Plays and Musicals About the World War II Experience

The second World War affected people all over the globe, including British women working in factories, Jewish families in hiding in Europe, and young American soldiers training in a Louisiana boot camp. Here is a broad array of plays and musicals exploring the effects of WWII, both during and after the conflict.

PLAYS

A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 13m)
Charles Fuller’s 1982 play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In a segregated Louisiana army camp in 1944, Vernon C. Waters, the sergeant of a Black company, has been murdered. Richard Davenport, a Black captain, is assigned to investigate, and he discovers deep-seated hatred and corruption among the men in the company. Despite each soldier’s motive for the killing, Davenport eventually solves the case, revealing a truth more shocking than the murder itself. 

Afterlife by Michael Frayn (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 6m)
Each year at the Salzburg Festival, Max Reinhardt directs the famous morality play Everyman about God sending Death to summon a man who, like Reinhardt, rejoices in his wealth. Then, in 1938, Hitler declares his own day of reckoning and sends Death into Austria – whereupon Reinhardt, a Jew, is left as naked and vulnerable as Everyman himself. Michael Frayn’s Afterlife is the story of how Reinhardt achieves his great ambition – in a way he can scarcely have foreseen.

Aftershock by Joe Calarco (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 2m 
Three stories of survival come alive before contemporary high school student Ruth as she prepares an academic paper. In the aftermath of Katrina, two young people struggle to survive in the face of extreme disaster. In 1945 Belgium, an adolescent Jewish girl struggles to maintain her identity and dignity. And in the Congo, a girl faces situations that stretch into the unspeakable. The stories interconnect, reminding Ruth of the incredible suffering that humanity has endured. 

’Allo ’Allo  by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 10m)
Based on the hugely successful British television series! Rene and his wife Edith have stashed a priceless portrait stolen by the Nazis in a sausage in their cellar, where two British airmen are also hiding until the Resistance can repatriate them. Communicating with London using the wireless disguised as a cockatoo, Rene learns that the Führer is coming to town. As tricksters disguised as Hitler frequent the café, Rene summons all the wit he can muster to save his business and his life. See also: ’Allo ’Allo 2 (US/UK)

Amazons and Their Men by Jordan Harrison (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m)
A darkly comedic look at the role of artists during wartime, Amazons and Their Men is inspired by the life and work of Leni Riefenstahl. After directing beautiful films for a fascist government, the Frau tries to make a film that’s simply beautiful. Casting herself in the lead role of the Amazon queen Penthesilea, she recruits a man from the Jewish ghetto to play her Achilles, creating a glamorous portrait of war. But it soon becomes impossible for her to ignore the real war outside her soundstage.

Among the Dead by Hansol Jung (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 2w, 1m, 1 any gender (adult))
Ana is a Korean American who travels to Seoul in 1975 to retrieve her recently deceased father’s ashes. Luke is a young American soldier fighting in the jungles of Myanmar in 1944. Number Four is a Korean comfort woman camping out on a bridge in Seoul in 1950, waiting for the return of the young American soldier who fathered her daughter. Three separate time periods collide in a small hotel room in Korea, mediated by a shape-shifting Jesus who first shows up as a bellboy.

Bent by Martin Sherman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 11m)
In 1934 Berlin on the eve of the Nazi incursion, Max, a grifter, and his lover, Rudy, are recovering from a night of debauchery with an SA trooper. Two soldiers burst into the apartment and slit their guest’s throat, beginning a nightmare odyssey through Nazi Germany. When the Nazis catch up to them, Rudy is beaten to death and Horst, another homosexual prisoner, warns Max to deny his lover. Taken to a death camp at Dachau, Max and Horst, branded with the “pink triangle,” hope to survive with each other for comfort and courage. 

Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 6m)
The second in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon’s trilogy, which began with Brighton Beach Memoirs and concluded with Broadway Bound.
Eugene Jerome, who was coping with adolescence in 1930s Brooklyn in the first play, is now a young army recruit during World War II. Enduring basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1943, Eugene learns about Life and Love with a capital “L,” along with some harsher lessons about humanity and adulthood.

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 7m)
Derek Jacobi took London and Broadway by storm in this exceptional biographical drama of the eccentric genius Alan Turing, who played a major role in winning World War II by breaking the complex German code called Enigma. After the war, Turing, who was also the first to conceive of computers, was convicted of the criminal act of homosexuality and sentenced to undergo hormone treatments, which left him physically and mentally debilitated.

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg goes to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. Together they revolutionized atomic science in the 1920s, but now they are on opposite sides of a world war. In this incisive drama by the prominent British playwright, which premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London and opened to rave reviews on Broadway (ultimately winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play), the two men meet in a situation fraught with danger in hopes of discovering why we do what we do. 

