Why is theater important?
There are many reasons: It provides a platform for exploring human experience and emotions; and it offers a variety of perspectives through storytelling.
It promotes empathy, critical thinking, creativity, communication skills and social awareness through diverse viewpoints. It makes you laugh, cry, get angry, and feel sad or happy. It’s one of the most important forms of live action storytelling that exists.
We’ve collected a number of presentations coming up for the spring season guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s a mix of staged tales that many in the LGBTQ+ will identify with, as well as a handful of theatrical presentations featuring some of your favorite drag entertainers. We hope you enjoy!
March 20 – 29
Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women”
Magnolia Arts Center, 1703 East 14th St. Greenville, N.C.
In Edward Albee’s award-winning play Three Tall Women, the main character, a compelling woman more than 90 years old reflects on her life with a mixture of shame, pleasure, regret and satisfaction. In conversations with her caretaker and a woman from her lawyer’s office, she bitterly recalls negative events that caused her regret. In a recent 2018 revival, the play won three Tony awards on Broadway.
March 21 – 23
“9 to 5: The Musical”
Thalian Hall Center of the Performing Arts, 310 Chestnut St., Wilmington
Based on the 1980 film with the same name, the musical is filled with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. The show is an office satire about three female secretaries who decide to get revenge on their tyrannical, sexist boss. The trio, one of whom has been passed over for promotion because she is a woman, one who has the boss telling everyone she is having an affair with him, and one whose husband cheated on and abandoned her forcing her into the workplace for the first time, spend an evening together having hilarious fantasies of killing the slave-driving chauvinist. One of them panics the following day when she suspects she really has poisoned the tyrant.
https://www.thalianhall.org/cfa-9to5-25
March 21 – 30
Charlotte Conservatory Theatre presents “Continuity by Bess Wohl”
Van Every Theatre at the Mint Museum,2730 Randolph Rd., Charlotte
It’s magic hour in the New Mexico desert as an exhausted film crew races against the setting sun to shoot their blockbuster (yet artsy) action movie, which takes place on an arctic (styrofoam) ice floe, and features an eco-terrorist plotting a bombing mission to save all of humankind. As the clock ticks and the desert sun beats down on the not-so-frozen landscape, personalities clash, artistic vision meets Hollywood demands, and the gap between fiction and science grows wider than ever.
March 22 – 23
Greensboro Ballet: “Storybook Tales”
Carolina Theatre of Greensboro, 310 S. Greene St., Greensboro
For 2025, the Greensboro Ballet brings a unique new version of the classic story, Alice in Wonderland, a tale about a young girl who falls into an adventure beyond any dream, filled with strange and fanciful characters including the Rabbit, a mischievous Cat, a wise Caterpillar, the evil Queen of Hearts and, of course, the Mad Hatter. This season’s Storybook Tales will be full of powerful, stunning, and charming ballet stories created by the Greensboro Ballet faculty and guest choreographers.
https://carolinatheatre.com/event/greensboro-ballet-storybook-tales-2/
March 25 – 30
“Parade”
Belk Theater at the Blumenthal Arts Center, 130 North Tryon St., Charlotte
Leo and Lucille Frank are a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in the old red hills of Georgia. When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice and devotion. Riveting and gloriously hopeful, Parade reminds us that to love, we must truly see one another.
March 29
“Trixie and Katya: The Bald & Beautiful Live”
Durham Performing Arts Center, 123 Vivian St., Durham
The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie and Katya features a pair of grizzled gay ghouls exploring the cultural boundaries of modern beauty through interviews with gorgeous guests who inhabit various facets of the beauty industry. From models, moguls, influencers and drag queens to adult performers, actors and more, Trixie and Katya break down the beauty behind it all, live!
https://www.dpacnc.com/events/detail/thebaldandthebeautiful-2025
March 30
Murray & Peter Present: “Golden Girls – The Laughs Continue”
Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center, 703 North Third St., Wilmington
The Golden Girls are back in an all-new show! 2024 finds Sophia out on bail, after being busted by the DEA for running a drug ring at Shady Pines. Blanche and Rose created CreakN, a thriving sex app for seniors. And Dorothy is trying to hold it all together, with help from her much younger, sex-crazed love interest who turns out to be the district attorney prosecuting Sophia. What could possibly go wrong! Relive the heartfelt hilarity of four ladies who never stopped being your friends! This new comedy is for fans 18 and older… because they’re not the same girls from the ’80s.
https://wilsoncentertickets.com/events/golden-girls-2025-03-30-300-pm/
April 11 – 13
Durham Savoyards Presents: “H.M.S. Pinafore; Or The Lass That Loved a Sailor”
The Carolina Theatre, 309 West Morgan St., Durham
The story is set aboard the British naval ship H.M.S. Pinafore, and follows the romantic entanglements of the lovely Josephine, the captain’s daughter, and her love for the lowly sailor, Ralph Rackstraw. But there’s a twist: Josephine is promised to Sir Joseph Porter, the absurdly pompous and incompetent First Lord of the Admiralty. Filled with hilarious misunderstandings, mistaken identities, and tongue-in-cheek satire, “H.M.S. Pinafore” will have you laughing out loud. The live orchestra, infectious songs and charming performances make it an unmissable treat for all ages.
https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/h-m-s-pinafore-or-the-lass-that-loved-a-sailor/
April 15 – 27
“Kimberly Akimbo”
Knight Theater at the Levine Center for the Arts, 550 South Tryon St., Charlotte
Kimberly is about to turn 16 and recently moved with her family to a new town in suburban New Jersey. In this “howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show” (The New Yorker), Kim is forced to navigate family dysfunction, a rare genetic condition, her first crush … and possible felony charges. Ever the optimist, she is determined to find happiness against all odds and embark on a great adventure.
https://www.blumenthalarts.org/events/detail/kimberly-akimbo
April 24 – 26
“Dixie’s Tupperware Party”
Booth Playhouse at the Blumenthal Arts Center, 130 North Tryon St., Charlotte
Dixie Longate is the fast-talking, gum chewing, ginger-haired Alabama gal who is bringing your grandma’s Tupperware party into the 21st century. Audiences howl with laughter as Dixie demonstrates the many alternative uses for the iconic plastic kitchen staple. Filled with funny tales, heartfelt accounts, audience participation and a little bit of empowerment and homespun wisdom.
April 25 – May 4
RiverTowne Players Present: “Something Rotten”
Masonic Theatre, 514 Hancock St., New Bern
Set in the 1590s, Something Rotten! follows brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two struggling playwrights desperate to step out of the shadow of the Renaissance superstar, William Shakespeare. Their fortunes take a wild turn when a quirky soothsayer predicts that the future of theatre will combine singing, dancing and acting all at once. Determined to make history, the Bottom Brothers set out to create the world’s first musical. But as opening night approaches, they discover that true success comes from staying true to themselves… and embracing the chaos along the way.