From witty retellings to hyperlocal stories, Shakespeare to contemporary musicals, a wide range of shows is set to hit Arlington theaters this spring and summer.
Next Thursday is the opening night for the musical “Private Jones” (Feb. 6-March 10) at Signature Theatre. The audience will be taken on a journey, based on a true story, of a deaf Welsh sniper during World War I.
Also this spring, Signature will put on “Penelope” (March 5-April 21), which retells Homer’s epic about Odysseus from the perspective of his wife, Penelope, and “Where the Mountain Meets the Sea” (May 21-July 7), which follows a young man who tries to bond with his deceased father by retracing his steps through a journey across America.
Other upcoming Signature shows will let attendees relive the ’60s or experience for the first time and get a behind-the-scenes look at how the Broadway musical “Hair” came to be, leading up to the theater’s performance of the musical from April 16 to July 7.
Shakespeare lovers, meanwhile, can rejoice in a trio of plays this spring.
First up, from this coming Friday to Sunday, theater-goers can see a playwright reckon with Shakespeare’s legacy in “Historic Doubts” by Avant Bard Theatre. The show is being held at Mason Exhibitions Arlington, at 3601 Fairfax Drive in Virginia Square.
Next is Synetic Theater‘s rendition of “Romeo and Juliet” (Feb. 9-March 24), followed by an interactive adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” (Feb. 29-March 23), also by Avant Bard Theatre. In it, the audience becomes “directly involved and implicated in the conditioning of a man” who has been groomed into thinking antisocial brutality is normal.
The Arlington Players (TAP) will reprise the plays-about-plays genre in its two shows this spring. First up, starting this weekend, is “Anton in Show Business” (Feb. 3-18), about the “joys, pains and absurdities of putting on a play.”
Stories about acting continue in the “The Prom” (March 23-April 7) in which four struggling Broadway stars looking for their next break find it in small-town Indiana, where they help a young gay girl best a PTA set on not allowing her to bring her girlfriend to the high school dance. Both TAP productions will be held at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre (125 S. Old Glebe Road).
Meanwhile, local children’s theater Encore Stage and Studio will start the year with an adaptation of the “Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson” (March 1-10). Director of Marketing and Design Aileen Christian says this show — also held at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center — “is full of humor with talking animals, silly characters, and the beloved treehouse.”
Next, Encore will revisit original theater pieces focused on Arlington’s African-American voices in a double feature of “The Day Nothing Happened” and “Nauck to Green Valley, Transforming a Community” (April 26-28).
Christian says she believes that these stories “share a special meaning right here in Arlington.” The show will take place at Theatre on the Run (3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive).