Mud Row by Dominique Morriseau
Premiere Stages at Keane University
Jul 14 - Jul 31
"Two generations of sisters navigate class, race, love and family on “Mud Row,” an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Elsie hopes to move up in the world by marrying into “the talented tenth,” while her sister Frances joins the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later, estranged sisters Regine and Toshi are forced to reckon with their shared heritage and each other, when Regine inherits granny Elsie’s house."
The Hummingbirds: A Comedy of Menace by Garret Jon Groenveld
New Jersey Repertory Company
Aug 4 - Aug 28
"Been unemployed too long? At the Unemployment Bureau, we can place you in a job you may not be qualified for or a job that's not safe, but you will do it. Because if you can walk, you can work! A comic-drama set in the future, which may be closer than you think."
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The Marvelous Wonderettes by Roger Bean
Centenary Stage Company
Jul 28 - Aug 7
"This smash Off-Broadway hit takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School prom, where we meet Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy, and Suzy: four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts! As we learn about their lives and loves, the girls serenade us with classic ‘50s hits including 'Lollipop,' 'Dream Lover,' 'Stupid Cupid,' and 'Lipstick on Your Collar.' In Act II, the Wonderettes reunite to take the stage and perform at their ten-year reunion. We learn about the highs and lows the girls have experienced in the past decade and are charmed to find that no matter what life throws their way, they will conquer it together. Featuring over 30 classic ’50s and ’60s hits, The Marvelous Wonderettes will keep you smiling in this must-take musical trip down memory lane!"
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Who Am I This Time? (& Other Conundrums About Love) by Aaron Posner
East Lynne Theater Company
Jul 27 - Sep 3
"Since Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007), the author of 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' would have been 100 this year, the Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company is celebrating the occasion by offering three of his charming stories in 'Who Am I This Time? (& Other Conundrums About Love.)' Adapted by Aaron Posner, these humorous tales filled with heart take place in the small town of North Crawford, Connecticut in 1962."
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Escape to Margaritaville by Greg Garcia & Jimmy Buffet
Surflight Theatre
Aug 2 - Aug 21
"A part-time bartender, part-time singer and full-time charmer thinks he’s got life all figured out until a beautiful career-minded tourist steals his heart and makes him question everything. Featuring some of your favorite Jimmy Buffet songs: “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, 'Son of a Son of a Sailor', 'Come Monday' and of course the title song 'Margaritaville'."
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A Jersey Cantata by Bill Mesce, Jr.
The Theater Project
Aug 18 - Aug 28
"Big Sal from the deli, Francis the local funeral director, Go-go bar owner Caruso and IQ-challenged Albie, friends since childhood. They are all singing the same tune, no matter how offkey: A JERSEY CANTATA"
Chess: The Musical by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA and Tim Rice
Surflight Theatre
Aug 23 - Sep 4
"With its dazzling score, Chess as performed in London is a brilliantly conceived show of conflicting love, politics and ultimately always working for the greater good."
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The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell
Cape May Stage
Aug 31 - Oct 2
"In this comedic, yet gripping, battle over facts versus truth, a fresh-out-of-Harvard fact checker takes on a talented writer’s essay that could save the sinking New York magazine from collapse."
The Fields of Ambrosia by Joel Higgins & Martin Silvestri
Surflight Theatre
Sep 7 - Sep 25
"The time is 1918 and the place is rural Louisiana in the American deep South. Jonas is a former con-man and carnival hustler whose world is suddenly turned upside-down when he falls head-over-heels for the most alluring and beautiful woman he has ever met. The only problem is that he is currently employed by the State as its one and only executioner and she is the prisoner who is destined to be his next 'client'. What follows is a poignant, funny and surprising musical love story unlike anything you have ever seen."
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5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood
The Theater Project
Sep 8 - 18
"It’s 1956 and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche contest (“no men, no meat, all manners”) when the atomic bomb sirens sound! Has the ever-present Communist threat come to pass? Will the white gloves come off to fight for home and country? Most important -- will good taste save the day?"
Scab by Gino Diiorio
Premiere Stages at Keane University
Sep 8 - Sep 25
"Gilda, a middle-aged woman, has to train Eduardo, a young Mexican man, how to be a shop foreman when her factory plant moves to Mexico. Over the course of a week, they discover that their assumptions regarding personal expectations and cultural differences are not always correct."
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The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney
South Camden Theatre Company
Sep 9 - Sep 25
"In this fierce and honest look at the complex bonds of brotherhood, McCraney weaves together poetry, music, and Yoruba mythology to magnify the tug-of-war between freedom and the need to belong somewhere, to something, to someone."
The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
McCarter Theatre Center
Sep 17 - Oct 16
"Meet nine young women from a competitive high school soccer team. It’s just a few weeks until nationals and the pressure is on. Relatable and resilient, this pack of adolescent warriors will push and train for their games, while also navigating a growing understanding of their complicated world. The Wolves is about life, love, and loss on and off the Astroturf."
Possessing Harriet by Kyle Bass
East Lynne Theater Company
Sep 21 - Oct 15
"In 1839, in Peterboro, NY, Thomas Leonard, a freed slave, helps Harriet Powell escape from her Southern owner who is visiting the area. While hiding in an attic, a price on her head, waiting to be taken to Canada in the dead of night, Harriet is with abolitionist Gerrit Smith and suffragette Elizabeth Cady (before she married Stanton). Confronted with new and difficult ideas about race and identity, Harriet faces the costs and benefits of freedom. Can Leonard, Smith and Cady convince her to go to Canada – and freedom? Written by Kyle Bass, this compelling play premiered in October 2018, at Syracuse Stage, where Mr. Bass serves as associate artistic director. ELTC is presenting its fifth production and NJ premiere. Mr. Bass received a commission from the Onondaga Historical Association to write POSSESSING HARRIET. It is based on a true story. "
Berta, Berta by Angelica Chéri
Mile Square Theatre
Sep 21 – Oct 16
"After committing an unforgivable crime and doomed to surrender his freedom, LeRoy is granted one final wish: a chance to make amends with his long lost lover Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape the fate that awaits them."
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Surflight Theatre
Sep 28 - Oct 9
"All aboard! The exotic Orient Express is hurtling down the tracks… to a murder! Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig) hits the stage with a train full of suspects and an alibi for each one. It’s the perfect mystery for detective Hercule Poirot, n’est-ce pas? Wax your mustache and hold on to your passport! This exciting play will take audiences on a suspenseful, thrilling ride aboard the legendary Orient Express! Don’t go off the rails – hop on board today!"
Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family by Tylie Shider
Premiere Stages at Keane University
Oct 13 - Oct 23
"As tensions reach an all-time high between Newark residents and police, racial and civil unrest begins spilling into Plainfield, New Jersey in the 'long hot summer of 1967.' Clif and Peach moved their family to Plainfield for the promise of a better future, but as the riots begin, the family contemplates a return to the South."
On Your Feet! by Alexander Dinelaris Jr. & Gloria & Emilio Estefan
Paper Mill Playhouse
Oct 7 - Nov 6
"This thrilling show follows the lives of pop hitmakers Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Cuban immigrants in Miami, as they fall for one another, strive to overcome family obstacles, and work tirelessly to bring their Latin sound to the American mainstream. Directed and choreographed by Alex Sanchez, with music direction by Andrew David Sotomayor (Tootsie), and featuring chart-topping hits as “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Conga,” and “1-2-3,” On Your Feet! is a bombastic, cheerful celebration that’s bursting with heart."
Her Portmanteau by Mfoniso Udofia
George Street Playhouse
Oct 11 - Oct 30
"This stunning play about a Nigerian family in America centers around reconciliation, reinvention, and at its heart, the relationship between mothers and their daughters. Making her directorial debut on this production is George Street Playhouse’s Artistic Associate Laiona Michelle, who wowed audiences in Little Girl Blue both at George Street Playhouse and off-Broadway. The fourth installment in Ms. Udofia’s epic nine-play Ufot family cycle about the Nigerian American identity and the universality of a family’s unconditional love is not one to be missed!"
Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress
Two River Theater
Oct 15 - Nov 6
"While an uprising shakes his Harlem neighborhood on a sweltering summer night, artist Bill Jameson is more focused on finishing his latest work: three paintings representing three types of Black womanhood. More than his artistic vision is challenged by the arrival of an unexpected muse, who refuses to be bound by his shallow assumptions of all that Black womanhood can be."
Richard II By William Shakespeare
Luna Stage
Oct 20 – Nov 13
"4 actors, 16 roles, 90 minutes. A taut reimagining of Shakespeare’s intimate, devastating history play about the danger of unchecked power."
Avenue Q by Jeff Whitty, Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx
Axelrod Performing Arts Center
Nov 4 - Nov 20
"Avenue Q tells the timeless story of a recent college graduate, named Princeton, who moves into a run-down New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q, which he soon finds is far from a normal neighborhood. Filled with gut-busting humor and a delightfully catchy score, not to mention puppets, Avenue Q continues to make audiences laugh, learn and rethink the world around them."
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
Axelrod Performing Arts Center
Nov 5 - Nov 27
"From the most successful writing team in Broadway history, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella became a Broadway stage musical a half century after the original television production starring Julie Andrews. Magical and transformative, it was worth the wait! With all the charm and romance of the creators’ musicals The Sound of Music, South Pacific and The King and I, Cinderella delights audiences of all ages with its surprisingly contemporary take on the classic fairy tale and its timeless score, with such Rodgers and Hammerstein favorites as 'In My Own Little Corner,' 'Impossible' and 'Ten Minutes Ago.' The Axelrod production is being directed and choreographed by Todd LaBron Underwood."
One Christmas Carol by Douglas H. Baker
Cape May Stage
Nov 16 - Dec 30
"This one-man tour de force is an intimate and spirited evening of theatre. Dickens’ famous story about selfishness and selflessness is stripped down to its bare essence, forgoing the usual opulence of the holidays and focusing on what is of utmost importance during the season."
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol by Tom Mula
Mile Square Theatre
Dec 1 – Dec 24
"Jacob Marley is dead. And he’s about to get an assignment to redeem the least redeemable person he knows: Ebenezer Scrooge. A playful retelling of the Christmas Classic told from the point of view of Scrooge’s old business partner."
The Sound of Music by Rodgers & Hammerstein
Paper Mill Playhouse
Dec 2 - Jan 1
"Celebrate the holidays with the heart-soaring melodies of The Sound of Music, including such beloved songs as “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss,” and “Climb Every Mountain.” Directed by Paper Mill Producing Artistic Director Mark S. Hoebee, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final musical conjures an Austria replete with rolling hills, singing nuns, and a tender love story set in the shadow of World War II."
Irving Berlin's White Christmas: The Musical
Surflight Theatre
Dec 3 - Dec 18
"Singers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis join sister act Betty and Judy Haynes to perform a Christmas show in rural Vermont. There, they run into Gen. Waverly, the boys' commander in World War II, who, they learn, is having financial difficulties; his quaint country inn is failing. So what's the foursome to do but plan a yuletide miracle: a fun-filled musical extravaganza that's sure to put Waverly and his business in the black!"
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; Adapted by Lauren Keating
McCarter Theatre Center
Dec 7 - Dec 24
"Follow Ebenezer Scrooge on a magical journey through Christmas past, present, and future and watch as this story comes to life around you! This annual holiday tradition will usher you into the spirit of the season with all the joy, wonder, and generosity that Scrooge himself discovers."
Joy by Ken Davenport & AnnMarie Milazzo
George Street Playhouse
Dec 7 - Dec 30
"A biographical musical based on the life of Joy Mangano—the entrepreneur, inventor, best-selling author, and self-made millionaire whose journey epitomizes the real American Dream. This uplifting true story is about one woman’s triumphant climb, from divorce to single motherhood and bankruptcy, to becoming a wildly successful dynamo that all started with the invention of a mop – her Miracle Mop!"
And once you've seen the shows, be sure to score them on Show-Score!