After over two years of COVID-19 causing theater cancellations and delays, is it safe to say that the D.C. theater scene is slowly becoming stable again? Nothing is definite — Best Medicine Rep just canceled the first weekend of its first show of the year, America’s Sexiest Couple, due to COVID. Still, many theater companies (from the Kennedy Center to Signature Theatre) have felt comfortable enough to drop their mask requirements and 2023 is bringing exciting theater across the D.C. area. From Shakespearean classics to world premiere plays to rarely-produced musicals, there’s something for everyone to enjoy or discover. Here are 12 theater shows on DCist’s radar for the new year — presented in chronological order so you know how soon you need to get tickets.
Ride the Cyclone
This original, quirky musical has a history of productions across North America stretching back as far as 2008. Created by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond, Ride the Cyclone follows six teenagers in limbo after dying in a freak roller coaster accident, where they must compete (in song!) for a second chance at life. This cult-classic musical first got new life with a 2021 cast recording and now with an Arena Stage co-production with the McCarter Theatre Center of Princeton University. While the show deals frankly with death, an ironic sense of humor pervades and songs parody a wide range of genres, from European folk music to David Bowie.
(Arena Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 19, $36-$105)
Catalyst New Play Festival
D.C. is quickly expanding its role as a hub for new play development. In addition to the city’s annual Fringe Festival (which premiered in 2005) and Round House Theatre’s National Capital New Play Festival (which premiered in 2022), Mosaic Theater Company will launch their inaugural Catalyst New Play Festival in January. The festival’s centerpiece is a workshop presentation of Max and Willy’s Last Laugh, a musical by Jake Broder and Conor Duffy about the real-life story of German cabaret stars Max Ehrlich and Willy Rosen. Other events include The Invention of Seeds by Annalisa Dias, a performance exploring the friction between farmers and corporations; and Between/Time: A Baltimore Cycle Play by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, a show centering on a romance in Baltimore.
(Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, DC, “Max and Willy’s Last Laugh”: Jan. 19 & 20, $15 | Atlas Performing Arts Center, “The Invention of Seeds”: Jan 21, tickets not yet available | Atlas Performing Arts Center, “Between/Time: A Baltimore Cycle Play”: Jan 22, tickets not yet available)
Broadway Center Stage: Sunset Boulevard
The Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage series’ closest upcoming production is Sunset Boulevard. Based on the classic 1950 noir film, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical follows former silent-film star Norma Desmond as she grapples with her fading fame and legacy. The show features Stephanie J. Block (a Tony-winner for The Cher Show) along with Derek Klena (Jagged Little Pill) and Auli’i Cravalho (Moana). You’ll actually have two chances to see Block at the Kennedy Center in February: she’ll also star as The Baker’s Wife in the touring production Into the Woods.
(Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, Feb. 1-8, $59-$248)
King Lear
Patrick Page is probably best known as the basement-level bass voice of Hades in the musical Hadestown. What musical theater fans might not know is that Page is a well-known Shakespearen actor. During the pandemic, he even had a one-man show at Shakespeare Theatre Company called All the Devils Are Here, chronicling the many villains of the Bard. Page returns to the same theater company (in-person this time) as the title role in King Lear, portraying a tragic king who divides his kingdom between three daughters.
(Shakespeare Theatre Company, Feb. 23-March 26, $64-$130)
Jagged Little Pill
Using the music of Alanis Morisette’s breakthrough 1995 rock album of the same name, this jukebox musical tells the story of a contemporary family trying to make sense of a variety of hyper-modern social issues. Diablo Cody (the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind indie darlings like Juno and Young Adult) weaves together many of Morisette’s hits into the script, from “You Oughta Know” to “Ironic.” Though the Broadway run received backlash for its handling of its nonbinary character Jo, this national tour production features the nonbinary actor Jade McLeod in that role.
(The National Theatre, March 14-26, $65-$130)
The Jungle
The hardest-to-get ticket in 2023 might be for this collaboration between Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Shakespeare Theatre Company. The Jungle is an immersive theater show set in a refugee camp outside of the French city of Calais; the show’s plot unfolds in reverse chronological order, starting with the destruction of the camp and ending with its creation. This production is co-directed by Stephen Daldry, a film and theater veteran who’s received three Oscar nominations for best director, and directed/produced the television show The Crown, and Justin Martin, who’s also directing the play Prima Facie coming to Broadway in April. The Jungle has received much acclaim in London’s West End and in New York City.
