3,335 articles
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play, opened in London in 1952 and became the world's longest-running play, with 30,000 performances by 2025.
The Music Man
The Music Man is Meredith Willson's 1957 Broadway musical comedy about con man Harold Hill in River City, Iowa, 1912; it ran 1,375 performances, won the 1958 Best Musical Tony, and spawned a 1962 film and three Broadway revivals.
The Necessary Stage
The Necessary Stage is a Singapore nonprofit theater company founded by Alvin Tan in 1987, led by two Cultural Medallion recipients and known for Off Centre.
The Normal Heart
The Normal Heart is Larry Kramer's 1985 autobiographical play about AIDS activist Ned Weeks and the founding of Gay Men's Health Crisis in early-1980s New York; premiered at the Public Theater, it won the 2011 Tony for Best Revival and was filmed for HBO in 2014.
The Norman Conquests
The Norman Conquests is a comic trilogy of three plays by Alan Ayckbourn, first performed in 1973, showing the same disastrous family weekend from three different rooms.
The Notebook (musical)
The Notebook (musical): stage musical with music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson, book by Bekah Brunstetter, based on Nicholas Sparks's 1996 novel. Premiered 2022 at Chicago Shakespeare; Broadway 2024 at the Schoenfeld; three Tony nominations; North American tour from 2025.
The Nutcracker (Щелкунчик)
The Nutcracker (Щелкунчик), Tchaikovsky's Op. 71 two-act ballet, premiered 6 December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre, choreographed by Lev Ivanov after Petipa withdrew; famous for the celesta and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
The Odd Couple (play)
The Odd Couple (play): Neil Simon's three-act Broadway comedy, opened March 10, 1965, Plymouth Theatre, 964 performances; mismatched roommates Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison; Tony-winning Mike Nichols production; source of 1968 film and 1970-1975 sitcom.
The Oh, Hello Show
The Oh, Hello Show is a 2017 Netflix comedy special starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney as elderly New Yorkers Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland.
The Old Vic
The Old Vic is a Grade II listed London theatre on The Cut, Waterloo, opened in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, later the Royal Victoria Hall, and first home of the National Theatre in 1963.
The One Day of the Year
The One Day of the Year is a 1958 Australian play by Alan Seymour about Anzac Day and a conflict between a veteran father and his student son.
The Optimistic Tragedy
The Optimistic Tragedy (Оптимистическая трагедия) is a heroic-revolutionary play by Soviet dramatist Vsevolod Vishnevsky, written in 1932 and set in 1918 during the birth of the Red Army.
The Original Kings of Comedy
The Original Kings of Comedy is Spike Lee's 2000 Paramount concert documentary of the Walter Latham-created Kings of Comedy tour starring Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac, a $37 million-grossing comedy tour.
The Outsiders (musical)
The Outsiders is a 2024 Tony-winning Broadway musical adapted from S. E. Hinton's 1967 novel and Coppola's film, set in 1967 Tulsa among Greasers and Socs; book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, score by Jamestown Revival, directed by Danya Taymor, with a rain-soaked rumble scene and a national tour that launched in 2025.
The Palace of Eternal Life
The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian, 长生殿) is a Qing dynasty drama by Hong Sheng, completed in 1688, telling of Emperor Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan.
The Peach Blossom Fan
The Peach Blossom Fan (桃花扇) is a 1699 drama by Kong Shangren telling the love story of Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun amid the fall of the Ming dynasty.
The Peony Pavilion
The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭), also known as The Return of the Soul, is a 55-scene Chinese play completed in 1598 by the Ming dramatist Tang Xianzu.
The People's Deputy
The People's Deputy (Narodni poslanik) is a three-act comedy by Serbian writer Branislav Nušić, his first play, written in 1883 and first staged in Belgrade in 1896.
The Physicists
The Physicists (Die Physiker) is a two-act comedy by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt, first staged at the Schauspielhaus Zürich in 1962, set in a psychiatric clinic.
The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson is a 1987 play by August Wilson, fourth in his Pittsburgh Cycle, set in 1936 Pittsburgh, where Berniece and Boy Willie clash over selling their carved heirloom piano. It won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was adapted for CBS in 1995 and Netflix in 2024.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (play)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (play): stage adaptations of Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel, chiefly Kip Williams' 2020 Sydney Theatre Company one-actor cine-theatre version with 26 roles, which won Olivier and Tony Awards for Sarah Snook on the West End and Broadway.
The Pillowman
The Pillowman is Martin McDonagh's 2003 play about writer Katurian, interrogated in a totalitarian state over child murders imitating his stories. Premiered at the National Theatre's Cottesloe with David Tennant; won the 2004 Olivier for Best New Play; 2023 West End revival starred Lily Allen.
The Pittsburgh Cycle
The Pittsburgh Cycle, also called the Century or American Century Cycle, is August Wilson's series of ten plays, one per decade of the twentieth century, nine set in Pittsburgh's Hill District and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in Chicago, written 1982 to 2005.
The Play That Goes Wrong
The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields for Mischief Theatre, is a farce about an amateur society staging a 1920s whodunit; Olivier-winning West End hit since 2014, Broadway 2017-2019, in over 50 countries.
The Playboy of the Western World
The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act comedy by Irish playwright J. M. Synge, first performed at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1907 and famous for the Playboy Riots.
The Plough and the Stars
The Plough and the Stars is a four-act play by Seán O'Casey, set in Dublin tenements during the 1916 Easter Rising and first staged in 1926.
The Pohutukawa Tree
The Pohutukawa Tree is a 1955 play by New Zealand playwright Bruce Mason, first performed in 1957, centering on a Māori matriarch defending her ancestral land from Pākehā neighbors.
The Popinjay Cavalier
The Popinjay Cavalier, Quentin Tarantino's first stage play, is a swashbuckling comedy of deception and disguise set in 1830s Europe, starring Sacha Baron Cohen as actor Rupert Sebastian Thomas Jr. It previews 23 February and opens 18 March 2027 at London's Phoenix Theatre, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Power of Darkness
The Power of Darkness (Власть тьмы) is a five-act peasant drama by Leo Tolstoy, written in 1886 and first staged in Russia in 1895 after censorship delays.
The Prince of Homburg
The Prince of Homburg (Prinz Friedrich von Homburg) is Heinrich von Kleist's last drama, about a cavalry commander who disobeys orders, wins a battle, and is sentenced to death.