The world premiere of a musical adapted from a beloved movie highlights the 2022-23 season at Children's Theatre Company, and there's a Tony Award winner on board.

"An American Tail the Musical" is being written by Itamar Moses, who won his Tony for "The Band's Visit," which came to the Orpheum Theatre in 2019. The music and lyrics are by Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler, who did "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," which premiered at CTC in 2016 and is coming back, with performances starting Friday. Their score will incorporate "Somewhere Out There" and other songs from the animated movie.

Immigration-themed "American Tail" is based on the film series about Fievel Mousekewitz, a Russian mouse who flees the tyranny of cats in his country to make a new life in the United States. Moses describes the show as being about "the potential for [America] to be the beacon it's meant to be if only we can all work together." It will close the season, April 25-June 18, 2023.

"Circus Abyssinia: Tulu" kicks it off, Sept. 13-Oct 23. Acrobats, jugglers, storytellers and pulsing Ethiopian music blend in the show, which celebrates the athleticism of Derartu Tulu. The distance runner was the first Black African woman to take home an Olympic gold when she won the 10,000-meter race in Barcelona in 1992, a feat she repeated in Sydney in 2000.

Circus Abyssinia previously appeared at CTC in 2019 with its show "Ethiopian Dreams," which was hailed as being "studded with diverting thrills."

"Carmela Full of Wishes," running Oct. 18-Dec 4, is based on a book written by Matt de la Peña, whose "Last Stop on Market Street" was a hit for CTC in 2018. Its title character is a Latina girl whose birthday begins with a dandelion wish and ends in a series of unexpected adventures as she accompanies her big brother on his errands.

From that gentle tale, things take a turn for the mean (temporarily) with "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," in a super-sized Nov. 8-Jan. 8, 2023 run. Reed Sigmund, who we called "a thing of beauty" when he performed the role in 2017, returns as the nasty Grinch, whose plans to spoil Christmas in Whoville are derailed by Cindy Lou Who, a tiny tot with a big heart and an affection for furry green holiday-haters.

"The Grinch has been my absolute favorite role to play," said Sigmund. "This is the show I can't wait to celebrate once more." Or 80 times more, since that's how many performances CTC has planned.

Another adaptation of a beloved book is "Locomotion," written for the stage by the book's author, Jacqueline Woodson, a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient and former Poet Laureate for Young People. To be directed by Talvin Wilks, who helmed History Theatre's just-closed "Parks," "Locomotion" is about a Black boy named Lonnie, who discovers a love of poetry, which helps him overcome tough times.

"Locomotion," running Jan. 24-March 5, 2023, represents CTC letting "youths of color see themselves and their experiences on stage [and] for all youth to begin to broaden their understanding of universality," according to Wilks.

Rounding out the season is the return of playwright Barry Kornhauser's "Corduroy," the nearly wordless tale of a department store stuffed toy who's missing a button and the little girl who loves him, anyway. (We said the world premiere was "dandy" in 2018 and the play has since been widely produced around the country.) CTC Artistic Director Peter Brosius, who directed the original, returns for the Feb. 14-April 2, 2023 run. The slapstick comedy is based on a series of books by Don Freeman.

One sign of theater working its way back to normal: With six shows on tap, that's one more than the five CTC announced for last season and two more than the four that actually were performed, since "Tulu" was postponed to this year.

Season subscriptions, ranging from $90 to $285, are now on sale at 612-874-0400 or childrenstheatre.org. Individual tickets for each show will go on sale at later dates.