Maryland's Olney Theatre Center has unveiled its 2024-2025 season, which will include a world premiere musical from a viral TikTok creator.
Little Miss Perfect has already attracted a fan base thanks to TikTok creator Joriah Kwamé, whose video of the musical's title song has garnered views in excess of 10 million. The full musical will get a world premiere at Olney Mary 15-June 22, 2025, with opening night set for May 18. Zhailon Levingston will direct the story of high school senior Noelle, who is expected to achieve nothing less than perfection against all odds.
The season will open with Tony winner John Rubinstein in Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground. Rubinstein previously starred in an Off-Broadway run of the work, which eavesdrops on President Eisenhower as he responds to a recent New York Times Magazine feature ranking him 22nd of 31 U.S. Presidents. Peter Ellenstein is directing the Richard Hellesen-penned play, with performances running September 27-October 20 and opening September 28.
Closing out 2024 will be a new staging of Disney's Frozen, directed at Olney by Alan Muraoka and featuring choreography by Kelly Crandall d'Amboise. Awa Sal Secka will star as Elsa opposite Alex De Bard as Anna, with Christopher Youstra music directing. Performances will run October 24-January 5, 2025, with opening night set for October 27.
Next up will be a new production of Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson's Waitress, directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime). Performances will run February 13-March 30, 2025, with opening night set for February 16.
An American premiere for Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini's Sleepova will follow March 26-April 27, 2025, with opening night March 29. The work, about four Black British teenagers and their sleepover parties, comes to Olney after successful runs at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London, where it earned an Olivier Award nomination for Affiliate Theatre. Paige Hernandez will direct the Olney bow.
After Little Miss Perfect, the Maryland theatre will host a production of Ins Choi's Kim's Convenience, the play that inspired the Netflix series of the same name. Performances will run June 25-July 27, 2025, with opening night June 28.
Closing out the season will be Washington, D.C.'s Synetic's take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, adapted by Ben Cunis and Paata Tsikurishvili and running July 17-August 10, 2025. Opening night will be July 18. Tsikurishvili will direct, with Irina Tsikurishvili providing choreography in this wordless dance version of the Shakespeare classic. In Synetic's version of the play, two pairs of love-drunk teens happen upon a band of aspiring actors and more than a little fairy dust.
Olney's solo adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol will return November 29-December 29, with Paul Morella back to perform his own adaptation. Opening night will be December 7.
Visit OlneyTheatre.org.
