About the Shows
INK
ELECTRIFYING NEW DRAMA
By James Graham
Directed by Jason Loewith
AUG 30 – SEPT 24, 2023
London, 1969. A brash young Australian named Rupert Murdoch approaches journalist Larry Lamb with a staggeringly ambitious proposition: to turn the struggling paper The Sun into the best-selling tabloid in the UK…within a year. An unexpected partnership is born as Lamb and Murdoch assemble a team of scrappy underdog journalists and begin to transform The Sun into a populist juggernaut. Once they discover the formula to success the consequences are thrilling and terrifying. This “riveting” (The Guardian) Tony Award-winning Broadway and West End hit depicts the birth of our hyper-partisan news culture in a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction drama that will have you on the edge of your seat. Co-produced with Olney Theatre Center and performed at Round House Theatre..
THE MOUNTAINTOP
HISTORICAL REIMAGINING
By Katori Hall
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
OCT 11 – NOV 5, 2023
The night before his untimely death, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. returns to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis after delivering a speech to local sanitation workers. While waiting for room service, he is visited by a mysterious and beautiful maid, Camae, with whom he begins a humorous and flirtatious conversation that progresses into a soul-searching discussion about their mutual hopes and fears. When Camae reveals her true identity, Dr. King must reflect on his legacy and the challenges facing the civil rights movement. “Audacious [and] inventive” (Associated Press), the Olivier Award-winning play offers an intimate and empathetic portrait of one of history’s most consequential figures.
A HANUKKAH CAROL
or GELT TRIP! The Musical
WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL COMEDY
Music by Aaron Kenny
Lyrics by Rob Berliner
Book by Harrison Bryan and Rob Berliner
Original Concept by Harrison Bryan
Directed and choreographed by Marlo Hunter
DEC 6 –31, 2023 | World Premiere
Misanthropic millennial influencer Chava Kanipshin’s internet followers are turning into haters. Desperate to regain her popularity, Chava shuns anything and anyone she sees as an obstacle, including her family, friends, and holiday traditions. But on the first night of Hanukkah, Chava is visited by the ghost of deceased social media star Mimi Marley and other spirits who warn her to change her ways—or be cursed forever. The spirits lead Chava on a madcap journey through Hanukkahs past, present, and future to help her reconnect with her spirit of generosity, her Jewish identity, and an appreciation of her real-life supporters. Conceived by Harrison Bryan (last seen at Round House in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), A Hanukkah Carol is a heartfelt, hilarious riff on a holiday classic that celebrates making the world a kinder place.
NEXT TO NORMAL
GROUNDBREAKING ROCK MUSICAL
Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Music by Tom Kitt
Directed by Alan Paul
JAN 24 – FEB 25, 2024
Diana Goodman is a suburban mom struggling with bipolar disorder. Her daughter, Natalie, is a stressed-out overachiever about to snap. And Dan, her exhausted architect husband, is determined to keep everything “normal.” As Diana’s symptoms worsen, and effective treatment remains elusive, the Goodmans must confront their shared griefs and struggles and learn how to finally connect with each other. A masterpiece of modern musical theatre and a powerful depiction of the ripple effects of mental illness, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is “brave, breathtaking… [and] much more than a feel-good musical: it is a feel-everything musical” (The New York Times).
A JUMPING OFF POINT
INCENDIARY & PROVOCATIVE WORLD PREMIERE
By Inda Craig-Galván
Directed by Jade King Carroll
APR 10 – MAY 5, 2024 | World Premiere
Leslie Wallace is a promising Black writer who has just landed her first deal with HBO. Her celebration is cut short when she gets a surprise visit from Andrew, a white man from her grad school cohort, who accuses her of plagiarizing his script. Their confrontation—and eventual uneasy alliance—forces a reckoning on representation, privilege, and who gets to tell what kinds of stories. Full of humor and complex characters, A Jumping-Off Point is a sharp and electric new play from rising star playwright and screenwriter Inda Craig-Galván. (Part of the National Capital New Play Festival)
Topdog/Underdog
MODERN AMERICAN CLASSIC
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Jamil Jude
MAY 29 – JUN 23, 2024
Abandoned by their parents as teenagers, brothers Lincoln and Booth learned to rely on each other. As adults, Lincoln and Booth are locked in a cycle of love and resentment, foretold by the names they were given by their father as jokes and compounded by the challenges of poverty and racism. In her “utterly mesmerizing” (Variety) Pulitzer Prize-winner, named the best American play written in the past 30 years by the New York Times, celebrated writer Suzan-Lori Parks asks whether we can ever really change the cards we’re dealt as the brothers’ tug-of-war for dominance builds to devastating, life-changing consequences.