Stirring churches in the morning and the Cotton Club at night, Sister Rosetta Tharpe became a musical legend. With competition growing on the 1940s Gospel Circuit, she auditions a new partner, a beauty with a voice made in heaven. Will they blend, break, or find harmony at last? Don’t miss this roof-raising musical hit from our New Works Festival, the saga of the woman who inspired Elvis, Ray Charles, and more on her way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Every Thursday four millennials order take-out, drink too much wine and argue over how to unf**k the planet. They know the world is a dumpster fire and they're the generation to fix it--until someone makes a life changing announcement that challenges their beliefs, their relationships and whether babies should have their own Instagram accounts.

At an abandoned motel on a desolate American road, a mother meets with a cult deprogrammer, believing she will be reunited with her runaway daughter. Featuring Joseph Jefferson Award winners Gwendolyn Whiteside* and Philip Earl Johnson*. DC Metro Arts says this smart, harrowing, edge-of-your-seat thriller will “consume your attention for its full 90 minutes, and you’ll leave the theatre fully entertained.” 

Cybersecurity • Internet Privacy • Whistleblowing
Outspoken civil rights attorney Nat and her NSA analyst wife Roan seem to have it all together. But when their personal life collides with national security, it launches a beautiful, high-stakes adventure that illuminates the cost of secrecy.
How far would you go to do the right thing?

PARADISE is an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan commissioned play. 

It follows the story of Yasmeen, an inner city Yemeni-American Muslim high school senior, and Dr. Royston, her culturally naïve science teacher, a former Columbia neuroscientist—and atheist—who had a fall from grace and is forced to teach in the public schools. 

The play explores their growing relationship as he helps her, if at first reluctantly, gain admission to a competitive college science program. It asks provocative questions about the often-conflicting issues of love, faith, science and culture, and wonders: can we find Paradise here on this earth?

The New Year will bring back the star-crossed lovers Raleigh and May, whose courtship and marriage formed the basis of the WSG’s hit productions of Last Train to Nibroc and See Rock City. Gulf View Drive, the final installment in the popular romantic trilogy by Arlene Hutton, reunites the couple, who were last seen veering toward separate paths.  Raleigh and May have now been married for years and his success as a writer has allowed them to move away from Kentucky. But Kentucky, in the form of their families, follows them to Florida, as both mothers (played once again by Washington Stage Guild (WSG) favorites Lynn Steinmetz and Laura Giannarelli) have moved in with them!  Social changes offer the couple a surprising challenge—and opportunity. Returning in their roles as May and Raleigh are Lexi Langs and Wood Van Meter. Gulf View Drive runs January 17 through February 10.

In Dickey's new play, a group of women go on a retreat to live like nuns in the Middle Ages and are baptized with 80s pop, female mysticism, hallucinogens and sex. The Convent is a toothy dark comedy about desire, devotion, and the mystery of intrinsic divinity.

Based on an Australian claymation film about two unlikely pen pals, which screened in 2009 at the Calgary International Film Festival, Mary and Max is a hilarious and heartening tale that proves friendship can be found in the most unexpected of places. Join lonely 10-year-old Mary from Melbourne as she writes her way into the life of Max, a 44-year-old man with Asperger’s Syndrome in New York City. With quirky melodies and heartfelt dialogue, their friendship is one you’ll never forget.

Nkechi was a good Nigerian-American girl. She did everything right. Went to med school. Made plans. Then life happened. And plans changed. A first-generation coming-of-age journey of love, loss, and growing into adulthood, GOOD GRIEF follows Nkechi as she navigates Pennsylvania’s suburbs alongside her childhood crush, her would-be-philosopher brother, and her immigrant parents. Hailed as a "profound dramatic work" by LA Weekly, this hilarious and heartbreaking new play reunites playwright Ngozi Anyanwu and director Awoye Timpo following their acclaimed collaboration on THE HOMECOMING QUEEN.

