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Giant – Mark Rosenblatt’s Award-Winning Play about Roald Dahl Complete Guild

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:43:09 +0000

Giant – Mark Rosenblatt’s Award-Winning Play about Roald Dahl

Broadway Play · Currently Playing 2026

Giant: The Olivier Award-Winning Play About Roald Dahl’s Darkest Side — and John Lithgow’s Career-Defining Performance on Broadway

Mark Rosenblatt’s extraordinary debut play dares to ask the question that haunts every admirer of a beloved but deeply flawed artist: can you separate the work from the man? Set over one afternoon in 1983, Giant places Roald Dahl — the children’s writer who gave us Charlie Bucket, James, and the BFG — in a room with the people who need him to apologise for his antisemitism, and watches with terrible fascination as he refuses.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Music Box Theatre, Broadway — Closing 28 June 2026 · Sources: Deadline, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, New York Theatre Guide, London Theatre, British Theatre Guide, Nick Hern Books, Mark Rosenblatt official website, Theatrely, The Guardian, Evening Standard, Wikipedia, AOL/NBC

3Olivier Award Wins	4Tony Nominations	★★★★★Daily Telegraph	★★★★★The Observer	2h 20mRunning Time	28 JunBroadway Closing

Show at a Glance

Written by	Mark Rosenblatt (debut play)
Director	Nicholas Hytner (two-time Tony winner)
Designer	Bob Crowley
Broadway Theatre	Music Box Theatre, 239 West 45th Street, New York
Broadway Previews	11 March 2026
Broadway Opening	23 March 2026
Broadway Closing	28 June 2026 (16-week limited run)
World Premiere	Royal Court Theatre, London — 20 September 2024
West End Run	Harold Pinter Theatre — April–July 2025 (record-breaking)
Running time	2 hours 20 minutes, with one interval
Recommended age	14 and above
Tony nominations	4 — Best Play, Best Actor (Lithgow), Best Featured Actress (Cash), Best Direction

Mark Rosenblatt: The Director Who Became a Playwright — and Won Three Olivier Awards on His Debut

Giant is the debut play of Mark Rosenblatt — a British theatre director and filmmaker who spent more than two decades working as a director before turning to playwriting. His directing credits span the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and numerous other prestigious venues across the British theatrical landscape. He has also worked in film and television. But it is with Giant — his first play as a writer — that he has claimed a place among the most significant new voices in British drama of the past decade.

Rosenblatt has spoken in interviews about the specific impulse that led him to write the play. He was inspired, in part, by reports that Roald Dahl’s children’s books were being retrospectively edited to remove offensive content — a development that reignited debate about Dahl’s well-documented antisemitism and the question of whether his books can be separated from the person who wrote them. That editorial controversy, combined with Rosenblatt’s own deep engagement with questions of Jewish identity and antisemitism — he is Jewish himself — gave the play its personal urgency alongside its dramatic architecture.

The result was described by Nick Hern Books as offering “a nuanced portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon — and exploring with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.” That Rosenblatt pulled this off in his debut as a playwright — producing a work that was structurally sophisticated, dramatically taut, theatrically bold, and philosophically rigorous — is remarkable by any standard. He won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play and the Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West End Debut in 2025. His Olivier Award for Best New Play at a ceremony celebrating his debut work stands as one of the more extraordinary achievements in recent British theatre.

About the Real Roald Dahl Scandal

In 1983, Roald Dahl wrote a literary review of the picture book God Cried about the Israeli army’s siege of West Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War. The review was widely condemned as antisemitic — Dahl condemned Israel’s invasion and then went further, implying that Jewish people bore collective responsibility for not speaking out. The review damaged his reputation significantly and became one of the most cited examples of his documented antisemitic views. Dahl later made public antisemitic statements in other contexts. Giant dramatises an imagined version of the immediate aftermath of this incident.

From the Royal Court to the West End to Broadway: The Production’s Journey

Giant‘s journey from a relatively small but prestigious theatre in Chelsea to one of Broadway’s most historic venues is one of the more rapid and triumphant trajectories in recent theatrical history. The production has been, at every stage, the same creative team: playwright Rosenblatt, director Nicholas Hytner, designer Bob Crowley, and — most centrally — star John Lithgow, who originated the role of Roald Dahl and has carried it across three productions on two continents.

The world premiere took place at the Royal Court Theatre in London’s Chelsea on 20 September 2024, running until 16 November 2024. The Royal Court — one of Britain’s most distinguished producing theatres, with a fifty-year tradition of commissioning and developing new writing — was an entirely appropriate home for a debut play of this ambition and quality. The production sold out its entire run and generated the kind of critical response that makes West End transfers not merely desirable but inevitable.

The Royal Court reviews were extraordinary. The Evening Standard called it “shocking, challenging and spectacularly good.” The Guardian described it as “a slowly brilliant play.” West End Best Friend called it “powerful and poignant.” The Observer gave it five stars and called it “an extraordinary debut play.” At the Olivier Awards in April 2025, the production won three awards: Best New Play, Best Actor in a Play (John Lithgow), and Best Supporting Actor in a Play (Elliot Levey) — the three most significant performance and writing awards available at Britain’s premier theatrical honours.

The West End transfer to the Harold Pinter Theatre — named after the great British playwright and one of the West End’s most distinguished venues — opened in April 2025 for a 14-week limited season that broke the theatre’s box office records. Mark Rosenblatt’s own website describes it as a “box-office record-breaking limited 14-week season.” The West End production featured a largely identical cast to the Royal Court run, with one significant addition: Aya Cash (The Boys) replacing Romola Garai as the American publisher Jessie Stone, a change that London Theatre described as producing “a seismic jolt” that made the already-excellent production even more powerful.

The Broadway transfer to the Music Box Theatre — one of Broadway’s most intimate and historically significant houses — was announced in October 2025, with previews beginning 11 March 2026 and the official opening on 23 March 2026. The 16-week limited engagement is scheduled to close 28 June 2026.

The Plot: One Afternoon, One Confrontation, One Unanswerable Question

The dramatic action of Giant is compressed into a single afternoon in 1983, set almost entirely in the dining room of Gipsy House, Roald Dahl’s home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. (The real writing hut where Dahl wrote — custom-built for his 6’6″ frame — is now on display at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the village.) Designer Bob Crowley’s set has been widely praised: the dining table where all the action occurs is surrounded by walls that have been ripped out and covered in plastic, creating, as the British Theatre Guide noted, a visual metaphor for “tragedy under the surface of success.”

The occasion is the imminent publication of Dahl’s new book The Witches — one of his most beloved works for children, featuring the Grand High Witch and her plan to turn all the children of England into mice. The problem is that Dahl is under a cloud: his 1983 book review condemning Israel’s invasion of Lebanon has been widely read as antisemitic, and his American publisher is urgently concerned that the controversy will destroy the book’s commercial prospects in the United States, where the Jewish community represents a significant portion of the literary market.

Into this tense domestic situation arrives Jessie Stone — a Jewish American sales executive sent by the US publishing house to persuade Dahl to issue a public apology for his review. Jessie is not a polemicist or an activist; she is a publishing professional trying to solve a commercial problem, and her motivation is at least as much financial as moral. But the conversation she has come to broker quickly escalates far beyond its practical starting point, as Dahl’s genuine views — his conviction that Israel’s behaviour is equivalent to what was done to Jews in the Holocaust, his anger at what he sees as Jewish communal silence, and — most disturbingly — his willingness to say things that reveal a deeper and more personal antisemitism — begin to surface with increasing frankness.

The play’s other characters provide the dramatic context around this central confrontation. Tom Maschler — Dahl’s Jewish British publisher, played in all productions by the Olivier-winning Elliot Levey — is the exhausted intermediary: a man who has managed Dahl for years, who is well aware of his author’s views, and who represents the specifically British Jewish experience of secular assimilation and the uncomfortable position of the Jew who is not identified with Israel but cannot entirely separate himself from the accusation being levelled. Felicity Crosland — Dahl’s second wife-to-be — is the loyal partner trying to manage the situation without being able to control it. And various other household members and publishing figures complete the cast of this intensely focused chamber drama.

What makes the play extraordinary — and what elevates it above what might have been a merely provocative thesis drama — is Rosenblatt’s refusal to offer easy resolutions. The play does not exonerate Dahl. His views are presented with full clarity, and Lithgow’s performance ensures that the audience never forgets the human damage those views represent. But the play also does not reduce Dahl to a simple villain. It presents him as a complex, damaged, self-aware, and — in certain moments — genuinely charming man whose beliefs are inseparable from a specific biographical and psychological history. The question the play poses — can you separate the work from the man? can you separate criticism of a government from hatred of a people? — is never definitively answered, because in Rosenblatt’s view it cannot be.

The ferocity of John Lithgow’s explosive performance as Roald Dahl seems to show itself right from the start. He gives a tour de force performance that nails every slight shift in mood and tone — from “broken boy” to the hateful creep who almost playfully suggests that Hitler got some things right.

Deadline Hollywood, Broadway Opening Night Review, March 2026

The Broadway Cast: Olivier Winners Return to New York

One of the most distinctive aspects of Giant‘s Broadway production is that three of its four principal performers are reprising roles they have played in London — bringing to the Broadway stage the particular depth and specificity that only comes from having lived with a character through multiple productions and months of performance. The Broadway cast represents one of the strongest ensembles of the 2025-26 Broadway season.

Performer	Role	Notes
John Lithgow	Roald Dahl	★ Olivier Award — Best Actor in a Play 2025Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Olivier Award winner. Known for The Crown (Churchill), Conclave, Killers of the Flower Moon, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and multiple previous Broadway productions. His portrayal of Dahl — towering physically (Lithgow stands over six feet tall) and dramatically devastating — has been universally described as the performance of his career. Nominated for the 2026 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
Elliot Levey	Tom Maschler	★ Olivier Award — Best Supporting Actor in a Play 2025British actor reprising his Olivier-winning performance as Dahl’s Jewish British publisher. Levey’s Tom Maschler — tired, resigned, privately conflicted — has been described as one of the most complex supporting performances in recent London and Broadway theatre. Previously known for his work in Cabaret.
Aya Cash	Jessie Stone	American actress best known for playing Stormfront in the Amazon series The Boys. Joined the production for the West End run after Romola Garai’s Royal Court performance, and is reprising the role on Broadway. Cash’s casting created what London Theatre described as “a seismic jolt” — her Jessie is a more confrontational, dynamically powerful foil for Lithgow’s Dahl. Nominated for the 2026 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Rachael Stirling	Felicity Crosland	British actress reprising her West End performance as Dahl’s second wife-to-be. Daughter of Dame Diana Rigg, Stirling has built a distinguished screen and stage career. Her Felicity — loyal, protective, and ultimately unable to shield her partner from his own worst impulses — provides the domestic warmth against which Dahl’s monstrous views play.
Stella Everett	Hallie	Known for Running Point on Netflix. New to the production for Broadway, playing a household member whose presence provides an additional perspective on the play’s central confrontation.
David Manis	Wally	Broadway and television veteran known for To Kill a Mockingbird. Joins the production for the Broadway run in the supporting role.

The creative team — writer Mark Rosenblatt, director Nicholas Hytner (two-time Tony winner for The History Boys and Guys & Dolls, founder of the Bridge Theatre in London), and designer Bob Crowley (multiple Tony winner for scenic and costume design) — gives the production an institutional quality that few Broadway plays can match.

The Awards: Three Oliviers, Four Tony Nominations, and a Critics’ Sweep

Laurence Olivier Awards 2025 — Three Wins

Giant — Olivier Award Winner 2025

Best New PlayMark Rosenblatt

Best Actor in a PlayJohn Lithgow (Roald Dahl)

Best Supporting ActorElliot Levey (Tom Maschler)

Also won: Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play 2025 · Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West End Debut (Mark Rosenblatt) 2025

79th Annual Tony Award Nominations 2026: Best Play · Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play (John Lithgow) · Best Featured Actress in a Play (Aya Cash) · Best Direction of a Play (Nicholas Hytner)

What the Critics Said: The Reviews That Built a Legend

The critical response to Giant across all three productions — Royal Court 2024, Harold Pinter Theatre 2025, and Music Box Theatre 2026 — has been one of the most sustained critical consensuses for a new play in recent theatrical memory. The Broadway reviews are gathered here alongside key London notices that defined the production’s reputation before it crossed the Atlantic.

Deadline Hollywood — Broadway Opening Night

★★★★★

“The ferocity of John Lithgow’s explosive performance as Roald Dahl seems to show itself right from the start of Mark Rosenblatt’s extraordinary play Giant. Lithgow’s remarkable Olivier Award-winning performance is a terrifically nuanced affair, as indeed are Rosenblatt’s play and the note-perfect direction of Nicholas Hytner. Giant, thrilling and abrasive, is full of rewards.” The review described Lithgow’s performance as “tour de force” — capturing “every slight shift in mood and tone, from broken boy to the hateful creep who almost playfully suggests that Hitler got some things right.”

New York Theatre Guide — Broadway Review

★★★★

“Giant follows an imagined conversation between children’s author Roald Dahl and his personal and professional inner circle as they debate how to respond to accusations of Dahl’s antisemitism. He’s charming, chilling, snarling, and reprehensible until he finally, intentionally, digs himself into a deeper hole. While the play eerily echoes current world events, Dahl’s antisemitism isn’t exactly a giant reveal. But the show raises provocative questions: Can you separate a nation from a people? Can you separate an artist from their work?”

Theatrely — Broadway Review

“Mark Rosenblatt’s play Giant is brilliantly structured, quite funny and, in Nicholas Hytner’s production, superbly acted by a cast led by John Lithgow. How personalities are conveyed, revelations meted, and momentum sustained is a testament to Rosenblatt’s immense talent. The Dahl he and Lithgow create is a towering dramatic figure and a completely rounded character.”

Daily Telegraph — World Premiere Review

★★★★★

“An unslayable hit… hugely impressive… a complex plethora of thought-provoking little details… a summer smash… this is the play to see.” The Telegraph’s five-star notice was one of the most enthusiastic critical responses to any new play in London that season, and set the tone for the production’s subsequent commercial and critical dominance.

The Observer — World Premiere Review

★★★★★

“An extraordinary debut play.” The Observer’s five-star notice placed Rosenblatt in the company of the finest debut playwrights of recent decades, and proved prescient in light of the Olivier and Critics’ Circle Awards that followed.

London Theatre — West End Review

“John Lithgow gives a career-best performance in this blisteringly topical colossus of a play. A big play has got bigger still in the West End upgrade of Giant, which arrives bearing three Olivier Awards and announces itself as a colossus. The drama, set 40 years ago but blisteringly topical to our times now, has been seasoned by the deepening of John Lithgow’s altogether astonishing performance. Topical, challenging, and easily my best play of 2025.”

British Theatre Guide — West End Review

“Giant is a thought-provoking, powerful play with razor-sharp dialogue that will make you laugh, cringe and gasp out in incredulous outrage. It’s brilliant theatre and brilliant writing. Nicholas Hytner’s production is paced to perfection and uncannily timely given the continual flurry of headlines in the Middle East. Stars American actor John Lithgow in a ruthless portrayal of Dahl — a complex, somewhat charming schoolboy bully, engaging raconteur and alarmingly loud and proud antisemite. This is a monumental play that well deserves the Olivier and Critics’ Circle awards it has already won.”

The Guardian — World Premiere Review

“An exploration of Roald Dahl and antisemitism that speaks to our times.” The Guardian’s notice — which the production’s own publicity has used — captured the essential quality that distinguishes Giant from other biographical dramas: its refusal to remain safely in the past. The play is set in 1983, but its questions are urgently contemporary, and the Guardian’s notice understood this from the production’s first night.

John Lithgow: The Performance of a Lifetime

The critical consensus on John Lithgow’s performance in Giant — “the performance of his career,” “a career-best,” “tour de force,” “towering,” “Olivier-winning” — is as complete and consistent as any such consensus in recent theatrical history. What makes this particularly remarkable is that Lithgow is an actor of fifty-plus years of professional experience, with a résumé that includes Tony Awards for The Changing Room (1973) and M. Butterfly (1988), multiple Emmy Awards for 3rd Rock from the Sun and The Crown, a Golden Globe, and acclaimed film work in projects ranging from Terms of Endearment to Killers of the Flower Moon. To describe any single performance as his finest after such a career is a strong claim. Every critic who has seen him in Giant makes it without qualification.

The physical dimension of the performance is central to its impact. Lithgow stands over six feet tall — a height that gives his Dahl an imposing physical presence that mirrors the character’s psychological dominance of every room he enters. Dahl’s own writing hut was custom-built for his 6’6″ frame, a detail that the play itself references as it establishes the ways in which Dahl has always occupied physical and cultural space that was explicitly shaped around him. Watching Lithgow move through Bob Crowley’s set — contorting and bending to suggest the physical infirmities of an older man while simultaneously projecting the colossal authority of a person who has spent his entire life being the most important person in the room — is to watch an actor using every physical and technical resource at his considerable disposal.

As Deadline noted, the performance “nails every slight shift in mood and tone” — from the charming, avuncular storyteller who has enchanted generations of children to the man who “almost playfully suggests that Hitler got some things right.” The ability to hold those two registers simultaneously, and to move between them with a fluency that makes the audience understand how both can exist in the same person, is the central achievement of the performance — and of the play itself.

Why Giant Matters: Art, Antisemitism, and the Questions We Can’t Stop Asking

The timing of Giant‘s various productions — Royal Court 2024, West End 2025, Broadway 2026 — has been, for better or worse, impeccably aligned with a moment in world history when the questions the play raises feel not merely relevant but urgent. The play was written in the context of debates about whether Roald Dahl’s books should be edited or contextualised. It was first performed as the conflict in Gaza was generating daily headlines about Israel, antisemitism, and the question of how criticism of a government relates to attitudes toward a people. It opened on Broadway as those debates continued with undiminished intensity.

Rosenblatt has been careful in interviews not to reduce his play to a polemic on either side of these debates. The play presents Dahl’s views with full clarity and full condemnation — he is shown as an antisemite, not merely as someone guilty of an imprudent comparison — while also taking seriously the questions that his situation raises about art, responsibility, and the limits of public apology. Jessie Stone, the American publisher sent to extract an apology, is not a straightforward hero: her motivations are partly commercial, her approach is partly strategic, and her eventual confrontation with Dahl produces what Theatrely called a “smoothing out into a righteous heroine” that the review found reductive. Not all critics agreed, but the fact that the debate about the play’s moral architecture has been a feature of its reception speaks to Rosenblatt’s achievement in creating genuine dramatic complexity.

What is not in dispute is the play’s theatrical quality. It is brilliantly structured — building from comedy and social awkwardness to genuine moral horror with a precision that reflects twenty years of directorial experience being brought to bear on a debut text. It is superbly acted, in all its incarnations. And it raises, without resolution, questions that Broadway audiences in 2026 are encountering in their daily lives. The Music Box Theatre, for its 16-week run, has become one of the places in New York where those questions are being asked most directly and most honestly.

Rosenblatt is admirably unafraid to plunge into fierce arguments. Giant offers a nuanced portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon — and explores with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.

