The Georgetowner’s 2026 Spring Theater Guide
By • April 14, 2026 0 1206
THIS MONTH ONLY …
“Jonah” at Studio Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman.
“O, how full of briers is this working-day world!” Timothy Douglas directs an envisioning by Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels of “As You Like It” at Folger Theatre (through April 19).
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in Old Town? Todd Kreidler’s adaptation of the Tracy-Hepburn-Poitier-Houghton film is at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, directed by Adam Konowe (through April 18).
Felicia Curry honors the High Priestess of Soul in “I Put a Spell on You: Nina Simone,” part of Signature Theatre’s Cabaret Series (through April 19).
“Young Americans,” Lauren Yee’s road-trip play, has pulled into 1st Stage in Tysons. Nikki Mirza directs (through April 26).
Farther out, Herndon’s NextStop Theatre presents “Guards at the Taj” by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Mekala Sridhar (through April 19).
Pulitzer winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins takes Olney Theatre Center audiences to Arkansas in “Appropriate,” directed by Jason Loewith (through April 26).
Back in D.C.: Taylor Reynolds directs Rachel Bonds’s “Jonah” at Studio Theatre, telling the story of Ana, who meets the title character in boarding school (through April 19); and Hexagon invites area residents to “Join us for a night (or afternoon) guffawing at political slime” at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The 70-year-old company’s 2026 revue is “Lollapalosers!” (April 17 to 26).
Also at the Atlas: New Renaissance Arts’ “Drowning,” a touring show about “mental health, motherhood and fatherhood in addition to loss and grief” (April 19).
On the 90th anniversary of the so-called “Voodoo Macbeth,” Orson Welles’s Caribbean-set, all-Black production of the Scottish play, Adjoa Andoh directs a staged reading of her adaptation at the Folger (April 25).
OPEN OR SOON TO OPEN AND PLAYING ON …
“1776” at Ford’s Theatre. Photo by Scott Suchman.
In repertory at Staunton’s American Shakespeare Center: “A Bold Stroke for a Husband,” Hannah Cowley’s 1783 comedy, directed by Emily Lyon (through May 2); “Twelfth Night,” directed by Nana Dakin (through May 3); and “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” a Sherlock Holmes spoof directed by Brian Isaac Phillips (through May 17).
Arena Stage presents “A Good Day to Me Not to You,” Lameece Issaq’s one-woman show about a dental lab tech’s midlife crisis, directed by Lee Sunday Evans (through May 3).
Ancient Rome on your mind? Craig Wallace and Hannah Taylor star in George Bernard Shaw’s “Caesar and Cleopatra,” adapted and directed by Washington Stage Guild Artistic Director Bill Largess (through May 3).
More politics, national and local (through May 3): Reg Douglas, artistic director of Atlas resident partner Mosaic Theater Company, directs “Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest,” with a book and lyrics by Psalmayene 24 and music by Kokayi. Take a seat at the Keegan Theatre for an unruly public meeting in Big Cherry. Artistic Director Susan Marie Rhea directs Tracy Letts’s dark comedy “The Minutes.”
Natural-Lee! Ford’s Theatre celebrates the semiquincentennial with “1776,” directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado (through May 16).
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre is hosting “44: The Musical,” Eli Bauman’s Obama Era flashback, spiked with songs like “Filibusters” and “Just Ask Joe” (April 18 to May 10).
With composer-lyricist Ari Afsar, Lauren Gunderson transformed her play about Walt Whitman homework into “I & You: The Musical.” Sarah Rasmussen directs the world premiere at Olney (April 22 to May 24).
More for all you musical-lovers: “The Book of Mormon” at the National Theatre (April 28 to May 3).
“Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders,” by Luis Salgado (book, lyrics and choreography), who directs, and Daniel Alejandro Gutiérrez (music and lyrics), will have its world premiere at GALA Hispanic Theatre (April 30 to May 24).
The Streetcar Project drops into Dupont Underground with its prop-less, set-less “A Streetcar Named Desire,” directed by Nick Westrate, with Lucy Owen as Blanche (April 20 to May 4).
COMING IN MAY …
“Get Down Tonight: Classic Funk” at Signature features Isaac “Deacon Izzy” Bell and Shayla S. Simmons (May 5 to 17).
Studio presents Ossie Davis’s “Purlie Victorious,” directed by Psalmayene 24. Named for its preacher protagonist, the 1961 comedy had a hit Broadway revival in 2023 (May 6 to June 14).
In Christopher Chen’s “The Motion,” four scholars “wrestle with profound and unsettling questions.” Arena Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif directs (May 6 to June 14).