Dad’s Army by David Croft and Jimmy Perry (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 9m, 10 any gender)
The classic BBC TV comedy series of the Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea, who battle daily against the Germans and local ARP Warden Hodges, comes to the stage complete with all the well-loved characters: “Stupid Boy” Pike, “Don’t Panic, Don’t Panic” Jonesey, “Doomed, We’re All Doomed!” Fraser, and “May I Be Excused, Sir?” Godfrey, all under the command of the redoutable Captain Mainwaring and his effacing deputy, Sergeant Wilson.

Decision Height by Meredith Dayna Levy (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 9w)
A powerful story about friendship and the essential role of women in wartime. Virginia Hascall has left her home and fiancé to become one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, doing her part to help defeat the Axis powers in WWII. Through triumph and tragedy, Virginia and her sisters in flight suits learn as much about themselves as they do about airplanes.

Dreams of Anne Frank by Bernard Kops and David Burman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play / 4w, 4m)
Winner of the Time Out Award for Best Children’s Production during its London premiere, this imaginative play with music demystifies and humanizes Anne Frank’s story of tremendous bravery.

Fear and Misery in the Third Reich (Bentley, Trans.) by Bertolt Brecht and Eric Bentley (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 10 any gender (adult))
Brecht presents the vivid and changing scene of Hitler’s war machine. There is a worker who only mumbles “Heil Hitlers” and a S.A. man whose suspicion of him is enough to mark him for life. There is an assaulted Jew who did no wrong and a judge who has a tragic inclination to be just. There are a mother and father who have good cause to fear that their son has informed on them. The war machine moves across Europe, bringing ruin and misery everywhere.

First Baptist of Ivy Gap by Ron Osborne (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w)
During WWII, six women gather at the church to roll bandages and plan the church’s 75th anniversary. Overseeing things is Edith, the pastor’s wise-cracking wife who dispenses Red Cross smocks and witty repartee to Luby, whose son is fighting in the Pacific; Mae Ellen, the church’s rebellious organist who wants to quit but hasn’t the courage; Olene, who dreams of a career in Hollywood; Sammy, a shy newcomer with a secret; and Vera, an influential Baptist with a secret of her own. When Luby learns her son has been wounded, she confounds the others by blaming the vulnerable Sammy.

Front by Robert Caisley (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 13w, 5m)
In England during the Blitz, a number of struggling individuals and families come to terms with the horrors and tragedies of war. Judith, a proud matriarch, works in a factory that makes bomb detonators. Her husband, Frank, is missing, and their two children, Sheila and John, are forced to grow up much too quickly. A number of other war-torn individuals are also profiled, each butting heads with the raging war.

Here There Are Blueberries by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
An album of never-before-seen World War II-era photographs arrives at the desk of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding. As Rebecca and her team of historians begin to unravel the shocking story behind the images, the album soon makes headlines around the world. Here There Are Blueberries tells the story of these photographs and what they reveal about the Holocaust and our own humanity.

Into the Breeches! by George Brant (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 2m)
This surprisingly modern and moving comedy, set during World War II, explores the power of art and community, even in the darkest times. While Oberon Play House’s director and leading men are off at war, the director’s wife sets out to produce an all-female version of Shakespeare’s Henriad.

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, and the results are anything but expected.

Lotty’s War by Giuliano Crispini (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
With the last boat to England gone, Lotty is housed in close quarters with the enemy. As loyalties waver amidst the temptations of forbidden love and the politics of war, does Lotty dare to tread a passionate and dangerous path to save a friend? A mesmerising story of passion, courage, and sacrifice, Lotty’s War is set on the enemy occupied Channel Islands during World War II.

Morning Departure by Kenneth Woollard (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 14m)
Subsequently made into a film starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough, and featuring the screen debut of Michael Caine, Morning Departure is an engaging and heartfelt play about the lives of sailors trapped in their sunken submarine awaiting rescue. 

Prayer for the French Republic by Joshua Harmon (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 7m)
This brilliant multigenerational drama explores one family’s relationship to faith, history and safety from a global perspective. In 1944, a Jewish couple in Paris desperately await news of their missing family. More than 70 years later, the couple’s great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same question their ancestors asked: “Are we safe?”

See How They Run! by Philip King (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 6m)
The swift action, impossibly hilarious situations and rib-tickling plot in this long-running London hit leaves audiences exhausted with laughter. In an English vicarage, the vicar and his wife are overwhelmed by a barrage of colorful guests, including an American actress, an American G.I. stationed with the Air Force in England, a cockney maid who has seen too many American movies, an old dowager who “touches alcohol for the first time in her life,” a sedate Bishop aghast at all these goings-on, and four men in identical clergyman suits, one of whom is an escaped prisoner.

