What do Cleopatra, Benjamin Franklin, John Lewis and TLC have in common? They’ll all grace D.C.-area stages this year. From canonical classics to new musicals, and soaring spectacles to underground reinventions, here are 11 theater productions to check out in 2026.
‘Antony & Cleopatra’
Synetic Theater, the celebrated physical theater troupe that departed its longtime Crystal City home in 2024, continues its nomadic existence with a return to the same Shakespeare Theatre Company space where the company staged its wordless adaptation of “Antony and Cleopatra” 16 years ago. Synetic staples Vato Tsikurishvili and Irina Kavsadze step into the titular roles this time around for the enduring tale of passion, ambition and an empire unraveled.
Through Jan. 25 at the Shakespeare Theatre’s Klein Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW. Feb. 21-March 8 at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre, 125 S. Old Glebe Rd., Arlington. synetictheater.org.
‘The World to Come’
Howard Shalwitz, Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s founding artistic director, returns to direct Ali Viterbi’s world-premiere play about retirement home residents carrying on with their day-to-day diversions — knitting, playing Scrabble and the like — as the impending apocalypse pits them against all manner of obstacles (armored nurses and an ostrich among them). Billed as a “coming-of-age story set in a nursing home,” this Theater J co-production features a cast led by local luminaries Naomi Jacobson and Michael Russotto.
Feb. 3-March 1 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. NW. woollymammoth.net.
‘Safety Not Guaranteed’
The musical adaptation of the 2012 film features music by Guster’s Ryan Miller, who composed the movie’s score, and a book from Nick Blaemire. Like the Aubrey Plaza-starring indie cinema darling, the stage version follows a trio of journalists responding to a classified ad from an oddball searching for his partner in time-traveling crime. After 2024’s world premiere gleaned mixed reviews at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, director Oliver Butler (“What the Constitution Means to Me”) takes the reins for the show’s Signature Theatre venture.
March 3-April 12 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. sigtheatre.org.
‘As You Like It’
This fresh spin on Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy — ever the enchanting account of exile, gender bending and oh-so-much romance — has been envisioned as a love letter to D.C., dotted with nods to the city’s colorful characters and culture. Folger Theatre Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels, who has welcomed many a Shakespearean reinvention since taking over the esteemed institution in 2021, oversees her own adaptation for her Folger directorial debut.
March 10-April 12 at Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. folger.edu.
‘1776’
Was there ever a doubt? A D.C. company was always bound to mark the semiquincentennial with a revival of “1776” — Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone’s 1969 musical about the Second Continental Congress — and venerable Ford’s Theatre makes for a particularly apt destination. Luis Salgado, who also is directing the new musical “Aguardiente: Soul of the Caribbean” at GALA Hispanic Theatre this spring, will bring his trademark flair to a revival that will see such area favorites as Jake Loewenthal, Derrick D. Truby Jr. and Jonathan Atkinson portray the Founding Fathers.
March 13-May 16 at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. fords.org.
‘Appropriate’
Two years after a blistering, Tony-winning revival hit Broadway, D.C. native Branden Jacobs Jenkins’s 2013 play about an Arkansas family wrestling with its racist past heads to Olney Theatre Center for an intimate staging in the complex’s Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. Jason Loewith, Olney’s artistic director, helms a production that will star the ever-dependable Kimberly Gilbert and Cody Nickell as combustible siblings who stumble upon secrets while sifting through their late father’s estate.
March 18-April 19 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd., Olney. olneytheatre.org.
‘Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest’
Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Kokayi and D.C.-based theater maker Psalmayene 24 (who also is directing “Purlie Victorious” at Studio Theatre this spring) teamed up on this musical ode to the late congressman John Lewis. Focusing on Lewis’s life from ages 18 to 28, the galvanizing show premiered last year at Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta — the civil rights pioneer’s hometown — and makes its way to the District for a reimagined production shepherded by Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas.
March 26-April 26 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. mosaictheater.org.
‘The Streetcar Project’
A stripped-down take on “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which has been performed in “found” spaces across the country, is taking that conceit to its inevitable conclusion for a two-week run at Dupont Underground, the arts haven that used to be a streetcar platform. Nick Westrate (an actor recently seen on D.C. stages in “Angels in America,” “Frankenstein” and “The Wild Duck”) and Lucy Owen conceived of this reimagining, performed with four actors, no set, no props and a renewed fixation on Tennessee Williams’s soul-baring text.
April 20-May 4 at Dupont Underground, 19 Dupont Circle NW. thestreetcarproject.com.
‘Othello’
A year after the Denzel Washington-starring “Othello” on Broadway proved to be a box office juggernaut and critical misfire, “Elsbeth” and “The Wire” actor Wendell Pierce takes a crack at portraying the Moor under the direction of Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin. Pierce, a two-time Tony-nominated performer, returns to STC for the first time since a 1987 staging of “The Witch of Edmonton.” The production will cap an eclectic season for STC, which is also mounting Bill Irwin’s solo show “On Beckett,” the haunting play “Paranormal Activity” (an original story set in the world of the movie franchise) and a new adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet.”
May 19-June 21 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. shakespearetheatre.org.
‘Sally & Tom’
Suzan-Lori Parks, the Pulitzer-winning playwright behind “Topdog/Underdog,” penned this metatheatrical play, in which a ragtag theater troupe stages a production about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman believed to have given birth to six of his children. If “1776” gives Jefferson a more reverential portrayal, “Sally & Tom” cuts the Founding Father down a size with a slice of satire. And in a bit of stealthily subversive timing, this 2022 play will hit Round House Theatre with the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary right around the corner.
May 27-June 28 at Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Hwy., Bethesda. roundhousetheatre.org.
‘CrazySexyCool — The TLC Musical’
After Arena Stage opens 2026 with a splashy revival of 1940’s “Pal Joey” — rebranded as “Chez Joey,” with Tony Goldwyn and Savion Glover co-directing and Tony winner Myles Frost starring — the Southwest Waterfront company will conclude its season with a slightly more contemporary endeavor: the Broadway-aimed “CrazySexyCool — The TLC Musical.” Written and directed by esteemed British theater maker Kwame Kwei-Armah, this world-premiere production uses the hits of TLC to trace the 1990s girl group’s chart-topping rise and scandal-tested sisterhood.
June 12-Aug. 9 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW. arenastage.org.
This story has been updated.
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