Rising playwright Jen Silverman boldly transforms this classic play by Jacobean playwrights William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford, using a contemporary lens to make the machinations of the distant past strikingly relevant to today. Directed by Marti Lyons(The Mystery of Love & Sex) in the intimate Gillian Theatre, this wickedly funny, slyly subversive play will captivate you with the question: would you know what to ask for if the Devil came knocking on your door?

ACID TEST is the true story of Ram Dass, renown spiritual teacher and LSD pioneer, as he journeys from ‘be here now’ to ‘still here’ to ‘be love.’ Written by prize winning playwright Lynne Kaufman, featuring acclaimed actor Warren David Keith, and directed by Nancy Carlin, the play explores Ram Dass’ life from being Richard Alpert, and the scion of a wealthy Jewish family and a psychology professor at Harvard, to, along with Timothy Leary, launching the psychedelic revolution. Whether meeting his guru in India or suffering a paralyzing stroke, he illuminates his search for inner peace and lasting truth with humor and humility.

In Rain and Zoe Save the World, two Seattle teenagers embark on an impulsive motorcycle journey to join a group of oil protesters on the east coast. But as they follow a major pipeline across the country, what began as two young activists’ longing to belong to something greater than themselves gives way to Rain and Zoe discovering that the true danger in this world might just be growing up.

A Globe-commissioned world premiere from the celebrated writer of The Last Match. Esther and Schmuli are shy young Orthodox Jews embarking on an arranged marriage, despite barely knowing each other. Abe and Julia are high-profile celebrities embarking on a dangerously flirtatious correspondence, despite being married to other people. On the surface, the lives of these two couples couldn’t be more different. But Anna Ziegler’s funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama explores the hidden connections between seemingly disparate people, drawing audiences into an intriguing puzzle and a deeply sympathetic look at modern love.

Hoosier Alonzo Fields spent two decades as Chief Butler at the White House, serving Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. A hit in theatres across the country, this funny, poignant, uplifting memoir returns to the IRT by popular demand.

Stemming from an actual incident in Geneva in 1983 when a Soviet and an American diplomat took “a walk in the woods” together during arms control talks, Lee Blessing’s provocative two-character drama was a finalist for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize.

Set during the end of the Cold War, A Walk In The Woods tells the tale of a series of meetings between two diplomat-negotiators, American and Russian.  The two characters have clearly different agendas. The veteran Russian tries to forge a human connection, since he expects very little will get accomplished in the way of substantive political change. The younger American believes they should buckle down and do some real negotiating. The plot thickens as it becomes clear that the American and Russian governments that the diplomats represent are making decisions and taking actions that are in complete opposition to the Ambassadors’ efforts. 

The play raises deep questions, “What can we do to heal the world?” “What is the value of human connection?” “How can we best bridge fundamental differences?” Blessing’s story has chilling resonance in today’s political climate.

What do you do when your spouse gets conked on the head and wakes up with a terrifying new personality: optimistic happy person?

Thalia's Umbrella is proud (and amused) to announce her very first world premiere, the lovely, word-drunk romantic comedy THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW by Seattle playwright Y York.

March 8-31, 2018, at the MainStage at 12th Avenue Arts!

Starring Betsy Schwartz, Joshua Carter, and Terry Edward Moore. Directed by Daniel Wilson.

Set and Lighting Design by Roberta Russell, Costumes by Kelsey Rogers, Sound by Lucy Peckham. Stage Manager is Jeremiah Givers.

Thalia's Umbrella is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike.

Due to some sexual language and sexual situations, we recommend this show for ages 12 and up.

A trip to Venice brings love, loss, pain and joy to three weary travelers in search of healing and happiness. Hearts leap, time bends and the floating city works its wonders in this magical play filled with music and amore.

A coming-of-age story about a time when anything was possible, when the world was full of promise, young love was still a fantasy, and a group of 13 year-olds who recognize injustice can throw caution to the wind and take the initiative to act upon it.

This complex rock opera has been seen around the world. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion, and the assistant who is torn between them. From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians, and spies are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score. Music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson; lyrics by Tim Rice. 