Spitfire Girls by Katherine Senior (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m plus ensemble)
New Year’s Eve, 1959. Decades after answering the call, two women separated by the war meet again at The Spitfire pub. Their shared stories take them back to a time when female pioneers defied expectations and soared through the skies. Spitfire Girls is inspired by the extraordinary true stories of the women who dared to fly during WWII and the incredible bond that tied them together. Funny and heart-warming, it is an untold story of strength, courage, loss – and hope.

The Dame of Sark by William Douglas-Home (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 7m)
Based on the Dame of Sark’s autobiography, this compelling play follows the course of events on a Channel Island during the German occupation of 1940-45. It is a story of developing relationships, underscoring that war is an evil that falls hard on friend and enemy alike.

The Diary of Anne Frank (Adaptation by Wendy Kesselman) by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Wendy Kesselman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
In Wendy Kesselman’s gripping new adaptation of the original stage play by Goodrich and Hackett, survivor accounts and newly discovered writings from the diary of Anne Frank are interwoven to create a contemporary, impassioned story of those persecuted under Nazi rule. This is an adaptation for a new generation able to confront the true horrors of the Holocaust. Also available in One-Act Version (US/UK).

The Diary of Anne Frank (Original Text) by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne Frank began to keep a diary on June 14, 1942, two days after her 13th birthday and 22 days before going into hiding with her parents, sister and three other people. Hiding in the sealed-off upper rooms of the annex of her father’s office building in Amsterdam, Anne and the others cope with the day-to-day struggles of life in cramped quarters, as the spectre of tragedy looms, ever-present, over their every move.

The Lady in Question by Charles Busch (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 5m)
A freewheeling satire of patriotic 1940s thrillers like Notorious and Escape, The Lady in Question tells the suspenseful tale of Gertrude Garnet, the most glamorous concert pianist on the international stage. When Gertrude tours Bavaria in 1940, a handsome American professor challenges her colossal self-absorption by engaging her aid in rescuing his mother from a Nazi prison.

The Lucky Star by Karen Hartman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 4m)
The discovery of a stash of letters stamped with swastikas opens clues to an untold family history spanning multiple generations in The Lucky Star – the gripping true story of resilience and truth-tracking determination spanning Baltimore and beyond. Richard Hollander’s book Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family’s Correspondence from Poland is brought to the stage in this mesmerizing new adaptation that restores a family’s uncharted legacy, celebrated by revelation and remembrance.

The Milliner by Suzanne Glass (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 3m)
This is a touching, fragile portrait of a group rarely seen in traditional Holocaust literature – those who are unwilling to give up Germany as their home, despite the Nazi threats. Wolfgang, a hat maker, is forced by others to flee Germany for England, leaving his mother behind, who refuses to go. Filled with love for his homeland, he is unable to accept that she has probably been interned in a death camp, and he staunchly refuses to give up his German identity in front of his new British neighbors. Wolfgang’s struggle of adamant denial sheds light on the agony of losing the only home ones knows and loves.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht and Bruce Norris (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 8m)
Brecht’s satirical masterpiece about the rise of Hitler set in the greengrocery trade in Chicago. Amongst the murk of the Great Depression, there’s room for a small time crook like Arturo Ui to make a name for himself. This version has been adapted by Pulitzer, Olivier and Tony award-winning American playwright Bruce Norris.

Waiting for Anya by Michael Morpurgo and Simon Reade (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 6m)
During the Second World War, Jo Lalande’s village in he foothills of the French Pyrenees is occupied by German soldiers. While tending his family’s flock of sheep, Jo spies a stranger and follows him to a remote hill-farm belonging to a reclusive widow. Jo learns their dangerous secret: together they smuggle Jewish children, refugees from the war and the Holocaust, escaping over the border and into Spain. Sworn to secrecy, Jo risks everything – until a German soldier he has befriended looks set to betray him.

Wise Women by Ron Osborne (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 2m)
It’s almost Christmas, 1944 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a frustrated mother with a secret and a teenage daughter with a dream take in two young roomers who work at a nearby bomb-making plant. Both girls assert their independence, one in the company of servicemen, the other as a contestant in a Miss Bombshell U.S.A. competition. When one brings home a young war-bound Marine as naive as herself, this colorful collection of characters is pulled apart, then mended with humor, romance, twists, turns and revelations.

Women and War by Jack Hilton Cunningham (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
Through correspondence and monologues, in the style of reader’s theater, Women and War is a collection of fictional stories based on historical fact, told by generations of Americans impacted by conflict from The Great War to the War in Afghanistan. From housewife to worker, young bride to nurse, mother to widow, and now, young woman to soldier, these are tales of sacrifice, love, determination and hope told by those who bravely persevere on the home front and on the battlefield.

