Upcoming Shows
The year is 1940-something, and Chicago’s night scene is sizzling. Enter Joey Evans. A slick-talking, velvet-voiced songster with dreams bigger than the bandstand. But in...
Based on the real-life Scopes “Monkey” Trial, this electrifying courtroom drama pits two towering legal minds against each other in a small-town battle over science,...
Drama Desk Award-winning actor Lameece Issaq teams up with two-time Obie-winning director Lee Sunday Evans on her wildly candid new play, which centers on the...
What begins as a razor-sharp debate spirals into a world-altering unraveling as four scholars are thrust into a kaleidoscopic odyssey through memory, identity, and the...
TLC blazed a trail and changed the game. The trio stormed the 90s music scene, not only topping the charts—but creating the look, sound, and...
by Aidan O'Connor - March 01, 2026
How far would you go to keep your loved ones happy? To ensure the very thing that binds you when all else fails, has a satisfactory ending? In the Kennedy Center’s World Premiere Commission, The Sea Beyond the Ocean, 9-year-old Scooter (Ty’Ree Hope Davis) tests those limits to help his sick fath...
by Mary Lincer - February 26, 2026
Yes, Rent opened on Broadway thirty years ago. Having seen its final preview with a rapt and frequently weeping audience, it was fun to share it with an audience that knows the score (and when to moo)....
by Itai Yasur - February 19, 2026
Master illusionist Dendy gives you the gift of a stone in your shoe. See what our critic had to say....
by Laurie Sara Oliver - February 18, 2026
“So I’ve got a story to tell you. It’s a good one.” Marcus Kyd paces the small stage of the black box theater at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop where the house has been arranged like a comedy club. ...
by Audrey Cahak - February 22, 2026
As part of their self-ascribed “year of world premieres,” Olney Theatre Center is debuting the profoundly peppy, wonderfully messy, coming-of-age celebration Little Miss Perfect, written by Joriah Kwamé. The musical has been in development for more than five years, originally based on the catch...
by Andrew White - February 17, 2026
Krapp’s Last Tape is Scena Theatre’s contribution to a mini-Beckett festival that has popped up in our midst this past week, and it’s a poignant reminder of how Beckett foresaw demise—his, ours, everyone’s—with a combination of wry humor, and a resignation that sometimes borders on relie...
by David Friscic - February 17, 2026
An embarrassment of theatrical riches, bordering on sensory, stimulating overload, is on display in an exceptionally bold and satisfying reimagining of the very influential musical Pal Joey—now reconceived as Chez Joey. The show still takes place in the 1940’s Chicago music/nightclub scene, but ...
by Doug Poms - February 16, 2026
What did our critic think of SNAPSHOTS: A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK at Creative Caudron Stage?...
by Jake Bridges - February 16, 2026
With TAMBO & BONES, Spooky Action Theatre takes on a satirical and biting piece that refuses to play by the rules, whether it be of narrative, of genre, or of comfort. What starts as a minstrel show quickly mutates into a centuries-spanning interrogation of race, capitalism, and the hunger for auton...
by Jackson Malmgren - February 15, 2026
What did our critic think of THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA at Gala Hispanic Theatre?...
Past Shows
Get ready to celebrate—Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is back for its fourth spectacular year at Arena Stage! Bring the entire family to join...
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...
One of America’s most beloved musicals is coming back, dusted off and spit-shined for a new generation. All the elements that made it famous are...
As the world’s first holiday show highlighting the African American tradition of stepping, Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is a feast for the eyes and...
Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak On It! is a captivating call to action and look at the impassioned freedom fighter who became one of the most...
Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel The Snow Child, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is reborn as a magical new musical with a bluegrass-infused score. The...
It’s 1969 and the Civil Rights Movement is sending tremors through Pittsburgh’s Hill District. At the center of the community is Memphis Lee’s diner, slated...
There is a Japanese proverb that says, “The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hit.” In 1941, one American, the son of...
Robert Schenkkan’s Tony Award-winning play All the Way set the stage for President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s sudden ascent to the White House. In its D.C....
Some wounds refuse to heal. Mary Kathryn Nagle’s daring new work, which debuts as the fourth production in Arena Stage’s Power Plays initiative, travels the...
Velvet-throated songstress Nina Simone hypnotized audiences with her signature renditions of standards from the American songbook. But on September 15, 1963, a devastating explosion in...
The Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory is a tiptop model of efficiency—so why are things getting so steamy? It could have something to do with how hard...
Everything has a price—even our dreams. Victor Franz has returned home to settle his late father’s estate. In an attic overflowing with memories and furniture...
Good fences make good neighbors…right? From the outrageous mind of playwright Karen Zacarías (Destiny of Desire) comes this hot new comedy about the clash of...
Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist. This smash-hit show from 2015 returns to offer audiences...
Do our belief systems stem from our environment, or are some prejudices hard-wired into us? With barbed wit, Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly) explores the...
Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking masterpiece follows the Younger family yearning for a better life far from the cramped confines of their Chicago tenement. Hope arrives in...
Inspired by true events, Intelligence is a fictionalized account of a covert operative who, tasked with protecting the national security of the United States post-9/11,...
Four-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl) leads an ensemble cast as Fanny Farrelly in Lillian Hellman's suspenseful masterpiece...
The lawyer: a young, brilliant, courageous woman arguing Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court. The plaintiff: a complex, single woman seeking to end an...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...
Welcome to the Jernigan Gals’ Quilting Corner. Gathering at their childhood island home off the coast of Georgia, four disconnected sisters meet to create a...
Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play (and the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama League and the Drama Desk), Vanya and Sonia...
Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero (Red) returns to Arena Stage as one of America's most brilliant and polarizing figures: Supreme Court Justice Antonin...
King Hedley has returned, but to reign for how long? With an angry scar down the length of his face and seven years of prison...
Get your deerstalker cap on— the play’s afoot! From the Tony Award-winning mastermind of mayhem, Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), comes a fast-paced comedy...
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of an American classic! More than just a poor milkman, Tevye is a humble Jewish father who finds his devotion to...
Need to chase the blues away? Pull up a seat at the Funky Butt Club to celebrate the fresh, feel-good music of “The King of...
An esteemed collection of some of America’s finest playwrights, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and Olivier Award, has been assembled to create...
Meet Alma, a career shoplifter who prefers the “five-finger discount” over some lousy senior citizen deal, whose elaborate life of petty crime is halted by...
World premiere. June 6–29, 2014 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle A pioneer in the world of contemporary dance, Liz Lerman’s newest theatrical dance...
World Premiere March 21–May 4, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater Sixty-two miles north of Washington, D.C., nestled in Catoctin Mountain Park, lies the clandestine retreat...
January 31–March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage profits off the very war that steals her children from her one by...
Tectonic Theater Project’s World Premiere Presentation January 10–February 16, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater Bursting with soulful music and poetic storytelling, The Tallest Tree in...
November 29, 2013–January 5, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Broadway and Arena Stage favorite Kenny Leon (every tongue confess) returns to direct a new adaptation...
A co-production with Alliance Theatre and Cleveland Play House November 15–December 29, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater Broadway legend and Tony Award nominee Maurice Hines...
World premiere by Resident Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright October 11–November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle From resident playwright Charles Randolph-Wright (Blue, Cuttin’...
Exclusive Pre-Broadway Engagement September 6–October 20, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater In a simple Brooklyn brownstone, 79-year-old Alexandra lives a solitary existence with her fleeting...
With a voice like whiskey and a laugh like pure joy, Janis Joplin took the music scene by storm. Simultaneously rough and vulnerable, Joplin was...
April 25–June 8, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Staged by Randy Johnson, the visionary behind One Night with Janis Joplin, Smokey Joe’s Café—The Songs of...
After a six-year absence, Brooke Wyeth returns to her Reaganite parents’ Palm Springs enclave for the holidays. But the warm desert air turns chilly when...
Hailed as “daring, rousing and provocative” by Entertainment Weekly, The Mountaintop is Katori Hall’s bold reimagining of the last night of the historic life of...
Writer-director Tazewell Thompson (dir. M. Butterfly, Yellowman) stitches together an insider's look at the unlikely friendship between First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her talented...
“THE SOUL WANDERS IN THE DARK, UNTIL IT FINDS LOVE. AND SO, WHEREVER OUR LOVE GOES, THERE WE FIND OUR SOUL.” Back in D.C. for...
Good People By David Lindsay-Abaire Directed by Jackie Maxwell In the Kreeger Theater February 1 – March 10, 2013 Enter South Boston’s Lower End, where...
Immerse yourself in the “unpredictable and imaginative” (American Theatre) world of acclaimed theater troupe Double Edge Theatre. Inspired by the multi-layered paintings of Marc Chagall,...
Just as Molly Smith’s record-breaking production of Oklahoma! was enthralling audiences at Arena Stage, her fresh reinterpretation of My Fair Lady set the all-time box...
Pullman Porter Blues A world-premiere co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre By Cheryl L. West Directed by Lisa Peterson In the Kreeger Theater November 23, 2012...
written and directed by Randy Johnson in the Kreeger SEPTEMBER 28 – NOVEMBER 4, 2012 With a voice like whiskey and a laugh like pure...
by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel directed by David Esbjornson in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle AUGUST 23 – OCTOBER 28, 2012 Academy Award...
Videos