(Sidney Harman Hall, March 28-April 16, $77-125)
Pacific Overtures
Signature Theatre is known to produce at least one Sondheim musical each year. With this year’s season, titled “So Many Possibilities: A Season of Sondheim,” they’re putting up three of the great composer’s musical productions — alongside workshops and post-performance discussions. The most intriguing of these events might be their production of Pacific Overtures, Sondheim’s 1975 musical dramatizing the westernization of Japan over the 19th century. The musical, typically staged in a way that evokes Kabuki theater, is one of Sondheim’s least produced works — and can help local Sondheim completists in seeing all of the composer’s shows.
(Signature Theatre, March 7-April 9, $66-$98)
The Wilting Point
Written by Keegan Theatre playwright-in-residence Graziella Jackson, this play tells the story of a podcast producer who struggles to tell a climate crisis-related story while a streaming entertainment company wants her to investigate a murder. Jackson is a native Washingtonian who’s had her work read and produced at a variety of D.C. theaters. The Wilting Point is a part of the ELEMENTS cycle, four plays which, according to the Keegan Theatre, all explore “the intersection of local communities, media representation, and the climate crisis.”
(The Keegan Theatre, April 13-30, $45-$55)
Good Bones
James Ijames is a rising star of the theater world. The gay Black multihyphenate recently won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Fat Ham (which will be on Broadway in March), and serves as an artistic director of Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater. He’ll be flexing his playwriting muscles once again with Good Bones, a new play commissioned by Studio Theatre. This production, directed by D.C. staple and Mosaic Theatre playwright-in-residence Psalmayene 24, follows the character Aisha as she returns to her hometown only to discover a rapidly shifting neighborhood.
(Studio Theatre, May 10-June 11, tickets not yet available)
Goddess
Inspired by the African folk myth of Marimba, this new musical follows a woman and man who meet in an Afro-jazz club in Kenya. Writing for SFist, critic Jay Barmann writes that the show “feels compelling and mostly whole, with mostly fleshed-out characters, and a climax and denouement that feel appropriately big and surprising.” Goddess, which comes to D.C. via Shakespeare Theatre Company, is created by much of the same creative team who created a production of Merry Wives at New York’s Public Theatre in 2021 — including librettist Jocelyn Bioh, who D.C. audiences will recognize from Round House productions of her comedies Nollywood Dreams and School Girls.
(Sidney Harman Hall, May 25-Jun 25, $35-$125)
Incendiary
Like Good Bones playwright James Ijames, playwright Dave Harris also had a big 2022. Two of his shows, Tambo & Bones and Exception to the Rule, premiered off-Broadway last spring. Though wildly different, both plays explored history, humor, and Blackness — themes one has to imagine will also feature prominently in his next work, Incendiary. Making its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the show follows Tanya, a Black mother attempting to free her son Eric from death row. Woolly Mammoth promises that the show will “harnes[s] the storytelling techniques of comic books and video games.”
(Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, May 29-Jun. 25, $36-57)
Fela!
This musical tells the story of Nigerian singer and activist Fela Kuti, using his unique blend of African drumming, jazz, and funk music to guide the audience into the Afrika Shrine nightclub for Kuti’s final performance in Nigeria. Despite garnering ten Tony nominations and winning three in 2010, Fela! hasn’t been revived in any professional production before this one, which will be co-produced by Olney Theatre Center and Round House Theatre Company.
(Olney Theatre Center, Jul. 7-Aug. 13, $69-$85)
MORE: Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Feb. 4-26; $36-67), Shout Sister Shout! (Ford’s Theatre; Mar. 15-May 13; $34-88) Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (Arena Stage; Mar. 24-Apr. 23; $76-95), Unseen (Mosaic Theatre Company; Mar. 30-Apr. 23; $29-64) Les Misérables (The Kennedy Center; Apr. 11-29; $45-199), Disney’s Aladdin (The National Theatre; Apr. 19-30; $35-115), Passing Strange (Signature Theatre, Apr. 25-June 18; $56-98), Hadestown (The National Theatre; Jun. 6-18; $60-216), August Wilson’s Radio Golf (Round House Theatre Company; Jun 7-Jul. 2; $46-81), The Lion King (The Kennedy Center; Jun. 21-Jul. 29; on sale to members Tue. Feb. 7, 2023 10 a.m.), Fun Home (Studio Theatre; Jun 28-Jul. 30; $75-95) Moulin Rouge! The Musical (The Kennedy Center; Aug. 2-Sep. 24; on sale to members Tue. Mar. 28, 2023 10 a.m.)
Correction: A previous version of this story mis-characterized the production of Sunset Boulevard at the Kennedy Center. It is a fully staged musical.