Nick Hern Books, publisher of the Giant play text

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79th Tony Awards 2026: The Complete Winners List — Every Award, Every Winner, Every Historic Moment

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 03:38:39 +0000

79th Tony Awards 2026: Complete Winners List — Schmigadoon! Best Musical, Death of a Salesman Leads with Six Wins, Historic Night at Radio City

Official Winners · 79th Annual Tony Awards · 7 June 2026

The 79th Tony Awards:
The Complete Winners List

Death of a Salesman was Broadway’s biggest winner of the night with six Tonys. Schmigadoon! claimed Best Musical. Qween Jean made history. John Lithgow edged out Nathan Lane. Here is every single winner from Broadway’s greatest night of the year.

Death of a Salesman — 6 Wins Best Musical — Schmigadoon! Best Play — Liberation Historic Night for Trans Representation

By Staff Writer · Published 8 June 2026 · 10 min read

Broadway’s greatest night of the year has come and gone — and what a night it was. The 79th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by P!NK at Radio City Music Hall on the evening of Sunday 7 June 2026, delivered drama, history, surprises and standing ovations in roughly equal measure. The ceremony, broadcast live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, honoured the best productions from the 2025–26 Broadway season — a season of roughly 30 eligible productions that proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the Great White Way is firing on all cylinders.

When the final curtain fell on the evening, the headline story was clear: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman led all productions with six Tony wins — the most of any show this season. Schmigadoon! claimed the all-important Best Musical prize. Liberation took Best Play. Ragtime won Best Revival of a Musical. And in one of the most significant moments in Tony Awards history, costume designer Qween Jean became the first openly transgender person ever to win a Tony Award in any category — for their dazzling work on Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Here is the complete story of the night, category by category, winner by winner.

Ceremony

79th Annual Tony Awards

Date

Sunday 7 June 2026

Venue

Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Host

P!NK

Broadcast

CBS / Paramount+

Biggest Winner

Death of a Salesman — 6 wins

Best Musical

Schmigadoon!

Best Play

Liberation

Producers

Raj Kapoor, Sarah Levine Hall & Jack Sussman

Wins by Production at a Glance

6Death of a Salesman

4The Lost Boys

3Schmigadoon!

3Cats: The Jellicle Ball

3Ragtime

1Fallen Angels

1Giant

1Liberation

1Oedipus

1Becky Shaw

The Complete 79th Tony Awards Winners List

New Plays & Musicals

Category	Winner	Show
Best Musical	Schmigadoon!	Nederlander Theatre
Best Play	Liberation	Bess Wohl · Pulitzer Prize Winner
Best Revival of a Musical	Ragtime	Lincoln Center Theater
Best Revival of a Play	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman	Winter Garden Theatre
Best Book of a Musical	Cinco Paul	Schmigadoon!
Best Original Score	Schmigadoon!	Cinco Paul

Acting — Leading Roles

Category	Winner	Show
Best Actor — Play	John Lithgow	Giant — his third Tony win
Best Actress — Play	Lesley Manville	Oedipus
Best Actor — Musical	Joshua Henry	Ragtime
Best Actress — Musical	Caissie Levy	Ragtime

Acting — Featured Roles

Category	Winner	Show
Best Featured Actor — Play	Alden Ehrenreich	Becky Shaw
Best Featured Actress — Play	Laurie Metcalf	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman — her third Tony
Best Featured Actor — Musical	Ali Louis Bourzgui	The Lost Boys
Best Featured Actress — Musical	Shoshana Bean	The Lost Boys

Direction & Choreography

Category	Winner	Show
Best Direction of a Play	Joe Mantello	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best Direction of a Musical	Zhailon Levingston & Bill Rauch	Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Best Choreography	Omari Wiles & Arturo Lyons	Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Best Orchestrations	Doug Besterman & Mike Morris	Schmigadoon!

Design — Scenic, Costume, Lighting, Sound

Category	Winner	Show
Best Scenic Design — Play	Chloe Lamford	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best Scenic Design — Musical	Dane Laffrey	The Lost Boys
Best Costume Design — Play	Jeff Mahshie	Fallen Angels
Best Costume Design — Musical	Qween Jean	Cats: The Jellicle Ball — first openly trans Tony winner
Best Lighting Design — Play	Jack Knowles	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best Lighting Design — Musical	Jen Schriever & Michael Arden	The Lost Boys
Best Sound Design — Play	Mikaal Sulaiman	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best Sound Design — Musical	Kai Harada	Ragtime

Special Awards — 79th Tony Awards 2026

Mary-Mitchell Campbell Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award
André Bishop Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
James Lapine Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Jules Fisher Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
League of Resident Theatres (LORT) Special Tony Award
Jake Bell · Kenn Lubin · Loren Plotkin · 1/52 Project Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre

The Big Stories of the Night

Death of a Salesman — Broadway’s Biggest Winner

No production dominated the 79th Tony Awards like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Going into the evening with nine nominations — the most of any play in the 2025–26 season — Joe Mantello’s production at the Winter Garden Theatre collected six Tonys in total: Best Revival of a Play, Best Direction of a Play (Mantello), Best Featured Actress in a Play (Laurie Metcalf), Best Scenic Design of a Play (Chloe Lamford), Best Lighting Design of a Play (Jack Knowles), and Best Sound Design of a Play (Mikaal Sulaiman). It was the biggest haul of any production this season, a comprehensive sweep of the play revival and design categories that confirmed this as one of the most acclaimed Broadway revivals in years.

Laurie Metcalf‘s win for Best Featured Actress in a Play was her third Tony Award — placing her in the rarefied company of Broadway’s most decorated performers. Her performance as Linda Loman has been praised throughout the season as one of the bravest and most emotionally committed interpretations of the role in decades. And while Nathan Lane — nominated for Best Actor in a Play for his turn as Willy Loman — did not take home the award, losing to John Lithgow, his performance and the production around him swept the technical and design categories with impressive totality.

John Lithgow Edges Nathan Lane — The Best Actor Upset

The most talked-about moment of the acting categories was the Best Actor in a Play result. John Lithgow won the award for his portrayal of Roald Dahl in Giant — his third Tony Award — edging out Nathan Lane, who was considered by many forecasters to be the favourite for his Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Lithgow’s win was his third Tony ever, and his work in Giant carries with it a significant cultural resonance — the play, about Dahl’s complicated legacy and the accusations of antisemitism against him, arrived on Broadway carrying its Olivier Award pedigree from the West End. Lithgow’s acceptance speech was widely reported as one of the most moving of the evening, paying tribute to playwright Mark Rosenblatt and the production’s New York cast.

Schmigadoon! Claims Best Musical

The Best Musical race was, as predicted, one of the closest contests of the evening. In the end, Schmigadoon! — the Apple TV+ series-turned-Broadway-sensation produced by Lorne Michaels — claimed the top prize, along with Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score (both for Cinco Paul) and Best Orchestrations (Doug Besterman and Mike Morris). Schmigadoon! continues at the Nederlander Theatre, and the Best Musical win is expected to drive significant box office uplift in the weeks ahead.

The result left The Lost Boys — which shared the nomination lead with Schmigadoon! at 12 apiece — empty-handed in the musical categories but richly rewarded in the design and featured acting sections: four Tonys in total, for Scenic Design (Dane Laffrey), Lighting Design (Jen Schriever and Michael Arden), Featured Actor in a Musical (Ali Louis Bourzgui), and Featured Actress in a Musical (Shoshana Bean). Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), the intimate British import that many critics had tipped as an upset winner, went home empty-handed.

“Death of a Salesman was actually the big winner of the evening, taking a total of six Tonys, the most of any production of the season.” — Playbill, 7 June 2026

Ragtime’s Triple Crown — And Two Leads Win

Ragtime, Lincoln Center Theater’s sweeping revival that opened to some of the most emotional audience responses of the entire Broadway season, won three Tony Awards: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Caissie Levy, and Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Joshua Henry. The double acting win for a single show is an unusually powerful result, and Levy’s and Henry’s wins confirm what audiences and critics have been saying all season: that Ragtime’s central performances are among the finest on any Broadway stage this year. Joshua Henry won for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, defeating a field that included Luke Evans in Rocky Horror and Sam Tutty in Two Strangers.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball Wins Three — Including History

Cats: The Jellicle Ball — the radical reimagining of the Lloyd Webber classic by directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch — won three Tony Awards: Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography (Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons), and Best Costume Design in a Musical. That last award was the most significant moment of the entire technical pre-show. Qween Jean, who won for Best Costume Design for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, is the first openly transgender woman to win a Tony in any category — a landmark in the history of the awards, and a moment that drew the loudest applause of the pre-show broadcast. Qween Jean’s acceptance speech, by multiple reports, was passionate, joyful, and entirely worthy of a night that demanded historic acknowledgement.

Historic Moments from the 79th Tony Awards

Qween Jean (Cats: The Jellicle Ball) — the first openly transgender person ever to win a Tony Award in any category, for Best Costume Design in a Musical. A watershed moment in Broadway history.
John Lithgow (Giant) — his third Tony Award win, placing him among the most decorated stage actors of his generation. Won the equivalent Olivier Award for the same role.
Laurie Metcalf (Death of a Salesman) — her third Tony Award win, for Best Featured Actress in a Play, cementing her status as one of Broadway’s greatest living performers.
Caissie Levy and Joshua Henry (Ragtime) — both winning Tonys for the same production in the same year, a rare double acting triumph that underlines the extraordinary quality of Lincoln Center Theater’s revival.
Death of a Salesman — six wins from nine nominations, making it the season’s most decorated production overall despite its classification as a revival. The most Tony wins of any production in the 2025–26 season.
Lesley Manville (Oedipus) — the British screen icon’s Broadway debut was rewarded with Tony gold, continuing the remarkable transatlantic exchange of talent that characterised this season.
P!NK as host — the pop superstar opened the ceremony with a show-stopping performance of “Lady Marmalade” featuring guests including Megan Thee Stallion, before delivering a warm, funny, and genuinely enthusiastic hosting performance throughout the evening.

Liberation and the Pulitzer-to-Tony Pipeline

Liberation, Bess Wohl’s play about the feminist movement in the 1970s — which closed its limited Broadway engagement earlier in the season — claimed Best Play, completing what may be the most remarkable awards double in Broadway this year: the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (announced the day before Tony nominations) and the Tony Award for Best Play. The former continues at the Nederlander, while Wohl’s drama, which also won the Pulitzer Prize, ended its limited engagement earlier in the season.

Wohl’s play faced stiff competition from Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant — which earned its own Tony glory through John Lithgow’s Best Actor win — but the combined force of the Pulitzer and the critical momentum behind Liberation proved decisive with Tony voters. The win is a significant validation of the show’s ambition and a reminder that, in Tony voting, plays do not need to still be running to win the top prize.

The Ceremony: P!NK, Chicago’s 30th and a Night to Remember

P!NK was, by broad critical consensus, an inspired and fully committed host. Her opening number — a roof-raising performance of “Lady Marmalade” featuring Megan Thee Stallion and others — set the evening’s energy at a level it barely dipped from. P!NK brought genuine warmth and anarchic humour to her presenting duties, and was repeatedly praised by social media for avoiding the awkward detachment that can afflict celebrity hosts unfamiliar with Broadway culture.

The evening also featured a spectacular special performance to celebrate Chicago’s 30th anniversary on Broadway — one of the most enduring and beloved runs in Broadway history. The celebration brought together Queen Latifah, P!NK herself, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt, Dylan Mulvaney, and more for a number that had the Radio City audience on its feet. The performance was one of the most jubilant moments of an already jubilant evening.

The ceremony was produced by Raj Kapoor, Sarah Levine Hall, and Jack Sussman — a new production team taking over from White Cherry Entertainment — and directed by Liz Clare. The design awards were presented in a pre-show broadcast ahead of the main CBS telecast, following the format established in recent seasons. The main broadcast ran from 8 to 11 p.m. ET, and by all accounts it was, as Playbill described it, “one of the greatest Tony telecasts in recent memory.”

The Season in Review: A Vintage Year for Broadway

The 2025–26 Broadway season may not have been the largest in recent memory — approximately 30 eligible productions, compared to the peak seasons of recent years — but the Tony results confirm what audiences and critics have been saying all year: it was one of the most qualitatively rich. The season produced six Tony-winning productions across the main categories, with wins spread across ten shows in total. No single show dominated to an embarrassing degree. The competition was fierce, the talent was extraordinary, and the winners — while not always the ones every forecaster predicted — each feel genuinely deserving.

The 79th Tony Awards also delivered something beyond theatrical excellence: cultural significance. Qween Jean’s historic win. John Lithgow’s third lifetime Tony. The Pulitzer-plus-Tony double for Liberation. Laurie Metcalf’s third Tony from a production that swept the technical categories. These are moments that will be cited in Broadway histories for years to come. The Great White Way had a very, very good year — and on 7 June 2026 at Radio City Music Hall, it celebrated accordingly.

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The Outsiders Complete Guide — Background, Plot, Full Cast, Everything You Need to Know

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 03:03:24 +0000

The Outsiders Musical Broadway Guide: Cast, Plot, and Production History

Published in Broadway Guides & Insights | Reading Time: ~15 minutes

Few American stories have left as indelible a mark on the cultural consciousness as S.E. Hinton’s seminal 1967 novel, The Outsiders. Written when Hinton was just sixteen years old, the book captured the raw, unfiltered vulnerabilities of youth, socioeconomic warfare, and chosen family. Decades after Francis Ford Coppola brought the story to the silver screen, this timeless tale of the “Greasers” and the “Socs” has found its definitive modern form on the Great White Way. The Outsiders musical has solidified itself as a bona fide Broadway blockbuster, capturing the 2024 Tony Award for Best Musical and continuing its record-breaking run at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

This comprehensive guide dives deep into the spectacular world of the production. From its folk-rock Americana score to its breathtakingly kinetic choreography, we explore the background, full production history, scene-by-scene plot breakdown, the refreshed 2026 Broadway cast, and the sweeping critical acclaim that has turned this staging into a generation-defining theatrical milestone.

The Foundation: From Novel to Stage

The journey of The Outsiders to a Broadway musical stage required balancing deep reverence for the source material with a bold reimagining of its visual language. The musical draws its narrative beats directly from S.E. Hinton’s book and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 motion picture adaptation. The book, a staple of middle and high school curriculums for over half a century, handles heavy themes of urban poverty, toxic masculinity, parental abandonment, and cycles of violence.

To ground the narrative for a contemporary theater audience, the production team leaned heavily into an authentic, gritty 1960s Tulsa aesthetic. They stripped away traditional musical theater artifice, opting instead for a staging style that feels as visceral and dangerous as the asphalt the characters walk on. The book of the musical, co-written by acclaimed playwright Adam Rapp and creative multi-hyphenate Justin Levine, preserves Ponyboy Curtis’s iconic first-person narration. This structure transforms the stage into an expansive, memory-filled canvas where notebook sketches and lighting shifts stand in for the passage of time.

The Golden Rule of the Adaptation: “Stay Gold.” The musical emphasizes this central motif, adapted from Robert Frost’s poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” It serves as an emotional compass for young Ponyboy and Johnny Cade as they navigate a harsh world designed to harden them prematurely.

Production History & Award Trajectory

Before capturing the hearts of Broadway audiences, The Outsiders underwent an extensive, highly deliberate developmental process. The musical had its official world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, in early 2023. This initial out-of-town tryout allowed the creative team—led by visionary director Danya Taymor and the sibling choreography duo Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman—to experiment with the show’s hallmark physical staging elements, including its intense, rain-slicked fight sequences and complex set configurations.

The show officially opened on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in the spring of 2024. Facing a highly competitive theatrical season, it quickly set itself apart through unparalleled word-of-mouth momentum, exceptional box office receipts, and a sweeping critical consensus.

The 77th Tony Awards and Major Milestone Accolades

At the 2024 Tony Awards, the production converted its critical momentum into historic wins, securing its place at the top of modern American musical theater:

Award Category	Recipient	Result	Significance
Best Musical	The Outsiders Production Team	Won	Cemented the show as the definitive production of the 2023-2024 Broadway season.
Best Direction of a Musical	Danya Taymor	Won	Honored Taymor’s staging, which fluidly links quiet human intimacy with explosive gang violence.
Best Lighting Design	Brian MacDevitt & Hana S. Kim	Won	Recognized the breathtaking use of shadows, headlights, and sunset hues illuminating the stage.
Best Sound Design	Cody Spencer	Won	Celebrated the hyper-realistic acoustic landscape, from falling rain to the roar of standard engines.

In tandem with its Tony Award triumphs, the production received a prestigious Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. This recognized the mainstream appeal of its original Broadway cast recording, which has amassed millions of streams globally.

Act-by-Act Plot Synopsis

The narrative of The Outsiders unfolds across two high-octane acts, balancing the domestic struggles of the three orphan Curtis brothers with the larger, escalating gang warfare consuming their Tulsa community.

Act I: The Divide and the Fountain

The musical opens in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1967. Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis sits quietly at a desk, writing frantically in his notebook. He introduces the audience to his world: a town strictly divided by class lines. On the North Side live the working-class, tough-as-nails Greasers; on the South Side live the affluent, privileged Socs, who cruise around in pristine Corvairs and wear expensive madras shirts. Ponyboy lives with his older brothers: Darrel (“Darry”), a former high school football standout who sacrificed his college dreams to work construction and keep the family together, and Sodapop, a charismatic, sensitive high school dropout working at a gas station.

Ponyboy’s best friend is Johnny Cade, a quiet, severely traumatized boy who was recently beaten half to death by a group of Socs. The tension reaches a boiling point when the fiery, freshly paroled Dallas “Dally” Winston takes Ponyboy and Johnny to a local drive-in movie theater. There, they meet Cherry Valance, a Soc cheerleader who refuses to conform to her peer group’s elitist expectations. Ponyboy and Cherry share a deep, quiet conversation about sunsets, books, and the realization that things are “rough all over,” sparking a dangerous resentment in Cherry’s boyfriend, Bob Sheldon.

Later that evening, after Darry strikes Ponyboy out of sheer, exhausted frustration over an missed curfew, Ponyboy and Johnny run away into the local park. They are swiftly ambushed by Bob and a ruthless contingent of intoxicated Socs. In an escalation of violence, the Socs attempt to drown Ponyboy in the park’s concrete water fountain. Terrified for his friend’s life, Johnny pulls a switchblade and stabs Bob Sheldon, killing him instantly. As the remaining Socs flee into the night, a panicked Ponyboy and Johnny turn to Dally. Dally provides them with cash, a gun, and instructions to catch a train to Windrixville, where they can hide out in an abandoned wooden church on Jay Mountain.

Act II: Fire, Rain, and Golden Skies

Act II begins in the quiet isolation of the Windrixville church. To alter their appearances, Ponyboy cuts and bleaches his signature hair. He and Johnny pass the long hours reading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and discussing the ephemeral nature of life, punctuated by Ponyboy reciting Robert Frost’s poetry. Dally arrives to check on them, revealing that the tension back in Tulsa has escalated into a city-wide war, with Cherry Valance acting as a secret spy for the Greasers.

Before they can leave the mountain, a fire breaks out at the church, trapping a group of young children who had been visiting for a picnic. Without a second thought, Ponyboy and Johnny rush inside the burning structure to rescue them. While Ponyboy escapes relatively unscathed, a collapsing roof beam strikes Johnny, breaking his back and leaving him with life-threatening third-degree burns. They are rushed back to Tulsa and hospitalized as heroes.

The narrative accelerates toward an ultimate showdown: a massive, sanctioned “rumble” between the Greasers and the Socs to determine turf control once and for all. Staged under a torrential downpour, the rumble is a masterclass in modern theatrical violence, with the Greasers emerging victorious. However, the victory rings hollow. Ponyboy and Dally rush to the hospital to deliver the news to Johnny, only to watch him pass away peacefully after uttering his final, immortal words to his friend: “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.”

