By Mark Edelman

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 – any mom – to some of these nurturing plays and musicals this month:

 

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

DuPont Underground

Now thru 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 http://www.thestreetcarproject.comance of the play

44: THE MUSICAL

Now thru May 10

Klein Theatre

A wacky send-up of our 44^th president’s special place in history. If you miss Barak 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. Not for fans of Alex Jones or Stephen Miller. Tickets at www.44theobamamusical.com.

 

1776

Ford’s Theatre

Now thru May 16

Just in time for the country’s 250^th, 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 http://www.fords.org

 

SPRING AWAKENING

St. Marks Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill

Now thru May 16

This Tony® Award winning 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 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 http://www.stmarksplayers.org.

 

I & YOU

Olney Theatre Center

Now thru 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 http://www.olneytheatre.org

 

THE WIZARD OF OZ

Tobey’s Dinner Theatre

Now thru 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 www.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 http://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 http://www.arenastage.org.

 

PIPPIN

Signature Theatre

May 12- July 26

Decades before his big score (no pun intended) with “Wicked,” composer-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/choreographer Bob Fosse took hold of the piece and made it a Broadway legend. Now Matthew Gardiner and company in Shirlington make the musical their own. Tickets at http://www.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 www.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 http://www.washnatopera.org

 

OR

Atlas Performing Arts Center

May 15- June 7

Constellation Theatre lands on H Street with this new musical, a fast-paced comedy that blends romance, feminism, and espionage in 1660s England. It’s all about Aphra Behn—spy, poet, and the first professional female playwright—as she races to finish a script, navigate secret missions, and juggle lusty entanglements, all in one chaotic night that’s a celebration of art, passion, and sexual freedom.  Tickets at http://www.constellationtheatre.org

 

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

Little Theatre of Alexandria

May 16 – June 6

This loving send-up of the Golden Age of musical theater—winner of five Tony® Awards including Best Score—mashes up a conflicted wedding couple, bumbling best man, desperate theatrical producer, dim-bulb hostess, a pair of gangsters posing as pastry chefs,

a misguided Don Juan and the eponymous drunk in two plus hours of musical comedy frivolity. Tickets at http://www.littletheatre.com.

 

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 http://www.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 http://www.roundhousetheatre.org

About the Author: Mark Edelman 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 http://www.onstagedmv.org.

Photo credits:  44 The Musical by Jenny Anderson; Great Gatsby by Evan Zimmerman; Wizard of Oz by Jeri Tidwell: 1776 by Scott Suchman; Streetcar Named Desire photo by Walls Trimble