Thursday, April 30, 2026
It’s May—the month we celebrate our Mamma Mia’s, who, in most cases, introduced us to the joys of live theater. What better way to say thank you for schlepping us to all of those school matinees than by taking Mom to some of these plays and musicals this month.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Dupont Underground
Now through May 4
Tennessee Williams’ descent into family dysfunction, sexual obsession, death and decay finds itself in the bowels of Connecticut Avenue as the Dupont Underground plays host to this national touring (more like a pop-up) production guided by director Nick Westrate and an ensemble of four New York-based actors, sans props or set, who set out to create a “Streetcar” like no other. Tickets at thestreetcarproject.com
44: The Obama Musical
Klein Theatre
Now through May 10
If you miss Barack crooning “How Black Is Too Black” over a Motown groove, Sarah Palin screaming “Drill Me Baby” like Ozzy Osbourne, or Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz rapping “Green Eggs and Ham,” this is the special engagement for you. Note: not for fans of Alex Jones or Stephen Miller. Tickets at 44theobamamusical.com.
1776
Ford’s Theatre
Now through May 16
Just in time for the country’s 250th, this musical is an insightful, often humorous take on our Founding Fathers’ determination to do the right thing for their fledgling nation. As members of the Second Continental Congress struggle to reach consensus, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson debate the issues that will define our country. Who knew that the composer of “Johnny Get Angry” would win the Tony Award for Best Musical with this Broadway hit? Tickets at fords.org.
Spring Awakening
St. Marks Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill
Now through May 16
This Tony Award winner for Best Musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Slater boasts a rather unusual pedigree—it’s based on an 1891 work by German playwright Frank Wedekind that follows a a group of teenagers confronting their emerging sexuality, oppressive societal norms and the tragic consequences of seeking knowledge in a world that denies them understanding. Did I mention that it rocks? Tickets at stmarksplayers.org.
I & You
Olney Theatre Center
Now through May 24
The indefatigable Lauren Gundersen—arguably the most-produced playwright in America these days—turns her ownr play into a musical with a score by “American Idol” veteran Ari Afsar. Faced with a school assignment she doesn’t want, about a poem she hasn’t read and a partner she’ll never forget. Anthony turns up in Caroline’s bedroom with a school assignment they’re supposed to create together: explore Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.” As the two get to know each other, they learn the deeper mystery that brought them together. Tickets at olneytheatre.org.
The Wizard of Oz
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Now through June 7
Head off to Columbia, MD (not quite as far as the Emerald City) to relive L. Frank Baum’s beloved story of a Kansas farm girl who travels over the rainbow to the Land of Oz. Featuring the iconic Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg score from the MGM film, the stage musical follows Dorothy, Toto, and friends down the yellow brick road to discover brains, heart, courage, and the magical power of home were there all the time. Tickets at tobysdinnertheatre.com.
Purlie Victorious
Studio Theatre
May 6 – June 24
Purlie is home on a mission—to buy back his father’s church and liberate the sharecroppers from the brutal segregationist who still runs their plantation. Psalmayene 24 directs this madcap plot, which calls on survival techniques forged in the Jim Crow South while it calls out satiric targets that feel as urgent as they did when the lacerating comedy premiered in 1961. Oh, and there’s a love story, too. Tickets at www.studiotheatre.org.
The Motion
Arena Stage
May 8 – June 14
A razor-sharp debate spirals into world-altering chaos as four scholars embark upon a kaleidoscopic odyssey through memory, identity and the fragile boundaries of belief. As the world around them transforms, they wrestle with profound and unsettling questions about purpose, morality and what it truly means to be alive. Tickets at arenastage.org.
Pippin
Signature Theatre
May 12- July 26
Decades before his big score (no pun intended) with “Wicked,” composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz was an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon, working on an odd musical theater hero—Pippin, the son of King Charlemagne, head of the Holy Roman Empire. Years later—and with much gnashing of teeth and venting of spleen, if the movie “All That Jazz” is any indication—director and choreographer Bob Fosse took hold of the piece and made it a Broadway legend. Now Matthew Gardiner and company make the musical their own. Tickets at sigtheatre.org.
The Great Gatsby
National Theatre
May 12-24
Scott Fitzgerald’s Roaring Twenties novel becomes a blockbuster musical in this touring edition of the play that’s still packing them in on Broadway. Tickets at broadwayatthenational.com.
West Side Story
Music Center at Strathmore
May 14 and 15
We get Just two “semi-staged” performances here in the DMV (more fully-staged shows at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore the preceding week) of this greatest of all musicals, artfully guided by Washington National Opera artistic director Francesca Zambello, who not only kept the art form alive in the DMV but also engineered what couldn’t have been an easy extrication from the now moribund Kennedy Center. Like all WNO productions, this one will be gloriously sung and fully-orchestrated—two more reasons the Opera deserves our support. Tickets at washnatopera.org.
Othello
Shakespeare Theatre Company
May 19- June 28
Wendell Pierce, star of TV’s The Wire and Suits and arguably one of this country’s five or ten greatest living actors, headlines Shakespeare’s towering tragedy about the power of words to kill. Venice is scandalized when its protector Othello elopes with a nobleman’s daughter, while his most trusted lieutenant, Iago seethes after being passed over for a promotion. Vengeance raises its ugly head, transforming Othello’s faithful wife Desdemona and turning upright men into beasts in this all-too cautionary tale. Tickets at shakespearetheatre.org.
Sally and Tom
Round House Theatre
May 27 – June 28
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks serves up this thought-provoking work about a scrappy theater group staging its own play about Founding Mother Sally Hemings and our third president (and slave owner) Thomas Jefferson. When the playwright takes the role of Sally and her bf directs and plays the eponymous POTUS, art and life collide, rehearsals spiral into chaos and truths about race, power and art are laid bare (the Trump administration be damned). Tickets at roundhousetheatre.org.
The writer is a playwright who loves writing about theater. He is a lifetime member of the Broadway League and a Tony® voter. Catch his monthly podcast at www.onstagedmv.org.