Blinded by grief and rage over losing the only person he truly loved, Dally intentionally provokes a confrontation with the police, resulting in his tragic death on the street. The musical closes where it began—with the Curtis brothers reaffirming their bond to one another, and Ponyboy opening his notebook to write down the story of his fallen friends, ensuring their memory stays gold forever.

The Broadway Cast Breakdown

While the original Broadway cast—led by Brody Grant, Sky Lakota-Lynch, and Joshua Boone—set an incredibly high standard, the production entered an exciting new era with a major casting refresh at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. These young actors bring fresh energy, exceptional vocal power, and a deep emotional resonance to these legendary literary characters.

The principal Broadway cast features the following performers:

Noah Pacht (Ponyboy Curtis): Taking over the central narrative anchor, Pacht plays the十四-year-old dreamer with a mix of intellectual curiosity and raw, adolescent vulnerability. His vocal performance captures the acoustic folk styling of the character’s solo moments perfectly.
Caleb Mathura (Johnny Cade): Making a stunning Broadway debut following his run on national tours, Mathura plays the fragile yet incredibly brave “pet” of the Greaser gang. His portrayal of Johnny’s final moments is a certified tear-jerker.
SeQuoiia (Dallas Winston): Having previously understudied the role, SeQuoiia stepped permanently into the boots of the dangerous, magnetic, and fiercely loyal Dally, bringing an electric, commanding stage presence to every scene.
Dan Berry (Darrel Curtis): Transitioning from his original role as Paul Holden, Berry portrays the eldest Curtis brother with the crushing weight of premature paternal responsibility, utilizing a booming baritone that highlights the character’s internal conflicts.
Sutton James Kaylor (Sodapop Curtis): Making his Broadway debut, Kaylor imbues the middle Curtis brother with unmatched warmth, charm, and the heartbreak of a young man trying desperately to act as the glue holding his fragmented family together.
Emma Pittman (Cherry Valance): Continuing her acclaimed run from the original Broadway company, Pittman plays the Soc cheerleader with sharp intellect and vocal precision, beautifully illustrating the bridge between two warring social classes.
Daryl Tofa (Two-Bit Mathews): A continuing favorite from the original cast, Tofa provides essential comedic relief, physical agility, and fierce loyalty as the switchblade-loving veteran Greaser.

The Folk-Rock Americana Score

One of the most distinctive elements of The Outsiders is its musical identity. Moving completely away from standard, brassy Broadway showtunes, the production features music and lyrics by the acclaimed Texas folk-rock duo Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) alongside Justin Levine. The score is a rich tapestry of acoustic guitars, fiddles, harmonium, and soaring roots-rock harmonies that evoke the dusty, open-air feeling of 1960s Oklahoma.

Some of the show’s most impactful musical numbers include:

“Tulsa ’67”: The explosive opening company number that establishes the socioeconomic divide, the danger of the streets, and the distinct musical motifs separating the two rival factions.
“Runs in the Family”: Darry’s heartbreaking, introspective solo where he laments the sacrifices he has made, the fear of losing custody of his brothers, and the generational weight of his family name.
“I Could Talk to You All Night”: A gentle, gorgeously harmonized duet between Ponyboy and Cherry at the drive-in, stripping away their gang affiliations to reveal two lonely souls finding solace in shared perspectives.
“Far Away From Tulsa”: Johnny and Ponyboy’s sweeping, melancholy anthem sung in the shadow of their flight, expressing a deep, collective yearning for a utopia free from prejudice and violence.
“Trouble”: The dark, pulsing ensemble track that acts as the musical prelude to the rumble, building a terrifying sonic momentum as both gangs prepare for war.

Critical Reception: What the Experts and Audiences Say

Critical reception for The Outsiders on Broadway has been nothing short of rapturous. Reviewers have consistently singled out Danya Taymor’s inventive direction and the Kuperman brothers’ choreography for praise. The physical staging utilizes unconventional elements—such as real gravel, scaffolding, a vintage car chassis, and an active water system—to construct a playground of high-stakes theatricality.

The New York Times heralded the production as an “unusually poetic and extraordinarily moving adaptation,” praising its ability to appeal simultaneously to adult theatergoers and the legions of young adults reading the novel for the first time. Critics also widely lauded the technical departments, pointing out that the lighting and sound design work in tandem to simulate the absolute terror of the sensory experiences tied to gang warfare.

Moreover, audience reception has turned the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre into an emotional sanctuary. The production’s fan base has grown exponentially, drawing massive crowds to the stage door every night. It has successfully bridged the gap between classic literature preservation and modern cultural relevance, a feat few book-to-stage adaptations ever truly master.

Why The Outsiders Stays Gold on Broadway

At its absolute core, The Outsiders succeeds because it treats the emotions of young people with absolute seriousness. It does not look down on its characters or sanitize their struggles. By combining a timeless American narrative with an evocative folk score, groundbreaking physical theater, and a powerhouse new generation cast, the show stands tall as a triumphant monument to what contemporary Broadway can achieve.

Whether you have loved S.E. Hinton’s masterpiece for decades or are discovering the world of the Greasers for the very first time, this production offers a deeply cathartic, visually spectacular evening that will leave you breathless. Do not miss your chance to witness this American classic come to life on the New York stage.

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Dreamgirls Broadway: The Original 1981 Show & 2026 Revival

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:40:12 +0000

Dreamgirls on Broadway: The Original 1981 Hit & the 2026 Revival

Musical Theatre History & Preview · Broadway

Dreamgirls: The Musical That Made Broadway History in 1981 — and Returns for Its First-Ever Revival in Fall 2026

When Jennifer Holliday unleashed “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” at the Imperial Theatre on 20 December 1981, Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote: “When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it.” Forty-five years later, for the first time since that original production, Dreamgirls is coming back to Broadway — reimagined by one of theatre’s most electrifying directors and supported by the woman who won the Oscar playing its most famous role.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Original 1981 Production + 2026 Revival Preview · Sources: Playbill, Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, Variety, Rolling Stone, Parade, New York Theatre Guide, IBDB, Broadway News, Wikipedia, Complex

Original Production

Dreamgirls — Imperial Theatre, 1981

Broadway Opening20 December 1981	Closing Date11 August 1985
Total Performances1,521	Tony Nominations13
Tony Wins6	Director / ChoreographerMichael Bennett & Michael Peters

2026 Revival — Announced

Dreamgirls — Broadway, Fall 2026

OpeningFall 2026 (date TBC)	Director / ChoreographerCamille A. Brown
Executive ProducerJennifer Hudson (EGOT)	Lead ProducersSonia Friedman, Sue Wagner, John Johnson
TheatreTBC	CastingWorldwide open call underway

The Origins: From Backstage Inspiration to the Imperial Theatre

Dreamgirls has one of the more circuitous paths to Broadway of any major American musical — a journey that wound through failed workshops, star departures, and a director change before emerging as one of the most celebrated productions in the history of the American stage. Its origins lie in the specific world of early 1960s American R&B: the Motown era, when record labels discovered that Black vocal groups could be marketed to mainstream white audiences through a combination of pop-accessible arrangements and carefully managed public images. The tension between authentic artistic expression and manufactured commercial image — between who these women actually were and who their handlers needed them to be — is the musical’s central dramatic engine.

The seeds of the show were planted in the early 1970s, when Tom Eyen — an Off-Off-Broadway playwright — and composer Henry Krieger began developing material about female backup singers and the music industry. The project was initially workshopped by Joseph Papp at the Public Theater, with Nell Carter in the leading role alongside Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Devine. But in 1978, Carter departed the project, and the musical was shelved.

The project was rescued when it caught the attention of Michael Bennett — the director and choreographer who had transformed Broadway with A Chorus Line in 1975. Under Bennett’s guidance, the show was substantially reshaped: the character of Effie was deepened, the theatrical spectacle enlarged, and a relatively unknown singer named Jennifer Holliday was cast in the leading role. The musical opened at the Imperial Theatre on 20 December 1981.

The Story: Effie White, The Dreams, and the Price of Fame

Dreamgirls follows the rise and painful transformations of a young female singing trio from Chicago who become one of the biggest acts in American music — told across roughly two decades of the 1960s and 1970s, from their first amateur talent contest to their eventual individual reckonings with what success has cost them. The show is based on the real-world Motown era, drawing inspiration from The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, and Jackie Wilson.

The three central characters are Effie Melody White — the group’s most powerful voice, raw and gospel-inflected, whose refusal to compromise herself sets the show’s central tragedy in motion; Deena Jones — the beautiful, composed member who becomes the group’s commercial face and the wife of their manager; and Lorrell Robinson — the third member, warm and funny, whose relationship with the charismatic but self-destructive James “Thunder” Early provides the show’s most tragicomic subplot.

When manager Curtis Taylor Jr. begins to sideline Effie in favour of the more commercially palatable Deena, Effie’s refusal to accept her replacement — expressed in the Act One showstopper “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” — is the defining theatrical moment of the show. It is one of the most celebrated scenes in the history of Broadway: a song about love, betrayal, and the refusal to be erased that functions simultaneously as character revelation, dramatic climax, and pure musical transcendence.

Key Songs from the Score

Fake Your Way to the TopThe Dreams & James Thunder Early	Move (You’re Steppin’ on My Heart)The Dreams	One Night OnlyEffie / Deena Jones & the Dreams
And I Am Telling You I’m Not GoingEffie White — Act I showstopper	I Am ChangingEffie — Act II	Dreamgirls (Title Song)The Dreams
When I First Saw YouDeena & Curtis	FamilyFull Company	Hard to Say GoodbyeFull Company — Finale

“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” is perhaps the single greatest showstopper in the history of Broadway — a torch song that had audiences leaping to their feet mid-performance and demanding encores in the original production. Holliday’s original recording reached #1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1982 and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance. “One Night Only”, performed in two competing versions — Effie’s soul ballad and the group’s commercial disco re-recording — is a masterstroke of dramatic writing, using the song itself as the vehicle for the show’s central conflict about artistic integrity versus commercial success.

The Original 1981 Broadway Cast

Performer	Role	Notes
Jennifer Holliday	Effie Melody White	★ Tony Award — Best Leading Actress in a Musical Played Effie Dec 1981–Dec 1982. Grammy win for “And I Am Telling You.” At the time of her casting, a relatively unknown stage performer. The role made her one of the most celebrated voices in American musical theatre history.
Sheryl Lee Ralph	Deena Jones	Later won Emmy for Abbott Elementary (2022) and became a major television star. Tony nominated for her Dreamgirls performance. Delivered the original version of the title song.
Loretta Devine	Lorrell Robinson	Went on to major career in film and television including Waiting to Exhale, Boston Public, and Grey’s Anatomy. Her warmth and comic timing established her as a distinctive theatrical and screen presence.
Ben Harney	Curtis Taylor Jr.	★ Tony Award — Best Leading Actor in a Musical Played the ambitious, morally compromised manager whose love for Effie is real but whose commercial instincts consistently override it.
Cleavant Derricks	James “Thunder” Early	★ Tony Award — Best Featured Actor in a Musical Played the charismatic, self-destructive R&B star. Later became known to millions as Rembrandt Brown in the TV series Sliders.
Obba Babatundé	C.C. White	Tony nominated for Best Featured Actor. Played Effie’s songwriter brother and the moral conscience of the group.
Phylicia Rashad	Ensemble	Then credited as Phylicia Ayers-Allen, Rashad was a company member and understudy — an early Broadway credit for the actress who would become famous as Clair Huxtable in The Cosby Show and who later won Tony Awards for A Raisin in the Sun (2004).

The Tony Awards: 13 Nominations, 6 Wins — and the Controversial Loss

36th Annual Tony Awards — 1982 · Six Wins from Thirteen Nominations

Dreamgirls — Tony Award Winner 1982

Best Book of a MusicalTom Eyen	Best Actress in a MusicalJennifer Holliday (Effie)	Best Actor in a MusicalBen Harney (Curtis)
Best Featured ActorCleavant Derricks (James “Thunder” Early)	Best ChoreographyMichael Bennett & Michael Peters	Best Lighting DesignTharon Musser

Also nominated: Best Musical, Best Score, Best Direction, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Featured Actress (Loretta Devine and Sheryl Lee Ralph). Lost Best Musical to Nine — one of Broadway’s most debated Tony decisions in modern history.

The loss of Best Musical to Nine — Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’s stage adaptation of Fellini’s 8½ — remains one of the most contested Tony Award decisions of the modern era. The theatrical community at the time and since has largely regarded Dreamgirls as the stronger work. The loss has never diminished the show’s standing in the theatre community’s estimation — if anything, it has added to the show’s legend.

When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it. In the case of Dreamgirls, the electrical charge that surges through the Imperial Theatre is palpable from the moment the curtain rises — and it reaches its voltage in the extraordinary performance of Jennifer Holliday, the finest and most moving I have seen in years.

Frank Rich, The New York Times — Opening Night Review, 20 December 1981

The Original Run, Legacy and the Journey to Film

Dreamgirls ran at the Imperial Theatre from 20 December 1981 to 11 August 1985 — a total of 1,521 performances, making it one of the longest-running musicals of its era. The original cast recording, released on Geffen Records in 1982 and produced by David Foster, won two Grammy Awards: Best Musical Album and Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance for Holliday’s “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”

The show’s cultural impact expanded enormously with the 2006 film adaptation, directed by Bill Condon and starring Beyoncé Knowles as Deena, Jamie Foxx as Curtis, Eddie Murphy as James “Thunder” Early, and — in her film debut, after appearing on American Idol Season 3 — Jennifer Hudson as Effie White. Hudson’s performance was described as one of the finest vocal performances in movie history, winning her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. The film won three Golden Globes and two Oscars overall.

A 2016 West End revival at the Savoy Theatre, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and starring Amber Riley (Glee) as Effie, was warmly received but never made the expected Broadway transfer despite multiple casting calls over several years. A 2001 Actors Fund benefit concert in New York featured an extraordinary cast: Audra McDonald as Deena, Lillias White as Effie, Heather Headley as Lorrell, Billy Porter as James “Thunder” Early, and Norm Lewis as Curtis.

All of this means that the 2026 production directed by Camille A. Brown is the first entirely new Broadway staging since Michael Bennett’s 1981 original — a genuinely historic moment for American musical theatre.

The Director: Camille A. Brown and Why This Revival Is Different

Camille A. Brown is one of the most significant and artistically distinctive theatre-makers working in America today. A five-time Tony Award nominee for both choreography and direction, she has built a reputation for work that centres Black culture, Black movement vocabularies, and Black women’s interiority in ways that are simultaneously aesthetically bold and historically grounded.

Her Broadway credits include choreography for Choir Boy, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, and Gypsy. She served as director on Hell’s Kitchen — the Alicia Keys jukebox musical that was one of 2024’s most acclaimed productions. She will be the first director to stage a Broadway production of Dreamgirls since Michael Bennett’s original 1981 run.

Her deep fluency in the specific physical vocabulary of R&B performance, gospel, street dance, and African American social dance forms makes her a particularly well-suited interpreter for a show whose dramatic content is inseparable from its specific cultural context. Where Bennett’s staging was brilliant on its own terms, Brown’s vision promises to go deeper into the cultural roots of the material and to find a theatrical language that is fully contemporary without abandoning the show’s historical specificity.

The 2026 Revival: What We Know

2026 Broadway Revival — All Confirmed Details

Dreamgirls Returns — Fall 2026

Director / ChoreographerCamille A. Brown (5x Tony nominee)	Executive ProducerJennifer Hudson (EGOT, Oscar for Effie)	Lead ProducersSonia Friedman Productions, Sue Wagner, John Johnson
OpeningFall 2026 (official dates TBC)	TheatreTo be announced	CastingWorldwide open call — “women of all shapes and sizes”
Book & LyricsTom Eyen (original)	MusicHenry Krieger (original)	TypeFirst-ever newly directed Broadway revival

Jennifer Hudson announced her involvement as a producer on her television talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, in February 2026: “Twenty years ago, my life changed forever because of a film called Dreamgirls. I am beyond honored to join the extraordinary producing team behind this special, newly reimagined Broadway revival, and to help bring Dreamgirls back to the stage through the visionary direction and choreography of Camille A. Brown. This fall cannot come soon enough.”

This is Hudson’s third Broadway producing credit, following her Tony Award as a producer for A Strange Loop in 2022 and her role on Smash in 2025. The worldwide casting call — open to “talented women of all shapes and sizes” — signals that the production will not simply re-create the physical templates of previous stagings. Who will play Effie, Deena, and Lorrell remains the most anticipated casting announcement in Broadway’s fall season. The role of Effie carries the extraordinary weight of both Jennifer Holliday’s original and Jennifer Hudson’s Oscar-winning portrayal — a double inheritance that will require a remarkable performer to navigate on her own terms.

Producer Sonia Friedman — whose recent Broadway credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — brings institutional credibility and producing expertise that gives the revival every chance of achieving what it sets out to do: to give a new generation the experience of Dreamgirls as a live, breathing theatrical event rather than a historical artefact or a film memory.

Why Dreamgirls Still Matters — and Why 2026 Is the Right Moment

The 45-year gap between Dreamgirls‘s original Broadway run and its first-ever revival is itself a cultural statement. The show’s themes — the exploitation of Black female artists by the commercial entertainment machine, the tension between authentic expression and manufactured image, the high personal cost of ambition — are as urgently contemporary in 2026 as they were in 1981. Brown’s artistic sensibility, Hudson’s personal connection to the material, and Friedman’s producing expertise make this the right team at the right moment.

Who will play Effie? What will Brown do with the staging? How will the show speak to 2026 about the music industry’s exploitation of Black female artists? And can any performer make “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” stop a Broadway house the way Jennifer Holliday did on opening night forty-five years ago? The answers arrive in fall 2026. In the meantime, the announcement itself is enough: Dreamgirls is coming back. When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it.

Twenty years ago, my life changed forever because of a film called Dreamgirls. Inspired by the iconic stage musical, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to portray the one and only Effie White — a woman whose story and voice remain an ever-present force in my life. This fall cannot come soon enough.

