heart, "Chicks" is a tale of reconciling differences that begs the question...can women finally come together to fight both racism and the patriarchy at the same time? A Bold New Works premiere that celebrates the resilient power of the feminine spirit.

A world premiere, dark comedy by artistic director John Morogiello. Saint Leonard, Maryland, 1868, two businessmen condemn the shack of a waterman to make a killing on a railroad venture. But the waterman plans to make a killing of his own. Add a daughter with a thirst for danger and a mother desperate to see her married off, and you have an explosive examination of American progress and the right to be left alone.

Distillation is a response to the recent cessation of the peat harvesting industry in Ireland. Over the past year, Luke Casserly has collaborated with renowned perfume maker Joan Woods to create a unique distillation of the Midlands bog - the place where he grew up - as the starting point for an olfactory encounter which looks at our human relationship to place.

In this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning 21st century American classic, Sister Aloysius, a strict, uncompromising Catholic middle school principal in the early 1960’s, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the charismatic and highly popular Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students — who also happens to be the school’s only African American student.

You are cordially invited to a meeting of The Drunk Shakespeare Society. In a hidden speakeasy, five classically-trained actors assemble for their sacred ritual. One actor takes five shots of whiskey and then attempts to perform a major role in a Shakespeare play. Hilarity and mayhem ensue as the remaining sober actors attempt to keep the play on track. Every night is different depending on who's drinking ... and what they're drinking! Drunk Shakespeare is a New York Times' Critics Pick and "the best thing to ever happen to the theater" according to Slate Magazine. Craft cocktails are served throughout the show.

Generally regarded as the finest musical ever created, Gypsy is the ultimate tale of an ambitious stage mother fighting for her daughter's success while secretly yearning for her own. Arthur Laurents' landmark show explores the world of two-bit show business with brass, humor, heart, and sophistication.

The sensational, groundbreaking rock musical bursts with the jubilant spirit, raging rebellion and psychedelic color of the 1960s. A tribe of long-haired bohemian hippies on the cusp of adulthood champion freedom, pacifism, and joy, but confront a world thrown into chaos when one of their own receives a draft notice for the Vietnam War. With chart-topping hits such as "Aquarius," "Let the Sunshine In," and "Good Morning, Starshine," HAIR's vibrant, groovy celebration of peace, love and life changed Broadway forever and still resonates today.

The world premiere of Hester Street - the theatrical adaptation of the beloved 1975 film by Joan Micklin Silver - marks the largest production Theater J's stage has seen in years. Hester Street depicts the uplifting journey of Gitl, a young Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, who arrives with her son to meet her husband Jake in the tumult of the late-19th century Lower East Side. Separated from his wife and the provincial limitations of his upbringing, Jake has fully embraced his new American life-one that has little in common with Gitl's old-time ways. Faced with the disintegration of her marriage in a world she can barely comprehend, Gitl must find her voice, protect her son, and redefine her identity.

Can a robot make you laugh? Watch as Washington Improv Theater presents a medley of performances including Beat the Bot and LOLgorithm-two original shows that pair human improvisers with artificial intelligence.

Winner of Best New Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Islander tells a modern myth featuring two actors who use live mixing and looping technology to create a sonic landscape as dramatic as the Scottish coastline. Eilidh is the only child on Kinnan Island, where most of the dwindling population has moved to the "Big Land." The government has proposed to resettle the rest, and the town must vote soon on whether or not to accept the offer. But the day after a baby whale beaches itself, Eilidh discovers a young girl named Arran along the shore, who seems straight out of Scottish folklore. As the two form a friendship, Islander takes audiences on a magical journey to transcend loss, recover hope, and find community.

Leslie Wallace is a promising Black writer who has just landed her first deal with HBO. Her celebration is cut short when she gets a surprise visit from Andrew, a white man from her grad school cohort, who accuses her of plagiarizing his script. Their confrontation—and eventual uneasy alliance—forces a reckoning on representation, privilege, and who gets to tell what kinds of stories. Full of humor and complex characters, A Jumping-Off Point is a sharp and electric new play from rising star playwright and screenwriter Inda Craig-Galván. (Part of the National Capital New Play Festival)

Western civilization collapses during an economic upheaval and water becomes scarce. Pestilence, violence and war drive people away from the cities. Mary and Joe survive in the sand-dunes, desalinating sea water with a ramshackle stil. They scavenge for insects and random crustaceans. Their love is but a faded memory...like the many comforts of their previous life. Then, invaders arrive. Valentino is a shark of a trader. Esmeralda is his accomplice and whore. One ill fated night in their company tears Mary & Joe apart. Ultimately, hidden truths emerge and Mary finds herself at her wit's end with only one way out.