Directed by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening) with a new book by Emmy® and Golden Globe Award®–winning writer Danny Strong (Empire, The Butler, Game Change), Chess stars Raúl Esparza (Company, the Kennedy Center’s Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along) as American chess champion Freddie; Ramin Karimloo(Anastasia) as rival Russian chess star Anatoly Sergievsky; Tony Award® winner Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I, Here Lies Love) as Anatoly’s wife, Svetlana; and Tony Award® winner Karen Olivo (West Side Story, In the Heights) as Florence, a remarkable Hungarian refugee who becomes the center of their emotional triangle. Joining them are Bradley Dean (Dear Evan Hansen) as Ivan Molokov, Sean Allan Krill (Honeymoon in Vegas) as Walter de Courcey, and Bryce Pinkham (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) as the Arbiter. 

The world’s funniest grade-school know-it-all is back! And Junie B. is convinced that someone stole her furry black mittens at recess. So, when Junie B. finds a cool pen on the floor, it’s Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers. But why does she keep having those bad dreams? Will she ever get her mittens back? And will she win over the new boy in Room 8? 

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (The Betterment Society, Resident Playwright at New Dramatists), is making his New York debut in the New York premiere of DRAW THE CIRCLE. The hilarious and moving story of his transition, DRAW THE CIRCLE is told entirely from the point of view of Deen’s family and friends, as portrayed by Deen, bringing to life the often-ignored struggle that a family goes through when their child transitions from one gender to another.

Get your front-row seat to music history in the making. “The Godmother of Rock n’ Roll” and 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence Inductee Sister Rosetta Tharpe — who influenced performers from Elvis to Hendrix — plucks prim-and-proper Marie Knight from a rival gospel show. The two challenge one another on music, life, and The Almighty. This story of letting loose, finding your voice, and freeing your soul is a soaring music-theatre experience chock full of roof-raising performances.

Is it enough just to be “working on your sh*t?” In the safe spaces of a small liberal arts college, the student-led Men’s Peer Education Group and women’s Survivor Support Group work together on an ambitious plan to eradicate all sexual violence everywhere in just five years. They've got it all together -- until an incident throws their ideals into question. Five female and non-binary performers inhabit both male and female roles in this social satire about complicity and what it really takes to face the patriarchy.

An ace fighter pilot’s career in the sky is ended early due to an unexpected pregnancy. Reassigned to operate military drones from a windowless trailer outside Las Vegas, she hunts terrorists by day and returns home to her family each night. As the pressure to track a high-profile target mounts, the boundaries begin to blur between the desert in which she lives and the one she patrols half a world away.

In the height of World War II, Raleigh and May, the young couple from last season’s uplifting hit LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC, have returned home to Kentucky to figure out their lives. Their two very different mothers have plenty of ideas for them, but the war’s progression affects them all, and leads to a heartwarming, bittersweet conclusion. Returning are Wood Van Meter and Lexi Langs, the critically acclaimed cast of last season’s NIBROC. An area premiere.

What happens when you meet your childhood hero?  Ed Ryan is about to find out--if his hero remembers to show up.Because of traumatic brain injuries, retired NFL great Don Devers relies on Post-It notes to offset his damaged memory. With the help of Don’s daughter and Ed’s wife, both pregnant and plotting from the sidelines, a game plan forms that might bring Don out of isolation to reclaim his life.

A bestselling novelist returns to Nigeria to care for her ailing father, but before she can bury him, she must relearn the traditions she’s long forgotten. Having been absent for over a decade, she must collide with her culture, traumatic past, painful regrets, and the deep, deep love she thought she could never have. Atlantic is thrilled to welcome Ngozi Anyanwu (Good Grief) for her Off-Broadway debut!

Rattlestick welcomes back alumni writer Dael Orlandersmith (Horsedreams, Pulitzer-Prize Finalist Yellowman) with the New York premiere of her piece UNTIL THE FLOOD, written in response to Michael Brown’s death and commissioned by St. Louis Repertory. Having interviewed scores of St. Louis residents, Orlandersmith portrays the many faces found within the community, giving each a chance to take center stage and holding no one viewpoint above others.