The Georgetowner’s Spring 2024 Theater Guide
By • April 10, 2024 0 1107
ONGOING …
At Arena Stage, Trip Cullman directs “Unknown Soldier,” the last musical by “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” composer Michael Friedman, with lyrics by Friedman and Daniel Goldstein, who wrote the book (through May 5).
Sing along with Ronnette, Chiffon and Crystal at the Ford’s Theatre production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” directed by Kevin S. McAllister. Not recommended for florists, dentists or vegetarians (through May 18).
“Shear Madness,” in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab, never goes out of style (through Sept. 29).
LAST CHANCE THIS MONTH …
Hercule Poirot learns who done it in Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Stefan Sittig (through April 13).
Visionaries Of the Creative Arts (VOCA), supporting Deaf and hard-of-hearing BIPOC artists, presents “A Not So Quiet Nocturne” — written by Jaye Austin-Williams and directed by Alexandria Wailes — at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Set in the early 1990s, the play focuses on Charlyn, a young, Black, Deaf woman who contracted AIDS from her late husband (April 11 to 21).
Also at the Atlas: Navajo activist Esmeralda (Anaseini Katoa) and Mrs. Reagan (Lynn Hawley) face off in Rhiana Yazzie’s “Nancy,” directed by Ken-Matt Martin for Mosaic Theater Company (through April 21).
Sharyn Rothstein’s world-premiere adaptation of the 1975 film “Hester Street,” based on Abraham Cahan’s “Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto,” is now at Theater J, directed by Oliver Butler, with music by Joel Waggoner (through April 21).
Just opened at The National Theatre: Larissa FastHorse’s new adaptation of “Peter Pan,” directed by Lonny Price, with choreography by Lorin Latarro (through April 21). In the Kennedy Center Opera House: choreographer Kate Prince’s “Message in a Bottle,” set to the music of Sting (through April 21).
“Islander,” Best New Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe, opens any minute at Olney Theatre Center. The two-character show was conceived and directed by Amy Draper, with staging and associate direction by Eve Nicol. Finn Anderson wrote the music and lyrics, and Stewart Melton wrote the book (April 11 to 28).
The patient wife of Odysseus (Jessica Phillips) sips a bourbon in Alex Bechtel’s musical “Penelope,” directed by Eva Steinmetz at Signature Theatre. The book is by Bechtel, Grace McLean and Steinmetz (through April 28).
Estranged father Kenyatta and “smart and sexy hustler” Nina try to work things out in Dominique Morisseau’s “Sunset Baby,” directed by Deidra La Wan Starnes at Anacostia Playhouse (through April 28).
At Discovery Theater’s “Mother Earth & Me,” in the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center, kids between the ages of 5 and 10 sing songs about the water cycle (April 9, 11, 12, 25 and 26).
OPENING THIS MONTH AND PLAYING ON …
A dictionary editor is caught using profanity in Jacqueline Bircher’s “Webster’s Bitch,” directed by Keegan Theatre Artistic Director Susan Marie Rhea (through May 5).
D.C.’s most coveted ticket? “Macbeth,” directed by Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin, starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, now playing in Brentwood on a former BET sound stage after runs in Liverpool, Edinburgh and London (through May 5).
In Inda Craig-Galván’s “A Jumping Off Point,” directed by Jade King Carroll — the world-premiere centerpiece of Round House Theatre’s 2024 National Capital New Play Festival — a Black woman screenwriter is accused of plagiarism (April 10 to May 5). The festival also features free developmental readings (sold out, but with waiting lists) of: “Arab Spring” by Denmo Ibrahim, directed by Lila Rachel Becker (April 18 and 20); “Agape, or The Church Play” by Agyeiwaa Asante, directed by April Monu (April 19 and 21); “The Prime” by Dani Stoller, directed by Ryan Rilette (April 25 and 27); and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Nate Dendy and Aaron Posner, directed by Posner (April 26 and 28).
An illustration from the Mo Willems book “Knuffle Bunny.”
Commissioned by Solas Nua, Luke Casserly’s “Distillation,” with perfume by Joan Woods, “takes you to the Irish bog landscape through scent” (April 11 to May 12 at Eaton DC, May 15 to 19 at Round House Theatre).
Signature Theatre lets it all hang out with “Hair,” directed by artistic director Matthew Gardiner, with music directed by Mark G. Meadows and choreography by Rickey Tripp (April 16 to July 7).
Australian playwright John Shand’s post-apocalyptic “The Last Drop” is directed by Scena Theatre Artistic Director Robert McNamara at the DC Arts Center (April 18 to May 12).
In Adil Mansoor’s “Amm(i)gone” at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Mansoor converses (via audio) with his mother as she translates “Antigone” into Urdu. The one-man show is co-directed by Lyam B. Gabel (April 20 to May 12).
Back at the Atlas: “Marjorie Prime” follows octogenarian Marjorie’s interaction with a high-tech replacement for her late husband Walter. The show is directed by Jason Tamborini, artistic director of Prologue Theatre, which seeks to start conversations about difficult topics (April 26 to May 19).
The hills are alive with fiddle and banjo in “Sing Down The Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales” — directed by MaryHall Surface, who wrote the book and, with composer David Maddox, the lyrics — at Glen Echo Park’s Adventure Theatre MTC (April 25 to May 26).
COMING IN MAY …
One night only in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater: “The Hello Girls,” a new musical about America’s first women soldiers (May 7). Next up at The National: “Jesus Christ Superstar” (May 17 to 19).
Studio Theatre presents the world premiere of “Problems Between Sisters,” part of Julia May Jonas’s ALTAS (“All Long True American Stories”) cycle, which reimagines “male-experience plays” — in this case, Sam Shepard’s “True West” (May 8 to June 16).
