Live Audio Described Theater Performances
December 2024 through August 2025
Please come to the exciting live theater productions with audio description (AD). Preshow description of sets and costumes begins 30 minutes prior to curtain. Arrive early to allow time to get headsets, programs, and to be seated.
The following audio described performances will be at the designated theatres listed below.
Enjoy these accessible theater opportunities!
Six
Sunday, December 22, 2024, 1:00 PM (ECT)
From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the six wives of Henry VIII take the microphone to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a Euphoric Celebration of 21st-century girl power! This new original musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over! SIX won 23 awards in the 2021/2022 Broadway season, including the Tony Award for Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. The SIX: Live on Opening Night Broadway album debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard cast album charts and surpassed 6 Million streams in its first month.
Location: Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street, Boston
Diary of a Tap Dancer
Saturday, December 21, 2024, 2:00 PM (ART)
Trailblazing tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel (Chasing Magic, Funny Girl, Max Roach 100) returns to the A.R.T. in a new production that interweaves dance, narrative, and song to share the story of her own life and honor the histories and legacies of the extraordinary women tap dancers who came before her. Experience the joy, magic, and liberatory power of tap dance in this world-premiere production commissioned by the A.R.T.
Location: ART, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge
A Christmas Carol
Sunday, December 22, 2024, 2:00 PM (HAN)
Be sure to get seated early to enjoy a pre-show concert featuring the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, the largest and most versatile theatre pipe organ in New England. Led by A Christmas Carol Music Director Tim Evans, and adapted by the president and CEO Troy Siebels, this annual production returns to the stage with timeless music, colorful costumes, and spectacular lighting and scenery. Cast members tell the tale of curmudgeonly miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the Spirits of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet To Come.
Location: Hanover Theatre , 2 Southbridge Street, Worcester
Dear Evan Hansen
Sunday, January 12, 2025, 1:00 PM (HAN)
Dear Evan Hansen is the first contemporary musical about connection in the digital age. Meet Evan Hansen, a high school student who feels he’s on the outside looking in. After writing a letter to himself that was never meant to be seen, Evan becomes entangled in a lie that was never meant to be told and a life he never dreamt could be his. As a result, Evan finally gets what so many of us are searching for—the chance to finally fit in. Dear Evan Hansen features an uplifting score including “You Will Be Found,” “Waving Through A Window” and “For Forever.”
Location: Hanover Theatre, 2 Southbridge Street, Worcester
Peter Pan
Sunday, January 26, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
This musical has been thrilling audiences of all ages for close to 70 years. The adventure begins when Peter Pan and his mischievous sidekick, Tinker Bell, visit the bedroom of the Darling children late one night. With a sprinkle of fairy dust and a few happy thoughts, the children are taken on a magical journey. This extraordinary musical full of excitement and adventure features iconic and timeless songs including “I’m Flying,” “I Gotta Crow,” “I Won’t Grow Up” and “Neverland.” Peter Pan embraces the child in us all so go on a journey from the second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning – your entire family will be Hooked!
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington Street, Boston
Ain’t No Mo
Friday, January 31, 2025, 7:30 PM (SPK)
Saturday, February 8, 2025, 2:00 PM (SPK)
Ain’t No Mo’ is a play consisting of a series of sketch comedy-style vignettes written by Jordan E. Cooper. The premise of the play is set in an alternate present where the United States government has put forward a program to buy every Black person in America, who wishes, a one-way ticket to Africa. The vignettes portray how this program affects various characters and the people around them. The show is notable for it making Cooper the youngest Black American to make his Broadway playwriting debut, at age 27, and the youngest Black American playwright nominated for a Tony Award.
Location: Roberts Theatre/BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Life & Times of Michael K
Sunday, February 2, 2025, 2:00 PM (AEM)
Adapted and Directed by Lara Foot in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company. Intricate marionettes come alive to depict the trials and tribulations faced by Michael K and his mother as they seek to escape political turmoil. The Booker Prize-winning Life & Times of Michael K, written by J.M. Coetzee, is a stunning novel depicting the personal struggles that accompany intense political conflict. South Africa’s Baxter Theater and Handspring Puppet Company’s poignant adaptation of this book has won praise across Europe in New York, and now it’s coming to Boston. The story follows Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. He finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth, and his unique path, which, as it unfolds, reveals to him his reason for living.
