Plays & Musicals Inspired by Greek Mythology

Sometimes, a classic is a classic for a reason. The stories from Greek mythology have endured for thousands of years and are still told today. Explore these plays and musicals inspired by Greek mythology below.

Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 6w, 5m + ensemble)
Separated from his mother, a young refugee called Anon journeys through the United States, encountering a wide variety of people – some kind, some dangerous and cruel – as he searches for his family. From a sinister one-eyed butcher to beguiling barflies to a sweatshop, Anon must navigate through a chaotic, ever-changing landscape in this entrancing adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

Antigone adapted by Lewis Galantiere, from the play by Jean Anouilh (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 8m)
This sweeping adaptation was first presented on Broadway in 1946. Produced in modern dress with Katharine Cornell and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, the Galantiere version of the Greek legend is informed by WWII Paris and the suffering inflicted by fascism. The play’s parallels to both post-war France and modern times remain exciting and provocative.

Argonautika by Mary Zimmerman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 9m + ensemble)
In this play, Greek mythology and the story of Jason and the Argonauts transform into a mesmerizing piece of theatre. Bursts of humor and fantastical creatures enrich a story whose characters reveal remarkable complexity. Zimmerman brings to Argonautika her trademark ability to encompass the full range of human experience in a work as entertaining as it is enlightening. See also: The Odyssey by Mary Zimmerman (US/UK).

Blacktop Sky by Christina Anderson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 5m)
Klass, a homeless young Black man, sets up residence in the courtyard of the housing project where Ida Peters lives. Triggered by a fatal confrontation between a local street vendor and the police, Klass and Ida quickly develop a precarious bond against the backdrop of a restless neighborhood. Inspired by the Greek myth Leda and the Swan, Blacktop Sky examines the intersection of love, violence and seduction.

Discus by Becca Schlossberg (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m, 3any gender) 
This heartbreaking and candid contemporary reimagining of the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinth explores powerfully relevant themes of class, power, justice, accountability and – above all – change. Hyacinth is dead. Well, no, not yet; he’s lost in the Nether Place. But what happened? Who killed him? Wait, did someone kill him? And where’s Apollo? That’s all Hyacinth can remember at first: that his life truly began the night he locked eyes with the great god Apollo… Discus boldly reimagines the often-overlooked queer love story of Apollo and Hyacinth: a heartbreaking and candid play that challenges us with its powerfully relevant themes of class, power, justice, accountability, and – above all – change. 

Electra by Nick Payne (UK)
(Full-Length Play / 3w, 3m)
When a young Electra’s father is murdered by her mother, her world changes irrevocably. Ten years on, bound by grief and unwilling to forgive, Electra surrenders to an all-consuming desire for revenge that propels her towards a bloody and terrifying conclusion. This is a haunting new version by Nick Payne of Sophocles’ tragic masterpiece, Electra.

Electricidad by Luis Alfaro (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 3m)
In the years following the murder of her father by her mother, Electricidad is committed to vengeance. To get it, she’ll need her brother, Orestes, to return from Las Vegas and help her finish the job. Transporting Sophocles’ Electra to the Los Angeles barrios, Luis Alfaro investigates violence, loss and redemption through the lens of this age-old tragedy. Alfaro often re-centers Greek myths in the Latine community; for more of his works along this vein, see Mojada (US) or Oedipus El Rey (US).

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 5m)
In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

Hadestown: Teen Edition Book, Music & Lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 5w, 3m)
This intriguing and beautiful folk opera delivers a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience. Following two intertwining love stories — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of immortal King Hades and Lady Persephone — Hadestown invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Inspired by traditions of classic American folk music and vintage New Orleans jazz, Mitchell’s beguiling sung-through musical pits industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love.

Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy with a (Somewhat) Happy Ending by Wendy Weiner (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 3m)
Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, have been at war since time immemorial. When a young girl named Hillary Rodham devotes herself to Athena alone, Aphrodite takes revenge by having her fall in love with a man of mythical charm and appetites: Bill Clinton.

Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w)
Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity — the Greek god Dionysus — and she’s returned to a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.

Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides and Anne Washburn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3 any gender (adult) plus ensemble)
Anne Washburn’s dynamic rendering of Euripides’ rarely-seen final play returns us to a world where a father is challenged to sacrifice his daughter to appease the gods. This intelligent transadaptation of Iphigenia in Aulis is largely faithful to its source material, with a fresh and irreverent edge.

Jasper in Deadland by Hunter Foster and Ryan Scott Oliver (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dark Comedy / 4w, 5m)
Jasper is lost in the living world. When you’re failing classes, kicked off the swim team, and your family is on the skids, life can feel like it’s going to hell. Yet, in all the disappointment, Jasper has his best friend, Agnes. In one night of teenage passion, Jasper and Agnes consummate a years-long friendship. But in the morning Agnes is gone, telling Jasper to meet her at their cliff. When he arrives there’s no sign of his best friend, only a swirling vortex to another world in the water below. Jasper dives into Deadland.

Lysistrata Jones by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 3m + ensemble)
The Athens University basketball team hasn’t won a game in thirty years. But when spunky transfer student Lysistrata Jones dares the squad’s fed-up girlfriends to stop “giving it up” to their boyfriends until they win a game, the team’s legendary losing streak could finally come to an end. With its modern take on the Aristophanes classic, Lysistrata Jones brings a contemporary pop/rock energy to Douglas Carter Beane’s hilarious script.

Medea by Euripides and Robinson Jeffers (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
“What could turn a woman from a lover into a destroyer of love?” Medea tells the story of a woman laid bare by grief and rage, and her terrible quest for revenge against the men who have abandoned her.

Medusa Undone by Bella Poynton (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
A theatrical retelling of the little-known Medusa origin story. Before she was one of the greatest mythical monsters of all time, Medusa was a kind, beautiful sea-nymph in Athena’s service. Unparalleled in both her beauty and devotion to the Gods, Medusa catches the eye of the charming but narcissistic Poseidon. Medusa Undone explores how rape culture reverberates through the ages, and calls attention to the great injustice suffered by female victims of abuse.

Merry Me by Hansol Jung (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 2m, 1 any gender)
An intoxicating queer cocktail of restoration comedy and the Greeks, served with a heavy garnish of ridiculous. On a military-occupied island, Lieutenant Shane Horne satisfies the libidinous needs of all the women on the base – including the jealous general’s wife. But her own merries will not… come in this show loosely inspired by Lysistrata.

Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman, based on the myths of Ovid (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m + ensemble)
Called by Time the “theater event of the year,” Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings its namesake epic, a poetic collections of myth written by first-century author Ovid, and its tales to stunning visual life. Often (though not necessarily) set in and around a large pool of water onstage, this stunning drama juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three Tony Awards including Best Play, Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for Best Direction of a Play.

Myths & Hymns by Adam Guettel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 3w, 3m)
This lush song cycle paints an emotional landscape of faith and yearning that embraces a boundless spectrum of ideology and spirituality. With lyrics inspired by Greek mythology and a 19th-century Presbyterian hymnal, the musical vocabulary sweeps from romantic art song and rock to Latin, gospel and R&B. Myths & Hymns elucidates our fantastic desire to transcend earthly bounds, our intrinsic need to connect with something or someone greater in our restless search for enlightenment.

Oedipus at Colonus translated by Nicholas Rudall (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 7m)
With this brilliant new translation of the classic splay, Nicholas Rudall completes his presentation of the Oedipus trilogy. Oedipus at Colonus forms a bridge between the events in Oedipus the King and Antigone, beginning with Oedipus returning to Colonus, after a journey of many years, just as Antigone seals her own fate.

On Sugarland by Aleshea Harris (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m, 8 any gender)
Loosely adaptated from the ancient Greek tragedies Philoctetes and Antigone, this sweeping new work from Obie Award-winning playwright Aleshea Harris is at once a spectacular pageant and a spirited meditation on remarkable people transcending difficult circumstances. Sugarland is on precarious soil – three mobile homes line a southern cul-de-sac replete with years and years of decorative folk-art treasures and keepsakes. Twelve-year-old Sadie calls on generations of matriarchal ancestors to find the truth about her mother while the denizens of Sugarland rise each day to holler for the dead – conscripted soldiers lost to a greedy war – in a ritual reclamation of timeless grief.

Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 9w, 10m)
As The New York Times describes, “The play tells of a woman storekeeper and a handsome, guileless youth who comes in off the highway. A guitar player, he is a rural Orpheus who descends to rescue his love—not in Hades, precisely, but amid the intrigue, gossip and violence of a hot-tempered town… One of Mr. Williams’ pleasant plays, with characters determined to free themselves from corruption, with some sensitive philosophical comments in passing about the loneliness of the human being condemned in his world to solitary confinement for the whole of his life.”

Orphie and the Book Of Heroes by Christopher Dimond and Michael Kooman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2w, 5m)
Spunky and curious Orphie, a young girl in Ancient Greece, sets out to save storyteller Homer and his Book of Heroes on a quest that takes her from the heights of Mt. Olympus to the depths of the underworld. A fun, family-friendly take on Greek mythology created by the writing team behind the hit children’s TV shows Vampirina and Doc McStuffins. Parents will recognize the mythical creatures and the poets, and their kids will discover them through storytelling, song and spectacle in this balanced and bright musical.

