The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk Takes Flight at Theater J
Before the paintings that made him one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, Marc Chagall was a young dreamer in a small Jewish town in what is now Belarus, and the woman who would shape his life and his art was Bella Rosenfeld. Their love story comes vividly to life in The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Daniel Jamieson's lyrical play with music, now receiving its DC premiere at Theater J through November 1, 2026. Directed by Theater J Artistic Director Hayley Finn, the production has drawn praise for turning the swirling, dreamlike world of Chagall's canvases into living theatre.
The story is told by Marc and Bella themselves, played by Jamie Smithson and Dani Stoller, who guide the audience from their first meeting in Vitebsk through marriage, the birth of their daughter Ida, revolution in Russia, Marc's years designing sets for the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, life in Paris, and finally their escape from Nazi-occupied France to the United States. Along the way the play asks what Bella gave up so that her husband's genius could flourish, and it builds to a finish that critics found deeply moving. Stoller has been singled out for a Bella who is lively, playful, graceful, and poetic, a woman who brings color into her husband's world the moment she steps onstage, and her solos on the show's Yiddish songs are a particular highlight. Some of the most affecting moments come in the couple's quieter scenes, including Marc meeting baby Ida for the first time.
What has audiences and critics talking most is the show's visual and musical artistry. Aerialists Thomas Martin and Rachael Small, performing choreography by Gwynne Flanagan Cox, soar above the stage on a trapeze, mirroring the lovers below and bringing to life the floating couples that recur throughout Chagall's paintings. Their work has been described as entrancing, and it gives the evening a sense of wonder that feels true to the painter's lifelong fascination with circus performers. At its best, the production layers three pairs of lovers at once, the Chagalls embracing, the aerialists flying, and the musicians playing, while fragments of Chagall's masterpieces appear projected on frames and canvases around the stage.
That music is another reason the show has won admirers. Music director Katrina Michaels and Jeremy Allen Crawford open the evening by strolling down through the audience, then become full participants in the story, singing in Yiddish, Russian, French, and English while playing piano, cello, accordion, guitar, mandolin, recorder, and more. They perform Ian Ross's original score along with new music composed for this production by Sarah O'Halloran, who also serves as sound designer, and they even create the play's sound effects live. Together with the aerialists, they make the production feel expansive while keeping it intimate.
The design team has earned strong notices as well. One of the evening's most memorable moments comes early, when an aging Chagall holds up a black-and-white postcard of his lost hometown and Camilla Tassi's projections bloom into full color as he recalls its sounds, smells, and sights. Colin K. Bills's expressive lighting heightens the atmosphere, Misha Kachman's set draws inspiration from Chagall's own theatre work in Moscow, and Frank Labovitz's costumes and Aoife Creighton's props evoke both the whimsy of the paintings and the Russian Jewish world that inspired them.
Beyond the romance, the play serves as a poignant elegy for Vitebsk itself, a town of cathedrals and synagogues whose Jewish community was destroyed in the Holocaust, and which survives in Chagall's art and in the memories the couple carried with them. The result is a tender, visually enchanting tribute to two lovers and the home they could never return to.