STAGE: February in Local Theater
Jesse Boykin Kimmel is back with a look at the local theater landscape in the month of February.
Programming Note: Catch Jesse on WFAE 90.7 FM’s First Friday Arts segment during All Things Considered, starting at 4:00 PM today. Listen to the segment here.
It’s 2025 and the year in theater is just beginning.
It doesn’t matter if you’re making plans with your partner, your parents, or your best buds; local theater is still the best kept secret for a night out in Charlotte (or Salisbury).
Whether you hope to be moved to tears, reduced to giggles, or called to action, there is something to see every weekend this February.
Opening Today
Mary Jane at Three Bone Theatre (Feb. 7-23)
Starring Nonye Obichere, Mary Jane is the life-affirming portrait of one mother’s search for hope. A 2024 New York Times Critic’s Pick and Tony Awards nominee for best play, USA Today called it “miraculous and gutting,” and Time Out New York said playwright Amy Herzog’s “play shines like a candle in the dark.
We loved watching Nonye Obichere in her Best Actress-winning role as Sara in Three Bone’s Confederates; other local theater credits include Rent (Maureen Johnson) and Ragtime (Sarah) with Queen City Concerts, Annie (Grace Farrell) at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, If Pretty Hurts… (Kaya), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Yitzhak), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Titania/Hippolyta), and American Idiot (Whatsername) at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, and Heathers: The Musical (Heather Duke) at Queen City Theatre Company.
Misery at Lee St. Theatre (Feb. 7-22)
Starring Jessica Jax in the role made famous by Kathy Bates, Misery tells the tale of a stranded author who is rescued (and subsequently held captive) by his number one fan. Done right, this thriller will make your skin crawl, and thrillers are one thing Lee St. Theatre does right every time.
After Jax’s exuberant turn as Paulette in Lee St.’s production of Legally Blonde, we’re looking forward to seeing an Annie Wilkes inspired by, in Jax’s words, “Kathy Bates herself, Grace Chasity (Nerdy Prudes Must Die), Rumi Hidaka (Perfect Blue), and the crazed fangirls, otaku, and stans all over the world.”
The Play that Goes Wrong at Theatre Charlotte (Feb. 7-23)
When you want your play to look like a disorganized mess, you’ve gotta rehearse it until it’s perfect. Do not miss this hilarious fan favorite murder mystery as performed by the (fictional) Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society at North Carolina’s oldest theater company, Theatre Charlotte, now in its 97th season.
Opening on February 14 (Valentine’s Day)
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Brand New Sherriff Productions (Feb. 14-16)
This production is one weekend only! The second play in August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone follows Herald Loomis as he searches for his wife, haunted by the specter of the bounty hunter who hunted and enslaved him decades after the end of the Civil War. Running from the pain of his past and trying to understand his future, Loomis may find answers in the community at Seth Holly’s boarding house.
Opening February 20
Sacred Spaces Vol. 1: The Minutes at Davidson Community Players (Feb. 20 - Mar. 9)
Nominated for Best Play at the 2022 Tony Award, The Minutes is a dark comedy about the agony and the ecstasy of small-town government. When an upstart young councilman returns from a brief leave of absence to find minutes missing from the previous meeting, he senses something awful is being kept from him. What happened at the town council last week?