Psalmayene 24 directs Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses,” based on Ovid’s retelling of Greek and Roman myths, at Folger Theatre (May 7 to June 16). More Mary Z. at Shakespeare Theatre Company: “The Matchbox Magic Flute,” her miniaturized Mozart opera (May 21 to June 16).
The multidisciplinary JxJ Festival, presented by the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, screens films and stages concerts at the EDJCC, the National Museum of American History, Bethesda Row Cinema and Fairfax’s Cinema Arts Theatre (May 9 to 19).
Eva Perón’s corpse carries on in the tango-infused musical “Momia en el clóset (Mummy in the Closet): Evita’s Return” at GALA Hispanic Theatre, directed by Mariano Caligaris. Gustavo Ott wrote the book and, with Mariano Vales, the lyrics. The original music is by Vales, with music direction by Walter “Bobby” McCoy and choreography by Valeria Cossu (May 9 to June 9).
Marking the 60th anniversary of the start of our country’s official military action in Vietnam, In Series presents “The Return of Ulysses,” an embroidering of Claudio Monteverdi’s 1640 opera with “arrangements of popular Vietnam era songs in the style of Monteverdi madrigals and the words of Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong.” Directed and conducted by Artistic Director Tim Nelson, the production also incorporates text from interviews with Vietnam veterans and dancing by Thai company 18 Monkeys, choreographed by Jitti Chompee (May 11 to 26 at Cultural DC’s Source Theatre, May 27 at a Memorial Day location TBA, May 31 to June 2 at Baltimore Theatre Project).
Eoghan Lamb as Robbie and Paula Clarke as Shauna in the c21 Theatre Company production of “Expecting,” coming to the Keegan Theatre in May. Courtesy Keegan.
The Keegan Theatre hosts a special engagement by Northern Ireland’s c21 Theatre Company of Charis McRoberts’s “Expecting,” a one-act play developed in collaboration with Deaf artist Paula Clarke and featuring both Deaf and hearing artists. Upon the arrival of baby Aisling, Shauna and Robbie’s marriage faces sink-or-swim challenges. Stephen Kelly directs (May 16 to 25).
In Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s “Mexodus,” directed by David Mendizábal for Mosaic Theater Company at the Atlas, live looping is used to “create a musical in real time” about the Underground Railroad that led south (May 16 to June 9).
Painter Jean-François Millet pretends to be his sister, the rich widow Tillou, in David Ives’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s “Is He Dead?” at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, directed by Joey Pierce (May 18 to June 8).
Based on Jason Reynolds’s YA novel, “Long Way Down,” developed in partnership with the Apollo in Harlem, is “an emotional hip-hop journey through the cycles of violence that have plagued [main character] Will’s family and too many others.” The book, music and lyrics are by Dahlak Brathwaite with additional writing by Khiyon Hursey. Ken-Matt Martin, co-choreographer with Victor Musoni, directs at Olney Theatre Center (May 22 to June 23).
Directed by Jamil Jude, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Pulitzer-winning “Topdog/Underdog,” about brothers Lincoln (Topdog) and Booth (Underdog), is coming to Round House (May 29 to June 23).
Introduce your kids to Tupperware at “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” in the Kennedy Center Family Theater (May 7 to June 2). Or would they rather meet the last tortoise on Pinta Island? “Galapagos George” is jointly presented by Discovery Theater and Richmond-based Barefoot Puppet Theatre in the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center (May 30 and 31).
Nancy-mosaic.jpg – Lynn Hawley as Nancy Reagan in “Nancy.” Photo by Chris Banks. Courtesy Mosaic Theater Company.
NEW IN JUNE …
In her one-woman show, “The Elephant in the Room,” at The Keegan, software engineer Priyanka Shetty defies her Indian family, emigrating to “Trump’s America” to become an actor. Directed by Theresa M. Davis, the play was developed in the Keegan’s Boiler Room Series (June 1 to 23).
Playwright John Jarboe performs “Rose: You Are What You Eat,” directed by MK Tuomanen, at Woolly Mammoth, “a true story of gender feasting, set to music.” Without going into too much detail, Jarboe apparently had a twin sister who did not exit the womb (June 3 to 23).
The characters in Lauren Yee’s “The Hatmaker’s Wife” at Theater J include a young woman named Voice, her boyfriend Gabe, Gabe’s house itself and “a golem with a taste for Cheetos.” Dan Rothenberg directs (June 5 to 25).
Arena closes its season with “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence,” Step Afrika!’s dance adaptation of Lawrence’s 60-painting series — half owned by the Phillips Collection — about the mass migration of Southern Blacks to the industrial North (June 6 to July 14).
Constellation Theatre Company, in residence at Cultural DC’s Source Theatre, presents Aleshea Harris’s “Is God Is,” directed by KenYatta Rogers, “a modern myth that fuses ancient tragedy, hip-hop and Afropunk” (June 13 to July 14).
With music by Brian Arreola and a libretto by Anna Deeny Morales, “Zavala-Zavala” at GALA is a chamber opera about a Honduran woman who is separated from her 7-year-old grandson after they cross the Río Grande (June 21 to 23).
Musicals coming to the Kennedy Center: “Bye Bye Birdie” (June 7 to 15), “Funny Girl” (June 25 to July 14) and “The Kite Runner” (June 25 to 30).
“Aggle flaggle klabble!” This summer, Angelisa Gillyard directs “Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical” at Adventure Theatre MTC, with music by Michael Silversher and lyrics by Mo Willems, who adapted his picture book (June 21 to Aug. 19).
