By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Philadelphia Ballet
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and a great way to treat moms of all ages is to take them to a show – not to dinner or a concert but to an actual Broadway style show.
Philadelphia Ballet will present the world premiere of Resident Choreographer Juliano Nunes’ “Romeo and Juliet” now through May 10 at the Academy of Music (Broad and Locust streets, Philadelphia, www.philadelphiaballet.org).
The show, which is a powerful conclusion to the company’s 2025/26 season, is set to Sergei Prokofiev’s renowned score.
“Romeo and Juliet” reimagines Shakespeare’s iconic tale of star-crossed lovers through Nunes’ distinctive choreographic voice, blending classical technique with emotionally charged contemporary movement.
“Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy written by Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families.
It was among Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with “Hamlet”, is one of his most frequently performed.
The title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. “Romeo and Juliet” belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity.
The score is brought to life by the Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra, led by Beatrice Jona Affron, The Louise and Alan Reed Music Director and Conductor.
This world premiere introduces a bold new chapter for the company, featuring custom-designed costumes and sets by Youssef Hotait, whose work brings a striking visual dimension to Nunes’ interpretation.
“This Romeo and Juliet is about human connection at its most intense and fragile,” said
According to Juliano Nunes, Resident Choreographer of Philadelphia Ballet, “This ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about human connection at its most intense and fragile.
“I wanted to explore the emotional urgency of these characters in a way that feels immediate and deeply personal for today’s audiences, while honoring the beauty and power of classical ballet.”
The world premiere of “Romeo and Juliet” arrives at a pivotal moment for Philadelphia Ballet as the organization looks ahead to the opening of its new Center for Dance in fall 2026, a 43,000-square-foot facility.
Run time for this production is approximately two hours and six minutes, including one 20-minute intermission. This production features theatrical haze.
Show times for “Romeo and Juliet are 7:30 p.m. on May 7 and 8, noon and 5:30 p.m. on May 9 and 2 p.m. on May 10.
Ticket prices start at $29.
Two other stage shows are just getting underway this weekend – “Arsenic & Old Lace” at the Candlelight Theater and
“The Woman Question” at People’s Light.
People’s Light (39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, peopleslight.org) is presenting “The Woman Question” now through May 24.
A new play with local roots, “The Woman Question” unearths the stories of medical pioneers who led the charge for women’s health and reproductive freedom 150 years ago.
Suli Holum
This world premiere docu-fantasy follows the 1894 class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, an intrepid cohort of students whose struggles and joys reverberate across centuries.
The play is written and performed by acclaimed theatre-maker Suli Holum (“Hurricane Diane”) in collaboration with Company Artist Melanye Finister (“A Raisin in the Sun”) and a remarkable cast and creative team.
Holum is an award-winning director, performer, choreographer and playwright based in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
She was a co-founder of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where she developed 10 original works, including as playwright for “Gentlemen Volunteers,” which was awarded a “Spirit of the Fringe Award” at Edinburgh Fringe.
She was a co-founder of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where she developed 10 original works, including as playwright for “Gentlemen Volunteers,” which was awarded a “Spirit of the Fringe Award” at Edinburgh Fringe.
As a commissioned writer/creator of new performance, she has created pieces such as “Wandering Alice,” “Oedipus at FDR: A Free Wheeling Adaptation” and “Fourteen.”
She also wrote “A Fierce Kind of Love” with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University as well as two live theater projects for the National Constitution Center.
Holum has been on faculty at the New School and University of the Arts and is currently on faculty at The Pig Iron School. She holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Swarthmore College, and an MFA in Playwriting from Goddard College.
Holum’s “The Woman Question” is a multi-year research and performance project which has been created in partnership with the Drexel University Legacy Archive and People’s Light Theater Company, with support from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
Finister is a 30-year member of the Philadelphia theater community. In 1991, she joined the resident acting company at People’s Light where she appeared in more than 30 productions.
The creative team also features director Melissa Crespo, choreographer Fatima Sowe, scenic designer Ann Beyersdorfer, Costume Designer Lux Haac, lighting designer Lily Fossner, sound designers Daniela Hart, Bailey Trierweiler, and Noel Nichols, projection designer Lisa Renkel, and composer and music director Daniela Hart.
“The Woman Question” blends archival research, flights of collective imagination, and a delightful, Victorian-infused theatricality.
The play centers on the 1894 graduating class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) — the first degree-granting medical school in the world exclusively for women, founded in 1850.
Students came from across the U.S. and abroad, facing societal barriers, public shaming, and systemic inequities while pursuing careers in a male-dominated field.
Holum collaborated with archivists to use letters, diaries, photographs, and ephemera to bring these stories to life.
Key historical figures portrayed include Anna Broomall, founder of the first outpatient maternity and prenatal care clinic in the U.S.;
Rebecca Cole, the second Black woman to become a physician in the U.S.; and Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American to earn a Western medical degree from WMCP.
“The Woman Question” examines gendered healthcare disparities, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and community resilience. It interweaves the 19th-century struggles of these women with the experiences of 21st-century women in medicine, creating a dialogue between past and present.
