Unknown Soldier Tickets

Unknown Soldier is a sweeping, elegiac musical about discovery and how we learn to restart our lives. With a lush, beautiful score and swift, noble storytelling, the new musical makes its way to Washington, D.C.’s Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage. Get Unknown Soldier tickets on TodayTix!

This musical, with a book by Daniel Goldstein and music by Michael Friedman, arrives in D.C. after acclaimed runs at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts and Playwrights Horizons in New York City. An intimate story, Unknown Soldier’s world is also expansive, tracing one family’s lineage across years and decades.

Ellen Rabinowitz has returned home to Troy, New York, amidst a divorce and family loss. As she sifts through her grandmother’s old belongings, she is struck by a photo of her grandmother, radiant and young — a version of the woman she only knew to be bristly, cold, and odd. What’s more, there is a young man with her — who is the man, and might he hold the key to Ellen’s past? As Ellen defines her past, she also charts her future.

A romance, a mystery, and nodding toward operetta, this unique musical shimmers as its characters’ hearts find one another and mend, undoing the pain of time and lives not lived. The musical asks, how well do we really know our ancestors, and what do their lives illuminate about our own?

The musical features a book by Daniel Goldstein, music by Michael Freidman, and lyrics by Goldstein and Freidman. Trip Cullman will direct. By Special Arrangement with Hunter Arnold.

What to Watch For

• Michael Freidman’s sweeping score includes the songs “I Give Away Children,” “The Worst Town in New York,” “The First Time,” and “The People Stare.”
• Unknown Soldier was the final work by Michael Freidman to premiere in New York. The musical was staged at Playwrights Horizons in 2020, three years after Freidman’s death.
• Molly Smith, the artistic director of Arena Stage, says, “The unknown soldier is someone everyone can release their sorrow towards.” Considering the plight of young soldiers unready for the hazards of war and the effect on the families they live behind, Unknown Soldier is a tender, beautiful story about one woman’s journey toward unlocking her family history and personal legacy.