Monday, November 10, 2025
THIS MONTH ONLY …
“Vildanden!”
That’s no greeting, it’s the original Dano-Norwegian title of Henrik Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck,” folding its wings this weekend in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre. STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin directs David Eldridge’s adaptation, with Maaike Laanstra-Corn, Brown University class of 2021, playing Hedwig, who turns 14 in the play (through Nov. 16). More Ibsen: Theater J, at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, is staging Amy Herzog’s Americanized version of “An Enemy of the People,” aka “En folkefiende,” directed by János Szász (through Nov. 23).
Other classics are wrapping up at the American Shakespeare Center in the Queen City of the Shenandoah Valley: “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by K.P. Powell, and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” directed by Aidan O’Reilly (through Nov. 15). Also, on the boards of Staunton’s Blackfriars Playhouse is the un-Bardly world-premiere musical “The Pirate Ballad of Bonny and Read,” by Vanessa Marosco and Peter Simon Hilton, directed by Allie Babich (through Nov. 16).
Across the Potomac, you can jump into “Grease” for a few more days. The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s has mounted Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s tribute to ducktails and bobby socks, directed by Frank D. Shutts II, with music direction by Mark Deal and choreography by Suzy Alden (through Nov. 15).
“Hadestown,” Anaïs Mitchell’s multiple Tony winner, is at The National Theatre (Nov. 18 to 23) and “Lizzie the Musical,” a punk take on Ms. Borden by Steven Sheslik-deMayer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt, with “a blistering all-female rock score,” is at The Keegan Theatre, directed and choreographed by Jennifer J. Hopkins (through Nov. 30).
Can you get to Herndon? At NextStop Theatre Company, Aria Velz directs “The Last Five Years,” a musical written and composed by Jason Robert Brown that tells the story of two New Yorkers’ on-again, off-again love affair from opposite timelines (through Nov. 23).
“Fremont Ave.” at Arena Stage. Photo by Marc J. Franklin.
Closing out 2025 at Arena Stage: “Fremont Ave.,” a world premiere by Reggie D. White about “a cutthroat game of Spades,” directed by Lili-Anne Brown. In “Furlough’s Paradise” by a.k. payne, Sade visits her cousin while on a three-day furlough from prison. Autumn Angelettie directs for Theatre Alliance at 340 Maple Drive SW. Synetic Theater co-founder Paata Tsikurishvili directs Nathan Weinberger’s adaptation of “Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus,” with choreography by Irina Tsikurishvili, at Arlington’s Thomas Jefferson Theatre (through Nov. 23).
At the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE, Irish arts organization Solas Nua presents Ciara Elizabeth Smyth’s “Lie Low” — “a dark comedy about trauma, the lies we tell ourselves and the outrageous ways our brains work. Or don’t.” — directed by Rex Daugherty, with several pay-what-you-can performances (through Nov. 23).
OPEN OR SOON TO OPEN AND PLAYING ON …
Anatevka comes to Arlington in “Fiddler on the Roof” at Signature Theatre (through Jan. 25). Looking swell at Olney Theatre Center: Nova Y. Payton in “Hello, Dolly!” (through Jan. 4). Olney’s “A Christmas Carol” opens the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28 to Dec. 28), and Ford’s Theatre’s full-scale production of Dickens’ immortal three-ghoster gets an even earlier start (Nov. 20 to Dec. 31).
Paula Vogel’s latest, “Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions,” opens tonight at Studio Theatre, directed by Margot Bordelon (Nov. 12 to Dec. 21). Estonian clown Julia Masli brings her “Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha Ha” to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, co-directed by Masli and Kim Noble (Nov. 13 to Dec. 21). Atlas resident partner Mosaic Theater Company makes “A Case for the Existence of God” by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Danilo Gambini (Nov. 13 to Dec. 7).
As if “Hadestown” wasn’t toasty enough, The National follows up with “Some Like It Hot,” based on Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing screen comedy. Pride Night is Nov. 30 (Nov. 25 to Dec. 7). Chicago’s Improvised Shakespeare Company starts acting Will-fully that weekend at The Kennedy Center (Nov. 28 to Dec. 23).
Kids, get your mittens on! “Frosty the Snow Man” saunters into Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo Park (Nov. 26 to Jan. 11). At Bethesda’s Imagination Stage, Janet Stanford directs her adaptation of “The Snowman and the Snowdog,” with an original score by Ilan Eshkeri and Andy Burrows, additional music by Tim Guillot and choreography by Nikki Mirza. Dogs will be available for adoption from rescue organization the Underdog Division after the Dec. 13 and 21 performances (Nov. 22 to Jan. 4).
ARRIVING IN DECEMBER …
More “Christmas Carols” get clanking in Virginia at The Little Theatre of Alexandria (Dec. 5 to 20) and ASC (Dec. 4 to 27). Keegan’s holiday tradition, Matthew J. Keenan’s “An Irish Carol,” sets an homage to Dickens in a Dublin pub (Dec. 11 to 28).
“Lizzie the Musical” at the Keegan Theatre. Photo by Cameron Whitman.
“Guys and Dolls” — crapshooters and missionaries, that is — will blow into STC’s Harman Hall when Washington National Opera’s Francesca Zambello directs the winner of the 1951 Best Musical Tony (Dec. 2 to Jan. 4). Coming to The National: “Water for Elephants,” based on Sara Gruen’s veterinary novel (Dec. 9 to 14). At GALA Hispanic Theatre, Ángel Vázquez plays Sixto, a Puerto Rican in New York, in “The Other Side Story,” his one-man musical response to that Tony-and-Maria show (Dec. 12 to 14). And at the Ken Cen, Monty Python’s “Spamalot” clops into the Eisenhower Theater (Dec. 16 to Jan. 4) and “Shear Madness” snips on upstairs in the Theater Lab.
In Series presents the world premiere of its first commissioned opera, “The Delta King’s Blues,” about guitarist Robert Johnson’s Faustian bargain. Directed by Alicia Washington, with music by Damien Geter and a libretto by Jarrod Lee, the cast includes Melissa Wimbish, Albert Lee, Christian Simmons, Marvin Wayne Allen III and Anthony Ballard (Dec. 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14 at 340 Maple Drive SW; and Dec. 19, 20 and 21 at 2640 St. Paul St. in Baltimore).
Round House Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Rilette directs the U.S. premiere of Sam Holcroft’s holiday farce “Rules for Living” (Dec. 3 to Jan. 4). Signature’s got a U.S. premiere too: “In Clay,” a musical set in 1930s Paris. In the show — directed by Kimberly Senior, with a book by Rebecca Simmonds, music by Jack Miles and lyrics by both — ceramicist and painter Marie-Berthe Cazin recounts her life (Dec. 9 to Feb. 1). Over in Tysons at 1st Stage, Ernestine Ashworth celebrates turning 17, 18, 41, 70 and 101 in Noah Haidle’s “Birthday Candles,” directed by Alex Levy (Dec. 4 to 21).
Child-size shows in the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center: Discovery Theater presents “Seasons of Light” for ages 5 to 10 (Dec. 1 to 19) and Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day” for ages 3 to 7 (Dec. 17 and 18). And The National takes us into 2026 with the good Dr.’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” (Dec. 30 to Jan. 4).
COMING IN JANUARY …
Back in action, Constellation Theatre Company swoops into the Atlas, stoking things up with “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen (Jan. 23 to Feb. 15).