From the powerful voices of leading ladies to unforgettable storylines centered around strong female characters, female-led musicals have long been a cornerstone of Broadway and beyond. These shows showcase incredible talent and bring to life narratives of resilience, ambition, love, and empowerment. Check out our top picks below!
A Night with Janis Joplin Written and Created by Randy Johnson
The voice, the music, the legend: Spend A Night with Janis Joplin as she shares her inspirations, her story, and the gift that was her talent. From her humble beginnings in Port Arthur, Texas to worldwide stardom, we hear from Janis herself as she reminisces on how music became the love of her life: a love instilled by her mother and nurtured by the greats including Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith, and Nina Simone. Told through a series of songs by the Chantels and Joplinaires, duets with those masters of the blues and featuring Janis’s biggest hits “Piece of My Heart,” “Me and Bobby McGee,” and more, A Night with Janis Joplin will have you rocking out and leaving the theatre with your heart full.
The Cher Show Book by Rick Elice
The Cher Show is based on the life of Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere Bono Allman or as her friends call her, Cher! The kid on a tricycle, vowing to be famous. The teenage phenom who crashes by twenty. The glam TV star who quits at the top. The would-be actress with an Oscar. The rock goddess with a hundred million records sold. The legend who’s done it all, still scared to walk on stage. The wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. The woman, looking for love. The ultimate survivor, chasing her dream. They’re all here, dressed to kill, belting out all the hits, telling it like it is. And they’re all the star of The Cher Show.
Grey Gardens Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie
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.
LIZZIE Music by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, Lyrics by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Tim Maner, Book by Tim Maner, Additional Music by Tim Maner, Additional Lyrics by Alan Stevens Hewitt, Based on an original concept by Alan Stevens Hewitt and Tim Maner, Orchestrations by Alan Stevens Hewitt
Rage! Sex! Betrayal! Bloody murder! In the heat of late summer 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife are found murdered in their house. The main suspect in the murders is Andrew’s youngest daughter from a previous marriage, Lizzie Borden. Using a searing rock score, and based on the historical record, LIZZIE explores the heady and heated days leading up to the murder and Lizzie’s controversial acquittal of all charges and the creation of a new American myth.
We Are the Tigers Book, Music & Lyrics by Preston Max Allen
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.
Diana Book & Lyrics by Joe DiPietro, Music & Lyrics by David Bryan
It’s 1981 and the world is hungry for a royal wedding — but is the 20-year-old bride prepared for what comes after? Following her fairytale union, Princess Diana faces a distant husband, an unmovable monarchy and overwhelming media scrutiny. But her modern perspective and remarkable compassion galvanize a nation, even as it threatens the royal family’s hold on England.
String Book by Sarah Hammond, Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
After angering Zeus, the Fates, the goddess sisters who spin, measure, and snip the strings of life for every human on Earth, find themselves banished to a modern office building in the mortal world, where they continue their work hidden among the mortals whose destinies they weave into one giant, glorious tapestry. When eldest sister Atropos accidentally loses her pair of scissors in the building, she meets Mickey, the building’s overnight security guard. Soon love gets the better of her, and she finds herself falling for him, stealing his string to keep him immortal and defying all of the rules she has to follow as a goddess. This exception to the rules begins to disrupt the natural order—can the tapestry of the Universe and her sisters stand this flaw? Fall for this original, uplifting, and belty musical about fate, love, and the imperfections that make us human.
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical Book by Colman Domingo, Robert Cary, & Des McAnuff, Songs by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, & Paul Jabara
She was a girl from Boston with a voice from heaven, who shot through the stars from gospel choir to dance floor diva. But what the world didn’t know was how Donna Summer risked it all to break through barriers, becoming the icon of an era and the inspiration for every music diva who followed. Spend the night with Donna in her electrifying universe.
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin Book, Music & Lyrics by Kirsten Childs
What’s a Black girl from sunny Southern California to do? White people are blowing up Black girls in Birmingham churches. Black people are shouting “Black is beautiful” while straightening their hair and coveting light skin. Viveca Stanton’s answer: Slap on a bubbly smile and be as white as you can be! In a humorous and pointed coming-of-age story spanning the 60s through the 90s, Viveca blithely sails through the confusing worlds of racism, sexism, and Broadway showbiz until she’s forced to face the devastating effects of self-denial.
Penelope, or How The Odyssey Was Really Written Book & Lyrics by Peter Kellogg, Music by Stephen Weiner
It’s funny, it’s fierce and, above all, it’s epic! For the last twenty years, Penelope has been waiting for her husband Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. Meanwhile, a bevy of suitors have gathered, each wanting to marry her and take over the kingdom. Since they have little else to do but eat and drink, they decide to form an a capella group. To stall them, Penelope writes letters to herself and pretends they’re from Odysseus saying he’s on his way. Little does she know, her letters gathered together are creating the story of The Odyssey.
Charlotte Sweet Libretto by Michael Colby, Music by Gerald Jay Markoe
Set in Victorian England, Charlotte Sweet spotlights Charlotte, a girl with one of the highest and most beautiful soprano voices in the world. Because of her father’s debts, she is forced to leave Ludlow Ladd (her Liverpool sweetheart) and join Barnaby Bugaboo’s Circus of Voices: a troupe of freak voices including low-voiced Katinka Bugaboo, fast-voiced Harry Host, bubble-voiced Cecily Macintosh, and Skitzy Scofield (with dual personalities & voices). Becoming the troupe’s biggest sensation, Charlotte is mercilessly exploited by Barnaby until she has a vocal breakdown. Thereupon, Barnaby & his wife Katinka addict Charlotte to helium balloons in order to maintain her high notes. Only Ludlow Ladd can rescue her—in a scene full of surprises.
Jo Book & Lyrics by Don Parks & William Dyer, Music by William Dyer, Based on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
The normally pleasant routine of their lives having been disrupted by the privations of the Civil War, the four March sisters are drawn even more closely together by the absence of their father and the need to help their mother maintain their home. They all pitch in, with the exception of the delicate Beth, and earn what money they can to help meet expenses but they are still affected by the mainstream of life and the inescapable call of love and marriage. The first to strike out on her own is Meg, who marries the man of her choice, and then Jo, the most vivacious and independent of the sisters, is sought out by Laurie, the wealthy and attractive nephew of a neighbor. But Jo, hoping for a writing career and a life of her own, is not yet ready to commit herself. She takes a position as governess with a New York family and submits her stories for publication under an assumed name. Eventually she breaks into print and, at the same time, falls deeply in love with the kindly German tutor who has become her friend and advisor. When she returns home to tell Laurie she cannot marry him she is obliged to stay on by the worsening condition of Beth and, when her sister dies, Jo remains to help her mother. Meanwhile Amy is treated to a European trip by their rich Aunt March and, while abroad, develops an ever-deepening attachment for Laurie, who is studying there. When they return it is to be married, leaving Jo with only the memory of her lost love to solace her. But the tutor, Professor Bhaer, has not forsaken her and, when he comes to seek her out, Jo is fulfilled at last and all ends happily in a welter of wedding bells.
