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
The Victorian Ladies ARE BACK -- and yes, there's another murder. The tenacious Detective Collective, sisters Loveday and Valeria, with American actress Katie, take on a new murder case to sleuth. Soon, the clues lead them into a dangerous web of anarchists and religious fanatics, immigrants being scapegoated, and ultimately Katie accused as the prime suspect. It's their most daring caper yet!
MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient Samuel D. Hunter's intimate, powerful play is a thoughtful meditation on human resilience. Inside a small office in southern Idaho, two men struggle to understand the confounding terms of a mortgage loan while connecting over the joy and pain of fatherhood. The pair form an unlikely friendship through their "specific kind of sadness," using humor to find hope in the face of heartbreak. Hailed as a New York Times Critic's Pick, this moving new play from the award-winning screenwriter of The Whale is a testament to the power of finding one's own community in the face of loneliness.
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).
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.
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.
Firecracker Festival is a "mini-fringe" celebration of new work from emerging local and national playwrights, featuring staged readings, drag performance, and other adventurous theatrical events that spotlight queer and trans stories. Curated by Theatre Prometheus, the festival centers compassion, courage, and care while partnering with groups like the Welders Playwrights Collective and Confetti Collective to share bold, community-driven art and give audiences an early look at brand-new plays and artists.
Written by Reggie D. White and directed by Lili-Anne Brown, Fremont Ave. is a raw, electric world premiere that moves across decades with the force of memory and the rhythm of Spades. From young love and big dreams to buried resentment and unmet expectations, three generations of Black men face off at the card table and come face-to-face with each other. At the center of it all is the family's formidable matriarch: beloved, feared, and never forgotten. What begins as a game becomes a reckoning with masculinity, identity, and the weight of silence passed down. Fremont Ave. lays every card on the table and dares you to do the same.
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.
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!
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!
Get ready to rock... and bleed! On October 31, Keegan unleashes LIZZIE, the ferocious punk-rock musical that rips the lid off the legend of Lizzie Borden. Fueled by rage, retribution, and a blistering all-female rock score, LIZZIE reimagines the infamous 1892 axe murder in a show that's equal parts gothic horror, riot grrrl rebellion, and rock concert. LIZZIE is a visceral, unapologetic thrill ride. Blood will spill. Guitars will wail. Justice will scream.
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.
A heart-rending opus by acclaimed Jerusalem-based composer Danny Paller and NYTimes Jerusalem bureau staffer/researcher Myra Noveck, NOVEMBER 4 marks the 30th anniversary of an assassination that radically altered the course of history. A timely, tense, musical collision-course between the 73 year old Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and his 25-year-old assassin, law student, Yigal Amir, this finely melodic forensic drama, directed by Alexandra Aron, is told with an up-to-the-minute frame of reference, as a cast of five portray a variety of figures in the lives of Rabin and Amir, including the wife, granddaughter, and trusted advisor to the Prime Minister, alongside family members, the love interest, and fellow law students of the assassin, with painful present-day reflecting from two women who were close at hand when the hopes of Oslo fell apart.
The beloved family tradition is back: NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet! Gather your loved ones for the warm-glow-nostalgia of America's favorite Christmas celebration. Experience the extraordinary international cast and Ukrainian Principal Artists performing at the peak of classical European Ballet. Be transported by the magic of jaw-dropping acrobatics, larger than life puppets and stunning hand-crafted sets and costumes. Don't miss this chance to experience the wonder of NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet.
Surrounded by sisters and a matchmaking mother, Elizabeth Bennet navigates love, pride, and prejudice in Jane Austen's beloved classic. In this fresh adaptation by Emma Whipday, her wit and wisdom shine in a timeless tale of self-discovery and romance.
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.
Set in Chicago when Prohibition has everyone thirsty for a little excitement, SOME LIKE IT HOT is the "glorious, big, high-kicking" (Associated Press) story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they catch a cross-country train for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime.
Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in this biting satire, as a troupe of performatively "woke" thespians scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month without any cultural stumbles.
A talented and experienced Black actress has been cast in Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching play set to open on Broadway. She's paid her dues throughout the years, playing stereotypical supporting roles in second-rate shows, and is ready for her star turn. Chaos in Belleville, written by a white playwright, might not be quite as enlightened a piece as she's been hoping for - but that doesn't mean it won't sell out. A cast of multigenerational Black actors rehearse under the purview of a white director and stage manager, and as the rehearsal process unfolds, theatre conventions and racial politics collide, resulting in a surprisingly funny yet deeply piercing look at the entertainment industry.
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.