Jennifer Hudson, announcing her producing role in the 2026 Broadway revival, February 2026

Tags: Dreamgirls Broadway Dreamgirls 2026 revival Dreamgirls original 1981 Jennifer Holliday Broadway Camille A Brown director Jennifer Hudson producer Broadway Dreamgirls Tony Awards And I Am Telling You Broadway Michael Bennett Dreamgirls Sheryl Lee Ralph Dreamgirls Loretta Devine Broadway Dreamgirls Effie White Dreamgirls 2006 film Beyonce Broadway musicals fall 2026 Sonia Friedman Productions Broadway

SEO TITLE: Dreamgirls Broadway: The Original 1981 Show & 2026 Revival META DESCRIPTION: Dreamgirls returns to Broadway fall 2026 for its first-ever revival. Full guide: the 1981 original, Jennifer Holliday, 6 Tony wins, the 2006 film & everything about the revival. FOCUS KEYWORD: Dreamgirls Broadway URL SLUG: dreamgirls-broadway-original-2026-revival CATEGORY: Broadway / Musicals

Dreamgirls Jennifer Holliday "I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" with Sheryl Lee Ralph & Loretta Devine

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Broadway Grosses Week Ending May 24 2026: Season Finale

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:10:21 +0000

Broadway Grosses Week Ending May 24 2026: Season Finale Report

Broadway Box Office Report · Week 52 of 2025–2026 Season

Broadway Grosses — Week Ending May 24, 2026: The Final Week of the Season, a House Record for Every Brilliant Thing, and a $1.91 Billion Year

Week 52 of the 2025-26 Broadway season belonged to Daniel Radcliffe’s farewell performance in Every Brilliant Thing — which set a new house record at the Hudson Theatre for the second consecutive week — while Memorial Day weekend lifted the overall industry gross to $40.7 million, capping a season that broke records for the second consecutive year.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Week Ending: Sunday 24 May 2026 · Sources: The Broadway League, BroadwayWorld, Playbill, Deadline, Broadway News, Broadway Direct

Total Weekly Gross$40.7M↑ 6.7% vs prior week

Total Attendance336,648↑ 6.2% vs prior week

Productions Running40Week 52

Avg Ticket Price$120.92vs $138.20 last year

Top Gross$2.3MEvery Brilliant Thing

Capacity↑ 4.3%vs prior week

$1.91B

2025-26 Season Total: A New Record
$1,910,903,835 across 52 weeks · 14,577,322 total attendees · 13,416 performances · 74 productions · 90.8% capacity · ↑ 1% vs last season

Week 52: The Last Week of the Season — Memorial Day, Radcliffe’s Farewell, and a Fire

The week ending 24 May 2026 was the final week of the 2025-26 Broadway season — Week 52 of a standard 52-week schedule — and it delivered one of the more dramatic curtain calls in recent memory. The Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend fell within this reporting window, generating the uptick in tourism-driven attendance that the holiday reliably produces. The 40 running productions collectively grossed $40,707,260 — a 6.7 percent increase over the prior week’s $38,166,527 and a rise in attendance of 6.2 percent to 336,648 theatregoers.

Two notable disruptions shaped the week’s numbers. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman played a planned seven-performance week rather than the standard eight — a scheduled reduction built into its final weeks. More dramatically, The Book of Mormon went dark entirely when a fire broke out at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, forcing the cancellation of all that week’s performances. The iconic Trey Parker and Matt Stone satirical musical was expected to reopen on 27 May.

Compared to Week 52 of the previous season, overall grosses were down 8.2 percent from $44,351,676 — though this comparison requires important context. The 2024-25 season was a 53-week season (Broadway’s occasional “leap year” to align with the calendar year), meaning that week also fell at a different seasonal moment. On a per-week basis, the 2025-26 season’s overall economics were broadly comparable to its predecessor.

The average paid admission for this final week was $120.92 — a decrease of $10.89 compared to the same week last year and $0.49 above the prior week. The gap between this week’s average and last year’s reflects the general trend throughout the 2025-26 season: while total season grosses set a new record, average ticket prices were somewhat lower than in the record-breaking 2024-25 season, with the increase driven primarily by higher attendance in certain productions rather than higher prices across the board.

Notable Disruption — Book of Mormon Dark This Week

The Eugene O’Neill Theatre fire caused The Book of Mormon to cancel all performances for the week ending 24 May 2026 — a rare complete production blackout for one of Broadway’s most consistent long-running earners. The show was expected to resume 27 May. No injuries were reported. The Eugene O’Neill Theatre is one of Broadway’s most historic venues, seating 1,094 and hosting some of the most celebrated productions of recent decades.

Every Brilliant Thing Leads the Week — and Sets the Hudson Record

The undisputed story of the week’s box office was Every Brilliant Thing at the Hudson Theatre, which led all Broadway productions with a gross of $2,296,473 — the highest gross ever recorded by any play at the Hudson Theatre, and a figure it set for the second consecutive week. The milestone reflects the extraordinary commercial momentum of Daniel Radcliffe’s final performances in the role of the unnamed narrator: the Tony-nominated performance that has been the cultural centrepiece of the late-season Broadway conversation.

Radcliffe played his final performance as the narrator on Sunday 24 May 2026 — the last night of the season — before handing the role to Emmy Award-winner Mariska Hargitay, who began her Broadway debut in the same role on Tuesday 26 May. The farewell performance generated a wave of media coverage and social media response, with audience members describing standing ovations of unusual intensity and a communal atmosphere unlike anything they had experienced at the Hudson Theatre during the run. The box office reflects that intensity: at a production originally capitalised for a limited engagement, a weekly gross of $2.3 million is a genuinely remarkable figure.

The show’s average ticket price for this final week was Broadway’s highest of any production — reflecting both the demand for Radcliffe’s farewell and the premium pricing strategy that had sustained the show’s commercial performance throughout its run.

House Record — Hudson Theatre

Every Brilliant Thing set the all-time house record at the Hudson Theatre for the week ending 24 May 2026 — $2,296,473 — the highest gross in the venue’s history. This was the second consecutive week the production set the record, having also set it the previous week.

It’s heartening to see not one but two of the season’s newest productions atop the list of top grossers as we head into the Tony Awards season — though new musicals are still trailing the straight plays Every Brilliant Thing and Death of a Salesman in the final week’s top rankings.

Playbill, Broadway Grosses Analysis, 27 May 2026

Top Grossers — Week Ending May 24, 2026

The top five productions of the week were led by Every Brilliant Thing in a commanding first place, with the long-running stalwarts Hamilton and The Lion King filling second and third — both benefiting from Memorial Day weekend tourist traffic — and Death of a Salesman and MJ The Musical rounding out the top five. The new season productions Ragtime and The Lost Boys came in just below, nearly tied as the week’s top-grossing new musicals at approximately $1.3 million each.

#	Show	Theatre	Weekly Gross	vs Prior Wk	Notes
1	Every Brilliant Thing	Hudson Theatre	$2,296,473	↑↑	All-time Hudson Theatre record (2nd consecutive week) · Radcliffe final performances
2	Hamilton	Richard Rodgers	$2,040,000	↑	Memorial Day weekend boost · Notable six-figure week-over-week gain
3	The Lion King	Minskoff Theatre	$2,000,000	↑	Consistent top-five performer · Holiday weekend tourist boost
4	Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman	Winter Garden	$1,640,000	—	7-performance week (planned) · Tony-nominated production
5	MJ The Musical	Neil Simon Theatre	$1,600,000	↑	Strong tourist week performance
6	Ragtime	Vivian Beaumont	~$1,300,000	↑	Top-grossing new musical of the week · 11 Tony nominations
7	The Lost Boys	TBC	~$1,300,000	↑	Nearly tied with Ragtime · 12 Tony nominations (leading)
—	Wicked	Gershwin Theatre	Notable gain	↑↑	Notable six-figure week-over-week gain noted by Playbill
—	Stranger Things: First Shadow	Broadway Theatre	Notable gain	↑↑	Notable six-figure week-over-week gain
—	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	Lyric Theatre	Notable gain	↑↑	Notable six-figure week-over-week gain
—	Oh, Mary! (Maya Rudolph)	Lyceum Theatre	Highest ever	↑↑↑	Maya Rudolph’s debut gave the show its highest gross of the entire run
—	The Book of Mormon	Eugene O’Neill	$0	DARK	Zero performances due to fire at Eugene O’Neill Theatre

Note: Individual show grosses are sourced from The Broadway League via Playbill, BroadwayWorld, Broadway News, and Deadline. Some figures are approximated from percentage change data and context reporting where precise individual figures were not separately itemised.

Oh, Mary! and the Maya Rudolph Effect

One of the week’s most commercially significant stories was the performance of Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum Theatre under its newest star, Maya Rudolph, who began her Broadway debut in the title role on 28 April 2026. The six-time Emmy Award winner’s debut week smashed the show’s previous all-time box office record, and the production continued to ride that momentum through the final week of the season.

Rudolph’s run — initially scheduled through 20 June but extended through 5 July 2026 — has confirmed what the show’s producer Kevin McCollum identified as the “Maya Rudolph effect”: a first-night box office surge so strong that it broke two all-time Lyceum Theatre records in the debut week alone. The show, which has now been running since July 2024, has broken its own box office record thirteen times in total — a commercial consistency matched by very few shows in Broadway history.

The 2025-26 Season Closes: A $1.91 Billion Record

With the final week’s grosses now confirmed, The Broadway League released the official 2025-26 season total on 27 May 2026, confirming a new record: $1,910,903,835 across 52 weeks — a 1 percent increase over last season’s $1,892,650,959, which itself was a record at the time. Broadway has now set a new season gross record for two consecutive years.

The full season statistics paint a picture of an industry in sustained, if modestly paced, commercial growth:

The season featured 74 productions, of which 35 opened during the season itself. Those 35 new productions included 12 musicals (six original, four revivals, and two return engagements) and 21 plays (14 original and seven revivals), plus two special engagements. The 35 productions together played 13,416 performances, with audiences filling 90.8 percent of available seats — a strong occupancy figure that reflects the quality of the season’s slate and the continued health of demand for Broadway.

The average ticket price across the full season was $131.09 — compared to $138.20 in the same week last year, reflecting a modest decline in average prices even as total grosses rose, a dynamic explained by stronger attendance volume in lower-priced seats and in productions with more accessible pricing structures.

Broadway’s president, speaking on the season results, described the record as evidence that “Broadway is more than just entertainment. Every production supports not only the artists and crews on stage and backstage, but also the restaurants, hotels, retail shops, transportation workers, and small businesses that rely on the energy Broadway brings to New York City.” The Broadway League noted that the industry continues to support nearly 100,000 jobs throughout the New York region.

2025-26 Season in Numbers

Total Gross: $1,910,903,835 · ↑ 1% vs 2024-25 · Attendance: 14,577,322 · ↓ 0.6% vs last season · Productions: 74 total, 35 opened this season · Performances: 13,416 · Occupancy: 90.8% · Avg Ticket: $131.09

Year-Over-Year: Why the 1% Gain Is More Impressive Than It Looks

A 1 percent increase in total season gross might seem modest, but it deserves context that makes it considerably more impressive. The 2024-25 season was a 53-week season — Broadway’s occasional “leap year” that occurs approximately every seven years to realign the season calendar with the standard calendar year. Having 53 opportunities to gross ticket revenue rather than 52 represents an approximately 2 percent structural advantage for last season.

When adjusted for the extra week — comparing 52-week seasons properly — the 2025-26 season’s per-week average gross was actually higher than last season’s. The industry grew on a like-for-like basis even as the headline comparison suggests only marginal change.

The slight attendance decline of 0.6 percent reflects a national trend in which ticket prices are rising faster than seat occupancy is growing — a dynamic familiar from the live entertainment industry broadly. More people are paying more for Broadway tickets than at any point in history, even if slightly fewer people in total are going. The sustainability of that model depends on the continued production of shows with sufficient commercial appeal to sustain premium pricing — and the 2025-26 season, with Wicked‘s ongoing records, Every Brilliant Thing‘s house records, and Oh, Mary!‘s thirteen box office bests, demonstrated that such productions continue to arrive.

What Comes Next: The Tony Awards and the Start of a New Season

The end of the 2025-26 Broadway season does not mean the end of Broadway activity — far from it. The 79th Annual Tony Awards take place on 7 June 2026 at Radio City Music Hall, broadcast live on CBS, and will honour the season that just concluded. With The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon! leading the nominations with 12 each, and Ragtime close behind with 11, the ceremony promises to be one of the most contested in recent memory. Host: P!NK.

Productions currently running will continue through the summer — most notably Every Brilliant Thing with Mariska Hargitay, then Tracee Ellis Ross; Oh, Mary! with Maya Rudolph through 5 July; and the long-running stalwarts Hamilton, The Lion King, Wicked, and Aladdin. Several Tony-season productions will close in June and July before the 2026-27 season begins in earnest in September.

The first official productions of the 2026-27 season begin arriving in September 2026, with School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and the long-anticipated Dreamgirls revival — directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown — following in the fall. The season promises to be one of the most diverse and ambitious in recent memory.

For the week ending 24 May 2026, the numbers confirm a season that delivered on the promise of its exceptional slate: record grosses, a packed house for farewell performances, Memorial Day momentum, and — in Daniel Radcliffe’s final bow as the narrator of Every Brilliant Thing — a genuinely historic theatrical moment to close the curtain on one of Broadway’s finest years.

Tags: Broadway grosses May 24 2026 Broadway box office week ending May 24 Every Brilliant Thing box office record Broadway 2025-26 season total Daniel Radcliffe final performance Maya Rudolph Oh Mary Broadway Hamilton Broadway gross 2026 Lion King Broadway gross 2026 Broadway Memorial Day 2026 Broadway season record $1.91 billion Book of Mormon closed fire Tony Awards 2026 season finale

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How Much Does a Broadway Musical Cost? Wicked & Lion King

Sun, 31 May 2026 23:49:45 +0000

How Much Does a Broadway Musical Cost? Wicked & Lion King Explained

Broadway Economics · In Depth

How Much Does a Broadway Musical Cost to Run Every Week? The Full Story — Using Wicked and The Lion King as Your Case Studies

When you buy a Broadway ticket for $200, $300, or even $500, where does all that money actually go? The answer involves union contracts, theatre rent, stagehands, musicians, royalties, marketing, wigs, and a financial model so precarious that even a global phenomenon like Wicked needs to gross over a million dollars a week just to keep the lights on.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Broadway Economics & Finance · Sources: Loeb & Loeb LLP (entertainment law), Broadway Journal, NewMusicalTheatre, The Hustle, Playbill, TheaterMania, The Hollywood Reporter, Fortune, Deadline, Marketplace, Guinness World Records, CBSNews, Richard Hester/Substack, BroadwayWorld

$650K–$1M+Weekly operating cost — large Broadway musical

$5MWicked’s single-week record grossFirst show ever to gross $5M in one week (Dec 2024)

$9.1BLion King lifetime stage gross (worldwide, all productions)

$1BWicked: fastest show ever to hit $1B Broadway ticket sales

15–20%Typical producer share of weekly profits

80%Broadway shows that never recoup their investment

The Question Everyone Asks: Where Does the Money Go?

Broadway is one of the most economically peculiar industries in the world. It produces a product — live theatrical performance — that cannot be stored, replicated, or sold in advance of its creation. Every single night, in eight performances a week, the entire inventory is consumed in real time and must be recreated from scratch the following evening. The cost of that recreation — of gathering a cast of dozens, an orchestra of twenty-six, a crew of stagehands, wardrobe, dressers, wigs, makeup, sound, lights, stage management, and every other element of a large-scale Broadway production — is staggering, continuous, and non-negotiable.

Most people who buy a Broadway ticket know, in an abstract way, that it is expensive to produce a show. What most people do not fully appreciate is just how expensive it is to run one — weekly, regardless of what the box office brings in. And understanding that cost is essential to understanding why Broadway tickets cost what they do, why so many shows close before their time, and why the productions that do manage to run for years and decades are the genuine commercial miracles that they are.

To make this concrete, we are going to follow the money through two of Broadway’s most successful productions in history: Wicked, which has been running at the Gershwin Theatre since October 2003 and broke the record for the highest single-week gross in Broadway history in December 2024; and The Lion King, which has been running since November 1997 and is, by any measure, the highest-grossing entertainment property in the history of human civilisation. Both shows are models of sustained commercial success. Both shows also spend enormous sums of money every single week just to open their doors.

Wicked

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz · Book: Winnie Holzman · Theatre: Gershwin Theatre, 222 W 51st St

Broadway Opening30 October 2003

Performances8,900+ (still running)

Original Capitalisation~$14 million

Lifetime Broadway Gross$5+ billion (Broadway alone)

Reached $1 BillionMarch 2016 (fastest ever)

Single-Week Record$5,000,000+ (Dec 2024)

The Lion King

Music: Elton John · Lyrics: Tim Rice · Book: Roger Allers & Irene Mecchi · Theatre: Minskoff Theatre (from 2006)

Broadway Opening13 November 1997

Performances10,000+ (still running)

Original Capitalisation~$15 million

Broadway Lifetime GrossOver $1.7 billion (Broadway)

All-Productions Gross$9.1 billion (worldwide, all productions)

Single-Week Record$4.3 million (Dec 2024)

Two Budgets, Two Very Different Conversations: Production vs. Weekly Operating

Before we get to the weekly costs, it is essential to understand that every Broadway production operates with two entirely separate and equally important financial frameworks: the production budget and the weekly operating budget. Confusing the two is the most common mistake made by people trying to understand Broadway economics, and the confusion leads to fundamental misunderstandings about why Broadway is so expensive and so commercially precarious.

The production budget — also called the capitalisation — is the upfront cost of creating the show: building the set, constructing the costumes, rehearsing the cast, hiring the creative team, paying for pre-opening marketing, depositing union bonds, and maintaining a financial reserve. According to entertainment law firm Loeb & Loeb, a typical Broadway musical production budget ranges from $8–12 million. Lavish spectacle musicals can go far higher: Wicked was capitalised at approximately $14 million. The Lion King, with its extraordinary costume and puppet design by Julie Taymor, was capitalised at approximately $15 million. The Hustle notes that these represent the ordinary range — the infamous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark reached a staggering $75 million.

The weekly operating budget is an entirely separate matter: the cost of running the show for each week it performs. This money must be earned back from the box office every single week, regardless of whether the production budget has been recouped. It is the recurring cost of Broadway: the salaries, the rent, the marketing, the maintenance, the utilities, the musicians, the stagehands, the dressers. According to NewMusicalTheatre’s detailed budget analysis, a typical Broadway musical’s weekly operating costs fall in the range of $300,000 to $750,000. Loeb & Loeb, writing in December 2023, put the range for major Broadway musicals at $650,000 to $800,000 per week, before theatre rent. Shows like Wicked and The Lion King — with their large casts, full orchestras, elaborate technical requirements, and enormous theatres — sit at the very top of this range.

The “Nut” — Broadway’s Most Important Number

In Broadway slang, the “nut” is the total weekly cost a show must cover before it sees a penny of profit. For a large musical in 2024, the nut — including operating costs, theatre rent (typically 6–7% of gross weekly box office receipts), and royalties — is commonly $800,000 to $1.2 million per week. Broadway Journal’s 2024 investigation found that shows like Water for Elephants had a weekly nut of approximately $960,000. This means the show had to sell nearly a million dollars’ worth of tickets every week before any money went toward recouping the initial investment.

The Weekly Budget Breakdown: Where Every Dollar Goes

NewMusicalTheatre’s comprehensive analysis of a typical Broadway musical budget provides the most detailed public breakdown of weekly operating costs available. Using their framework — updated for 2024-25 cost levels — here is where the money goes for a representative large-scale Broadway musical, with specific considerations for Wicked and The Lion King noted where relevant.

