There’s something uniquely powerful about a solo play. With just a single performer on stage, these shows strip theatre down to its most essential elements: storytelling, emotion and connection. Whether you’re a theatre company looking for a budget-friendly production, an actor seeking a showcase piece, or an educator wanting an intimate yet impactful show, these one-person plays and musicals are the perfect place to start.
Alex Edelman’s Just for Us by Alex Edelman
Winner of the 2024 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for HBO’s telecast
After following an anti-Semitic tweet down an online rabbit hole, comedian Alex Edelman finds himself in an unexpected place: at a meeting of White Nationalists in Queens, face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What follows is equal parts hilarious and gripping, in a show that made its way from small London theaters to a hit run on Broadway. Within Just for Us, Edelman, who was awarded a Special Tony Award for the show, explores religion, cultural identity, assimilation, empathy, gorillas that speak sign language, and what it means to be confronted with hatred. The script includes a foreword by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare
In this modern-day retelling of Homer’s classic, poetry, humor, the ancient tale of the Trojan War and the modern world collide in a captivating theatrical experience. The setting is simple: the empty theatre. The time is now – the present moment. The lone figure onstage is a storyteller – possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He is fated to tell this story throughout history.
Ann by Holland Taylor
An intimate, no-holds-barred portrait of Ann Richards, the legendary late Governor of Texas. This inspiring and hilarious play brings us face to face with a complex, colorful, and captivating character bigger than the state from which she hailed. Written and originally performed by Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor, Ann takes a revealing look at the impassioned woman who enriched the lives of her followers, friends, and family.
Bella Bella by Harvey Fierstein, from the Words and Works of Bella Abzug
On one historical night in September 1976, Bella Abzug hides out in the bathroom of Manhattan’s Summit Hotel as she awaits the results of her bid to become New York’s first-ever woman senator. Known for her fearless career as a lawyer, protester and champion of gay rights, one of New York’s fiercest feminists must collect herself as her friends, family and constituents (including the likes of Gloria Steinem, Shirley MacLaine, and others) hold their breath just outside the door. The clock is ticking and the world is ready – just as soon as Bella is.
Buyer & Cellar by Jonathan Tolins
Alex More has a story to tell. A struggling actor in L.A., he takes a job working in the Malibu basement of a beloved megastar. One day, the Lady Herself comes downstairs to play. It feels like real bonding in the basement, but will their relationship ever make it upstairs? Buyer & Cellar is an outrageous comedy about the price of fame, the cost of things, and the oddest of odd jobs.
Draw the Circle by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
The hilarious and deeply moving story of conservative Muslim mother at her wits’ end, a Muslim father who likes to tell jokes, and a queer American woman trying to make a good impression on her Indian in-laws. In a story about family and love and the things we do to be together, one immigrant family must come to terms with a child who defies their most basic expectations of what it means to have a daughter… and one woman will redefine the limits of unconditional love. This unique play compassionately brings to life the often ignored struggle that a family goes through when their child transitions from one gender to another.
Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe
You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s “done something stupid.” She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Burning things. 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose. 5. Construction cranes. 6. Me. You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own. A play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love.
Everything’s Fine by Douglas McGrath
As Douglas McGrath remembers it, he had a pretty idyllic childhood. Growing up in Midland, Texas, in the 1970s, he rides his bike around town, hangs out with his best friend Eddie, and eats at Texas Burger every chance he gets. But once he starts eighth grade, his new teacher challenges his outlook on life and what he can expect from it. This moving, evocative memoir play explores how we grow up, how we understand each other, and how we offer grace to those who need it most.
Fully Committed by Becky Mode
This devastatingly funny one-act follows a day in the life of Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red-hot reservation line at Manhattan’s number-one restaurant. Coercion, threats, bribes, histrionics – a cast of desperate callers will stop at nothing in their zeal to land a prime reservation, or the right table. Amid the barrage, Sam’s got his own needs to contend with: His recently widowed dad wants him home for Christmas, and he’s up for a choice part at Lincoln Center. While juggling scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities and egomaniacal bosses, can he manage to look out for himself? A wonderful acting challenge, Fully Committed has forty wildly diverse characters designed to be played by a single versatile performer.
I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright
Winner of the 2004 Tony Award® for Best Play and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Based on a true story, and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I Am My Own Wife tells the fascinating tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a real-life German trans woman who managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime.
