Shows for Every Audience

Comforting and easily approachable for all audiences and all ages, these shows are sure to please in any situation. From sweet tales of love and support, to communities working together, to fresh takes on classic stories, the works presented here are a warm welcome into the world of theatre. Explore them below and find new options to entrance audiences of every background.

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A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play by Joe Landry and Kevin Connors (US/UK)
(Radio Play, Drama / 2w, 3m)
The Charles Dickens holiday classic comes to life as a live 1940s radio broadcast, complete with vintage commercials for fruitcake (extra-fancy) and the magic of live sound effects and musical underscoring. A handful of actors bring dozens of characters to the stage, as the familiar story unfolds: Three ghosts take Ebenezer Scrooge on a thrilling journey to teach him the true meaning of Christmas. A charming take on a family favorite that will leave no one saying “Bah Humbug!”

Almost, Maine by John Cariani (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m or expandable, flexible casting)
Welcome to Almost, Maine, a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it almost doesn’t exist. One cold, clear, winter night, as the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, the residents of Almost, Maine find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend – almost – in this delightful midwinter night’s dream. This title can also be flexibly cast with up to 19 actors able to play residents of this wondrous little town.

Anne of Green Gables by Jon Jory (US)
(Short Play, Dramatic Comedy / 11w, 3m)
When Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert end up with young Anne, their world is turned upside down. But will the imaginative and mischievous girl win over the hearts of her reluctant parents? This innovative adaptation of the much-loved novel creatively uses five actors to play Anne.

Bethel Park Falls by Jason Pizzarello (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m, 1 any gender or flexible casting)
The residents of the small town of Bethel are facing a crisis: Their beloved park has been sold out from under them, and it’s sending their lives into a tailspin. In nine interconnected vignettes, sixteen locals grapple with the loss of jobs, homes and spouses and yet find love, courage and forgiveness as the park magically transforms through four seasons of the year in a single day.

Children’s Letters to God by Stuart Hample, David Evans and Douglas J. Cohen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
Based on the international bestselling book, this musical follows the lives of five young friends as they voice beliefs, desires, questions and doubts common to everyone but most disarmingly expressed by children. Sixteen tuneful songs and assorted scenes (some based on actual letters) explore timeless issues such as sibling rivalry, divorce, holidays, loss of a beloved pet, the trials of being unathletic and first love.

Emma by Jon Jory (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 7w, 6m)
In this crisp, dynamic retelling of Austen’s classic, matchmaker Emma Woodhouse has just moved on to her newest “project” – a sweet but modest girl named Harriet Smith. Having played matchmaker for her long-time nanny, vivacious Emma is determined to find Harriet an impressive suitor in spite of her lacking social standing. But as Emma becomes entangled in the romantic lives of her friends and acquaintances, she unwittingly falls in love with the least likely of bachelors in this lighthearted tale of gossip, matrimony and misunderstanding.

2006 West End production of Footloose (Tristram Kenton)

Footloose by Tom Snow, Dean Pitchford, Walter Bobbie, Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins & Jim Steinman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 7w, 8m + ensemble)
Footloose first burst onto the silver screen in 1984. With dynamic new songs augmenting the powerhouse hits from its bestselling Oscar-nominated score, the musical celebrates the exhilaration of youth, the wisdom of listening to one another and the power of forgiveness. Also available in a 90-Minute Version (US/UK) and a Youth Edition (US/UK).

Four Old Broads by Leslie Kimbell (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 1m)
Retired burlesque queen Beatrice Shelton desperately needs a vacation. A Sassy Seniors Cruise through the Caribbean may be just the ticket if she can just convince her best friend, Eaddy Mae Clayton, to stop praying and go with her. With a large variety of roles for senior actors, this laugh-out-loud show proves age is nothing but a number!

I And You by Lauren Gunderson (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
One afternoon, Anthony arrives unexpectedly at classmate Caroline’s door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn’t been to school in months, but she is as quick and sardonic as Anthony is athletic, sensitive and popular. I and You is an ode to youth, life, love and the strange beauty of human connectedness.

In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Quiara Alegría Hudes (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 6w, 6m + ensemble)
In the Heights tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you and which ones you leave behind.

Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise by Ken Ludwig (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
When two strangers meet by letter during World War II, a love story begins. Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig tells the joyous, heartwarming story of his parents’ courtship, where the results are anything but expected.

Kodachrome by Adam Szymkowicz (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 2m)
Welcome to Colchester, a small town where everybody knows each other, and the pace of life allows the pursuit of love to take up as much space as it needs. Our tour guide is Suzanne, the town photographer, who lets us peek into her neighbors’ lives to catch glimpses of romance in all its stages of development. A play about love, nostalgia, the seasons and how we learn to say goodbye. Also available in a One-Act Version (US/UK).

