September is here, and that means so many of D.C.’s theaters are opening their seasons — with even more to come in October. Things are feeling nearly as bustling as pre-pandemic levels, with edgy social commentary, historical reimaginings, and naturally, some musicals. Here are the highlights:

AN OUTRAGEOUS “WHAT IF?”: The bold comedy Ain’t No Mo’, a satire where the U.S. government offers every Black American a free ticket to Africa, gets the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company treatment. (Sept. 11-Oct. 9)

VISUAL STUNNER: The always-impressive Mary Zimmerman is back at Shakespeare Theatre to stage The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, with the text coming entirely from the titular historic work. (Sept. 29-Oct. 23)

A TIMELY TALE: Get inside the minds of white Catholic conservatives in Studio Theatre’s tale about reuniting college friends, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, a Pulitzer finalist set in the almost-now. (Sept. 21-Oct. 23)

MAMA WILL PROVIDE: No more waiting (for life to begin), Constellation is back, and their season opener is the joyfully infectious musical Once On This Island. (Sept. 29-Nov. 6)

THE HORROR OF … ADOLESCENCE: A pre-teen dance team is in the spotlight during Olney Theatre’s Dance Nation (Sept. 28-Oct. 30), with actors embodying both the teens and their adult selves in frenetic fashion (fangs, blood, and naturally dance are all mentioned).

Also opening month:

• Signature Theatre stages No Place To Go, a jazz-fueled play about a corporate drone whose job is up and moved to a remote location. (Aug. 30-Oct. 16)
• Frustrated folks go off to live in an idealistic collective in Spooky Action’s Maple and Vine. (Sept. 29-Oct. 23)
• At 1st Stage, Mlima’s Tale is a Pulitzer-winning story about an elephant and her tusks. (Sept. 15-Oct. 2)
• Solas Nua’s dance piece Yes and Yes is inspired by Ulysses. (Sept. 9 and 10)
• Rep Stage will produce composer Jason Robert Brown’s uplifting revue Songs for a New World. (Sept. 22-Oct. 2)
• Mileva Maric, the scientist and mathematician who happened to be Einstein’s Wife, gets her due in this ExPats production. (Sept. 23-Oct. 16)
• Nancy Robinette stars in an older woman’s journey to get back to her Texas hometown in Ford’s The Trip to Bountiful. (Sept. 23-Oct. 16)
• GALA’s all about upturning traditions in the music-driven Revoltosa (the Troublemaker). (Sept. 8-Oct. 2)
• Old Stock, a musical from Theater J, is described as a “refugee love story” from a “genre-bending sensation.” (Sept. 7-25)
• The family matriarch is dead in Round House’sNine Night from debut author Natasha Gordon. (Sept. 14-Oct. 9)
• Synetic is back staging the Georgian poem Host and Guest. (Sept. 12-Oct. 2)
• Four old friends hop in the car for Best Medicine’sThe Trip. (Sept. 9-Oct. 2)
• Olney’s collaboration with National Players brings August Wilson’s Fences to town for a pay-what-you-can performance. (Sept. 1-4)
• Transformation’s virtual Tender is about Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and more. (Sept. 13)
• Experience Chekov by the way of Neil Simon in Washington Stage Guild’s comedy The Good Doctor. (Sept. 29-Oct. 23)

Still playing:

The maximalist Six at the National closes Labor Day weekend … you’ve until the Sept. 24 weekend to catch Dear Evan Hansen at Kennedy Center, The Outsider at Keegan Theatre, and Little Women at NextStop … Signature’s The Color Purple, as well as Hamilton at the Kennedy Center stretch into October and Ghost: The Musical is around at Toby’s through November.