Cost Category	Typical Weekly Cost	Notes
Principal Cast Salaries	$60,000–$120,000+	Actors’ Equity minimum is approximately $2,400/week for a Broadway contract, but stars and featured players earn considerably more. Wicked’s lead is typically a major star; The Lion King carries dozens of principals.
Ensemble / Chorus Salaries	$30,000–$60,000	Each ensemble member earns Equity minimum (approx $2,400/week) plus additional fees for special skills (aerial work, puppetry). The Lion King’s 45+ cast amplifies this significantly.
Stage Management	$10,000–$15,000	Production stage manager plus two stage managers, per SSDC contract minimums.
Orchestra / Musicians	$80,000–$120,000+	Local 802 (musicians’ union) contracts require a minimum band size for Broadway musicals; typical minimums are 18–26 musicians. Wicked uses 23 musicians. The Lion King employs a full pit orchestra. Each musician earns approximately $2,600–$3,500/week.
Wardrobe / Dressers	$30,000–$60,000+	Local 764 (wardrobe workers’ union) members who maintain and change the costumes. The Lion King has 232 individual costumes requiring constant maintenance. Dressers assist during the show; wardrobe maintains between shows.
Stagehands / Crew	$100,000–$175,000+	IATSE Local 1 (stagehands’ union) members operating the complex technical systems: fly systems, hydraulics, automation, sound, lighting. The Gershwin Theatre (Wicked) has one of the most complex fly systems on Broadway. The Minskoff (Lion King) requires elaborate Pride Rock automation. Stagehand weekly costs can reach $175,000 for technically intensive shows.
Marketing & Advertising	$75,000–$150,000+	Digital advertising, print, outdoor, agency fees, social media, group sales commissions. Long-running shows can reduce this significantly once brand awareness is established, but major productions maintain substantial ongoing marketing spend.
Management Fees	$20,000–$35,000	General manager, company manager, production manager weekly fees, press agent (ATPAM contract).
Wig / Hair / Makeup	$15,000–$30,000+	Wig maintenance and hairwork is extraordinarily labour-intensive for shows like Wicked (where Elphaba and Glinda’s wigs are iconic design elements) and The Lion King (elaborate headpieces, masks, and painted faces for the entire cast).
Equipment Rental / Maintenance	$20,000–$40,000	Sound equipment, lighting equipment, video systems, props, specialized machinery. Wicked’s flying system alone requires significant weekly maintenance.
Insurance	$5,000–$10,000	Production insurance, workers’ compensation, general liability.
Payroll Taxes & Union Fringe Benefits	$40,000–$80,000	Employer’s share of payroll taxes plus union pension, health, and welfare contributions for all union employees (Equity, Local 1, Local 802, Local 764, IATSE, ATPAM). This adds approximately 25–30% on top of gross wages.
Royalties	$50,000–$150,000+	Weekly royalties paid to the authors (music, lyrics, book), director, choreographer, designers, and underlying rights holders. For Wicked, Stephen Schwartz and the estate of Gregory Maguire (whose novel is the source material) receive royalties. For The Lion King, Elton John and Tim Rice receive music and lyrics royalties. Typically calculated as a percentage of operating profits.
Theatre Rent	$60,000–$150,000+	Typically 6–7% of gross weekly box office receipts, paid to the theatre owner. For a show grossing $2 million a week, this amounts to $120,000–$140,000 in rent alone. At Wicked’s record week of $5 million, the Gershwin Theatre would have received approximately $325,000–$350,000 in rent that week.
TOTAL WEEKLY NUT (Large Musical)	$650,000–$1.2M+	Range for a large-scale Broadway musical in 2024–25, including all costs listed above. Wicked and The Lion King are at the high end of this range.

For a major Broadway musical, fixed weekly operating costs excluding theater rent usually range from $650,000 to $800,000 a week. On top of those costs, the theater will charge weekly rent calculated as a percentage — usually 6% or 7% — of the gross weekly box office receipts.

Loeb & Loeb LLP, Entertainment Law Firm — “The Basics of Investing on Broadway,” December 2023

Wicked: From $14 Million Investment to Broadway’s Greatest Commercial Success Story

Wicked opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre on 30 October 2003, following out-of-town tryouts in San Francisco. The original capitalisation was approximately $14 million — substantial even by Broadway standards, reflecting the scale of Eugene Lee’s massive scenic design, Susan Hilferty’s 300-plus costumes, and a complex fly system that includes the famous dragon that rises above the proscenium. Previews had begun on 8 October 2003, with Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.

The initial reviews were mixed — several major critics found the book overlong and melodramatic — but the audience response was immediate and overwhelming. The show recouped its investment in 14 months and began generating profits consistently thereafter. It reached $1 billion in Broadway ticket sales in March 2016, becoming the fastest Broadway show in history to reach that milestone — achieved in just over 12 years. As of 2025, its total Broadway gross exceeds $5 billion.

Wicked Box Office Milestones

Date

Gross

Significance

Oct 2003

~$800K

Opening weeks — building audience

Dec 2013

$3.2M

Nine-show week; at the time, highest weekly gross in Broadway history

Mar 2016

—

Reaches $1 billion in Broadway ticket sales — fastest show ever to do so

Dec 1, 2024

$2.93M

Thanksgiving week — boosted by film release

Dec 2024 ★

$5M+

BROADWAY RECORD — First show in history to gross $5 million in a single week (Christmas week, 9 performances, avg ticket $290.61)

Jan 7, 2024

$2.12M

Regular holiday week grosses consistently over $2M

The December 2024 record — a gross of over $5 million in a single week — was generated by a perfect storm of commercial circumstances: the holiday week (Christmas and New Year’s), an additional ninth performance, and the enormous commercial momentum of the Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande film adaptation, which had opened on 22 November 2024 to a record-breaking $114 million domestic opening weekend. The film’s success drove millions of new fans to discover or rediscover the stage show, creating the kind of symbiotic theatrical-cinematic momentum that Hollywood and Broadway rarely manage to generate simultaneously.

At an average ticket price of $290.61 that record week, with 17,334 people in the Gershwin Theatre, Wicked‘s gross of approximately $5 million represented something extraordinary: enough revenue to cover the weekly nut of perhaps $1–1.2 million and generate approximately $3.8 million in gross profit for the week. From that profit, theatre rent (approximately $325,000–$350,000 at 6–7%), royalties to Schwartz and other participants, and amortization toward investor repayment would be calculated. The remaining sum — available for distribution to investors — would have been one of the most lucrative single weeks in Broadway history.

Even in ordinary weeks, Wicked‘s commercial performance is extraordinary. The show regularly grosses $1.5–$2.5 million per week during non-holiday periods, generating consistent profits on a weekly nut it has long since mastered the art of covering. It is, in every meaningful commercial sense, the most successful long-running musical in Broadway history in terms of consistent profitability.

The Lion King: The Most Successful Entertainment Property in Human History

The Lion King opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 13 November 1997, following a world premiere run at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis in July 1997. Directed by Julie Taymor in her Broadway debut, the show applied a radical approach to the familiar material: rather than hiding the theatrical machinery behind realistic illusions, Taymor made the theatrical apparatus — the masks, the puppets, the pageantry — visible and central to the production’s visual language. The cast of 46 performers, 232 costumes, and extraordinary pageantry represent one of the most labour-intensive productions in Broadway history — with correspondingly high weekly costs.

On 13 June 2006, the production moved from the New Amsterdam to the Minskoff Theatre, where it continues to run after more than 10,000 performances. The move was made to free up the New Amsterdam for Disney’s new productions, and the Minskoff’s slightly larger capacity has allowed the show to maximise its revenue potential across its second decade and beyond.

The Lion King By the Numbers

The Lion King — Broadway

Opening Date

13 November 1997

Original Theatre

New Amsterdam (1997–2006)

Current Theatre

Minskoff Theatre (2006–present)

Broadway Lifetime Gross

$1.7 billion+

Single-Week Record

$4.3M (Christmas 2024)

Passed Phantom of the Opera

2012 — became highest-grossing Broadway show

Cast size

46 performers, 232 costumes

Wicked — Broadway

Opening Date

30 October 2003

Theatre

Gershwin Theatre (2003–present)

Broadway Lifetime Gross

$5 billion+

Single-Week Record

$5M+ (Christmas 2024 — Broadway record)

Reached $1 Billion

March 2016 (fastest ever)

Orchestra size

23 musicians

The Lion King’s global commercial achievement is almost beyond comprehension. By 2017, the stage production — across all its international productions and tours — had grossed over $8 billion worldwide. As of the most recent figures from Disney Theatrical Group and the Broadway League, the global gross stands at a minimum of $9.1 billion, making it the highest-grossing entertainment title in human history when not adjusted for inflation — surpassing any individual movie, book, video game, or other entertainment property. The Guinness World Record for this achievement was confirmed in 2019.

The Broadway production specifically passed The Phantom of the Opera in 2012 to become Broadway’s all-time highest-grossing show — a remarkable achievement given that Phantom had a nearly ten-year head start on its opening in 1988. The Lion King’s higher average ticket prices and slightly larger theatre were the key factors in its eventual overtaking of the Sondheim-era record-holder. When the surpassing milestone occurred, The Lion King had grossed just over $853 million on Broadway, passing Phantom’s total with a week’s gross of over $2 million.

In the Christmas week of 2024, benefiting from the same holiday surge that propelled Wicked to its record, The Lion King grossed $4.2 million across nine performances — setting its own all-time single-week record — at an average ticket price of $279.04.

How Broadway’s Financial Model Actually Works: The Path from Ticket Sale to Investor Return

To understand why Broadway tickets cost what they do — and why even enormously successful shows like Wicked and The Lion King charge $200, $300, or $500 for premium seats — it helps to trace the full financial journey of a single week’s box office receipts.

The Broadway League publishes Gross Weekly Box Office Receipts (GWBOR) for every running show every week. This is the total money taken in at the box office — but it includes credit card commissions and other fees the production itself does not retain. As a result, a show that grosses $2 million in a week may actually retain only approximately $1.9 million after credit card fees, group sales commissions, and ticket agency charges.

From that retained gross, the production pays its weekly operating costs first — the nut described above. If the retained gross exceeds the nut, the show is in profit for the week. If it does not, the production is losing money — drawing down its reserve, or potentially facing closure.

From the weekly profits (gross above the nut), the theatre owner takes their rent as a percentage of the gross (not the profit), typically 6–7%. This is calculated on the gross, not the net, which means the theatre owner benefits from a successful show regardless of the production’s overall profitability. The theatre owner also takes responsibility for the building’s upkeep, heat, cleaning, and box office operations — costs that would otherwise fall to the production.

The remaining profits are then divided between the royalty pool participants (authors, director, choreographer, designers) and the investors. In a standard Broadway musical, the royalty pool receives a calculated percentage of operating profits; investors — who provided the capitalisation — receive 50% of all remaining profits until the show recoups, and then typically 35% of profits thereafter (with the producers taking 65%).

Richard Hester’s detailed financial illustration from January 2024 put it simply: “Say your show costs $600,000 a week to run… Say for one week, you bring in a million dollars at the box office. That means for that week you have a gross profit of $400,000. Generally what happens next is that the profit is split in half. 50% goes to the theatre owners and 50% goes back to the company. The company then takes its share of the profits and then either puts it toward paying off the original investment or distributes it among the investors.” While the 50/50 split is a simplification, it captures the essential dynamic.

Joining the million dollar club at the Broadway box office used to be a matter of prestige. Today, it’s often a requirement for a show’s survival. Thanks to a resurgence of spectacles, as well as overall inflation and recent labor contracts that contribute to higher costs, musicals depending on weekly grosses of seven figures are increasingly common.

Broadway Journal, “Inside Broadway’s $1 Million Nut Cases,” December 2024

The Union Factor: Why Broadway’s Workforce Costs Are Non-Negotiable

One of the most important — and least understood — elements of Broadway’s cost structure is the role of union contracts. Broadway operates under collective bargaining agreements with multiple unions, each covering a specific category of worker, and each setting minimum wages, benefits, working conditions, and staffing requirements that apply to every production regardless of its commercial potential.

The principal unions governing Broadway employment are:

Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) — covers all actors and stage managers. The current Broadway minimum is approximately $2,400 per week for a principal performer, with ensemble minimums slightly lower. Stars and featured players negotiate individually above these minimums. For a large-scale musical with 40+ performers and stage management team, the Equity payroll alone is approximately $120,000–$200,000 per week before stars’ individual deals.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 1 — covers all Broadway stagehands. The stagehand contract is one of the most complex and most contentious in Broadway economics: head carpenter, head electrician, head sound operator, and other department heads earn significant weekly salaries, and every production must staff to minimum levels that reflect the technical complexity of the show. For a technically complex production like Wicked — with its automation, elaborate fly systems, and sophisticated lighting — stagehand costs are among the show’s most substantial weekly expenses.

American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 802 — covers all Broadway musicians. The musicians’ contract specifies minimum band sizes for different types of productions: a large musical is typically required to employ a minimum of 18 musicians, and additional musicians may be required based on the score’s specifications. Each musician earns approximately $2,600–$3,500 per week, plus benefits. For Wicked‘s 23-piece orchestra, the weekly music payroll is approximately $70,000–$80,000 before fringe benefits and payroll taxes.

IATSE Local 764 — covers all wardrobe workers and dressers. For a show like The Lion King, with 232 costumes requiring constant maintenance and 46 performers who need to be dressed (often multiple times per performance), the wardrobe crew can number 30 or more people. Their weekly costs — including the head of wardrobe, assistant wardrobe supervisors, dressers, and wig maintenance — are a significant budget item.

The combined employer payroll taxes and union fringe benefits (pension, health and welfare) add approximately 25–30% to the gross wage bill, meaning that for every $100,000 in direct wages paid to union employees, the production pays an additional $25,000–$30,000 to the various union funds. This fringe overhead is built into every Broadway production’s weekly budget.

Recoupment: The Mountain Most Broadway Shows Never Climb

The most sobering statistic in Broadway economics is this: approximately 80 percent of Broadway productions never recoup their initial investment. This means that for every Wicked or Lion King that earns back its capitalisation and generates profit for investors, four other shows fail to return their backers’ money — even if they run for weeks or months to decent box office receipts.

The mathematics of recoupment illustrate why this is so difficult. A show capitalised at $12 million that generates $200,000 per week in operating profit — a very good week — will take 60 weeks to recoup. That is 15 months of profitable trading, maintaining strong box office throughout, while keeping weekly costs stable, before the first dollar of profit reaches an investor. Most shows cannot sustain 60 weeks of profitable performance. Many close before they begin to generate consistent profits.

Wicked recouped its $14 million investment in 14 months — approximately 60 weeks, given its strong early box office. The Lion King recouped its investment in approximately 30 months (the show’s first three years were spent building its audience base). Both shows are now in what Broadway calls the “pure profit” phase — all operating costs covered weekly, all initial investment long since returned, with every week’s above-nut grosses generating returns for producers and investors and royalties for the creative team.

This is why, as The Hustle’s economics piece noted, “Hamilton, which has a weekly operating budget of ~$643k excluding royalties and theater rent, covered its $12.5m production budget 6 months after its summer 2015 debut by pulling in ~$1.5m in revenue every week.” The exceptional shows — the ones that become cultural phenomena immediately — can recoup in months. The ordinary good shows take years. And the great majority do not make it at all.

Why Broadway Tickets Cost What They Do — and Why They Will Only Go Up

Armed with an understanding of Broadway’s weekly costs, the question of why tickets are so expensive becomes, essentially, rhetorical. The show must pay all of the above costs every week. The only source of revenue is ticket sales. The Gershwin Theatre has 1,933 seats; the Minskoff Theatre has 1,621. With eight performances a week, Wicked‘s maximum possible audience is approximately 15,000 people per week; at the Minskoff, The Lion King‘s maximum is approximately 13,000.

To gross $1 million a week from 15,000 available seats, Wicked needs an average ticket price of approximately $67 — and that is at perfect capacity, every show, for all 8 performances. In practice, capacity is rarely perfect, and the weekly nut is over $1 million. Which is why the actual average ticket price for Wicked in a typical week is over $150 — and why premium tickets for high-demand performances can exceed $500.

The dynamics of premium pricing are particularly important. Dynamic pricing — where ticket prices fluctuate based on demand, similar to airline tickets — is now standard practice on Broadway, and both Wicked and The Lion King use it extensively. On a Saturday night in the Christmas week, when demand is highest, premium seats at both shows can exceed $600–$800. On a Tuesday afternoon in February, the same seats might be available for $89 through rush or lottery programmes. This pricing variability is not greed — it is the mechanism by which Broadway maintains the revenue it needs to cover costs even when some performances play to less-than-capacity houses.

The broader economic pressures on Broadway — inflation in labour costs following post-pandemic union contract negotiations, increases in theatre rent, rising marketing costs in a fragmented media landscape — all push in one direction: up. Broadway Journal’s 2024 investigation found that the million-dollar weekly nut, once exceptional, is now normal for large-scale musicals. It will only become more common as costs continue to rise.

The Bottom Line: What It All Means

The story of Wicked and The Lion King is, at its core, a story about the extraordinary commercial success that can emerge from the application of consistent artistic excellence to a financially brutal industry. Both shows were capitalised at $14–15 million, more than twenty years ago. Both have since generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. Both currently require over $1 million per week in box office receipts just to break even — and both consistently deliver far more than that, week after week, year after year.

For every Broadway ticket buyer who winces at a $300 orchestra seat, the numbers above explain where that money goes: to the musicians who have trained for years to play a score perfectly eight times a week; to the stagehands who rebuild the set between shows so that the technical magic is flawless every performance; to the dressers who maintain 232 Lion King costumes so that every single one looks as magnificent as it did on opening night; to the theatre itself; and, ultimately, to the investors who took the risk of putting millions of dollars into a show that had no guarantee of success.

Broadway is expensive because excellence is expensive. And nowhere is that truth more clearly demonstrated than in the ongoing, extraordinary, record-breaking runs of Wicked and The Lion King — two shows that have not merely survived Broadway’s punishing economics, but have used them to become the most commercially successful theatrical productions in history.

Tags: Broadway musical weekly cost Wicked Broadway box office Lion King Broadway history Broadway production budget Broadway economics explained how much does Broadway cost Broadway weekly operating costs Wicked $5 million record week Lion King $9 billion gross Broadway salaries unions why are Broadway tickets so expensive Broadway recoupment explained Wicked Broadway 2003 opening Lion King Broadway 1997 opening Broadway finance investors

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Oh, Mary! Need More Broadway: Tony Winner, Box Office Record & Full Guide

Thu, 28 May 2026 09:23:20 +0000

Oh, Mary! Broadway: Tony Winner, Box Office Record & A Show That Won’t Quit

Show Guide · Still Running 2026

Oh, Mary! The Gleefully Deranged Comedy That Conquered Broadway, Broke Every Record at the Lyceum — and Refuses to Stop Running

A miserable, alcoholic, cabaret-obsessed Mary Todd Lincoln. A nonbinary comedian making their Broadway debut as both playwright and star. Five Tony nominations, two wins, a Pulitzer Prize finalist citation, thirteen box office records broken, and a celebrity casting carousel that has turned one of Broadway’s most beloved comedies into a permanent New York institution. This is the story of Oh, Mary!

Published: 27 May 2026 · Currently Running at the Lyceum Theatre, Broadway · Sources: Broadway.com, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, Broadway Direct, TheaterMania, Time Out New York, New York Times, Variety, The Guardian, London Theatre Direct, Show-Score, Deadline

Show at a Glance

Written by	Cole Escola
Director	Sam Pinkleton (Tony Award winner)
Off-Broadway Theatre	Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St, NYC
Off-Broadway run	February 2024 – June 2024 (extended three times)
Broadway Theatre	Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street, New York
Broadway previews	26 June 2024
Broadway opening	11 July 2024
Currently running	Yes — tickets on sale through 3 January 2027
Running time	80 minutes, no intermission
Age recommendation	14 and up
Producers	Kevin McCollum, Lucas McMahon, Mike Lavoie, Carlee Briglia
Capitalisation	$4,525,000 (fully recouped)
West End transfer	Trafalgar Theatre, London — 18 December 2025

2Tony wins

5Tony nominations

$1.2MSingle-week record gross

13+Box office records broken

80Minutes no intermission

9Stars who’ve played Mary

Who Is Cole Escola? The Downtown Comedian Who Changed Broadway

Before Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola was what the entertainment industry calls a cult figure: enormously beloved within a specific, savvy community — the downtown New York comedy and cabaret scene, the LGBTQ+ arts world, the audience for the kind of extremely specific, extremely queer, extremely funny internet content that accumulates devoted followers one viewer at a time — and almost completely unknown to the mainstream. They had appeared on television, most notably in Search Party (as the unforgettable Patrick, assistant to the terrifying Chip Wreck) and in At Home with Amy Sedaris and Difficult People. They had performed in downtown cabarets and developed a YouTube following for their genre of comedy — historical parody, camp excess, and a timing so precise it borders on the uncanny. They were, as the theatrical community puts it, a known quantity in the right circles.