Come down to Skid Row for a non-stop blast, sci-fi horror comedy, love story and rock musical that has become one of the most treasured pieces of American musical theatre.

The peaceful village of Bebko is alive with joyous celebrations. Suddenly, under attack, everything changes forever. Three siblings, Leto, Mati, and Tana, must embark on perilous journeys in order to survive. Message In A Bottle is a spectacular new dance-theatre show from five-time Olivier Award nominee Kate Prince, inspired by and set to the iconic hits of Kennedy Center Honoree and 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist Sting.

In this beloved and fantastical comedy, four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest, pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. Meanwhile, a troupe of "rude mechanicals" put on a play of their own.

This witty, Tony Award-winning play, filled with music, dance, and comedy sketches, introduces us to Chauncey Miles, a gay burlesque performer at the Irving Place Theater. The Nance recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of Chauncey and his fellow performers. At a time when it was easy to play gay and dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life.

It's 1985 in Washington, DC and two women are trying to steer their futures-Nancy Reagan from the White House, orchestrating her husband "Ronnie's" political career according to daily astrological trends, and Esmeralda, a Navajo mother advocating for her community. Their worlds converge over an unbelievable discovery-Nancy has a direct familial connection to Pocahontas. Strange history collides with 80s nostalgia in this epic story that cuts through the veneer of shoulder pads, neon, and Van Halen with irreverent heart and deep empathy. Award-winning playwright Rhiana Yazzie makes her East Coast premiere with a very DC play about ancestry and ambition.

Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is fed up and has some things she wants to say. With glass of bourbon in hand, she takes the microphone to chronicle those twenty years waiting on the small island kingdom of Ithaca. With soulful music, this witty and thoughtful musical flips the script on the dutiful wife, as Penelope steps out of the background to claim her time in the spotlight.

The adventure begins when PETER PAN and his mischievous fairy sidekick, Tinker Bell, visit the nursery of the Darling children late one night. With a sprinkle of pixie dust and a few happy thoughts, the children are taken on a magical journey they will never forget. This extraordinary musical full of excitement and adventure features iconic and timeless songs including "I'm Flying", "I Gotta Crow", "I Won't Grow Up" and "Neverland". PETER PAN embraces the child in us all, so go on a journey from the second star to the right and straight on 'til morning - your entire family will be Hooked!

"Shear Madness" is one of the most popular entertainments in the world, delighting audiences night after night with its unique blend of madcap improvisation and spine-tickling mystery. This unique comedy-whodunit takes place today in the "Shear Madness" hairstyling salon and is chock full of up-to-the-minute spontaneous humor. During the course of the action, a murder is committed and the audience gets to spot the clues, question the suspects, and solve the funniest mystery in the annals of crime.The outcome is never the same, which is why many audience members return again and again to the scene of the mayhem.

The patriarch of a family of grey squirrels has stowed away enough nuts for 10 winters, but the fox squirrels from way over near the 7-11 want in on his stash. In this fiercely funny and provocative play, the writer of Hand to God exposes the way we use power and domination to mask our own insecurities and fears.

Kenyatta Shakur is alone. His wife has died, and now, this former Black Revolutionary and political prisoner, is desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter Nina. If Kenyatta truly wants to reconcile his past, he must first conquer his most challenging revolution of all - fatherhood. Sunset Baby is an energized, vibrant and witty look at the point where the personal and political collide.

An eclectic group of six mid-pubescents vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the tweens spell their way through a series of (potentially made-up) words, hoping never to hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life-un-affirming "ding" of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves a champion! At least the losers get a juice box. It includes audience participation.

When Agatha Ganner discovers a mystery painting in her deceased husband's art collection, she engages an energetic graduate student to research it for her. As disturbing crimes of the past are unearthed, Agatha must decide to either right the wrong - and possibly ruin lives - or leave the past in the past. Is doing the right thing always the right thing to do?

Cleaning out her grandmother's home, Ellen Rabinowitz discovers the photograph of an anonymous soldier tucked away in a box of keepsakes. And so begins Unknown Soldier, a sweeping, elegiac musical from Daniel Goldstein and the late Michael Friedman on a woman's journey to unearth the secrets of her family's past... and which will chart her future.

When their Editor-in-Chief gets caught using some unexpected profanity, the employees of Webster's Dictionary find themselves at the center of an internet uprising over gender and obscenity in the age of social media. As office politics collide with ambition, morality, and lexicography, the future of the English language hangs in the balance. A dark comedy about vulgar words and the people who define them.