MUSICALS

An American in Paris by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin and Craig Lucas (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 5m plus ensemble)
This lush, romance musical tells the story of a young American soldier, a beautiful French girl and an indomitable European city – each yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of international conflict. Inspired by the Academy Award-winning 1951 film, the new stage musical features a ravishing score by George and Ira Gershwin and a fresh, and sophisticated book by Tony nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Lucas.

Bandstand by Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 6w, 12m)
It’s 1945 and Private First Class Donny Novitski, singer and songwriter, forms a band with a motley group of fellow veterans to enter a national swing band competition. Complicated relationships, the demands of the competition, and the challenging after-effects of war may break these musicians. But when Donny meets a beautiful young singer named Julia, he finds perfect harmony in words and music. Victory will require every ounce of talent, stamina and raw nerve these musicians can muster.

Cabaret (1998 Version) by Joe Masteroff, John Van Druten and Christopher Isherwood (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 3w, 4m plus ensemble)
Daring, provocative and exuberantly entertaining, Cabaret explores the dark and heady life of Bohemian Berlin as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. See also: Cabaret (Original 1966) (US/UK) and Cabaret (Revised 1987) (US/UK).

Carmen Jones by Oscar Hammerstein II and Georges Bizet (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 6w, 10m)
Set in a Southern town during World War II, Oscar Hammerstein’s adaptation of Carmen captures the romance and tragedy of Bizet’s melodic opera with a distinctly American flavor. The fiery title role has showcased the talents of dynamic actresses from Muriel Smith to Dorothy Dandridge to Anika Noni Rose.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas by Irving Berlin, David Ives and Paul Blake (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5w, 6m, 1 girl plus ensemble)
Based on the beloved 1954 film, this heartwarming musical explores the lives of several WWII veterans. After the war, buddies Bob and Phil join with their fellow servicemen to honor their beloved general, who in civilian life has opened his own New England inn. The crowd-pleasing tuner features well-known standards including “Blue Skies,” “I Love a Piano” and the perennial title song.

On the Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jerome Robbins (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 4m)
This energetic wartime musical about three sailors on a 24-hour leave in New York City features thrilling music by Leonard Bernstein, with playful lyrics and book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show’s celebrated score includes a number of musical theatre standards, including “Come Up to My Place,” “I Can Cook, Too,” “Some Other Time” and “New York, New York.”

Operation Mincemeat by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5 any gender)
The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won the Allies World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler?

Over Here! by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and Will Holt (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 8w, 1m plus ensemble)
This toe-tapping musical, from the composers of Mary Poppins, is an affectionate lampoon of the Big Band era of World War II America. On a train full of draftees heading for Europe, the “DePaul Sisters” are looking for a third singer to transform their duo into a trio. They find her in Mitzi – a down-home girl with a secret: she’s a Nazi spy with a slinky Dietrich accent and a microphone conveniently hidden in her lipstick.

Red, White and Rosie by Doug Lind, Christine Harger and John Phillips Hutton (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5w, 5m)
This riveting musical is about the forgotten soldiers of World War II — the women who worked in the factories, building the ships and planes so vital to the war effort. The show explores their initial naiveté about working in a man’s world, their growing sense of pride in what they are accomplishing and, eventually, their strength as they stand up for their rights.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific by Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 3w, 7m, 1 girl, 1 boy plus ensemble)
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, adapted from James A. Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning stories, is a sweeping and penetrating look at the lives of American service members in the Pacific. In an island paradise during the Second World War, two Americans – a wide-eyed nurse and a promising young lieutenant – discover love and confront their own prejudices.

Swingtime Canteen by Linda Thorsen Bond, William Repicci and Charles Busch (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5w)
In this nostalgic and hilarious songfest set in London, 1944, Marian Ames and her all-girl band sing a bundle of swinging wartime hits to entertain the fighting boys of WWII. Songs include “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “Sing Sing Sing,” “How High the Moon,” “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “Sentimental Journey,” a fast-paced, 12-song Andrews Sisters medley, and many more.

The 1940s Radio Hour by Walton Jones (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 10m)
Set during a live 1942 broadcast of The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade, this marvelously theatrical and nostalgic show features a panoply of lovable characters, including a harassed producer, a drunk lead singer, a fame-hungry delivery boy, a beleaguered second banana, and a trumpet-playing sound effects man who chooses a fighter plane over Glenn Miller. The characters all return for A 1940s Christmas Carol (US/UK).

The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 7w, 4m, 5 girls, 2 boys, plus ensemble)
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s final collaboration is beloved for its wholesome score and charming love story, but the lightness of the music and comedy are balanced by the narrative’s dark wartime setting. The inspirational story, based on the memoir of Maria Augusta Trapp, ultimately concerns the von Trapp family’s response to the Nazi invasion of Austria, and the Third Reich’s demands upon the Captain.

For more great plays and musicals, visit Concord Theatricals in the US and UK.