They are nonbinary — using they/them pronouns — and their comedy has always operated in the space where gender performance, historical absurdity, and genuine psychological observation collide. The sensibility that makes their work distinctive is impossible to describe precisely but immediately recognisable in practice: a kind of gleeful, absolutely committed commitment to a bit, paired with an underlying intelligence that gives even the most outrageous material a human core. When they wrote Oh, Mary! — based on, as the press notes put it, “the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln, through the lens of an idiot (Cole Escola)” — they were applying this sensibility to one of American history’s most discussed and least examined figures.

Their performance in the show won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play — making them the first nonbinary performer ever to win a Tony Award in an acting category. It was a genuinely historic moment, received with enormous warmth by the theatrical community and with something close to delirium by the audiences who had already fallen completely in love with the show.

The Plot: Mary Todd Lincoln’s Forgotten Dreams, Alcoholism, and Cabaret Aspirations

To describe the plot of Oh, Mary! accurately is to risk making it sound either more serious or more absurd than it actually is — which is a tribute to the skill with which Escola has calibrated every element. It is, at its core, a dark comedy set in the weeks leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Mary Todd Lincoln — a figure who has historically been portrayed as either hysterical, tragic, or merely background — is re-examined here as a woman whose inner life has been comprehensively suffocated: by marriage, by the presidency, by the expectations of a society that had no space for what she actually wanted to be.

And what Mary Todd Lincoln — Escola’s Mary, Escola’s demented and hilarious and surprisingly affecting Mary — wants to be is a cabaret star. This is the play’s central and utterly inspired comic premise: that the First Lady of the United States, in the most fraught weeks of the Civil War, is secretly training with a handsome drama coach, sneaking out of the White House, and nursing a comprehensive alcoholism while her husband is simultaneously consumed with lust for a young male underling.

The show runs for just 80 minutes with no intermission, and it moves at the pace of a bullet. The comedy operates on multiple levels simultaneously: there is pure farce (pratfalls, anachronisms, physical gags that ambush the audience into helpless laughter), there is sharp historical satire (the play gleefully punctures the sanctimony with which Americans tend to treat the Lincoln era), and there is, beneath all the chaos, a genuine and surprisingly moving portrait of a woman whose dreams have been erased by history and who is, in Escola’s telling, absolutely determined to reclaim them — even if the method of reclamation is objectively insane.

The supporting characters are equally inspired. Mary’s Husband — Abraham Lincoln, whom Escola’s Mary addresses with a weary contempt that is one of the show’s running gags — is portrayed as an easily distracted, slightly dim romantic, consumed with feelings for his young male assistant. Mary’s Teacher — the handsome drama coach — is the object of Mary’s forbidden crush. Mary’s Chaperone provides the prim foil against which Mary’s excesses play. And Mary’s Husband’s Assistant — the object of Lincoln’s affections — completes a domestic tableau of spectacular dysfunction.

None of this is historically accurate — the show cheerfully announces this — and that’s entirely the point. Oh, Mary! is not a history play. It is a comedy about what history chooses to remember, what it chooses to forget, and why the forgotten lives of women — even first ladies — deserve, at minimum, a standing ovation and a glass of champagne.

Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do pop up they tend to be the kind of funny that evokes smirks, chuckles or wry smiles of recognition. Not so here.

Time Out New York — Adam Feldman, Five Stars — Off-Broadway Review, 2024

The Off-Broadway Run: How It All Began at the Lucille Lortel

The story of Oh, Mary! begins not on Broadway but in Greenwich Village, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street — one of Off-Broadway’s most storied and beloved venues, whose Playwrights’ Sidewalk outside the entrance honours the great figures of American dramatic writing, including camp-comedy legends Charles Ludlam and Charles Busch. Time Out’s Adam Feldman, in his five-star review, noted that by adding his name to that walk with Oh, Mary!, Escola had “stake[d] a strong claim to being the next step” in that lineage. He was not wrong.

The Off-Broadway production opened in February 2024 with the same cast that would largely carry over to Broadway: Escola as Mary, Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone, Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, and Hannah Solow and Peter Smith completing the company. The production was directed by Sam Pinkleton — now a multiple Tony Award-winner who has since also directed the Broadway premiere of The Rocky Horror Show.

The critical response was immediate and overwhelming. Time Out New York gave it five stars and declared it “the funniest play in years.” The show’s run was extended once, then a second time, then a third. In what is practically unheard of for a small Off-Broadway production, it sold out every remaining performance of every extension the moment tickets became available. By the time the production closed at the Lucille Lortel in June 2024 in preparation for its Broadway transfer, it had become one of the most talked-about theatrical events in New York that year — and the Broadway transfer had been announced in April 2024 to widespread excitement and immediate ticket demand.

The Off-Broadway run also established the production’s identity as something genuinely distinctive: not merely a funny play but a specific, fully realised world that Escola and Pinkleton had created with total intentionality. The Lucille Lortel’s intimate space — where you could see every expression on Escola’s face and feel the audience’s laughter as a physical sensation — turned out to be the ideal laboratory for a comedy that depends so completely on the performer’s ability to share every flicker of thought with the room.

Broadway Opening: The Lyceum Theatre, July 2024, and the Records That Followed

When Oh, Mary! transferred to Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre — the beautiful Beaux Arts house at 149 West 45th Street, built in 1903 and the oldest continuously operating Broadway theatre in New York City — it brought with it nearly its complete Off-Broadway creative team and an audience hunger that the slightly larger venue (895 seats) was perfectly sized to meet.

Previews began on 26 June 2024. The official Broadway opening was 11 July 2024. The production was originally announced as a 12-week limited engagement, running through 15 September 2024. It has since been extended, repeatedly and indefinitely, and tickets are currently on sale through 3 January 2027 — making it one of the longest-running limited engagements in Broadway history.

The commercial results were staggering from almost immediately. Within weeks of opening, the show became the first production in the Lyceum Theatre’s 121-year history to gross more than $1,000,000 in a single week — a milestone that triggered considerable press attention and confirmed that the downtown cult phenomenon had fully crossed over into mainstream Broadway success. The show subsequently broke that record twelve more times, with the highest single-week gross reaching $1,225,937 (for the week ending 24 November 2024, the Thanksgiving week), at an average ticket price of $171.32.

The production recouped its entire $4,525,000 capitalisation and became the first show of the 2024-25 Broadway season to recoup its investment — a commercial achievement that made it, simultaneously, the season’s most artistically celebrated and most commercially successful production. TheaterMania noted that with a lifetime average ticket price of $150, and 30 percent of the theatre’s 895 seats priced below $100, the show had achieved this record-breaking performance with an unusually democratic ticket pricing structure.

The Nine Marys: Broadway’s Most Celebrated Revolving Door

One of the most distinctive and commercially ingenious aspects of Oh, Mary!‘s Broadway run has been the production’s strategy of periodic celebrity replacements in the title role — a strategy that has turned each new casting announcement into a media event, generated sustained press attention throughout the run, and introduced the show to the specific fan bases of each successive star. The result has been one of Broadway’s most spectacular celebrity casting parades, with each new Mary generating a fresh wave of ticket demand and making the show feel, perpetually, like it has something new to offer even to people who have already seen it.

Broadway Direct maintains the definitive record of every performer who has played Mary Todd Lincoln on Broadway. Here is the complete list:

Performer

Run Dates & Notes

Cole EscolaTony Award Winner ★

July 11, 2024 – June 21, 2025 · Original Broadway star and playwright. First nonbinary Tony winner in acting history. First show of the 2024-25 season to recoup.

Betty Gilpin

First replacement star following Escola’s departure. Acclaimed for capturing the role’s particular blend of desperation and absurdity. Extensive Broadway and television career.

Tituss Burgess6x Emmy Nominated

Through 2 August 2025 · Six-time Emmy Award nominee, beloved as Titus Andromedon in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Had previously played a limited run earlier in the production.

Hannah Solow

30 September – 12 October 2025 · Original company member and understudy, stepping into the title role following Jinkx Monsoon’s initial departure.

Jane KrakowskiTony · Olivier · Critics’ Choice winner

14 October 2025 – 4 January 2026 · Tony, Olivier, and Critics’ Choice Award–winning actress (Elaine Vassal in Ally McBeal; 30 Rock). Over 80 performances.

Jinkx MonsoonRuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner

Returned January 2026; final bow 1 February 2026 · RuPaul’s Drag Race champion who first played the role in a limited engagement, returned for an additional 30 performance run.

John Cameron MitchellCreator of Hedwig

3 February – 26 April 2026 · 12-week engagement. Creator and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Self-described as “the most mature Mary yet.” Warmly welcomed by Escola and Pinkleton.

Maya Rudolph6x Emmy winner — Broadway debut

28 April – 5 July 2026 (extended) · Six-time Emmy Award winner, former SNL cast member, known for portraying Kamala Harris. Made her Broadway debut. Broke two all-time box office records in her debut week. Quote: “I’ve never seen myself in a character the way I see myself in Mary — which is strange because I don’t even drink.”

Meg StalterHacks — Broadway debut

6 July – 12 September 2026 · Breakout star of HBO’s Emmy-winning Hacks (as Kayla Schaefer). Making her Broadway debut. Quote: “I’ve never seen myself in a character the way I see myself in Mary, which is strange because I don’t even drink, but that’s what Cole’s beautiful work does to you.”

The supporting cast has remained largely consistent throughout the run, providing the continuity and the technical precision that each new Mary needs to find her footing. Phillip James Brannon has played Mary’s Husband for much of the run. Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone has been one of the production’s most consistent and most praised presences — her comic partnership with each successive Mary is one of the show’s great pleasures. Cheyenne Jackson has returned to the cast as Mary’s Teacher for several engagements. Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant has been a constant throughout. Understudies Hannah Solow, Martin Landry, and Julian Manjerico complete the company.

What the Critics Said: The Reviews That Made History

The New York Times

★★★★★

Staff

“One of the best crafted and most exactingly directed Broadway comedies in years.” The Times was unequivocal in its endorsement, calling the play’s structure and execution the work of a fully realised theatrical artist. The review praised both Escola’s performance and Sam Pinkleton’s direction as working in perfect, complementary harmony.

Time Out New York — Off-Broadway Review

★★★★★

Adam Feldman

The most enthusiastic notice of the Off-Broadway run: “Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter… I can’t remember the last time I saw a play that made me laugh, helplessly and loudly, as much as Oh, Mary!” Feldman’s five-star review was one of the most widely shared pieces of theatre criticism of 2024. He added that “it’s a transhistorical delight: a very 21st-century comedy about a 19th-century tragedy as filtered through a lens of 20th-century movie dramas.”

Variety

Staff

“A broad, wildly funny comedy that spits in the face of American history… smarter than it looks.” Variety’s notice praised the intelligence beneath the show’s apparently anarchic surface — specifically noting that the play’s comedy has a genuine critical intelligence about historical memory and the erasure of women’s interiority, even while delivering what it described as “a fast and wild joy ride.”

The Guardian

Staff

“A gloriously deranged historical romp… Escola’s comic timing is perfection.” The Guardian’s notice for the London production, which opened at the Trafalgar Theatre in December 2025 with Escola making their West End debut, was equally warm: “gloriously unhinged,” it called Escola’s performance, in a notice that confirmed the show’s transatlantic critical triumph.

TheaterMania

Staff

“The funniest comedy on Broadway right now… Escola gives it to the audience good and hard.” TheaterMania’s notice was among the most quotable of the season, capturing the show’s generosity — its commitment to giving the audience maximum comic pleasure with no restraint or condescension — in a single memorable phrase.

Show-Score — Audience Consensus

Verified Ticket Buyers

Audience reviewers on Show-Score consistently describe the show as “Hilarious, Entertaining, Clever, Funny, Delightful” — the five most commonly used words in verified reviews. The production has maintained an extraordinarily high audience satisfaction rating throughout its run, with multiple ticket buyers describing it as the funniest show they have ever seen on Broadway. “Every single one of Escola’s glugs, put-downs, punchlines, glares and loony line deliveries is a scream,” as one widely shared audience review put it.

The Box Office Records: How Oh, Mary! Made Lyceum History

The commercial performance of Oh, Mary! is so extraordinary that it deserves its own detailed examination. What is particularly remarkable is not simply that the show broke records, but the consistency and the frequency with which it has done so across a run that now exceeds two years.

Milestone	Figure	Context
Capitalisation	$4,525,000	Fully recouped — first show of 2024-25 season to do so
First $1M+ week at Lyceum	$1,000,000+	First in the theatre’s 121-year history ★
Box office record set	$1,225,937	Week ending 24 November 2024 (Thanksgiving week)
Average ticket price (lifetime)	$150	With 30% of seats below $100
Record-breaking weeks	13+	Has broken its own box office record thirteen or more times
Maya Rudolph debut week	Two new all-time records	Broke the Lyceum all-time record in her very first week

The box office performance of Oh, Mary! is a case study in how commercial theatre success can be generated by purely artistic means. The show had no pre-existing IP, no famous source film or novel, no A-list star attached at its Off-Broadway premiere. It had a queer comedian in their Broadway debut, a clever premise, and a director who knew exactly what to do with both of those assets. The rest is box office history.

The celebrity replacement strategy — which was not part of the original plan but evolved organically as the show’s cultural momentum grew and famous admirers began approaching the producers — has been an additional commercial accelerant. Each new Mary announcement generates a wave of fresh media attention, ticket sales spike for the debut week, and audience members who have already seen the show often come back to experience a new interpretation. It is a virtuous commercial cycle that the producers have managed with considerable skill.

Taking Over London: The West End Transfer at the Trafalgar Theatre

The international ambitions of Oh, Mary! were confirmed when Cole Escola made their West End debut — performing in the title role they created — at the Trafalgar Theatre in London, which opened on 18 December 2025 and ran through 25 April 2026. Sam Pinkleton reprised his Tony-winning direction for the London production, ensuring the show arrived in the West End at the full quality that had made it a New York institution.

The critical response was unanimous. London Theatre Direct reported that the production was hailed as “mesmerising” and “deliriously funny,” and that Escola’s performance elicited the same helpless, full-body laughter from London audiences that New York had been experiencing since February 2024. The Guardian’s four-star review called it “a gloriously deranged historical romp.” The West End run sold out its limited engagement, and discussions about a possible extension or return were reported, though no further London dates have been confirmed at press time.

The Creative Team: The People Behind the Magic

The production’s consistent quality across more than two years and nine different leading performers is not accidental. It reflects the specific strengths of a creative team that built the show to be simultaneously fixed — in its structure, its design, its theatrical values — and flexible enough to accommodate very different interpretations of the central role.

Sam Pinkleton‘s direction creates a comic architecture so precise that each new Mary can inhabit it without having to rebuild it. He describes the show as having been designed to be “structurally robust” — meaning the set pieces, the timing, the physical grammar of each scene are established clearly enough that a new performer can learn them, own them, and then find her own specific voice within them. His Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play recognises this achievement: the creation not of a single production but of a theatrical machine that keeps delivering joy regardless of who steps into the machine’s central role.

The design team — dots (Scenic Design), Holly Pierson (Costume Design), Cha See (Lighting Design), Daniel Kluger (Sound Design and Original Music), and Leah J. Loukas (Wig Design, including the now-iconic “bratty curls” that identify each Mary) — created a visual world that is simultaneously historically suggestive and theatrically artificial, allowing the play’s radical ahistoricity to feel intentional rather than accidental. The iconic curly wig has become, across nine wearers, a Broadway icon in its own right: shorthand for a specific kind of theatrical confidence, the kind that says “we know this is absurd and we are absolutely committed to it.”

Currently Running and What Comes Next

As of May 2026, Oh, Mary! is in the middle of Maya Rudolph’s extended run as Mary Todd Lincoln — a run that broke two all-time Lyceum box office records in its opening week and has continued to draw extraordinary crowds and box office performance. Rudolph, who had a famous quote on receiving the casting: “I’ve never seen myself in a character the way I see myself in Mary — which is strange because I don’t even drink,” plays the role through 5 July 2026.

From 6 July through 12 September 2026, Meg Stalter — the breakout star of HBO’s Hacks — makes her own Broadway debut in the role, completing a trio of comedy legends who represent three different generations and sensibilities of American comedy: Rudolph (SNL lineage), Stalter (internet-era comedy), and the show’s creator Escola (downtown cabaret and queer comedy). Stalter’s statement — “When I first met Cole Escola, they said, ‘I thought I was too old to feel this excited and giddy about a new friend,’ and that’s exactly how I felt when I met Mary Todd Lincoln for the first time” — has been widely celebrated as capturing the particular magic the role seems to exercise on every performer who takes it on.

Tickets are currently on sale through 3 January 2027, with casting for the period after Stalter’s run yet to be announced. Given the show’s track record of generating headline-making celebrity replacements, the announcement of who plays Mary after September 2026 will itself be a major Broadway news event.

Oh, Mary! is not historically accurate. This is a comedy about a 19th-century tragedy as filtered through a lens of 20th-century movie dramas. But it is the funniest play in years — and also, unexpectedly, the most human.

Critical consensus across The New York Times, Time Out, Variety and The Guardian

Tags: Oh Mary Broadway Cole Escola Tony Award Oh Mary Lyceum Theatre Oh Mary box office record Mary Todd Lincoln comedy play Sam Pinkleton director Maya Rudolph Broadway debut Meg Stalter Broadway debut Jane Krakowski Oh Mary Jinkx Monsoon Broadway Oh Mary Off Broadway Lucille Lortel Oh Mary Tony nominations 2025 Oh Mary West End London Broadway comedy 2024 2025 2026 Oh Mary cast celebrity replacements

Links

La Cage Aux Follies – Memorabilia

Mame – Memorabilia

Jerry Herman – Memorabilia

Hello Dolly – Memorabilia

My Fair Lady – Memorabilia

Chess the Musical – Memorabilia

Half a Sixpence – Memorabilia

Hadestown – Memorabilia

Hamilton – Memorabilia

Wicked – Musical

Little Shop of Horrors – Memorabilia

Starlight Express – Memorabilia

Dear Evan Hansen – Memorabilia

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – Memorabilia

The Producers – Memorabilia

Ragtime – Memorabilia

Terrence McNally – Memorabilia

Paradise Square – Musical

Phantom of the Opera – Musical

Falsettos the Musical

Cabaret – Musical

The post Oh, Mary! Need More Broadway: Tony Winner, Box Office Record & Full Guide appeared first on Theatregold.

