A six-time Tony winner arrives for six days as four productions take their final bows.
Coverage week: September 30–October 7, 2026
Research completed: September 30, 2026
A six-time Tony Award winner is rolling into Washington for just six
days, four immigrant artists are turning the contradictions of American
life into cabaret, and two witches are teaching young audiences that
darkness is not always something to fear.
This is also a genuine last-chance week. Dirty Dancing,
Somewhere Over the Border, Not Exactly a Nun and an
Annapolis staging of Our Town all take their final bows by
Sunday. Meanwhile, Ford’s Theatre is warning of limited seating for
several performances of Come From Away.
One useful buying note: Theatre
Week continues through October 11, with specially priced $25, $45
and $65 seats at participating productions while inventory lasts.
Here is what deserves a seat on your calendar across Washington,
Maryland and Northern Virginia.
The Five Shows to Know
Zebra Best Bet:
Love Finds Two Retired Robots
Maybe Happy Ending
The National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004
October 6–11, 2026
Tickets: Prices vary by performance and seat; current amounts appear in
the official ticket selector.
The winner of six 2025 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, arrives
for a compact six-day Washington engagement. In a near-future Seoul, two
obsolete helper robots discover music, friendship and a feeling neither
expected to experience.
Will Aronson and Hue Park’s intimate musical carries Broadway
credentials without losing its gentle, human-scale charm. The short
run—and Steven Huynh and Claire Kwon leading the touring company as
Oliver and Claire—makes it this week’s Zebra Best
Bet.
See
the official schedule and purchase tickets from The National
Theatre
Gander Opens Its Doors Again
Come From Away
Ford’s Theatre
511 Tenth St. NW, Washington, DC 20004
Through October 18, 2026
Tickets start at $25; Ford’s uses dynamic pricing.
Ten years after its pre-Broadway engagement at Ford’s, the musical
returns with a predominantly local company directed by Kevin S.
McAllister. Its story of 6,579 airline passengers welcomed by the people
of Gander, Newfoundland, remains a brisk and deeply moving account of
ordinary generosity after September 11.
Ford’s official ticket calendar marked several performances from
October 1 through 4, plus October 7, as limited seating
when this guide was researched. The October 1 performance is ASL
interpreted, and the October 3 matinee is audio described.
Check
current availability through Ford’s Theatre
Shakespeare Puts
Selective Justice on Trial
Measure for Measure
Folger Theatre
201 East Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003
Through November 1, 2026
Tickets: $20–$95, depending on
performance and seat.
Psalmayene 24 relocates Shakespeare’s dark comedy to the American
South of the 1950s, where a newly empowered official begins enforcing
neglected morality laws—and then tries to exploit the novice nun who
asks him to spare her brother.
The production’s collision of government power, sexual hypocrisy and
selective enforcement gives a rarely staged play an unmistakably
contemporary pulse.
See
the official Folger Theatre schedule and tickets
Four
Immigrants Build a Cabaret From Contradictions
Coming to America: An Immigrant Cabaret
ExPats Theatre at Atlas Performing Arts Center, Lab II
1333 H St. NE, Washington, DC 20002
September 30–October 18, 2026
Tickets: $25–$49.
Artists from Germany, India, Peru and Senegal use songs, stories and
satire to explore what it means to integrate into a country that can be
welcoming and bewildering in the same breath.
The 90-minute production opens Wednesday and promises the specificity
of lived experience rather than a single, flattened “immigrant
story.”
See
production information and official tickets
Two
Witches Discover the Magic Between Light and Dark
Beatrice Likes the Dark
Adventure Theatre MTC
7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, MD 20812
October 2–November 1, 2026
Tickets: $27; ticketing fees may apply.
Beatrice loves the dark. Her sister Roo prefers the light. When the
young witches are given their first wands, magic, music and shadow play
help them discover that neither sister has to surrender what makes her
different.
Dani Stoller’s new family play is directed by Patrick Flynn and
recommended for ages 5 and older—a smart seasonal choice for children
who enjoy Halloween atmosphere without a full fright.
See
the official Adventure Theatre production page and ticket link
Opening This Week
Broadway’s
Newest Robot Romance Arrives Tuesday
Maybe Happy Ending begins its six-day National Theatre
engagement October 6. The 100-minute musical is performed without an
intermission and is recommended for ages 8 and older.
See
performance times and official tickets
An Immigrant Cabaret Opens
at Atlas
Coming to America: An Immigrant Cabaret begins September 30
in Atlas Performing Arts Center’s intimate Lab II. Its four performers
turn the pressure to adapt, explain and belong into a shared evening of
music and storytelling.
See
the official listing and ticket link
A New Family
Play Finds Comfort in the Shadows
Beatrice Likes the Dark begins October 2 at Adventure
Theatre MTC. The world of two young witches is created with live
performance, music and shadow play rather than Halloween jump
scares.
Final Curtain
Nobody Puts This
Closing Weekend in a Corner
Dirty Dancing: The Musical
The National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004
Closes October 4, 2026
Tickets: Prices vary by performance and seat and are displayed in the
official selector.
Baby and Johnny have only a few dances left in Washington. The
touring production pairs the film’s familiar story with live music and a
20-piece soundtrack that includes “Hungry Eyes,” “Hey Baby,” “Do You
Love Me?” and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
The October 4 evening performance is audio described. The show runs
approximately two hours and 20 minutes, including intermission, and is
recommended for ages 12 and older.