May-blooming musicals: “The Great Gatsby” at the National (May 12 to 24); “Pippin,” directed by Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner, at Signature (May 12 to July 26); “Cabaret,” directed by Theatre Lab co-founder Deb Gottesman, in Dupont Underground, with choreography by Sarah Frances Williams and music direction by Steve McBride (May 14 to 17); and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” directed by Krissy McGregor at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, with choreography by Benjamin Simpson and music direction by Owen Posnett (May 16 to June 6).
Constellation Theatre Company presents “Or,” Liz Duffy Adams’s play about Restoration playwright Aphra Behn, at the Atlas, its new H Street home. Artistic Director Allison Arkell Stockman directs (May 15 to June 7).
Wendell Pierce, Det. Bunk Moreland in “The Wire,” tackles “Othello” in Harman Hall. Artistic Director Simon Godwin directs STC’s season-capper (May 19 to June 28).
An Irish musician and a Czech immigrant cross paths in Dublin in Enda Walsh’s “Once,” with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, directed at NextStop by Heather Lanza (May 21 to June 21).
At Bethesda’s Round House Theatre: “Sally & Tom” (as in Hemings & Jefferson) by Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The production, directed by Timothy Douglas, comes with a content advisory (May 27 to June 28).
ASC puts a Staunton spin on “As You Like It” (May 28 to Aug. 8).
NEW IN JUNE …
At Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Raymond O. Caldwell directs “A Fine Madness,” in which Justin Weaks recounts his “personal journey as a Black gay man living in Washington, D.C., and newly diagnosed with HIV” (June 2 to 21).
Olney presents the world premiere of chef Carla Hall’s solo show, “Please Underestimate Me,” written by Hall, Lori Kaye and Leslie Thomas and directed by Lilli-Anne Brown (June 3 to July 12).
Another world premiere: mother-daughter comedy “Precarious” by Steph Del Rosso, directed by Jaki Bradley at Mosaic (June 4 to 28).
In Marcelo Dos Santos’s “Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen,” directed by Matthew Xia at Studio, the Comedian “meets Mr. Right — and then does everything wrong” (June 4 to July 12).
Baroque instruments mingle with Indian classical instruments in Artistic Director Tim Nelson’s score for “The Song of Sakuntala,” In Series’ world-premiere dance-opera, directed and choreographed by Hari Krishnan based on Kalidasa’s fifth-century play (June 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14).
The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society catastrophically mounts a murder mystery in Keegan’s season-closer, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields (June 6 to July 12).
At the Folger, Jacob Ming-Trent shares “How Shakespeare Saved My Life,” directed by Tony Taccone. Also rescuing Ming-Trent: “a host of genius rappers, half-crazed preachers and soulful poets” (June 9 to July 5).
Alternating casts, “each from a different diasporic background,” appear at Signature in Shayan Lotfi’s “What Became of Us,” about two siblings, one born in the “old country.” Ethan Heard directs (June 16 to July 26).
What, exactly, is a scrub? “A scrub is a guy that can’t get no love from me, hanging out the passenger side of his best friend’s ride.” Find out more at Arena’s production of “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical,” written and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah and choreographed by Chloe O. Davis (June 12 to Aug. 9).
At the National, “Suffs” shows us how to get it done (June 15 to 29); and “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” can-cans into the opera-less Kennedy Center Opera House (June 17 to July 5).
Grover’s Corners, N.H., comes to Staunton, Va., when ASC presents Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” (June 25 to Aug. 9).
Scena offers “No Exit,” Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 antidote to hopefulness, at the Atlas (June 27 to July 19).
FOR THE KIDS …
Kathryn Chase Bryer is directing two shows at Imagination Stage in Bethesda: Doug Robinson’s “Good Morning, Good Night,” for ages 1 to 4 (through April 19), and — based on the books by James and Kimberly Dean — “Pete the Cat: A Live Rock Musical,” for ages 4 to 10, with a book and lyrics by Sarah Hammond and music by Will Aronson (June 17 to July 26).
The curtain goes up at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center at 10:15 and 11:30 a.m. Spring Discovery Theater shows: “Mother Earth & Me,” for ages 7 to 11 (April 28 to May 1), and “Under the Baobab Tree,” for ages 3 to 8 (June 3 to 5).
At Glen Echo Park’s Adventure Theatre MTC, Ray Ficca directs Mike Kenny’s “Aesop’s Fables” adaptation (April 24 to May 24) and Janet Stanford directs “Sleeping Beauty: The Time Traveler,” with a book by Stanford, music by Deborah Wicks La Puma and lyrics by Andrea Dodds (June 18 to Aug. 23).
THE LAST SNIP …
Will “Shear Madness” come to an end at The Kennedy Center on Oct. 4 or July 5?