Pandemonium (A Greek Myth-Adventure) by Jenifer Toksvig and David Perkins (UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 7m, 10any gender (youth))
Welcome to Ancient Greece and the wedding of Pandora and Epimetheus! This mythical, fun-packed musical adventure runs approximately one-and-a-half hours, plus interval. The Greek chorus can involve a cast as large as required. With an exciting upbeat score and copious staging and author’s notes, this musical should prove an excellent choice for drama groups of all ages.

Penelope by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 1w)
Penelope has been waiting… and waiting… and waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return from a decade-long war. Given the rest of the soldiers came home years ago – forgive her, but she’s going to need a drink while she tells you about it. With a beautiful folk-inflected pop score backed by an onstage band of strings, piano and drums, Penelope opens up about her loneliness, her son’s disappearance, her suitors, her gods, her faith in her marriage – and ultimately, the faith that she must have in herself. 

Persephone or Slow Time by Noah Haidle (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
Meet Demeter, an exquisite statue of the Greek goddess, as she’s being created during the Italian Renaissance. Those who admire her see only stone and fortitude, but her thoughts and desires are all too real; she pines for her lost daughter’s return and for the love of her sculptor, Giuseppe. Fast forward five hundred years: Demeter stands in a present-day American city park. She has become a symbol of hope amidst illicit activity and a target for more than just pigeon droppings. Witness to human foibles both hilarious and horrible, Demeter is desperate for someone – anyone – to hear her thoughts. When her life seems bleakest, redemption comes in the unlikeliest of forms.

Prometheus by Elizabeth Wong (US)
(Short Play, Drama / 4m)
Can young Prometheus triumph over the Mighty Zeus? Employing Greek language and opportunities for audience participation, this poetic and modern retelling of Prometheus Unbound follows heroic Prometheus as he attempts to stand on his own and save humanity from the wrath of Zeus. Prometheus achieves his own personal discovery as he comes to understand the meaning of charity, sacrifice and social responsibility.

Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m)
While on a 25th wedding cruise, a washed-up songwriter hears a Siren’s song and abandons his wife by jumping overboard. There, he struggles with the terrors of middle age, creative failure and the desire to live in the past – and how to go home and win his wife back. An imaginative and heartfelt mid-life odyssey!

Skin Deep by Tina Howe (US)
(Short Play, Comedy / 1w, 2m)
Set on the R train in New York City. Daphne, the wood nymph is being chased through the subway system by Apollo. She flies into the arms of an infamous dermatologist who tries to save her. But can he?

Spin: A Musical Myth by Jonathan Dinerstein and M. Kilburg Reedy (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 6w, 3m + ensemble)
When a headstrong teenage girl challenges the goddess Athena to a weaving competition, the resulting showdown of mythic proportions forever changes the girl’s world. Inspired by a classical myth, Spin is a modern rock/gospel musical that gives a new twist to an ancient tale. The show’s varied and tuneful pop-rock score features gospel, doo-wop, blues and more, and is arranged for performance by a four-piece combo of double keyboard, bass, drums and guitar.

String by Sarah Hammond and Adam Gwon (US/UK) – also available in a Large Cast Edition (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 2m + ensemble)
After angering Zeus, the Fates – the goddess sisters who spin, measure and snip the strings of life – are banished to a modern office building, where they continue their glorious, mysterious work. But when eldest sister Atropos falls for Mickey, the security guard, she begins to disrupt the natural order. An original and uplifting musical about fate, love and the imperfections that make us human. 

tempOdyssey by Dan Dietz (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
A temp worker named Genny launches us on an epic, fantastical journey through corporate America, Appalachia, astrophysics and beyond as she becomes convinced she’s the goddess of death. Fleeing the imminent creation of a black hole on one side of the country, she lands smack in the middle of a bomb manufacturing company on the other. Her only hope lies in the unlikely guise of a nameless temp who considers himself immortal. Can he help Genny cast off her dark mythology once and for all? Or will she explode, taking all of downtown Seattle with her? Dan Dietz melds the absurdity of contemporary cubicle life with the epic poetics of Greek mythology, and the results are hilarious, horrifying and ultimately uplifting.

The Alcestiad by Thornton Wilder (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 18m, 1 boy)
Thornton Wilder’s play, which he called “a mixture of religious revival, mother-love-dynamite and heroic derring-do,” retells the ancient legend of Alcestis, Queen of Thessaly, who gave her life for her husband, Admetus, and was brought back from the underworld by Hercules. Also available: the satyr play The Drunken Sisters (US/UK), where Apollo tricks the three sisters of Fate into releasing their death hold on King Admetus.