Location: Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston
Funny Girl
Sunday, February 9, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
Funny Girl dazzles audiences with one of the most celebrated musical scores of all time, including classic songs “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” This bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened—she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway.
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston
The Cher Show
Sunday, February 16, 2025, 1:00 PM (HAN)
The Cher Show is the Tony Award-winning musical of her story, and it’s packed with so much Cher that it takes three women to play her: the kid starting out, the glam pop star and the icon. The Cher Show is 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, a Grammy, an Oscar, and an Emmy, all in one unabashedly fabulous new musical that will have audiences dancing in the aisles!
Location: Hanover Theatre, 2 Southbridge Street, Worcester
The Grove
Thursday, February 27, 2025, 10:00 AM (student matinee)
Saturday, March 8, 2025, 2:00 PM
Abasiama’s eldest daughter Adiaha wants to become a writer to make her family proud, but at her graduation party, she has to choose: fulfill her parents’ desires to settle with a traditional Nigerian man, or stay true to her own romantic match. Director Awoye Timpo (The Bluest Eye at The Huntington) reunites with longtime collaborator Udofia for a play with the rich heart of a family drama against the thrilling theatrical backdrop of a Greek chorus of ancestors.
Location: Calderwood Pavilion/BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Flora & Ulysses
Saturday, March 1, 2025, 6:00 PM (student matinee) (WFT)
Thursday, March 6, 2025, 11:00 AM (student matinee) (WFT)
Saturday, March 8, 2025, 2:00 PM (WFT)
After getting sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, a (now hairless) squirrel is rescued by Flora Belle Buckman, a 10-year-old self-proclaimed cynic. She names him Ulysses and discovers he has been reborn as a superhero. Indeed, this once average squirrel can suddenly understand Flora, fly, and even write poetry. Together they embark on an adventure full of quirky characters and bursting with heart. Recommended for ages 8 and above.
Location: Wheelock Family Theatre, 180 Riverway, Boston
The Odyssey
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 7:30 PM (ART)
Sunday, March 16, 2025, 2:00 PM (ART)
Acclaimed writer and adaptor Kate Hamill (Sense & Sensibility, Vanity Fair, Dracula), turns a contemporary lens on Homer’s Odyssey in this new play that reimagines the stories of both Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, and asks how we can learn to embrace healing and forgiveness in order to end cycles of violence and revenge.
Location: ART, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge
A Man of No Importance
Friday, March 14, 2025, 7:30 PM (SPK)
Saturday, March 22, 2025, 2:00 PM (SPK)
1960’s Dublin is the setting for this charming musical about the redemptive power of theatre, love, and friendship. Bus conductor Alfie Byrne has two joys in life: the poetry of Oscar Wilde and staging amateur productions with his local theatre troupe, the St. Imelda Players. But when church officials try to shut down his plans for a production of Wilde’s Salome, Alfie must confront the forces of bigotry – and his own shame – over “the love that dare not speak its name.” This production will mark the New England Premiere of the recently reimagined version of this beloved classic, which includes the use of on-stage musicians.
Location: Roberts Theatre/BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
The Seasons
Saturday, March 15, 2025, 2:00 PM (AEM)
A co-production between Boston Lyric Opera and Arts Emerson with a script by Sara Ruhl. A group of contemporary artists comes to a retreat in nature to make art. They feel the emotional weather inside them more than they feel the weather outside. But extreme weather affects them without warning and changes their lives forever. The Seasons is a meditation on the relationship between our contemporary moment, and Vivaldi’s iconic music that appreciates the harmonious seasons. The Four Seasons, paired with additional arias and ensembles by Vivaldi, becomes an occasion to see our own disordered seasons more clearly.
Location: Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston
Parade
Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 7:30 PM (ECT)
For tickets: contact the Colonial Theatre at 617-902-6131.
Amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension, the stirring Tony Award-winning Parade explores the endurance of love and hope against all the odds. With a book by acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry and a colorful and haunting score by Jason Robert Brown, Parade is a moving examination of the darkest corners of America’s history. In 1913, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Georgia, is put on trial for the murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience and, eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion. Daring, innovative and bold, Parade is filled with soaring music and a heart-wrenching story, offering a moral lesson about the dangers of prejudice and ignorance that should not be forgotten.
Location: Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street, Boston
The Prom
Friday, March 28, 2025, 7:00 PM (ODT)
Saturday, March 29, 2025, 7:00 PM (ODT)
Sunday, March 30, 2025, 1:00 PM (ODT)
Four eccentric Broadway stars are in desperate need of a new stage. So when they hear that trouble is brewing around a small-town prom, they know that it’s time to put a spotlight on the issue…and themselves. The town’s parents want to keep the high school dance on the straight and narrow—but when one student just wants to bring her girlfriend to prom, the entire town has a date with destiny. On a mission to transform lives, Broadway’s brassiest join forces with a courageous girl and the town’s citizens and the result is love that brings them all together. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, THE PROM captures all the humor and heart of a classic musical comedy with a message that resonates with audiences now more than ever.
Location: R.J. Grey Junior High School, 16 Charter Rd, Acton
It’s a Mother F***ing Pleasure
April 2-13, 2025 (AEM)
Audio description incorporated right into the performance; two actors are blind in this production. Be sure to confirm date and times.
Location: Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston
The Triumph of Love
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 10:00 AM (student matinee) (HTC)
Saturday, April 5, 2025, 2:00 PM (HTC)
Love takes center stage in this uproarious classic French comedy by 18th century playwright Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. A clever princess is smitten at first sight – but to win her prince, she must woo him in disguise. Mistaken identities, hilarious complications and deeply felt desire collide head on with Rationalist Philosophy – and surprising romantic entanglements ensue! Artistic Director Loretta Greco stages Stephen Wadsworth’s magnificent adaptation which inspired a passion for Marivaux in America.
Location: Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston
Don’t Eat the Mangos
Friday, April 11, 2025, 10:00 AM (student matinee) (SPK)
Saturday, April 26, 2025, 2:00 PM (SPK)
Playwright Ricardo Pérez González’s wickedly funny tragedy Don’t Eat the Mangos portrays life on his home island of Puerto Rico with compassion and humor through the saga of three sisters living just outside San Juan. As a hurricane approaches the island, secrets and ugly truths are revealed that cause the sisters to wrestle with how to stay true to their family and homeland.
Location: Calderwood Pavilion/BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Come From Away
Sunday, April 13, 2025, 1:00 PM (HAN)
This New York Times Critics’ Pick takes you into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers on 9-11 and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night and gratitude grew into enduring friendships.
Location: Hanover Theatre, 2 Southbridge Street, Worcester
Shucked
Sunday, April 13, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
SHUCKED is the hilarious Tony Award–winning musical comedy. Featuring a book by Robert Horn, a score by the Award-winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and directed by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, this corn-fed, corn-bred American musical is sure to satisfy your appetite for great musical theater.
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston
Ballet: Intersections V4
Friday, April 25, 2025, 8:00 PM (Live Stream, & In-Person) (ABD)
Saturday, April 26, 2025, 8:00 PM (Livestream, & In-Person) (ABD)
Annual spring ballet. Honors BIPOC and disabled honorees and highlights the important intersections of race and disability. In addition, we will highlight bills that are currently on the state floor that affect the deaf/disabled community in collaboration with Disability Policy Consortium. Live streamed to virtual audiences. All performances include recorded, open audio description.
Location: Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, East Cambridge
Book of Mormon
Sunday, April 27, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
“It is the kind of evening that restores your faith in musicals.” And Entertainment Weekly says, “Grade A: the funniest musical of all time.” Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show calls it “Genius. Brilliant. Phenomenal.” It’s THE BOOK OF MORMON, the nine-time Tony Award® -winning Best Musical. Contains explicit language.
