20-21 Memberships

20-21 Productions

The Humans  

Sept. 2 - Oct. 4, 2020  
Mainstage

By Stephen Karam • Directed by Aaron Posner

By turns hilarious and haunting, the 2016 Tony-winning play The Humans tells the story of the Blakes, a middle-class American family celebrating a most unusual Thanksgiving. This year, they gather in New York City at youngest daughter Brigid’s Chinatown apartment - a basement duplex that would feel like a bargain if not for the lack of sunlight and the sudden, unexplained, loud noises coming from upstairs. Normally they celebrate in Scranton, but the break with tradition is just one of many disruptions with which they’re forced to contend. Stephen Karam’s brilliant play delivers both the warm comfort of family and a thoroughly modern anxiety about what’s on the other side of the wall.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Nov. 6, 2020 - Jan. 3, 2021 
Mainstage

Music by Alan Menken • Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice • Book by Linda Woolverton
Music Direction by Walter “Bobby” McCoy • Choreography by Josh Walden
Directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge

Be our guest for the holidays as the classic animated story comes to life on the Olney Theatre Mainstage. It’s a tale as old as time, but it gets a new look from Tony-nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge (one of the featured professional directors on the (the Disney Plus show Encore!), who wowed OTC audiences with her production of Once. Our biggest show of the year brings the whole family together for a magical and memorable musical about the redemptive power of love. Join Belle, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and the rest of the gang in the Beast’s cursed castle for an escape to a world where beauty is more than skin deep and happily ever after is just a rose petal away.

A.D. 16 

Feb. 5 - Mar. 7, 2021 
Mainstage

A World Premiere Musical. Co-produced with ZACH Theatre
Music & Lyrics by Cinco Paul • Book by Bekah Brunstetter
Music Direction by Christopher Youstra • Directed by Stephen Brackett

What if your first crush really was perfect? From the comic genius of Cinco Paul (Despicable Me) and Bekah Brunstetter (This Is Us) comes the delightfully witty, sublimely inspiring story of teenaged Mary Magdalene, who falls in love with the carpenter’s son next door… who happens to be a kid named Jesus. In her quest to impress him, Mary has to fend off a trio of 1st-Century Mean Girls and a bunch of Beastie Boys-inspired wiseguys from the Sanhedrin. She learns that getting Jesus to love you back is both easier – and harder – than she ever imagined.  With a lush R&B score and a riotous cast of characters, A.D. 16 achieves the rare feat of being both funny and sincere. A thrilling and fun musical for people of all faiths, or no faith at all.

Dance Nation

Mar. 3 - Apr. 4, 2021
Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab  

Winner of the Relentless Award established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
By Clare Barron • Directed & Choreographed by Paige Hernandez

The pre-teen dance team from Liverpool, Ohio is primed for competition, but in Clare Barron’s explosive script the stakes are much higher than just a first place trophy. Lives are at stake, future happiness lays in the balance, emerging sexuality strikes with the power of a thousand lightning bolts, and every interaction in the tight-knit group is suffused with threat, risk, and the urgency of adolescence. Adult actors of all ages portray the girls (and one boy) amidst their tween confusion and as their future adult-selves in a dream play with moments of true terror, complete with fangs, blood, and wild, stylized, dance. 

Everyman Theatre's Production of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express 

Apr. 7 - May 9, 2021
Mainstage 

Adapted for the Stage by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Vincent Lancisi

The Orient Express travels from Istanbul to Calais, carrying its passengers in the lap of 1930s luxury, but on this trip there’s been a murder and everyone’s a suspect. Fortunately, Hercule Poirot, the world’s greatest detective is onboard to solve the mystery before the train reaches Belgrade. Even better, this adaptation of the Agatha Christie masterpiece is handled by modern master, Ken Ludwig (A Comedy of Tenors), in a stunning production that was a sold out hit in Baltimore. So grab a ticket and climb aboard, you won’t want to be left back at the station when the murderer is revealed!

The Thanksgiving Play

Apr. 28 - May 30, 2021 
Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab 

By Larissa FastHorse • Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell

The country’s most-produced comedy of 2019 arrives in the DMV courtesy of Olney Theatre Center to open our 2020-21 season! This hilarious sendup of “white wokeness” features an undaunted theatre teacher desperately trying to create a culturally sensitive play celebrating Thanksgiving: one that challenges stereotypes, meets all the requirements of a Native American Heritage Month grant and pacifies the parents. Larissa FastHorse’s groundbreaking satire on the politics of representation throws together the overly-ambitious drama teacher, her yoga-bro actor friend, a history teacher with playwriting aspirations and an “ethnically-ambiguous” L.A. actress to devise their Thanksgiving play, only to find themselves quickly sabotaged by myth, confounded by history, and drawn into a hysterical project of dramatic pretzel-twisting. 