See
final performances and official tickets
Reina Reaches the End
of Her Road North
Somewhere Over the Border
Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center, Sprenger
Theatre
1333 H St. NE, Washington, DC 20002
Closes October 4, 2026
Tickets: $53 Thursday and Friday; $70 Saturday and Sunday; $20 student
and educator tickets and $25 under-30 tickets are available with
restrictions.
Brian Quijada borrows the structure of The Wizard of Oz to
tell a musical story inspired by his mother’s journey from El Salvador
to the United States. Cumbia, mariachi boleros, rock and hip-hop carry
Reina north without disguising the dangers or the human cost of the
trip.
See the
final schedule and purchase official tickets
One Storyteller, Five
Final Performances
Not Exactly a Nun
Story District at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
641 D St. NW, Washington, DC 20004
Closes October 4, 2026
Tickets: $40 general admission; $30 for students.
Comedian and storyteller Yasmin Elhady brings family expectations,
faith, marriage, divorce and reinvention into one candid solo show. The
limited run closes Sunday after performances Friday, Saturday and
Sunday.
See
the official schedule and ticket options
One Last Evening in
Grover’s Corners
Our Town
The Colonial Players of Annapolis
108 East St., Annapolis, MD 21401
Closes October 3, 2026
Tickets: $26 adults; $21 seniors 65 and older, full-time students and
active military; $2 service fee per ticket.
Thornton Wilder’s classic ends its community-theater run Friday and
Saturday. The Colonial Players’ in-the-round home puts the audience
close to the weddings, breakfasts and small moments that the people of
Grover’s Corners understand only when it is too late.
Check the final
performances through The Colonial Players
Alexandria Spotlight
Old Town’s Next
Musical Is Already Selling Seats
She Loves Me
The Little Theatre of Alexandria
600 Wolfe St., Alexandria, VA 22314
October 17–November 7, 2026
Tickets: $36, plus a $4 service charge.
The Little Theatre of Alexandria is between mainstage productions
this week, but tickets are now available for its next musical. In a
1930s Budapest parfumerie, combative co-workers Georg and Amalia
unknowingly fall in love through anonymous letters—the romantic setup
that also inspired The Shop Around the Corner and You’ve
Got Mail.
Mitchell Aiello directs and choreographs the musical by the team
behind Fiddler on the Roof. Performances will run Thursday
through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
See the official
LTA production information and select seats
Worth the Drive
Dinner Comes With a
Last Dance in Columbia
SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
5900 Symphony Woods Road, Columbia, MD 21044
Through November 1, 2026
Tickets: approximately $67–$96, including
dinner; online fees may apply.
More than 20 Donna Summer songs trace the singer’s journey from a
Boston gospel choir to international stardom. “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,”
“Love to Love You Baby” and “Last Dance” turn the in-the-round
production into a complete dinner-and-disco outing.
The September 30 performance at 6 p.m. is ASL interpreted. Toby’s
identifies Ticketmaster as its only authorized online ticket seller.
See
the official production page and authorized ticket information
One Night Only
Eight Storytellers Take
the Top Shelf
Top Shelf
Story District at the Lincoln Theatre
1215 U St. NW, Washington, DC 20009
Thursday, October 1, 2026; doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
Tickets: Current all-in prices and remaining seats appear in
Ticketmaster’s official selector.
Story District’s 16th annual showcase brings eight standout local
storytellers to one of Washington’s grandest stages. The event is
unscripted in spirit but carefully shaped in practice: true stories,
live, with no notes and nowhere to hide.
The performance is ASL interpreted and the Lincoln Theatre is
wheelchair accessible.
See the
official event details and ticket link
Family Matinee
The Alphabet Climbs a
Coconut Tree
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: The Musical
Imagination Stage
4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814
Through October 18, 2026
Tickets start at $16.
The beloved picture book becomes a 60-minute musical full of puppets,
dancing, wordplay and very determined letters. Recommended for ages 3–9,
it is short enough for a first theater outing but lively enough to keep
accompanying adults engaged.
See
the official schedule and purchase tickets from Imagination
Stage
Families seeking something slightly darker can choose Beatrice
Likes the Dark, opening October 2 at Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen
Echo.
Coming Soon
Woody Guthrie’s Songs
Return Underground
Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
Voices Festival Productions at Dupont Underground
19 Dupont Circle NW, Washington, DC 20036
October 8–25, 2026
Tickets: $45; $20 for patrons under 30; pay-what-you-can preview
tickets.
David M. Lutken returns to the role that earned him a Helen Hayes
Award, using Guthrie’s songs and stories to trace the life of an
American artist whose music made hardship, protest and hope
inseparable.
See
production details and the official ticket link
Love Like There May Be
Only 100 Days
Hundred Days
The Keegan Theatre
1742 Church St. NW, Washington, DC 20036
October 10–November 8, 2026
Tickets: $40–$70.
The Bengsons’ autobiographical folk-punk musical asks how two people
might love if they knew their time together could be brief. Christina A.
Coakley directs the two-hour Keegan production.
See
the official regional listing and ticket link
George
Mason Students Put a Pay-to-Pee City on Stage
Urinetown
George Mason University School of Theater at Harris Theatre
4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030
October 28–November 1, 2026
Tickets: $35 adults; $15 students, staff, seniors and groups; October 28
preview tickets are $15. Prices include fees.
Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann’s musical satire targets capitalism,
bureaucracy, environmental collapse and musical theater itself. James
Gardiner directs, with the October 30 performance offering ASL
interpretation, audio description and a post-show talkback.
See George
Mason’s official schedule and ticket information
Schedules, prices and availability can change quickly. Confirm
current information through the linked theater before
traveling.