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston
Crowns
Sunday, April 27, 2025, 2:00 PM (MBX)
Saturday, May 3, 2025, 7:30 PM (MBX)
A moving and celebratory musical play in which hats become a springboard for an exploration of Black history and identity, as seen through the eyes of a young Black woman who has come down South to stay with her aunt after her brother is killed in Brooklyn. Hats are everywhere, in exquisite variety, and the characters use the hats to tell tales concerning everything from the etiquette of hats to their historical and contemporary social function. There is a hat for every occasion, and the tradition of hats is traced back to African rituals and slavery and forward to the New Testament and current fashion. Some rap, but predominantly gospel music and dance underscore and support the story. The conclusion finds the standoffish young woman, whose cultural identity as a young Black Brooklyn woman has been so at odds with the more traditional Southern Blacks, embrace hats and their cultural significance as a part of her own fiercely independent identity.
Location: Arrow Street Arts, Inc., 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
Kimberly Akimbo
Sunday, May 11, 2025, 1:00 PM (ECT)
For tickets: contact the Colonial Theatre Box Office 617-902-6131.
A new musical about growing up and growing old (in no particular order), Kimberly Akimbo is the winner of 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Kimberly is about to turn 16 and recently moved with her family to a new town in suburban New Jersey. In this howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show, Kim is forced to navigate family dysfunction, a rare genetic condition, her first crush … and possible felony charges. Ever the optimist, she is determined to find happiness against all odds and embark on a great adventure.
Location: Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St, Boston
The Light in the Piazza
Friday, May 16, 2025, 10:00 AM (student matinee) (HTC)
June 7, 2025, 2:00 PM (HTC)
Winner of 6 Tony Awards including Best Original Score. A lush and soaring romance unfolds as Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco creates a brand-new production of Adam Guettel’s sweeping Tony Award-winning score and Craig Lucas’ profound book in this must-see story of a mother, a daughter, and the many meanings of love. Florence, summer 1953. Protective American mother Margaret Johnson brings her daughter Clara abroad for a glimpse of Italy’s romantic history. But when a real-life attraction sparks between Clara and a local boy, Margaret must ask: can she reconcile her own hopes with her daughter’s future?
Location: The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston
JaJa’s African Hair Braiding
Saturday, May 24, 2025, 2:00 PM (SPK)
Friday, May 30, 2025, 7:30 PM (SPK)
2024 Tony Nominee for Best Play! It’s a hot summer day in 2019, and in Harlem, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding salon is open for business, even though its owner is about to be married. Presiding over the shop’s team of talented, high-spirited, West African designers is Jaja’s daughter Marie, a Dreamer who has set her sights on college. When shocking news disrupts the day’s festivities, the women must grapple with what it means to be outsiders in the place they call home.
Location: Roberts Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston
Boston New Works Festival
Sunday, June 29, 2025 (TBA, Afternoon) (MBX)
Specific plays will be announced in spring 2025.
Location: Calderwood Pavilion/BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Back to the Future: The Musical
Sunday, July 13, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
Back to the Future, the beloved, cinematic classic is now a Broadway musical. Winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, Back to the Future has been adapted for the stage by the iconic film’s creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, and directed by the Tony Award-winner John Rando with original music by multi-Grammy winners Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, alongside hit songs from the movie including “The Power of Love,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Earth Angel,” and “Back in Time.” When Marty McFly finds himself transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, he accidentally changes the course of history. Now he’s in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past, and send himself … back to the future.
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston
Richard III
Saturday, August 2, 2025, 5:00 PM (GZP)
Jealous and crippled, Richard of Gloucester wants to be King of England and uses manipulation and deceit to achieve his goal.
Location: Bird Park Music Court, 135 Polley Lane, Walpole
The Wiz
Sunday, August 17, 2025, 1:00 PM (BIB)
In this new Tony Award-winning musical The Wiz, adapted from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, this revival returns “home” to stages across America in an all-new Pre-Broadway tour, the first one in 40 years. This groundbreaking twist on The Wizard of Oz changed the face of Broadway—from its iconic score packed with soul, gospel, rock, and finger-snapping 70s funk to its stirring tale of Dorothy’s journey to find her place in a contemporary world. Audiences get to enjoy such hits as “Ease on Down the Road,” which became the show’s break-out single, and the bona fide classic “Home”, conjure up an Oz unlike anything ever seen before. So everybody rejoice! An all-new 21st-Century WIZ is sliding into an Emerald City near you.
Location: Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston