After a long hiatus due to COVID-19, DCist’s regular theater coverage is back! Expect to see monthly previews about the shows that are opening and piquing our interest, along with some reviews, closer looks at performers and artists, and deeper dives into what makes the region’s theater scene so unique. Have a hot tip? Email arts and food editor Rebecca Cooper.

A busy May theater season brings us improvisational hip hop, musical hijinks with a dead body, and an irrepressible dancing heroine from Baltimore, among other highlights. Here’s what not to miss:

LIN-MANUEL FOR SUPER FANS: Before Lin-Manuel Miranda was a household name (and even before In the Heights was nominated for about 27 Tonys), there was Freestyle Love Supreme, the multi-hyphenate’s zany, improvisational splash. It came on the scene back in 2004, and renewed interest recently sparked a Hulu documentary. Now it’s at the Kennedy Center, with the majority of performances featuring a guest appearance from silky-voiced Hamilton vet Christopher Jackson — no two shows will be the same. (May 10-15)

CORPSE COMEDY: The premise for the semi-obscure musical Lucky Stiff admittedly sounds just a little “Weekend at Bernie’s”-esque. Can a boring shoe salesman manage to snag $6 million for taking his uncle’s dead body on a last hurrah to Monte Carlo? Find out in NextStop’s latest; hey, it’s from the composing team from Ragtime, after all. (May 19-June 12)

DARING DEBUT: Do not get in the way of Lola and T. The sexual abuse survivors are out for revenge and taking no prisoners in There’s Always the Hudson, a new work from playwright Paola Lazaro, which started rehearsals at Woolly Mammoth way back before the pandemic began. (May 9-June 5)

OTHELLO, BUT LOSE THE OLD SCHOOL: It’s about time that Othello got a funny, feminist take, right? Expect a little raunch and some original music in Paula Vogel’s Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief from We Happy Few. (May 19-June 11)

ONE MAN’S JOURNEY: JR Russ, also known as Nexus in the Burning Man community, gets his own one-man show from D.C.’s provocative collective the Welders. He’ll draw from his own life and touch on the way his various identities (as someone Black, Filipino American, and Queer) have shaped him. Find Russ at various Busboys & Poets locations in Crossroads, Detours, & Exits. (May 4, 5, and 11)

SOUND MACHINE EN ESPANOL: A local production of the Gloria Estefan life story slash musical? Gala Hispanic Theatre is here for it, so prepare to conga. Expect lots of dancing and all of Miami Sound Machine’s infectious hits in On Your Feet! It’s the world premiere for a version in Spanish — even the Estefans themselves are reportedly stopping by to take in a performance. (May 5-June 5)

Also opening this month:

• An extraordinary nurse is at the center of Mosaic’s Marys Seacole, which kicks off in mid-1800s Jamaica and wraps up in a modern-day nursing home. (May 4-29)
• Washington Stage Guild’s Memoirs of a Forgotten Man is a political drama set in an authoritarian regime. (May 5-29)
• Sondheim fans can experience his fractured fairy tale Into the Woods at Creative Cauldron. (May 5-29)
• Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo’s Yemandja at the Kennedy Center takes on some big themes: slavery, tragedy, betrayal. (May 6-7)
• Nu Sass’s To Fall In Love explores whether it’s too late for Merryn and Wyatt’s marriage as they struggle to reconnect. (May 6-June 18)
• Does An Officer and a Gentleman need its own musical adaptation? Find out when it hits Capital One Hall. (May 10-15).
• We can hear the bells…because Hairspray is about to show up at the National Theatre. (May 10-15)
• Local playwrights Awa Sal Secka and Dani Stoller follow the tensions and tests facing an interracial couple in Olney’s The Joy That Carries You. (May 11-June 12)
• If you’ve managed to navigate life so far without having caught a production of Thornton Wilder’s seminal Our Town, Shakespeare Theater can change that. (May 12-June 11)
• A quilt shows the way to freedom in the world premiere of Show Way The Musical at Kennedy. (May 13-29)
• The talented teens over at Synetic are trying their hands at a silent Shakespeare Twelfth Night. (May 20-29)
• A young teen with a sick mother faces off against something creepy knocking at the window in Kennedy Center’s adaptation of the acclaimed novel A Monster Calls. (May 25-June 12)
• The mysterious death of a poet prompts the events of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, from Avant Bard. (May 25-June 18)
• Flying V hosts Orange Grove Dance’s More than 90 Miles from Home, a meditation on a family’s journey from Cuba to Key West. (May 26-28)

Still playing:

You’ve only got until May 1 to catch the free-for-all outdoor version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from NextStop in Reston, as well as the transitions/transformations new play festival at Anacostia Playhouse… The satirical comedy about Black friendship The Mamalogues at 1st Stage, as well as Round House’s double bill of the political thriller We Declare You a Terrorist and the road trip saga It’s Not a Trip It’s a Journey all close May 8… The May 14 weekend brings the last performances of the new Black musical Grace at Ford’s, Dark Horse’s drama class drama Circle Mirror Transformation, Rep Stage’s take on The Glass Menagerie, and Faction of Fools’ outdoor farce Missed Connections… Alliance for New-Music Theater’s immersive, historical Voices of Zion: The Black Georgetown Cemeteries Project, Prologue Theater’s rebel- and assassin-centric The Revolutionists, and the Austen-tastic Die, Mr. Darcy, Die! from Best Medicine Rep all close May 21… and theater lovers have until June to catch Adrian and company in Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s Rocky the Musical, the ghosty-sounding Twigs & Bone from Nu Sass, Signature’s afterlife-focused The Upstairs Department, and Studio’s coming of age, Crucible-themed John Proctor Is The Villain.