Now under new leadership (again), with former artistic director Shane Peterman moving to Addison's WaterTower Theatre, Lyric Stage is letting ladies take the lead for 2019-20. Celebrating "the power and presence of women," the four-show season is dubbed "The Wonder Women of Season 27" and features two popular grand dames alongside two lesser-known female leads.

It starts with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's sweeping Evita, the musicalized tale of polarizing Argentina first lady Eva Peron. The Tony Award-winning musical, set in Argentina between 1934 and 1952, charts the ambitious Eva Duarte on her journey from poor, illegitimate child to the most powerful woman in South America before her death from cancer at age 33. Well-known numbers from this musical masterpiece include "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Oh What a Circus," "Buenos Aires," and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall." It runs September 20-22, 2019.

We travel to France for the next show, set in a boarding house for circus performers in 1890s Paris, where gutsy little Mirette is determined to learn from the mysterious Bellini how to walk the high-wire. A stirring, intimate chamber musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (creators of The Fantasticks and I Do! I Do!, which Lyric produced during this current season), Mirette is based on the Caldecott Award-winning children's book written by Emily Arnold McCully. It runs November 15-17, 2019.

Lyric Stage first produced Abyssinia in its ninth season, and now it returns to celebrate Black History Month. Based on the novel Marked by Fire by Joyce Carol Thomas, and adapted by Ted Kociolek and James Racheff, the musical is set in Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the turn of the 20th century. Abyssinia "Abby" Jackson was born during a tornado and blessed with the gift of song, but like Job, Abby is fated to undergo a series of trials. Her faith in both man and God is destroyed so she vows to never sing again, but Abyssinia's withdrawal affects the devastated community until Mother Vera takes the girl under her wing to teach her the ways of a healer. It runs February 14-16, 2020.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Cinderella closes out the season, telling a timeless fairy tale of the mistreated servant girl who finally gets her wish and goes to the ball. The show was originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, and was the most widely viewed program in the history of television. Successful made-for-TV recreations in 1965 (starring Lesley Ann Warren) and in 1997 (starring R&B/pop singer Brandy as Cinderella and legendary artist Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother), transported new generations to the miraculous kingdom of dreams-come-true. It runs June 12-14, 2020.

All productions will be staged at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Dallas. Tickets are available here or by calling 214-871-5000.