Top Rated Plays List - The Highest Rated Shows In DC

The "Theatre In DC Top Rated Plays List" is a list of the top rated plays now running in the DC area based on what the current reviews are saying. To see the Washington DC Theatre Reviews of all the play reviews go to the Theatre In DC Review Round-Up.

King Lear

Michael R. Klein Theatre

Caught in a carousel of memory, the head of a dysfunctional royal family grapples with power-hungry children and the threat of losing the empire he created. Real and imagined worlds coalesce, creating a political and personal horror that threatens to swallow the mind of the monarch. The incomparable Patrick Page (Hadestown, The Gilded Age) returns to STC as the once-revered king caught in an emotional hurricane ravaging his home, head, and heart.

Washington Post- Highly Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended
City Paper- Highly Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

Jagged Little Pill

The National Theatre

Joy, love, heartache, strength, wisdom, catharsis, LIFE-everything we've been waiting to see in a Broadway show- is here in the exhilarating, fearless new musical based on Alanis Morissette's world-changing music.

Metro Weekly- Highly Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Somewhat Recommended
City Paper- Highly Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended
Theatre Bloom- Highly Recommended

Selling Kabul

Signature Theatre

In 2013, a sister secretly shelters her translator brother from an increasingly powerful Taliban while he awaits the ever-delayed arrival of a promised American visa. On the eve of his son's birth, the walls begin to close in, threatening him, her and everyone they love in a heart-racing expose with devastating echoes to the present day.

Washington Post- Somewhat Recommended
Metro Weekly- Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended
City Paper- Highly Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended
Theatre Bloom- Highly Recommended

Gloria: A Life

Theater J

Gloria: A Life is more than a play-it's a celebration of human connection. Five decades after Gloria Steinem began raising her voice and championing the voices of others, her call for equality is as urgent as ever. In this exploration of the iconic feminist's extraordinary legacy and the women who inspired her (including Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Flo Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, and Wilma Mankiller), the first act tells her story, and the second invites the audience to share their own. Gloria Steinem's stirring and uplifting narrative is a necessary reminder of the importance of speaking up and speaking out. Directed by Holly Twyford (Becoming Dr. Ruth), Gloria: A Life honors one of the most inspiring women of our time.

Washington Post- Recommended
Metro Weekly- Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

Blue

The Kennedy Center

Proof that opera can be powerfully contemporary, Blue dives head first into the Black Lives Matter movement with the tragic story of a black police officer whose son is killed by a fellow officer. The Tony-winning composer of Fun Home teamed with the acclaimed director of Porgy and Bess to write the gut-punch of a score.

BroadwayWorld- Somewhat Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
Washington Informer- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Recommended

Clyde's

Studio Theatre

No one would accuse Clyde of having a soft heart: Sure she hires former convicts for the greasy kitchen of her truck-stop sandwich joint, but she knows what they owe her and holds that power tight. Her line cooks might be stuck, but their hopes haven't flickered out yet, fed by tentative connections and a fierce competition to create the perfect sandwich. Pulitzer-Prize winner Lynn Nottage's sweet and savory comedy trades in wonder, Wonder Bread, and the healing powers of food.

Washington Post- Somewhat Recommended
DCist- Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Highly Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

Beauty and the Beast

Synetic Theater

This is no ordinary fairy-tale. Synetic Theater's Beauty and the Beast draws on the darkness and sensuality of Villeneuve's original French novel, La Belle et la B�te, and the 1946 Cocteau film of the same name. First brought to our stage in 2014, this fresh adaptation is a sparkling and inspiring Gothic romance full of wonder, mystery and redemption expressed through Synetic's unique stage effects, expressionistic design, shadowplay, and movement. Told through the vengeful narration of a handsome Prince's first love, Synetic's dark and mystical take on the fairy tale explores and challenges the dynamics of love and power as it asks the question, "Who is worthy of true love?" No sing-alongs or talking teacups from Disney's beloved animated film in this piece of theater art. Though just as magnificent, this show's got bite.

Metro Weekly- Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Recommended
City Paper- Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Recommended

Pacific Overtures

Signature Theatre

In 1853, after 200 years of stability, Japan faces an American expedition determined to open the "floating kingdom" to trade. The isolationist island's reckoning with the unwelcome western influence is brilliantly illuminated through a kaleidoscope of stories about sailors, samurai, "someone in a tree" and two friends who choose radically different paths.

Washington Post- Somewhat Recommended
Metro Weekly- Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Highly Recommended
Talkin Broadway- Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Recommended

A Nice Indian Boy

Olney Theatre Center

A meet-cute at the local temple brings Naveen face-to-face with the man of his dreams: a fellow Marathi-speaking Hindu who loves the same Bollywood films and can cook a mean dal makhani. If his parents were ever going to accept him bringing home a boyfriend, Keshav would be that boy except - he's white, raised by Indian foster parents who adopted him. But they're madly in-love and so off they head to the Gevaskar house, where Naveen's white boyfriend isn't the only surprise ready to walk through the door. This inter-generational, inter-cultural comedy presents a warm portrait of an Indian family wrestling with tradition, masculinity, and acceptance.

Washington Post- Somewhat Recommended
BroadwayWorld- Recommended
DC Theater Arts- Recommended
MD Theatre Guide- Recommended

To see Washington DC Theatre Reviews of all plays go the Theatre In DC Review Round-Up.

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