“The Woman Question” is running now through May 24 at People’s Light.
Ticket prices start at $30.
The Candlelight Theater (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) started 2026 with a pair of classic comedies by Mel Brooks – “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein.”
For its third production of 2026, Candlelight is presenting “Arsenic & Old Lace.” The show opens on May 9 and runs through June 20.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.
The play opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941.
Of the 12 plays written by Kesselring, “Arsenic and Old Lace” was by far the most successful. According to the opening night review in The New York Times, the play was “so funny that none of us will ever forget it.”
In 1941, New Yorkers were looking for some entertainment to take their minds off of the war in Europe and the growing fear that America would be pulled into it. On January 10, Broadway gave them exactly what they were looking for.
The play became an immediate critical and popular success, running for 1,444 performances. It also became a hit in England in 1942.
The play, a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood for their numerous acts of charity.
Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells “charge” as he bounds up the stairs.
Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” revolves around drama critic Mortimer Brewster, whose engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat.
Mortimer rushes to tell Abby and Martha before they stumble upon the body themselves, only to learn that the two old women aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him.
The “murderous old lady” plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising “lifetime care,” and poisoned them for their pensions.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” runs through June 20 and features a themed meal and free parking.
Tickets are $83 for adults and $38.50 for children (ages 4-12). Tickets for show only are $43.50 (adults and children).
If you’re looking for a different type of production, how about a circus show.
Cirque du Soleil’s new production “LUZIA” just opened this week and will run through June 7 under a big top at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, www.phillyexpocenter.com).
Billed as “A Waking Dream of Mexico,” the show looks at our neighbors from the south.
Poetically guided by light (‘luz’ in Spanish) and rain (‘lluvia’), “LUZIA” chronicles the encounters of a parachuted traveler with the culture, nature and mythology of a dreamlike land inhabited by a mystifying menagerie of characters.
Refreshing and unexpected, “LUZIA” enchants by artistically incorporating water into the acrobatic presentation — a first for a Cirque du Soleil touring production.
As the sun rises, the running woman awakes an imaginary Mexico, honoring the monarch butterfly’s migration.
In a series of grand visual surprises and breathtaking acrobatic performances, “LUZIA” takes audiences on a surreal escape to an imaginary Mexico – a sumptuously vibrant world suspended between dreams and reality.
Smoothly passing from an old movie set to the ocean to a smoky dance hall or an arid desert, “LUZIA” journeys through a colorful tapestry of multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.
Video link for “LUZIA” — www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia.
“LUZIA” will run through June 7 in Oaks.
Ticket prices start at $25.
This weekend, you could also treat mom – or just yourself – to a concert of live music….and there are plenty from which to choose.
On May 9, the Brandywine Symphony will preform a Mother’s Day Concert at Winterthur’s Copeland Lecture Hall (5105 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, Delaware, bvsymphony.org).
This celebration of chamber music offers a beautiful way to honor mothers in an elegant historic setting.
Guests may add tickets to explore Winterthur’s 1,000-acre gardens, the 175-room former home of Henry Francis du Pont, rotating exhibitions, and the renowned research library, creating a full day of cultural enrichment.
The program will feature Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” Antonin Dvorak’s “String Quartet no.12 in F Major, “American” and Jennifer Higdon’s “Amazing Grace.”
“Adagio for Strings” is a work by West Chester’s Samuel Barber arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11.
Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time on November 5, 1938, by Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a radio broadcast from NBC Studio 8H.
The “String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (B. 179),” nicknamed the “American Quartet,” is the twelfth string quartet composed by Dvořák.
It was written in 1893, during Dvořák’s time in the United States. The quartet is one of the most popular in the chamber music repertoire.
Higdon is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto in 2010, Viola Concerto in 2018, and Harp Concerto in 2020.
The show at Winterthur will start at 1 p.m. on May 9
Tickets are $26.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) is hosting Jeffery Gaines on May 9.
The Colonial Theater (227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, thecolonialtheatre.com/events) will host Al Di Meola The Guitarchitect Featuring Electric Band on May 8.
Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) is hosting Joey Stout and the Blue Note Band on May 7, Rev Chris and Les Garcons Crasseuax on May 8, James Maddock on May 9 and The Girke-Davis Project Mother’s Day Tribute on May 10.
Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com) will have Cass McCombs + Band on May 7, 3 Night Celebration of the Grateful Dead legacy, Benefiting The Rex Foundation & Camp Winnarainbow — Unlimited Devotion on May 8, 9 and 10 and The Joy Formidable on May 13.
Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) presents John Gallagher, Jr. on May 7, Ultimate Diamond on May 8, Butch Zito on May 9, Sunny Sweeney on May 12 and Southern Culture on the Skids on May 13.
The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will present BoDeans: 40 Years of Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams…and Good Things on May 7, Graham Parker on May 8, Fleetwood Mask on May 9, Yacht Lobsters on May 10, Paris monster and Dave Butler & Friends on May 11 and The Lone Bellow on May 13.
The Keswick Theater (291 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com) will have Dirty Deeds on May 9, Leonid & Friends on May 10 and The Head and the Heart on May 13.
