Celebrate the strength, resilience, and achievements of women around the world with our curated selection of titles for International Women’s Day! Navigate the emotions and relationships of womanhood in these stories. Join us in honoring the contributions of women everywhere and fostering a more inclusive and equitable world for all.
Musicals
Grey Gardens; Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie
Photo by Craig Schwartz, 2016 Ahmanson Theatre production
Based on the beloved documentary, Grey Gardens is the hilarious and heartbreaking story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s eccentric and upper-class aunt and cousin, Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, who became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses. Featuring a shatteringly beautiful score, and the opportunity for two star turns, this musical will thrill and delight audiences.
We Are the Tigers; Book, Lyrics & Music by Preston Max Allen
Photo by Mati Gelman, 2019 Off-Broadway production
The Tigers’ high school cheerleading squad is meeting for their annual sleepover at captain Riley’s house—and they’ve brought plenty of their teenage troubles with them. Love triangles, a lustful boyfriend, and hurt feelings over a now-viral cheer stunt gone wrong complicate their team-bonding activities. But so does the untimely death of one of their own in the front yard. Will that be the only murder? And who did it? With a pop-driven, belty score and a seriously silly book, We Are the Tigers will have audiences cheering for the Tigers as the Tigers learn to cheer for themselves.
Sympathy Jones: The New Secret Agent Musical; Book by Brooke Pierce, Music & Lyrics by Masi Asare
Sympathy Jones dreams of being a super secret agent, but she’s stuck as a secretary…until, one day, a confidential file is accidentally left on her desk. When she discovers that the file contains information about a plot to overthrow the government, Sympathy seizes her chance for adventure and fame. But she soon realizes that trying to save the world against impossible odds is not nearly as glamorous as she thought it would be, and she certainly can’t do it alone. This delightful, 1960s-era musical is full of humor, self-discovery, and heart-pounding action.
In the Green; Book, Music & Lyrics by Grace McLean
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2021 Broadway production
As a young girl, medieval saint, healer, visionary, exorcist, and composer Hildegard von Bingen was locked in a cloister’s cell after demonstrating a preternatural sensitivity to the world around her. Sequestered with Hildegard is Jutta, a woman who has spent her life secluded in an effort to recover a whole self after the deepest of trauma. Under Jutta’s guidance, Hildegard attempts to reassemble her own fragmented self while her mentor proselytizes a rejection of brokenness. In the Green is a musical unlike any you’ve seen, an astonishingly, sonically sophisticated saga of two exceptional women broken by the world and their journey of healing that changed history.
The Snow Queen; Book by Kirsten Brandt and Rick Lombardo, Music by Haddon Kime, Lyrics by Kirsten Brandt, Haddon Kime and Rick Lombardo, Additional Music by Rick Lombardo
Be spirited away by this new musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fantastical coming-of-age adventure that inspired the hit movie Frozen. Join Gerda on a dangerous and whimsical quest to save her best friend Kai before he is trapped forever in the Snow Queen’s palace. Dare to enter a world where flowers sing, animals talk, and riddles yearn to be solved. With an original pop-rock score, alluring ballads, urban steampunk flair, and the enigmatic Snow Queen, you’ll soon see this is not your average bedtime story.
Sleeping Beauty; Music & Lyrics by David Kisor, Book by Joseph McDonough
Photo by Sandy Underwood, 2005 Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati production
Action, comedy, romance, rock ‘n roll, and a little bit of opera spice up the story of Sleeping Beauty in this magical, musical twist on the fairy tale classic. At Princess Briar Rose’s christening, wicked Wisteria puts a curse on the newly born baby after realizing she wasn’t invited to the party. Three wacky fairies, along with Briar Rose’s overprotective parents, quickly shelter the curious and beautiful princess, but even then the spell finds Briar Rose and puts her to sleep for a hundred years. Only a guitar-playing prince can conquer the curse, waking her with true love and a song.
Plays
Broadway Book Club Women’s Voices
This collection celebrates not only women’s stories, but also the power and breadth of the writings of women in the theatre. This pack includes titles by Lauren Gunderson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and more!
Three Tall Women by
Photo by Julian Mommert, Marianna Bisti, 2023 Piraeus Municipal Theatre production
Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
In Act One, a young lawyer, “C,” has been sent to the home of a client, a ninety-two-year-old woman, “A,” to sort out her finances. “A,” frail, perhaps a bit senile, resists and is of no help to “C.” Along with “B,” the old woman’s matronly paid companion/caretaker, “C” tries to convince “A” that she must concentrate on the matters at hand. In “A’s” beautifully appointed bedroom, she prods, discusses and bickers with “B” and “C,” her captives. “A’s” long life is laid out for display, no holds barred. She cascades from regal and charming to vicious and wretched as she wonders about and remembers her life: her husband and their cold, passionless marriage; her son and their estrangement. How did she become this? Who is she? Finally, when recounting her most painful memory, she suffers a stroke. In Act Two, “A’s” comatose body lies in bed as “B” and “C” observe no changes in her condition. In a startling coup-de-theatre, “A” enters, very much alive and quite lucid. The three women are now the stages of “A’s” life: the imperious old woman, the regal matron and the young woman of twenty-six. Her life, memories and reminiscences—pondered in the first act—are now unceremoniously examined, questioned, accepted or not, but, at last, understood. In the end, her son arrives and kneels at her bedside, but it is too late.
Morning Sun by
Photo by Matthew Murphy, 2021 Off-Broadway production
In Greenwich Village a generation or so ago, the city is alive. Joni Mitchell sings, friends and lovers come and go, and the regulars change at the White Horse Tavern. As fifty years pass, one woman’s life is revealed in all its complexity, mystery, and possibility in this enthralling piece about mothers and daughters.
Master Class by
Photo by Joan Marcus, 2011 Broadway production
Winner of the 1996 Tony Award® for Best Play
Maria Callas is teaching a master class in front of an audience: us. She’s glamorous, commanding, larger than life—and drop-dead funny. Callas’ first “victim” is Sophie, a ridiculous, overly perky soprano. Sophie chooses to sing one of the most difficult arias, the sleepwalking scene from La sonnambula—an aria that Callas made famous. Before the girl sings a note, Callas stops her—and now what has started out as a class becomes a platform for Callas. She glories in her own career, dabbles in opera dish, and flat-out seduces the audience. But with that, there are plenty of laughs going on, especially between Callas and the audience. The next two sessions repeat the same dynamic: The middle session is with a tenor, who moves Callas to tears. She again enters her memories, and we learn about Callas’ affair with Aristotle Onassis; an abortion she was forced to have; her first elderly husband whom she left; her early days as an ugly duckling; the fierce hatred of her rivals; and the unforgiving press that savaged her at first. Finally, we meet Sharon, another soprano— the young singer has talent, but Callas tells her to stick to flimsy roles. Sharon is devastated and rushes out of the hall, and Callas brings the class to a close by acknowledging the sacrifices we must make in the name of art.
sandblasted by
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2022 Off-Broadway production
Angela and Odessa are on a sandy search for something that might not be real, but they are determined to make a way out of no way. When they stumble upon Adah—that’s right, THE Celebrity-turned-Wellness-Maven Adah—they decide to follow her lead, not knowing that the journey could very well be the cure.
To the Bone by
Photo by Frank Ishman, 2023 Open Fist Theatre Company production
After twenty years, the tough but deeply caring Kelly has finally arranged to meet the daughter she gave up for adoption in high school. Geneva, who has grown up with a fair amount of privilege, has been ready to meet her mother for years. When she arrives at Kelly’s decidedly blue-collar Boston home with her roommate from Emerson, she’s a little unsure what to make of her birth mother, aunt, and brother. The getting-to-know-you is a little more oil and water than desired, and when Kelly reveals why she has asked Geneva to come, it is not clear if their newfound relationship will last beyond this evening. Overflowing with tough love and plenty of heartfelt laughs, To the Bone proves that kindness is more than a shared family trait.
Conscience by
Photo by T. Charles Erickson, 2020 George Street Playhouse production
Margaret Chase Smith was a woman of firsts: In 1940, she was the first woman elected by the state of Maine to serve in Congress; nine years later she was the first woman the state elected to the Senate. And in 1950, she became the first senator to stand on the Senate floor and publicly rebuke Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who rose to power using post–World War II anti-Communist hysteria and ruined the lives of those who opposed him. Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” speech was a public act of defiance at a time when both Democrats and Republicans were cowed into silence for fear of retribution. It came at a cost: She was shunned by her colleagues, challenged in a primary, and McCarthy threatened to expose her personal secrets. Conscience is the story of a remarkable woman who stood up for what was right and refused to back down.
Flex by
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2023 Lincoln Center Theatre production
The pressure is on for the 1998 Lady Train High School basketball team—on top of a battle to bring home the championship trophy, it is also college scouting season. But the team’s performance on the court is tested as it ruptures under the weight of its own infighting, and the once-tight players begin to focus on their individual futures: What does it mean to be a Black girl on the brink of freedom and womanhood in a small town in the South? Does honoring your own wants mean sacrificing your friends, family, and team? This funny and frank play about getting a full-court press from life will have audiences cheering.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2023 Broadway production
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in Harlem is a salon full of funny, whip-smart, talented women ready to make you look and feel nice nice. On this particularly muggy summer day, Jaja’s rule-following daughter Marie is running the shop while her mother prepares for her courthouse, green card wedding—to a man no one seems to particularly like. Just like her mother, DREAMer Marie is trying to secure her future; high school graduation is around the corner and all she wants to do is go to college. While Marie deals with the customers’ and stylists’ laugh-out-loud drama, news pierces the hearts of the women of the salon, galvanizing their connections and strengthening the community they have longed to make in the United States.
Mary Gets Hers by
Photo by Daniel J. Vasquez, 2023 Page One production
It’s 950 AD (give or take a few years) and eight-year-old Mary has just lost her parents to a plague which has been turning everyone into foam. She’s kidnapped by a hermit, Abraham, who takes her to a monastery and vows to shield her from the world, with the help of his pious friend Ephraim. After years locked away in a cell-inside-a-cell, Mary escapes her heavily restricted life and runs away to an inn and a life of indulgence. But the innkeeper has plans for Mary’s future, and soon, she again finds herself trapped. Good thing Abraham vowed to do whatever it took to rescue her… A quirky, earthy, hilarious play about how everyone makes their own way to love and self-knowledge.
Sojourners by
Photo by Chasi Annexy, 2016 Off-Broadway production
Sojourners is Part One of the Ufot Cycle, Udofia’s sweeping, nine-part saga which chronicles the triumphs and losses of Abasiama Ufot, a Nigerian immigrant, and her family. Abasiama came to America with high hopes for her arranged marriage and her future, intent on earning a degree and returning to Nigeria. But when her husband is seduced by America, she must choose between the Nigerian or American Dream.
Steel Magnolias by
Photo by Brian Hoerger, 2022 Theatre Three production
The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
Poor Clare by
Winner of the 2022 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award
It’s 1211 in Assisi, Italy, and Clare’s got beauty, wealth, and a rich suitor who showers her with expensive presents. So why is she so drawn to this guy Francis who gave up all his possessions just because poor people are suffering? Everyone in town says he’s crazy. And yet…she starts seeing everything in her life differently. This hilarious, anachronistic telling of the real story of St. Clare considers the cost of doing good—and how little has changed for the haves and the have-nots in almost a millennium.
Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! by Allison Gregory
Junie B. Jones, First-Grader, is super-excited about the upcoming Holiday Sing-Along and Secret Santa gift exchange at her school. Too bad tattletale May keeps ruining all of Junie B.’s fun. So when Junie B. draws May’s name for Secret Santa, she comes up with the perfect plan to teach her nemesis a lesson! But will the Christmas spirit of peace and goodwill interfere before she can give you-know-who what she deserves? A hilarious and endearing tale based on the best-selling book series by Barbara Park.
Emily Brontë, Teenage Necromancer by Don Zolidis
1835. Northern England. The moors. A terrifying phantom has appeared at the Roe Head School for Girls, terrorizing its students and driving the school near to extinction. It’s up to star pupil Emily Brontë, and her sisters Anne and Charlotte, to discern the true nature of the haunting, using their unique talents—which happen to include necromancy. A gothic, hilarious ride through English literature that needs magic, ghosts, and fog, featuring an undead goose, a lovesick ghost, and a talking meat pudding.
46 Plays for America’s First Ladies by Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Chloe Johnston, Andy Bayiates, Bilal Dardai, Sharon Greene
46 Plays for America’s First Ladies leaps from comic to tragic as it surveys the lives of the women who have served (and avoided serving) as First Lady, from Martha Washington to Jill Biden. A biographical, meta-theatrical, genre-bending ride through race, gender, and everything else your history teacher never taught you about the founding of America.
Emily of New Moon, adapted by Cynthia Mercati
Emily Starr is an imaginative young girl who has lived an isolated life with her father at The Hollows in the country. She has The Sight, as she calls it, which allows her to see into the past and the future. After her father dies, she is sent to live at New Moon Farm with her stern Aunt Elizabeth Murray, her kind but timid Aunt Laura, and her cousin Jimmy, a gentle man who people persist in saying is “off.” Emily promises her father she will hang on hard to herself and clashes with Aunt Elizabeth who “is determined to make her like every other child in Blair Water.” But when Emily falls gravely ill, Elizabeth realizes how much she loves her, and Emily comes to understand she can be Emily of The Hollows and Emily of New Moon Farm—and a hundred other places as well.
Shattered by Molly Horan
Janie is a high school student who knows the lay of the land; she is intelligent, quick-witted, cultured, and it seems like Adam, her classmate who she has had a crush on for forever, might actually be interested in her. But after a freak accident at school, Janie is left to reckon with her mom, her friends, how the world sees her now, and if Adam really wants to be a part of her future.
Inevitable by Molly Horan
High school junior Tara’s future is bright, and she feels like she is on the right path—though no one seems to want to join the school newspaper that she and her best friend Steph are trying to rebuild. When Kurt shows up one day for a meeting, Tara is unsure whether the guy that everyone whispers about is in it for the paper’s free pizza, or the journalism…or for her? As Tara begins to learn that maybe the rumors about Kurt aren’t really true, a dangerous mix of teenage jealousy and the realities of gun violence in America threatens to derail not only their futures, but an entire community’s perception of trust, responsibility, and safety.
