Arts Agenda: Theater

Each week, ArtsATL delivers a critic’s short list of the shows, exhibitions, concerts and events we recommend for the coming weeks within one discipline or venue type in the kaleidoscope of Atlanta arts and culture. Every week, we’ll present a different art form. 

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January 15-31

After a 30-year hiatus, Down Right Theatre is back with a new production of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Doubt: A Parable, directed by company co-founder Scott Ross. Performances run January 15 through January 31, and the production serves as a fundraiser for Merely Players Presents’ new Doraville performance space at 3785 King Ave.

January 23-February 8

Everyone in Jonas’ community is assigned a role in life. Upon turning 12, Jonas is chosen to train under the Giver, to receive and keep the memories of a history forgotten by the public. See Georgia Ensemble Theatre’s The Giver at Act3 Playhouse in Sandy Springs.

January 27-February 1

Created by Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, MJ the Musical goes beyond the singular moves and signature sound of the star, offering a look at the creative mind and collaborative spirit that catapulted Michael Jackson into legendary status. It comes to The Fox Theatre January 27 through February 1.

January 28-February 22

Atlanta playwright Steve Yockey returns to Theatrical Outfit with the world premiere of Bleeding Hearts, a pitch-black farce about the disappearing middle class and how people forget to put themselves in each other’s shoes. It opens January 28 and runs through February 22.

January 29-February 1

Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse will present a return engagement of Carlyle Brown’s The African Company Presents Richard III, the Suzi Award-winning play based on the true story of an all-Black theater troupe that fought to perform the Shakespeare tragedy 40 years before the end of slavery. The show runs for just one week — January 29 through February 1.

January 29-February 14

BLKS explores what it is to be a queer black woman in New York, as Octavia, Imani and June rally to “resurrect their fly” in a day full of humorous and painful attempts to be heard through the noise that surrounds them. Catch it at Out Front Theatre January 29 through February 14.

January 29-March 8

In Girl From the North Country, Conor McPherson daringly transforms the cherished songs of Bob Dylan, weaving them into a tale about a group of restless travelers in a modest boarding house during the Great Depression. It’s being presented by Actor’s Express in partnership with Oglethorpe University Theatre, beginning January 29 and continuing through March 8.

January 30-February 15

A Vietnam War-era stenographer captures the stories of soldiers returning from the front lines in I Carry Your Heart With Me, a one-woman show starring beloved Suzi Award-winning Atlanta actress Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre. This encore engagement opens on January 30 and continues through February 15.

February 6-22

A funeral gathering exposes long-buried family secrets, sparking chaos and comedy in Douglas Lyons’ Chicken & Biscuits, the next production from Onstage Atlanta, running February 6 through February 22 at the company’s home in Scottdale.

February 7-March 1

The Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents its 23rd anniversary production of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s tragic tale of young lovers, feuding families and a friar with good intentions, at the Shakespeare Tavern from February 7 through March 1.

February 17-22

Paulina is the reigning Queen Bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school and sets her sights on the annual Miss Universe pageant. But when new girl Ericka transfers from America in the middle of the year, Paulina’s carefully controlled world is thrown into chaos in Schoolgirls; or, the African Mean Girls Play. See it at Kennesaw State University’s Onyx Theatrer from February 17 through February 22.

February 20-March 8

Merely Players Presents will stage Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Death of a Salesman, a powerful and deeply human story about chasing the American dream. See it at the company’s new space in Doraville from February 20 through March 8.

February 20-March 15

At Synchronicity Theatre, Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream is a blues-infused musical that tells the spirited story of a young Black girl who grew up to become Toni Stone, the first woman to play for an all-male professional baseball team. It opens February 20 and continues through March 15.

February 25-March 2

Beth Hyland’s Fires, Ohio was inspired by Anton Chekhov’s classic Russian tragicomedy Uncle Vanya and will have its world premiere on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage February 25 through March 2. The play won the 2025 Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Prize, the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Award and the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting.

March 13-29

City Springs Theatre Company presents the regional premiere of Come From Away, the award-winning musical based on the true story of how the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland, came together to welcome 38 planes diverted from their destinations on September 11, 2001. See it at the Byers Theatre at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center from March 13 through March 29