On the Wings of a Mariposa by Dinorah Márquez Abadiano, Barbara Joosse and Alvaro Saar Rios (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play with Music, Drama / 4w, 1m, 5 any gender)
Based on Barbara Joosse’s children’s book, this play with music is the story about one girl’s quest to keep her abuelita’s memory alive during the beautiful annual monarch butterfly migration. After her abuelita dies, 10-year-old Pilar uses an old shawl that smells like her grandmother to help remember their adventures together. But as the shawl’s scent fades, so too do Pilar’s memories. Once it’s gone, will she lose her grandmother forever? This play with music is a true celebration of life that bursts at the seams with warm memories and with roles for a number of whimsical hearts.

2017 off-Broadway production of Puffs (Hunter Canning)

Puffs (Two Act Edition) by Matt Cox (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 5m, 1 any gender)
For seven years, a certain boy wizard went to a certain Wizard School and conquered evil. This, however, is not his story. This is the story of the Puffs… who just happened to be there too. A hilarious and inspiring tale for anyone who has never been destined to save the world. Also available as in a One Act Edition (US), a One Act for Young Wizards version (US) and a Two-Act for Young Wizards version (US).

Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream by Roger Bean (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 1w, 4m)
Meet Denny and the Dreamers, a fledgling doo-wop singing group preparing to enter the Big Whopper Radio contest to realize their dreams of making it to the big time! Trouble comes in the form of Lois, who arrives to put some polish on the boys. Denny falls in love, Wally falls in line, Eugene falls apart, then along comes handsome heartthrob Duke to send the whole situation spinning. The ’60s hits say it all: “Fools Fall in Love,” “Tears on my Pillow,” “Runaround Sue” and many more.

Snow Day by Tracy Wells (US/UK)
(Short Play, Comedy / 8 any gender youth or flexible casting)
In the dead of winter, when the temperature drops below freezing and the days drag on, there are two words that every student longs to hear: SNOW DAY! From a scared sledder to a beleaguered babysitter to role-playing paladins, the characters in these scenes show what students get up to when school gets canceled. Performed together as a one-act with a minimal set and super flexible cast, this play makes for an easy and frostily fun way to bring the magic that can only be found on a snow day.

The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-Off! by Rick Hip-Flores (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 7w, 8m)
Eight young cookie chefs have been selected from all over the country to battle it out for first prize at the Cookie Coliseum. Over the course of this heartwarming, Christmas spirit-filled musical, intense rivalry gives way to charity, family and forgiveness as the chefs learn what really makes for a winning Christmas recipe.

The Lost Boy by Ronald Gabriel Paolillo (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
This fictionalized account of the birth of Peter Pan will warm the hearts of audiences everywhere. Despite finding success and fame as a writer, James M. Barrie is dissatisfied with his work and his life. He returns to his hometown in Scotland to visit his mother, who still blames him for the long-ago death of his older brother in a skating pond. Haunted by the tragic accident and his mother’s harsh words, James slowly begins to confront his family’s past with the help of an unexpected friendship and his own gift for storytelling.

The Secret Garden by Marsha Norman, Lucy Simon and Frances Hodgson Burnett (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 10w, 12m, 1 girl, 1 boy + ensemble)
Orphaned in India, 11-year-old Mary Lennox returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald and his son Colin. Soon, she discovers the estate’s many wonders, including a magic garden which beckons the children with haunting melodies, and the “Dreamers”, spirits from Mary’s past who guide her through her new life. Also available in a shortened Spring Version (US/UK).

You Can’t Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 7w, 9m, 3 any gender)
Grandpa Vanderhof has an extended, loving and eccentric family which includes a daughter who fancies herself a romance novelist; her husband, an amateur fireworks expert; a xylophone player/leftist leaflet printer; an untalented ballerina; a couple on relief; and a ballet master exiled from Soviet Russia. When Grandpa’s granddaughter Alice, an attractive and loving girl who is still embarrassed by her family’s eccentricities, falls for her boss, Tony, a handsome scion of Wall Street, she fears that their two families will never come together. That’s when the fireworks begin…

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz, Clark Gesner, Michael Mayer and Andrew Lippa (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2w, 4m + ensemble)
Happiness is great musical theatre! With charm, wit, and heart, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown explores life through the eyes of Charlie Brown and his friends in the Peanuts gang. This revue of songs and vignettes, based on the beloved Charles Schulz comic strip, is the ideal first show for those who would like to do a musical. More celebrations of beloved Peanuts characters can be found in the Peanuts Collection.

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To explore even more cozy, comforting shows, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.