Meredith Willson's The Music Man

June 4 - July 11, 2021 
Mainstage 

Co-produced with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma
Book, Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson • Story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey • Direction of Artistic Sign Language by Michelle Banks
Music Direction by Christopher Youstra • Choreography by Karma Camp • Directed by Michael Baron & Alexandria Wailes

Our revolutionary retelling of this Golden Age classic is sure to be the talk of the DMV – and beyond – in the coming season. With a half Deaf and half Hearing cast, you’ll experience beloved songs like “76 Trombones,” “Til There Was You,” and “Rock Island” like never before. The citizens of River City have got trouble. Only, Harold Hill has them convinced it lays in their pools halls. His solution: a marching band, and he just happens to sell instruments and uniforms. It’s all part of his latest con job. Everyone in town seems to be falling for it, except Marian. The catch is, Harold may be falling for her.

Add Ons

Hedwig and the Angry Inch 
Special Limited Engagement 

Oct. 7 - Nov. 8, 2020 
Historic Stage 

Book by John Cameron Mitchell  • Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask • Directed by Johanna McKeon
Starring Mason Alexander Park as Hedwig

The revolutionary punk-rock stage sensation comes to Olney Theatre Center in a special return engagement from Mason Alexander Park, the Helen Hayes Award-nominated Emcee from Cabaret! In the crossfire of cold wars and culture wars, Hedwig is a survivor, and not just of a botched sex change operation that left her with the aforementioned “Angry Inch.” Transported to America, she is chasing rock stardom and though the band may be stuck in some seedy dive while Tommy Gnosis, her one-time protege and lover plays the stadium across the street, Hedwig’s tale is bound for punk rock glory. For those who like their music loud, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock ‘n’ roll musical that incorporates a cabaret confessional, drag, and a heart of gold, guarded by barbed wire and sequin spiked heels.

*Content Advisory: strong language, sexual content, loud music.

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas 

Nov. 27 - Dec. 27
Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab 

It’s the 11th Anniversary of Olney’s favorite Christmas tradition. Paul Morella’s captivating solo performance of the Dickens classic keeps audiences coming back season after season. They come for the masterful storytelling and come back for the way Paul keeps this tale fresh, year after year.

The Applause Concert Series

This is the third season of one of our most popular programs. Christopher Youstra, our Director of Music Theatre selects three musicals to perform in-concert with the orchestra on stage. This season’s titles re-examine a recent Broadway production, reveal a new musical work-in-progress and revisit a beloved classic.

If/Then

Fri. Mar 12, 2021
Mainstage
One Night Only 

Book & Lyrics by Brian Yorkey • Music by Tom Kitt

Returning to New York City after her divorce, Elizabeth seeks to reinvent herself. After meeting with old two friends in the park who recommend a name-change, the narrative splits, following the possible futures of “Liz” and “Beth.” Both paths unfurl the romances, heartbreaks, joys, and sorrows that are unavoidable in life, but come at us in ways we never expect.

Lautrec at the St. James 

Sat. Apr 17, 2021 
Historic Stage
One Night Only

Music by Julianne Wick Davis • Book and Lyrics by John Dietrich

In this new musical set in March, 1899, French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, passes out in a gutter and is kidnapped. He awakes in the Chateau St. James, an asylum. Triggered by his imagination and a need to understand his downfall, the St. James continuously transforms around Lautrec into an intoxicating and provocative world—one that inspires, yet may destroy him.

She Loves Me 

Fri. July 16, 2021 at 8:00 pm - Sat. July 17, 20201 at 2:00 and 8:00 pm
Mainstage
One Weekend Only 

Book by Joe Masteroff • Music by Jerry Bock • Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick • Based on a play by Miklos Laszio

From the creative team behind Fiddler on the Roof, this musical is the very definition of a classic romantic comedy. Two characters, who seem completely incompatible, are revealed to be secret pen-pals that fall madly in-love with each other by the final curtain. Most recently revived on Broadway in 2016, this timeless work receives three special performances to conclude the series.