The Game by Bekah Brunstetter (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 1m)
Every relationship hits a glitch. Alyssa and Homer are feeling disconnected in their marriage – and it’s all due to the massively engrossing online game that’s wreaking havoc on the lives of couples everywhere. When she puts together a support group for other women in a similar situation, the game enters a new level. All’s fair in love and war in this hilarious and heartfelt contemporary twist on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.

The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza by Don Zolidis (US) – Also available as a One-Act (US/UK)
(Short Play, Comedy / 1w, 1m, 10 any gender youth)
Two battling narrators attempt to cover the entirety of Greek mythology using audience participation, cross-dressing and general theatrical insanity. Creation myths such as Pandora’s Box or Cronos and the Titans jostle for space with other famous myths like Jason and the Argonauts (the original Super Friends). Culminating in a heart-pounding, five-minute, two-actor version of The Iliad, this fast-paced, free-wheeling play is wild, silly and a complete blast for all ages.

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical by Joe Tracz and Rob Rokicki (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 7 any gender)
Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy has ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

The Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 8w, 12m)
In this treatment of the Philomele myth, war hero Tereus takes his Athenian wife Procne to live in Thrace. She becomes lonely and begs him to fetch her younger sister, Philomele, from Athens to be her companion. During the arduous return journey, Tereus rapes Philomele and then cuts out her tongue. Despite Tereus’ claim that Philomele died at sea, the two sisters are finally reunited, whereby, through a disturbing puppet show, Philomele reveals her horrific ordeal. The sisters wreak their revenge in true tragic style.

The Minotaur by Anna Ziegler (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 4m)
This present-day version of a classic Greek myth is a contemporary take on love, honor and human connection. With refreshing originality and wit, it explores how we break out of history in order to shape new stories for ourselves with “an intelligent mix of classicism and whimsy” (Washington Post) as it explores the myth of Ariadne, Theseus and The Minotaur.

The Persians by Ellen McLaughlin (US/UK)
(Short Play, Drama / 1w, 10m + ensemble)
In this moving and poetic adaptation of Aeschylus’ drama, Queen Atossa and her subjects anxiously await news of their King Xerxes’ expedition to Greece. What they hear is inconceivably horrifying: The vast Persian Empire has fallen and an entire army lost. Now the scant survivors of a catastrophic campaign, including Xerxes himself, must find a way to continue to live in the shattered world they once called home. McLaughlin is known for her adaptations of Greek stories for the stage! Her plays in the world of the Greeks include: Ajax in Iraq (US), Helen (US), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (US), Lysistrata (US/UK), Oedipus (US) and The Trojan Women (US).

This Restless House, Part 1: Agamemnon’s Return by Zinnie Harris (UK)
(Full Length Play, Drama / 8w, 8m)
Aeschylus’ Oresteia opens with Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to the gods; an act which sets in motion a bloody cycle of revenge and counter-revenge. When he in turn is killed at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, their son Orestes takes up the mantle of avenging his father, continuing the bloodshed until peace is ultimately found in the rule of law. Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the center.

The three plays that comprise This Restless House can be performed on their own or as part of a continuous evening. Part one, Agamemnon’s Return, plays on its own, then parts two and three, The Bough Breaks (UK) and Electra And Her Shadow (UK), play as different parts of the same evening.

Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 9w, 4m)
A car-crash encounter with Euripides’ Trojan Women. Past and present violently collide when Lotte, an English tourist who repairs dolls, is captured while on a tour of current-day Troy and flung back into the ancient camp of the original story. Part contemporary drama, part homage, this daringly-conceived play recasts the legendary fall of the city of Troy against the vivid reality of modern warfare. Poetic, compassionate and tinged with great warmth and humor, this is an epic war story with a most unlikely heroine.

Where the Sky Meets the Sea by Mandy Conner (US/UK)
(Short Play, Drama / 3w, 2m, 6 any gender youth)
Five Greek children find themselves abandoned on an island until an oracle sends them on a mystical quest to seek their release – at the cost of a sacrifice. Transforming history and myth into an approachable, empathetic portrayal of adolescence, this is a touching show for young actors.

Women Who Weave by J.S. Puller (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 2m)
When the plucky, ambitious twelve-year-old Atalanta is excluded from the men’s boar hunt, she is convinced that being female means giving up any chance at being heroic. But her mother comforts her with the stories of the Fates, the three goddesses who weave the destiny of all human beings. A skeptical Atalanta dozes off and drifts into a bizarre dream that carries her to the loom of the Fates, where she lives the stories of three great Greek heroines and discovers that heroism has more to do with the decisions we make than the fate we’re born into.

For even more plays inspired by Greek tragedies and myths, visit the Concord Theatricals website in the US or UK.