I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers by John Logan
For more than 20 years, Sue Mengers’ clients were the biggest names in show business: Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Burt Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, Gene Hackman, Cher, Candice Bergen, Ryan O’Neal, Nick Nolte, Mike Nichols, Gore Vidal, Bob Fosse… If her clients were the talk of the town, she was the town, and her dinner parties were the envy of Hollywood. Now, you’re invited into her glamorous Beverly Hills home for an evening of dish, dirty secrets and all the inside showbiz details only Sue can tell you.
In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler
In May 2010, while helping rape victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eve Ensler received a life-threatening diagnosis: She had uterine cancer. Told with her signature brand of humor, Ensler’s journey through her illness uncovers connections between her body and the earth, as well as the transformative and transcendent potential of illness itself. From Tony Award-winning author, performer and activist Eve Ensler comes this powerful one-woman show based on her critically acclaimed memoir.
Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith
In this solo show constructed from verbatim interview transcripts, Anna Deavere Smith examines the miracle of human resilience through the lens of the national debate on health care. After collecting interviews with over 300 people on three continents, Smith creates an indelible gallery of 20 individuals, known and unknown – from a rodeo bull rider and a World Heavyweight boxing champion to a New Orleans doctor during Hurricane Katrina, as well as former Texas Governor Ann Richards, cyclist Lance Armstrong, film critic Joel Siegel and supermodel Lauren Hutton. A work of emotional brilliance and political substance from one of the treasures of the American theatre. Originally created as a one-person show, the play can also be presented in multi-actor productions.
Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith
Based on real accounts from students, parents, and faculty, this one-woman show spotlights the stories of those caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline. Notes from the Field investigates a justice system that funnels young people from poor communities into the ubiquitous prison industrial complex. Inspired by over 250 interviews with people living within this system, Smith’s documentary piece both fosters awareness and galvanizes audiences to seek tangible change.
Open by Crystal Skillman
Open is a magic act that reveals itself to be a resurrection. A woman called the Magician presents a myriad of tricks for our entertainment, yet her performance seems to be attempting the impossible – to save the life of her partner, Jenny. But is our faith in her illusions enough to rewrite the past? The clock is ticking, the show must go on, and – as impossible as it may seem – this Magician’s act may be our last hope against a world filled with intolerance and hate.
Penelope Music and Lyrics by Alex Bechtel, Book by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz
Based on writings in The Odyssey by Homer
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 confides in us 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. So go ahead and grab a drink too, and listen to this ancient tale made new: A woman wondering who she is if she’s alone, and discovering that she has, is, and will always be complete – with or without her husband by her side.
Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson
Constance Daley has never known financial want. Her husband, Maurice, had a very different upbringing. Decades into their perfect marriage, Maurice has fallen into a coma after a near-fatal car accident, shattering the world they once knew. As Constance sits faithfully by his side, she learns the unsettling truth behind their lives together, calling into question everything she knows about class, race, success and love.
Satchmo at the Waldorf by Terry Teachout
In this one-man, three-character play, the same actor portrays Louis Armstrong, the greatest of all jazz trumpeters; Joe Glaser, his white manager; and Miles Davis, who admired Armstrong’s playing but disliked his onstage manner. It takes place in 1971 in a dressing room backstage at the Empire Room of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where Armstrong performed in public for the last time just four months before his death. Reminiscing into a tape recorder about his life and work, Armstrong seeks to come to terms with his longstanding relationship with Glaser, whom he once loved like a father but now believes to have betrayed him. In alternating scenes, Glaser defends his controversial decision to promote Armstrong’s career (with the help of the Chicago mob) by encouraging him to simplify his musical style, while Davis attacks Armstrong for pandering to white audiences.
Sea Wall; A Song from Far Away; T5 by Mark Eitzel and Simon Stephens
This collection of heart-wrenching one-act monologues explores life, death and the sudden drop that bridges the two.
Sea Wall by Simon Stephens. A devoted husband, a proud father and a successful photographer, Alex is living his dream. But without warning, his good fortune slips out from beneath his feet, leaving Alex as a shell of the man he once was.
A Song from Far Away by Mark Eitzel and Simon Stephens. Willem copes with the sudden death of his younger brother, Pauli. Strained family relationships, self-destruction, and life’s uncertainties are aptly threaded together to create a memorable and poignant story about love and loss.
T5 by Simon Stephens. A woman who seemingly has it all vies for another life, another world, where she can escape her tarnished marriage and guilty conscience.
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey by James Lecesne
One actor portrays every character in a small Jersey Shore town as he unravels the story of Leonard Pelkey, a tenaciously optimistic and flamboyant 14-year-old boy who goes missing. A luminous force of nature whose magic is only truly felt once he is gone, Leonard becomes an unexpected inspiration as the town’s citizens question how they live, who they love, and what they leave behind.
The Belle of Amherst by William Luce
In her Amherst, Massachusetts home, the reclusive 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson recollects her past through her work, her diaries and letters, and a few encounters with significant people in her life. William Luce’s classic play shows us both the pain and the joy of Dickinson’s secluded life.
The Catastrophist by Lauren Gunderson
How do you plan for a catastrophe? Virologist Nathan Wolfe, named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for his work tracking viral pandemic outbreaks, proposed pandemic insurance years before the novel coronavirus outbreak. No one bought it. Now, in a post-COVID world, we hear his story. An interactive deep dive into the profundities of scientific exploration and the harrowing realities of facing your own mortality, The Catastrophist is an unforgettable theatrical experience.
The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me… by Dan Butler
Billed as a “whirlwind tour of the gay American landscape,” this one-man show juxtaposes ten predominantly gay characters in 14 vignettes. The characters question, contradict and especially challenge one another’s credo of what “being gay” really means.
The Tricky Part by Martin Moran
A true story of sexuality, spirituality and the mystery of human experience, The Tricky Part is one of the most heralded one-man plays in recent memory. Between the ages of 12 and 15, the author had a sexual relationship with an older man. Now 42 and an established New York actor, he has transformed his story into a riveting, often funny and always surprising journey through the complexities of Catholicism, desire and human trespass.
Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno
He’s just like you, except worse. He is trying to save his life, to save your life – in that order. In his quest for salvation, he’ll stop at nothing, be distracted by nothing, except maybe a piece of lint, or the woman in the second row.
The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Ginna Hoben
After Mary sees her fiance kiss another woman at the televised Thanksgiving Day Parade, her life falls apart – just in time for the holidays. Over the next year, she stumbles back into the dating world, where “romance” ranges from weird and creepy to absurd and comical. It seems nothing can help Mary’s growing cynicism, until the charm and innocence of a five-year-old boy unexpectedly brings a new outlook on life and love. This heartwarming one-woman play offers a hilarious and modern alternative to the old standards of the holiday season.
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
Acclaimed as “an American masterpiece” (Newsweek), this stunning new work of “documentary theatre” uses the verbatim words of people who experienced the Los Angeles riots to expose and explore the devastating human impact of that event. From nine months of interviews with more than 200 people, Smith has chosen the voices that best reflect the diversity and tension of a city in turmoil: a disabled Korean man, a white male Hollywood talent agent, a Panamanian immigrant mother, a teenage black gang member, a macho Mexican-American artist, Rodney King’s aunt, beaten truck driver Reginald Denny, former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates and other witnesses, participants and victims. A work that goes directly to the heart of the issues of race and class, Twilight ruthlessly probes the language and the lives of its subjects, offering stark insight into the complex and pressing social, economic and political issues that fueled the flames in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.
Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian Quijada
This electric one-person show pulses with Latin rhythms, rap, hip-hop, spoken word and live looping. During a third-grade lesson on the Civil Rights movement and Rosa Parks, a Latine eight-year-old raises their hand to ask, “Where did we sit on the bus?” and the teacher can’t answer the question. This coming-of-age story examines finding identity in art, family and culture, and what being Latine means through the eyes of a child, turned teenager, turned adult.
Where We Belong by Madeline Sayet
A celebration of language and investigation into the impulses that divide and connect us as people. The play follows Achokayis, a member of the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, as she travels to England to pursue a degree in Shakespeare, grappling with the question of what it means to remain or leave home. Moving between nations that have failed to reckon with their ongoing roles in colonialism, she finds comfort in the journeys of her Mohegan ancestors who traveled to England in the 1700s to help her people. Achokayis’s transformation journey leaves us with the question: What does it mean to belong in an increasingly globalized world?
For more great plays and musicals, visit BroadwayLicensing.com.
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