Passion drives the most powerful stories—tales of love, ambition, and determination. This month, we’re exploring titles that capture the intensity of human emotion, from sweeping romances to gripping dramas. Which story will spark something in you?

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Musicals

Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical; Created by Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin, and Roger Kumble. Based on the film by Roger Kumble

Rulers of their elite Manhattan prep school, Sebastian and Kathryn have placed a mischievous bet: Can Sebastian successfully deflower the innocent Annette Hargrove, the headmaster’s daughter? As their vengeful crusade wreaks havoc on the students at Manchester Prep, the two devilish step-siblings become entangled in their own web of deception and unexpected romance in this raucous jukebox throwback.

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Himself and Nora; Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Brielle

The untold story of writer James Joyce and his muse, in this scintillating expose of their intimate life together.

It is one of the world’s great romances. Himself: an internationally acclaimed author whose words awakened the world. Nora: the country girl from Galway whose burning sexuality and acerbic wit ignited the genius of James Joyce. Himself and Nora is a passionate musical that reveals the private life of one of modern literature’s most controversial figures. Ripped from the pages of their intimate life together and inspired by their Irish roots, this untold story of writer James Joyce and his muse is a scintillating exposé of the unconventional and passionate love affair that changed literature forever.

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Ghost Brothers of Darkland County; Book by Stephen King, Music and Lyrics by John Mellencamp

A blues-inflected country score by legend John Mellencamp and a claustrophobic, refractured parable from the master of thriller Stephen King combine to create the spooky, cautionary tale of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. In an eerie cabin in the woods, a young couple come across its caretaker, the Troubador, who reveals to them an almost Biblically violent story that took place in that very house, about a set of brothers who are in love with the same woman and the ensuing rivalry that sparks between them. The young couple hearing this tale realize that this cabin’s past is certainly like their present. When the young man’s brother shows up to stake a claim for the woman he loves, will they repeat the sins of the past—especially if it means staying alive?

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Hello Again; Book, Music, and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa

Ten nameless characters pair up in ten different scenes of sexual pleasure and/or despair. One character from each scene moves on to the next, seemingly dumping his old partner in favor of new prey. The play begins in 1900 with a Prostitute soliciting an unwilling Soldier. The next scene takes place in the 1940s, and the Soldier, afraid of dying in the war, tussles with a sympathetic Nurse. Next, the Nurse becomes a 1960s dominatrix over her patient, an upper-crust College Boy with wild leanings. In the 1930s, the College Boy reappears as the impotent partner of an adulterous Young Wife who can only have relations with him in seedy, out-of-the-way places. Meeting the woman’s Husband in the next scene, we see why she’s been driven to such moral turpitude. In her loneliness, the Wife dances a haunting pas-de-deux with the mirror image of her repressed, sensual self. Experiencing the Wife’s scene from a totally different perspective, we then meet the Husband as a closet homosexual (and on the Titanic, no less), using the ship’s imminent demise to steal a tango with a gorgeous boy hustler called the Young Thing. Shifting to a 1970s disco, a bisexual Writer lures the Young Thing home only to feel the creeping certainty of a morning-after desertion. Finally, the circle of lovers closes where it all began. A Senator quits his relationship with an Actress because of political liabilities, then seeks the Prostitute from the first scene, whom he desperately wishes he could love. A tableau begins forming in the background, with all the couples singing “Hello Again” over and over in a moody recognition of love’s inescapable pull.

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Plays

Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams

Alma Winemiller, a timid, high-minded young woman, is trapped under the overbearing weight of her minister father and mentally ill mother. Hers is a soul that gazes to the stars, but her life is pinioned by the Puritanical values of her household and community. The return to town of a childhood friend, now a talented, promising young doctor, offers Alma a glimpse into a different way of being—but his recklessness and womanizing threaten to destroy them both if they acknowledge their mutual longings.

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Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

In 1905 New York City, Esther, a Black seamstress, is in great demand for the intimate apparel she creates for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Though leading a life that provides joy to so many, she remains lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Through a mutual acquaintance, she begins a correspondence with a lonesome Caribbean man named George and soon he persuades her that they should marry, sight unseen. However, Esther’s heart is drawn to the Hasidic shopkeeper from whom she buys cloth, and his heart with her. When George arrives in the city, Esther is hit with the reality of the situation and she is forced to face a future that she is truly unprepared for.

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Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley

Winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play

The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future—but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.

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The Last Match by Anna Ziegler

Played out under the bright lights of the US Open semifinals, The Last Match pits rising Russian star Sergei Sergeyev against American great Tim Porter in an epic showdown that follows two tennis titans through pivotal moments in their lives both on and off the court. This gripping, fast-paced story captures the intense world of competitive sports, and human rivalry, and what it means to want something—and the lengths we will go to in order to feel relevant, important, and young.

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anthropology by Lauren Gunderson

Merril has been spending more time with her sister Angie lately, but she’s not ready for anyone to know about it. At least, not until she’s ready to explain that Angie is an AI creation she developed to cope with her sister’s disappearance and death. When virtual Angie offers the possibility that real Angie might be still alive, Merril does everything she can to work with her creation to find her sister. But as the search continues, it becomes less and less clear whether an AI creation that Merril programmed to help her might have developed motives of its own.

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The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard

Winner of the 1984 Tony Award® for Best Play

Henry is a successful playwright married to Charlotte, who has the lead role in his latest play about adultery. Her co-star, Max, is married to another actress, Annie, and Annie and Henry are madly in love. As Henry navigates his personal and creative passions, the line between truth and fiction is blurred in this devastating portrait of love, performance, and the “real thing.”

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Brooklyn Laundry by John Patrick Shanley

Fran is a pessimist who’s terrified of making decisions. Owen is a guy who sees life for what it is and finds ways to make the best of it. Both of them are lonely, and find in each other what could be a meaningful connection. But when Fran’s sisters need her more than ever, she is faced with the most difficult choice she’s ever had to make. Brooklyn Laundry is about romance, family, joy, and responsibility. Most of all, it’s a play about choosing to love and be loved.

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Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally

The setting is a walk-up apartment on Manhattan’s West Side where, as the curtain rises, Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker (and romantic), has other ideas. He is convinced that he loves Frankie, a notion that she, at first, considers to be ridiculous. She has had more disappointments than delights in life, and he is the veteran of one broken marriage already. And neither of them is in the bloom of youth. Yet out of their sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious interplay the promise of a relationship beyond a “one-night stand” does begin to emerge and, as the lights dim, the two are back in bed again, but this time side-by-side, holding hands before the glowing television screen.

This specially-designed cover by Joseph Logan was made possible through a partnership between Broadway Licensing Global and the Terrence McNally Foundation. Other plays in this initiative include

It’s Only a Play
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Master Class
Mothers and Sons

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Love Letters by A.R. Gurney

Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years—where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of “good schools.” While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them. However Andy’s last letter, written to her mother after Melissa’s untimely death, makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the years—physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

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Dusk Rings a Bell by Stephen Belber

Molly and Ray unexpectedly meet 25 years after a one-afternoon adolescent fling. She has a successful media career; he owns a small landscaping business. Both begin to romanticize their chance reunion, but a renewed connection is disrupted when Ray reveals the sordid details of a crime that left him incarcerated for ten years. Their encounter reveals two vastly different paths taken and two lonely souls attempting to reclaim a moment of possibility, when they were young and perhaps at their very best.