One Man, Two Guvnors: The Ultimate Guide to the West End & Broadway Farce

Thu, 28 May 2026 09:02:36 +0000

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

A Riotous 1960s Farce by Richard Bean | Based on Carlo Goldoni

Memorabilia Available Here

Introduction: The Rebirth of British Farce

In 2011, the National Theatre of Great Britain unleashed a production that would redefine modern stage comedy. **One Man, Two Guvnors**, written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner, became an instant cultural phenomenon. Transposing the 18th-century Italian *commedia dell’arte* classic *The Servant of Two Masters* by Carlo Goldoni to the gritty, colorful seaside world of **Brighton in 1963**, Bean created a play that was simultaneously a period piece, a slapstick masterclass, and a showcase for improvisational brilliance.

At its heart is Francis Henshall—a man whose only motivations are food and sex, and who finds himself hilariously over-leveraged after accepting jobs from two different “guvnors.” This 4,000-word post provides the most comprehensive look at the production that vaulted James Corden to international superstardom, exploring its intricate plot, the technical demands of its physical comedy, and its decorated history across the West End and Broadway.

Full Plot Summary: Brighton 1963

Act I: The Double Employment

The play opens in the Brighton home of Charlie “The Duck” Clench, a local gangster celebrating the engagement of his daughter, Pauline, to Alan Dangle, an aspiring (and incredibly melodramatic) actor. The celebration is interrupted by the arrival of Francis Henshall, who announces that his boss, Roscoe Crabbe, has arrived to claim his fiancée (Pauline) and the money owed to him. The problem? Roscoe was recently murdered by Stanley Stubbers. In reality, “Roscoe” is his twin sister, Rachel Crabbe, in disguise.

Francis, permanently ravenous, spots an opportunity for a second paycheck and takes a job with Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding in the same hotel. Francis now serves two masters: one a woman disguised as her dead brother, and the other her secret lover and the man who killed her brother. Neither guvnor knows the other is in Brighton, and Francis must spend the rest of the play performing an increasingly frantic balancing act to keep them apart while attempting to feed himself.

Act II: The Climax of Chaos

The second act features the play’s most famous sequence: the dinner service. Francis must serve both his masters dinner simultaneously in separate rooms, aided only by the ancient, pace-maker-wearing waiter Alfie. This leads to a whirlwind of physical comedy, involving flying plates, exploding seltzer bottles, and audience participation. As the lies reach a breaking point, the identities are revealed, the lovers are reunited, and Francis finally manages to secure both a sandwich and the heart of Dolly, the feminist bookkeeper.

Character Guide & Analysis

Francis Henshall (The Arlecchino)

**Analysis:** Francis is the modern iteration of Arlecchino from *commedia dell’arte*. He is driven by base desires—hunger and lust—but possesses a sharp, improvisational wit. The role requires a “double-threat” actor: someone who can execute grueling physical slapstick while maintaining a direct, charming relationship with the audience. James Corden’s portrayal was celebrated for its “lovable rogue” energy, blending scripted lines with seemingly spontaneous ad-libs that made every performance unique.

Rachel Crabbe (The Disguised Sister)

**Analysis:** Playing “Roscoe,” Rachel must balance the toughness of an East End hood with the desperation of a woman in love. Her character drives the plot’s stakes, representing the “danger” element of the farce. Her disguise is paper-thin to the audience but impenetrable to the other characters, a classic trope of the genre.

Stanley Stubbers (The Posh Idiot)

**Analysis:** Stanley is the “upper-class twit” archetype. He is posh, arrogant, and blissfully unaware of the chaos Francis is causing. His absurdity provides a perfect contrast to the working-class grit of the Brighton setting.

Production History & Original Casts

After its 2011 premiere at the National Theatre (Lyttelton), the show transferred to the West End’s Adelphi Theatre and later the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2012, it made its triumphant debut on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre.

Role	Original London/Broadway Cast
Francis Henshall	James Corden
Stanley Stubbers	Oliver Chris
Rachel Crabbe	Jemima Rooper
Alfie (The Waiter)	Tom Edden

The Skiffle Factor: Music & Content

One of the most distinctive features of *One Man, Two Guvnors* is the inclusion of a live skiffle band, **The Craze**. Led by Grant Olding, the music provides “entr’acte” entertainment and serves as a bridge between the play’s Italian roots and its British 1960s setting. The music keeps the energy high, ensuring the pace never slackens even during set changes. The play’s content is rated 12A/PG-13, featuring light suggestive themes and cartoonish violence, making it a “broad” comedy in every sense of the word.

Critical Response & Awards

The play received “rave” reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. *The Guardian* called it a “triumph of visual and verbal comedy,” while *The New York Times* described it as “the funniest show on Broadway.”

Tony Award (2012): Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (James Corden) – WINNER
Drama Desk Awards (2012): Outstanding Music in a Play & Featured Actor (Tom Edden) – WINNER
Olivier Awards (2012): Nominated for 5 awards including Best New Play.
Evening Standard Theatre Award: Best Play – WINNER

Links

Shining City – Memorabilia

Torch Song Trilogy – Memorabilia

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Memorabilia

Slave Play – Memorabilia

The Boys in the Band – Memorabilia

Wild Animals You Should Know – Play

Angels in America – Play

Hangmen – Play

Mothers and Sons – Play

The Book of Mormon – Musical

One Man, Two Guvnors

ames Corden’s Argument with Himself

National Theatre UK

One Man, Two Guvnors | Trailer | National Theatre

National Theatre UK

The one with the soup

The post One Man, Two Guvnors: The Ultimate Guide to the West End & Broadway Farce appeared first on Theatregold.

New Broadway Shows 2026: Every Musical & Play Opening This Fall

Tue, 26 May 2026 15:15:42 +0000

New Broadway Shows 2026: Every Musical & Play Opening This Fall

Broadway Preview Guide · June – December 2026

Every New Broadway Show Opening in the Next Six Months: The Complete Fall 2026 Season Guide

From Dreamgirls‘ first-ever revival to Tom Hiddleston sparring with Hayley Atwell in a disco-era Much Ado, from Dolly Parton’s life story set to her greatest hits to Raúl Esparza making science rock as Galileo — the next six months on Broadway are nothing short of extraordinary. Here is everything confirmed, announced, and rumoured for the second half of 2026.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Broadway Season Preview — June to December 2026 · Sources: Broadway.com, Playbill, Broadway Direct, BroadwayWorld, New York Theatre Guide, Gold Derby, People Magazine, Time Out London, Variety, Seatplan

Total confirmed productions10+ shows confirmed

New musicalsGalileo, Wanted, Dreamgirls, Dolly

New playsInter Alia, 860 (Billy Crystal)

Play revivalsMuch Ado About Nothing, School Girls

Hollywood debutsTom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell, Rosamund Pike

Tony season beginsApril 2027

New Play

New Musical

Revival (Play or Musical)

Announced / Rumoured

The 2026-27 Broadway season is shaping up to be one of the most culturally rich and commercially exciting in recent memory. After a spring season dominated by star-driven limited engagements and the Tony Awards race, the fall brings something different: a wave of new productions — original musicals, landmark revivals, prestige new plays — that will define Broadway’s artistic character through the winter and into the next awards cycle. Several of the most anticipated productions in the history of their respective source materials are finally arriving. Several of the biggest names in international entertainment are making their Broadway debuts. And a handful of productions are generating the kind of early-stage buzz that suggests this may be a season for the history books.

What follows is the most comprehensive guide available to everything opening or expected to open on Broadway between June 2026 and December 2026 — from fully confirmed productions with dates and casts to the compelling rumours and early announcements that are reshaping what the season will look like. We have gathered information from every available source: Playbill’s official schedule, Broadway Direct, Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, New York Theatre Guide, Gold Derby, and industry trade press. We have indicated clearly where a production is confirmed and where it remains in the announcement or rumour stage.

The Confirmed Productions: Full Details on Every Announced Show

Play Revival · September 2026

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play

Theatre: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre Previews: September 2026 Opening: TBC Playwright: Jocelyn Bioh

The Broadway revival of Jocelyn Bioh’s beloved comedy — originally produced Off-Broadway at MCC Theater in 2017 — arrives at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre this fall. Set in a 1986 boarding school in Ghana, the play follows a group of girls whose rigid social hierarchy is upended when a glamorous new student arrives from America with a chance to compete in the Miss Universe pageant. It was hailed as one of Off-Broadway’s finest comedies of the decade — sharp, funny, warm, and deeply human — and its Broadway transfer is one of the season’s most eagerly anticipated arrivals.

Bioh has since become one of Broadway’s most celebrated writers — her play Jaja’s African Hair Braiding was a hit on Broadway in 2023. Full casting for the revival has not yet been confirmed, but the production is expected to feature a predominantly Black West African cast with a director yet to be announced at press time. This is the kind of show that earns its audiences through word-of-mouth and genuine theatrical joy — and the Broadway community cannot wait.

Musical Revival · Fall 2026

Dreamgirls

Theatre: TBC Previews: Fall 2026 Opening: TBC Director/Choreographer: Camille A. Brown Producers: Sonia Friedman, LaChanze, Jennifer Hudson (exec. producer) Music: Henry Krieger · Book & Lyrics: Tom Eyen

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated production of the entire fall 2026 season, Dreamgirls is returning to Broadway for its first-ever revival — more than four decades after Jennifer Holliday stopped the show nightly with “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” at the Imperial Theatre in 1981. The original production ran for 1,522 performances and won six Tony Awards including Best Musical. It has never been revived on Broadway. Until now.

The production is directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown — the five-time Tony-nominated director and choreographer whose recent work has included the Tony-winning revival of Gypsy and Hell’s Kitchen. Brown is one of the most artistically distinctive and culturally specific theatre-makers working on Broadway today, and her vision for the material — which follows a Supremes-inspired girl group’s rise through the corrupt machinery of the American music industry — is already generating enormous interest. Producers have launched a nationwide casting search for “the Dreams,” suggesting that the production may be taking the bold step of casting relatively unknown performers in the central roles rather than reaching for an established star.

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson — who played Effie White in the 2006 film adaptation and won the Oscar for the role — has joined the producing team. Her involvement adds a layer of emotional legitimacy to the project, and has generated considerable media attention. Full venue, dates, and casting are expected imminently. There is simply nothing on Broadway’s horizon that carries more cultural weight than this revival.

New Solo Play · October 2026

860

Theatre: TBC Previews: October 2026 Opening: TBC Written & performed by: Billy Crystal

Tony and Emmy Award-winner Billy Crystal returns to Broadway with a brand-new one-man show titled 860 — named for the address of his longtime Los Angeles family home, which was destroyed in the devastating Palisades wildfires of January 2025. The show is described as Billy reliving 46 years’ worth of memories — personal and professional — from the home he shared with his family, and how “the power of laughter can overcome the most difficult of times.” Broadway Direct describes it as “a hilarious and intimate story about family, friendship, love, luck, and loss.”

Crystal is a Broadway icon — his one-man show 700 Sundays (2004 and 2013) ran for 769 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. That show, also rooted in intensely personal memoir, demonstrated his remarkable ability to transform individual experience into universal comedy. 860 promises the same combination of warmth, precision, and genuine emotion, with the additional charge of being rooted in a very recent, very public tragedy. The casting of Crystal as the sole performer means the box office appeal is enormous and immediate — expect this show to sell out well in advance of its October preview start.

New Musical · October 2026

Wanted

Theatre: James Earl Jones Theatre Previews: 15 October 2026 Opening: 8 November 2026 Starring: Solea Pfeiffer, Liisi LaFontaine, Ledisi Music: Ross Baum · Book & Lyrics: Angelica Chéri Director: Stevie Walker-Webb

One of the most compelling new American musicals arriving on Broadway this fall, Wanted tells the mostly true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, African-American twin sisters who took extraordinary measures in the early twentieth century to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and save her family home — going from farmgirls to outlaws to legends in the process. The musical premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2024 under the title Gun & Powder and received strong reviews for its blend of dramatic urgency and inventive musicality.

The Broadway production stars Solea Pfeiffer — one of the most exciting musical theatre voices of her generation, known for her acclaimed work in Almost Famous on Broadway — alongside Liisi LaFontaine and Grammy Award-winning singer Ledisi in what promises to be one of the season’s outstanding vocal ensembles. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, the show arrives at the James Earl Jones Theatre with significant creative ambition and an important story of Black female agency and survival that feels urgently, specifically American. This is the kind of new musical that Broadway needs and that audiences will find both entertaining and genuinely moving.

Play Revival · October/November 2026

Much Ado About Nothing

Theatre: Winter Garden Theatre Previews: 31 October 2026 Opening: 19 November 2026 Closing: 10 January 2027 Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell Director: Jamie Lloyd

The production that is generating the most mainstream celebrity heat of the entire fall season is Jamie Lloyd’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, which brings two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most beloved stars to the Broadway stage for the first time — or nearly. Tom Hiddleston, globally known as Loki and a former Tony-nominated Broadway performer in 2019, returns as Benedick. Hayley Atwell — beloved for her role as Agent Peggy Carter — makes her Broadway debut as Beatrice, completing one of the most eagerly anticipated theatrical pairings of the decade.

The production, described by London Theatre as “disco-tastic,” received widespread acclaim when it premiered in London in spring 2025. Director Jamie Lloyd — the visionary whose RSC and West End productions consistently reimagine canonical work in theatrically audacious new forms — brings his signature approach to the Shakespeare comedy: minimal set, maximum physical energy, and a tonal register that finds the play’s wit and its feeling simultaneously. The show has a strictly limited booking through January 2027, and is expected to sell out extremely quickly. Get your tickets early.

New Play · November 2026

Inter Alia

Theatre: Music Box Theatre Previews: 10 November 2026 Opening: 1 December 2026 Closing: 21 February 2027 Starring: Rosamund Pike Playwright: Suzie Miller · Director: Justin Martin

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Rosamund Pike — one of the most magnetic screen presences of her generation, known for Gone Girl, Saltburn, and The Wheel of Time — makes her Broadway debut in Inter Alia, the new legal drama by Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who previously wrote Prima Facie — the landmark legal monologue that launched Jodie Comer to Broadway stardom.

The title, “Inter Alia,” is a Latin legal phrase meaning “among other things,” and the play lives up to its name: it is about a London Crown Court judge named Jessica Parks — a maverick, fun-loving, feminist jurist determined to reform a system she knows isn’t always just — whose career and family collide when an unthinkable event rocks their lives. The show premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2025, transferred to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre for a sold-out run, and arrives at the Music Box Theatre fresh from two acclaimed London engagements. Director Justin Martin reunites with Miller for the Broadway production, as he did for Prima Facie. Pike’s Broadway debut is one of the most anticipated theatrical events of the winter season.

New Musical · November/December 2026

Galileo

Theatre: Shubert Theatre Previews: 10 November 2026 Opening: 6 December 2026 Starring: Raúl Esparza, Joy Woods, Jeremy Kushnier Music & Lyrics: Zoe Sarnak & Michael Weiner Book: Danny Strong · Director: Michael Mayer

One of the most creatively ambitious new musicals to arrive on Broadway in years, Galileo tells the story of the Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei — the maverick scientist whose heliocentric discoveries challenged the Catholic Church, changed humanity’s understanding of the cosmos, and nearly cost him his life. The production premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2024 to enthusiastic reviews, and its Broadway transfer at the Shubert Theatre is one of the season’s most eagerly anticipated musical arrivals.

Four-time Tony-nominated Raúl Esparza — one of Broadway’s most thrillingly versatile performer-singers, who has not appeared on Broadway since 2012 — returns in the title role. His casting is itself a major theatrical event. Joy Woods, Tony-nominated for her work this season, and Jeremy Kushnier complete the lead cast. The music is by Zoe Sarnak and Michael Weiner, with a book by Danny Strong (Emmy winner for Empire, book writer of this season’s Chess revival), and direction by Tony winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, American Idiot). The creative team alone is one of the most distinguished assembled for any new musical this decade.

Play Revival · Fall 2026

The Imaginary Invalid

Theatre: Todd Haimes Theatre (Roundabout Theatre Company) Previews: Fall 2026 Starring: Bill Irwin Adapted by: Bill Irwin from Molière · Director: Brandon J. Dirden

Legendary physical comedian and Tony winner Bill Irwin stars in — and has adapted — Molière’s classic comedy Le Malade Imaginaire in this Roundabout Theatre Company production. Irwin’s adaptation, directed by Brandon J. Dirden, promises the kind of inventive, physically precise theatrical experience that has defined Irwin’s career across five decades. Molière’s hypochondriac protagonist is one of comedy’s great obsessives, and there is no living American actor better suited to inhabiting the particular delight of theatrical self-delusion than Irwin. Dates and full casting are expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Confirmed for Fall/Winter 2026 — Dates Still to Be Announced

New Musical · 2026 Date TBC

Dolly: A True Original Musical

Theatre: TBC Dates: 2026 (full details to be announced) About: Dolly Parton biographical jukebox musical

One of Broadway’s most anticipated new productions for years is finally taking shape: Dolly: A True Original Musical, a biographical musical following the life of Dolly Parton from her barefoot beginnings in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee all the way to performing in platform heels under the bright lights of Hollywood. The show features all of Parton’s biggest hits — Jolene, 9 to 5, I Will Always Love You, Coat of Many Colors, and many more — in what promises to be one of the most crowd-pleasing theatrical events in recent memory.

Parton, who is famously enthusiastic about the project, has been involved in its development, and her endorsement and participation give the production an authenticity and energy that purely posthumous biographical jukebox musicals often struggle to achieve. Full details — director, casting, theatre, and specific dates — are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. This will be one of the biggest ticket-selling events of the Broadway season the moment bookings open.

Musical Revival · 2026 Date TBC

Next to Normal

Theatre: TBC Dates: Fall 2026 (details to be announced) Music: Tom Kitt · Book & Lyrics: Brian Yorkey

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about mental illness, grief, and the limits of love is returning to Broadway — making its Broadway revival announcement one of the most emotionally resonant of the season. The original 2009 production starred Alice Ripley in a Tony-winning performance and ran for 733 performances. The revival arrives at a moment when the show’s themes — depression, bipolar disorder, pharmaceutical treatment, and the survival of families in crisis — feel, if anything, more urgently relevant than they did seventeen years ago. Full casting and creative team are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. This is a show that the Broadway community has been waiting for.

New Musical · 2026 Date TBC

The Devil Wears Prada

Theatre: TBC Dates: 2026 (full details to be announced) Music: Elton John · Book: Kate Wetherhead

The stage musical adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s iconic novel — and the even more iconic 2006 film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway — had its world premiere in London’s West End in 2024, where it played a sold-out run at the Dominion Theatre. Now the Broadway transfer is being developed, with Elton John’s score and Kate Wetherhead’s book being refined for the American market. The show’s central creative challenge has always been the shadow of Meryl Streep’s inimitable Miranda Priestly — finding an actress for the Broadway production who can define the role on her own terms rather than imitate the film. Casting of the Miranda role is the most hotly anticipated Broadway announcement of the current season. Stay tuned.

New Musical · 2026 Date TBC

In Dreams

Theatre: TBC Dates: 2026 (full details to be announced) Music: Roy Orbison catalogue · Theme: Jukebox biographical

A new biographical jukebox musical about the life of Roy Orbison — the Texan rock and roll legend whose extraordinary falsetto voice and emotionally devastating ballads made him one of the most distinctive voices in the history of popular music — has been announced for Broadway in 2026. Orbison’s catalogue includes Oh, Pretty Woman, Crying, In Dreams, You Got It, and I Drove All Night — a body of work with enormous emotional range and considerable theatrical possibility. Full details, including director, book writer, and casting, are expected in the coming months.

New Musical · 2026 Date TBC

Let Me Fly

Theatre: TBC Dates: 2026 (full details to be announced)

Another new musical in development for the 2026-27 Broadway season, Let Me Fly has been listed on multiple Broadway production trackers for a 2026 opening, though full creative and casting details have not yet been announced. The show is among several projects moving through final development stages ahead of Broadway commitments. Watch this space for full announcements in the weeks ahead.

Rumours, Early Announcements & What the Industry Is Whispering

Rumoured / Early Announcement

The Fantasticks — Revival

The longest-running musical in theatre history — which ran Off-Broadway for 42 years before closing in 2002 and enjoyed a Broadway revival in 2006 — is reported to be in development for another Broadway engagement in the 2026-27 season. Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s beloved two-hander about love, innocence, and disillusionment is one of the most frequently revived musicals in the world, and a Broadway engagement would draw considerable attention. No casting or director has been announced.

Announced for 2027 — On Our Radar

Damn Yankees — Revival

A Broadway revival of Damn Yankees — the classic Adler and Ross musical about a Washington Senators fan who makes a Faustian bargain with the Devil to help his team beat the Yankees — has been announced for the 2026-27 season. While the confirmed opening is listed for 2027, advance casting and creative team announcements could arrive within the next six months, making this production one to watch closely. The original 1955 production starred Gwen Verdon in a Tony-winning performance; the 1994 revival featured Victor Garber as the Devil.

Announced for 2027 — On Our Radar

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — Revival

A new Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is listed for the 2026-27 season. No casting or creative team has been announced, but the play — one of the essential American dramatic texts, winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama — is long overdue for a Broadway revival, and industry observers expect the casting announcement to be significant. The 2008 revival starred James Earl Jones, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard to considerable acclaim.

Announced for 2027 — On Our Radar

Evita — Revival

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s classic musical about Eva Perón has been announced for a Broadway revival in 2027. No casting has been confirmed, but the central role of Evita — one of Broadway’s great soprano leading-lady roles — is generating considerable speculation, with names ranging from established stage stars to crossover pop and classical performers being mentioned in industry circles. The last Broadway revival, in 2012, starred Ricky Martin and Elena Roger in a transfer from London.

2026–27 Season · Watch This Space

The Griswolds’ Broadway Vacation

Yes, you read that correctly. A stage musical based on the beloved National Lampoon’s Vacation film franchise is in development for the 2026-27 Broadway season. The show — presumably drawing on the cheerfully anarchic energy of the Griswold family’s holiday misadventures — is listed on BroadwayWorld’s upcoming productions tracker. Details beyond the title and expected season are not yet available, but the announcement has generated significant social media discussion and the kind of incredulous delight that the best Broadway announcements always inspire.

The Season at a Glance: Month-by-Month Timeline

June 2026

Tony Awards ceremony — 7 June at Radio City Music Hall (CBS)
Fallen Angels closes — 7 June (Todd Haimes Theatre)
Proof continues with Ayo Edebiri / Don Cheadle (Booth Theatre)
Chess closes — 14 June (Imperial Theatre)
Book of Mormon 15th Anniversary celebrations begin

July 2026

Mariska Hargitay final performance in Every Brilliant Thing — 5 July
Dog Day Afternoon closes — 12 July (August Wilson Theatre)
The Fear of 13 closes — 12 July (James Earl Jones Theatre)
Tracee Ellis Ross begins in Every Brilliant Thing — 7 July
Giant closes — 28 June (Studio 54)
Death Becomes Her closes — 28 June (Lunt-Fontanne)

August 2026

Every Brilliant Thing closes — 9 August (Hudson Theatre)
Every Brilliant Thing (Tracee Ellis Ross) final performance
Death of a Salesman closes — 9 August (Winter Garden)
Ragtime closes — 2 August (Vivian Beaumont)
2026-27 Broadway season casting announcements accelerate

September 2026

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play — previews begin (Samuel J. Friedman)
Rocky Horror Show continues (Studio 54 — through 29 Nov 2026)
Death Becomes Her national tour launches — Playhouse Square, Cleveland
Season announcement wave continues for winter/spring shows

October 2026

860 (Billy Crystal) — previews begin (Venue TBC)
Wanted — previews begin 15 October (James Earl Jones Theatre)
Much Ado About Nothing — previews begin 31 October (Winter Garden)
Dreamgirls — casting announcement expected (Fall 2026 opening)
Dolly: A True Original Musical — further details expected

November 2026

Wanted opens — 8 November (James Earl Jones Theatre)
Much Ado About Nothing opens — 19 November (Winter Garden)
Inter Alia — previews begin 10 November (Music Box Theatre)
Galileo — previews begin 10 November (Shubert Theatre)
The Imaginary Invalid (Bill Irwin) — fall opening expected

December 2026

Inter Alia opens — 1 December (Music Box Theatre)
Galileo opens — 6 December (Shubert Theatre)
Dreamgirls opens — Fall 2026 (date and venue TBC)
Next to Normal — fall 2026 (dates TBC)
The Devil Wears Prada — Broadway transfer in development

The Shape of the Season: What to Make of Fall 2026 on Broadway

The most striking thing about the fall 2026 Broadway season, looked at from a distance, is its cultural ambition. This is not a season dominated by safe commercial choices or tentpole franchise adaptations. Yes, The Devil Wears Prada and In Dreams and the Griswold show speak to Broadway’s ongoing love affair with familiar intellectual property. But the headline productions — Dreamgirls, Galileo, Wanted, Inter Alia — represent a commitment to original, substantive, distinctly theatrical storytelling that is genuinely heartening.

The diversity of the season is also remarkable. Dreamgirls, Wanted, and School Girls represent three distinct perspectives on Black American and African experience, with creative teams whose relationship to the material is deep and specific. Inter Alia and Galileo bring two of the most intellectually ambitious subjects of recent international theatre — legal reform and scientific revolution — to American audiences through artists who understand how to make ideas feel alive on stage. Much Ado About Nothing and the Billy Crystal show remind us that Broadway is also, at its best, one of the great entertainment experiences in the world: specific, live, irreplaceable.

The celebrity factor is, as usual, impossible to ignore. Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell will drive ticket sales to the Winter Garden in a way that few Shakespeare productions can. Rosamund Pike’s Broadway debut is a genuine cultural event. Billy Crystal’s return — after the devastating personal loss of the Palisades fire — carries an emotional weight that will make 860 one of the most anticipated evenings in recent Broadway memory. And wherever Dolly Parton’s show lands, it will immediately become one of the hottest tickets in New York.

What this adds up to is a season that feels — at this early stage, before any of these productions has been reviewed, before any of these stars has stepped onto a New York stage — genuinely exciting. Not merely commercially exciting, but artistically exciting: a season that appears to believe, as the best Broadway seasons always do, that the theatre has something important and irreplaceable to offer. We cannot wait to see how it unfolds.

Broadway audiences who come with fresh ears will be blown away. A sound like this — it tends to travel. And the stories we’re about to tell this fall will travel too.

Producer sentiment across multiple fall 2026 Broadway announcements

Planning Your Season: Booking Tips for Fall 2026

With this many high-demand productions opening in a concentrated window, the practical question of how to get tickets is as important as the artistic one of what to see. Here are our recommendations for planning your fall Broadway season:

Book Much Ado About Nothing immediately when tickets go on sale. The combination of Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell, Jamie Lloyd, and a strictly limited 10-week run makes this the most likely sell-out of the season. Early booking is essential.

Sign up for Dreamgirls and Dolly mailing lists now. These productions will announce their booking windows with some lead time, and fans who are on the mailing lists will have the best access to good seats at face value.

Keep an eye on lottery programmes for Galileo, Wanted, and Inter Alia. All three productions are likely to have digital lottery and rush programmes that give last-minute access to performances at reduced prices — a fantastic option for theatregoers who are flexible with their dates.

Remember that the 2026-27 Tony Awards season begins with shows opening in late April 2027. Productions opening in the fall of 2026 through April 2026 will be eligible for the 2027 Tony Awards — meaning the fall season we are previewing here is also the foundation of next year’s awards race.

Check back regularly as more dates and casting are confirmed — this article will be updated as new announcements arrive. Broadway’s fall 2026 season is just beginning to reveal itself, and the best is likely still to come.

Tags: new Broadway shows 2026 Broadway fall 2026 season Dreamgirls Broadway revival Much Ado About Nothing Broadway Tom Hiddleston Broadway Hayley Atwell Broadway debut Galileo musical Broadway Raul Esparza Broadway 2026 Inter Alia Broadway Rosamund Pike Billy Crystal 860 Broadway Wanted musical Broadway Dolly Parton musical Broadway Next to Normal revival Broadway Devil Wears Prada Broadway Broadway season 2026 2027

Links

La Cage Aux Follies – Memorabilia

Mame – Memorabilia

Jerry Herman – Memorabilia

Hello Dolly – Memorabilia

My Fair Lady – Memorabilia

Chess the Musical – Memorabilia

Half a Sixpence – Memorabilia

Hadestown – Memorabilia

Hamilton – Memorabilia

Wicked – Musical

Little Shop of Horrors – Memorabilia

Starlight Express – Memorabilia

Dear Evan Hansen – Memorabilia

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – Memorabilia

The Producers – Memorabilia

Ragtime – Memorabilia

Terrence McNally – Memorabilia

Paradise Square – Musical

Phantom of the Opera – Musical

Falsettos the Musical

Cabaret – Musical

The post New Broadway Shows 2026: Every Musical & Play Opening This Fall appeared first on Theatregold.

Broadway & Off-Broadway News: End of May 2026 Full Roundup

Tue, 26 May 2026 14:56:11 +0000

Broadway & Off-Broadway News: End of May 2026 — Full Roundup

Broadway & Off-Broadway News Roundup

End of May 2026 · All the Latest

Broadway & Off-Broadway: Everything That’s Happening in the Final Days of May 2026 — Tony Season, Star Switches, Big Closings and the Season to Come

The final week of May 2026 on Broadway is one of the most dramatic of the season: Daniel Radcliffe takes his final bow, Mariska Hargitay steps into the spotlight, Beaches goes dark, the Tony nominations loom large, and a wave of new announcements for fall and beyond are reshaping what New York theatre will look like through 2027.

Published: 27 May 2026 · Broadway & Off-Broadway News Roundup · Sources: Broadway.com, Playbill, BroadwayWorld, New York Theatre Guide, New York Theater, Broadway Direct, IBDB, NY1, People, Variety, Show-Score, Seatplan

The 79th Annual Tony Awards: Nominations, Performances Announced and the June 7 Countdown

The biggest story of the past three weeks on Broadway has been the announcement of the 79th Annual Tony Award nominations on 5 May 2026 — a moment that simultaneously validated some of the season’s most adventurous work, generated considerable discussion about what was left out, and set the stage (literally) for the 7 June ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

Announced by Tony nominee Uzo Aduba and Tony winner Darren Criss, the nominations confirmed The Lost Boys: A New Musical and Schmigadoon! as the season’s dominant new musicals, each earning a remarkable 12 nominations — including Best Musical for both. Ragtime, Lincoln Center Theater’s acclaimed revival, followed closely with 11 nominations, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman emerged as the most-nominated play of the season with nine nominations — tying it with Cats: The Jellicle Ball and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show in the revival categories.

The nominations generated several headline moments beyond the numbers. June Squibb — the beloved actress of Nebraska fame — received a Tony nomination at the age of 96, making her the oldest performer ever nominated in an acting category in Tony history. The announcement was greeted with enormous affection by the theatrical community. Meanwhile, Danny Burstein received a nomination that made him the most Tony-nominated male actor in Broadway history — an extraordinary milestone for one of the stage’s most distinguished and consistent performers.

The nominations also produced some notable snubs that have generated considerable conversation. Buena Vista Social Club — which won five Tonys in 2025 and is still running to packed houses — was ineligible this year, having already been honoured. But the complete shut-out of Beaches — which received zero nominations from a production that had been hoping for at least one for Jessica Vosk — contributed directly to that show’s decision to close early on 24 May, as we will discuss below.

The performances for the Tony ceremony have now been announced. All nominees for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical will perform at Radio City Music Hall on 7 June, meaning audiences can expect live performances from the casts of The Lost Boys, Schmigadoon!, Titaníque, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Ragtime, and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. The ceremony will be broadcast on CBS.

Full Tony Nominations by Production

Production	Nominations	Category Note
The Lost Boys (Musical)	12	Best Musical nominated
Schmigadoon! (Musical)	12	Best Musical nominated
Ragtime (Revival)	11	Henry, Uranowitz both nominated
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (Revival)	9	Season’s top-nominated play
Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Revival)	9	Drag/ballroom reimagining
Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show (Revival)	9	Luke Evans Broadway debut
Two Strangers (Musical)	8	NYT Critics’ Pick
Oedipus (Revival)	7	Mark Strong & Lesley Manville
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Revival)	5	Denzel Washington producing
The Balusters (Play)	5	Outer Critics Circle winner
Chess (Revival)	5	Nicholas Christopher nominated
Fallen Angels (Revival)	5	Byrne & O’Hara both nominated
Liberation (Play)	5	Pulitzer Prize winner
Bug (Revival)	4	Carrie Coon nominated
Giant (Play)	4	John Lithgow nominated
Titaníque (Musical)	4	Best Musical nominated

The Biggest Star Switch of May: Radcliffe’s Final Bow and Hargitay’s Historic Broadway Debut

The most-discussed news story of the final week of May 2026 in the Broadway world is the transition in Every Brilliant Thing at the Hudson Theatre — a production that has now completed the most remarkable casting sequence of its Broadway run.

Tony winner Daniel Radcliffe played his final performance as the unnamed narrator on Sunday 24 May 2026 — a performance that drew standing ovations and an outpouring of critical and audience appreciation for what many described as his finest Broadway performance, following his Tony win for Merrily We Roll Along. Radcliffe’s nine-week run generated enormous box office and critical success, with the production earning two Tony nominations (Best Play and Best Actor for Radcliffe himself) and playing to near-capacity throughout.

From Monday 26 May 2026, Mariska Hargitay — the Emmy Award-winning star of Law & Order: SVU, in which she has played Detective Olivia Benson for an extraordinary 27 seasons — makes her Broadway debut in the role, taking the production through to 5 July 2026. The casting was announced to significant media attention: Hargitay, known to millions of American television viewers, brings a celebrity recognition and fan loyalty that should sustain the production’s commercial momentum through the early summer tourist season.

Following Hargitay’s run, Tracee Ellis Ross — Black-ish star, daughter of Diana Ross, and Golden Globe winner — takes the role from 7 July through the production’s final performance on 9 August 2026. The three-star rotation strategy has been hailed by industry observers as one of the most innovative commercial approaches to a solo show in recent Broadway history, turning a single production into, in effect, three distinct theatrical events for three different celebrity fan bases.

Star Switch — Every Brilliant Thing

Full Casting Rotation — Hudson Theatre

Daniel Radcliffe (Tony nominated): Through 24 May 2026 · Mariska Hargitay (Broadway debut): 26 May – 5 July 2026 · Tracee Ellis Ross (Broadway debut): 7 July – 9 August 2026

A Farewell to Beaches: Broadway’s First Tony Casualty Closes on 24 May

The closing of Beaches: A New Musical at the Majestic Theatre on Sunday 24 May 2026 — after just 38 regular performances and 28 previews — has become the defining story of the season’s Tony casualty narrative. The production, which had been announced to run through 6 September, closed more than three months early following its complete shut-out from the Tony nominations on 5 May.

As Playbill’s pre-Tonys analysis had noted, the producers were almost certainly counting on at least one Tony nomination — most likely for Jessica Vosk’s widely praised portrayal of Cee Cee Bloom — as a commercial lifeline. When none arrived, the production’s already struggling box office (posting around 44 percent capacity and $441,484 per week in its final performances) became unsustainable at the Majestic Theatre’s operating costs.

Vosk responded to the Tony shut-out with characteristic grace, posting a social media video in which she described waking up at 8 a.m. with anxiety, learning the news, and then heading out for a bagel “because I believe I deserve carbohydrates.” The video generated enormous warmth and sympathy across the theatrical community. The Drama League and Outer Critics Circle had both nominated her for her performance. In her closing statement, she said it had been “my great joy to originate a role for the very first time on Broadway with Cee Cee Bloom.”

A national tour, produced by Crossroads Live, remains planned for 2027. Beaches becomes the 2025-26 season’s most high-profile early closing — though industry observers note that the show’s trajectory was not entirely different from that of several well-reviewed productions that have found larger audiences on the road than they did in New York.

Dog Day Afternoon: The Bear’s Reunion Heats Up at the August Wilson Theatre

One of the spring’s most-discussed new plays is fully open and running at the August Wilson Theatre, and it is generating the kind of palpable audience excitement that comes with genuinely unexpected celebrity star power. Dog Day Afternoon — Stephen Adly Guirgis’s stage adaptation of Sidney Lumet’s 1975 crime classic — officially opened on 30 March 2026 and runs through 12 July 2026.

Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach — Emmy Award-winning co-stars from the hit FX series The Bear — are making their Broadway debuts as Sonny Amato and Sal DeSilva respectively, in roles inspired by the characters originally played on screen by Al Pacino and John Cazale. The production is directed by two-time Olivier Award winner Rupert Goold, who previously helmed the acclaimed West End productions of Ink and King Charles III.

The show is adapted from the true story of the 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery by John Wojtowicz — a Vietnam veteran and gay rights activist whose three-hour hostage situation at a Chase Manhattan branch in Gravesend became one of the defining New York City tabloid stories of its era. Guirgis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Between Riverside and Crazy, brings his characteristic combination of street-level authenticity and moral complexity to material that has always been, at its heart, a story about desperate people caught in a system that was never designed for them. The production has earned three Tony nominations — including Best New Play — and is playing to strong houses throughout its limited run.

The show has also launched a digital lottery and rush ticket policy for last-minute audiences, following the interest generated by Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach’s combined social media following. Both actors have been doing a considerable amount of press, and their genuine friendship — forged over multiple seasons of The Bear — communicates itself through the chemistry of their performances in ways that critics have found particularly compelling.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball: Broadway’s Most Radical Reimagining Is Here and It Has Nine Tony Nominations

The production that has generated the most pure theatrical conversation of the spring is unquestionably Cats: The Jellicle Ball — the drag and ballroom culture-inspired reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical that transferred to the Broadhurst Theatre from a celebrated Off-Broadway run in summer 2024.

Directed and choreographed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, the production reimagines the Jellicle Cats as participants in New York City’s underground ballroom scene — the vibrant, explicitly queer and trans community that emerged in Harlem in the 1970s and 1980s and that was documented in the celebrated 1990 film Paris Is Burning. The casting is led by Tony and Grammy Award winner André De Shields as Old Deuteronomy — in a performance that critics have described as one of the great theatrical presences of the current season — alongside Ken Ard as DJ Griddlebone and an ensemble that combines theatrical training with genuine ballroom culture expertise.

The show officially opened on 7 April 2026 and has received nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical. The nominations have been seen as a significant validation of a production that takes considerable creative risks: removing the show’s traditional staging entirely and replacing it with a visual vocabulary derived from voguing, runway competition, and the specific rituals of ball culture. Lord Webber himself has expressed enthusiasm for the reimagining — a welcome creative endorsement that has added to the production’s cultural momentum.

More May 2026 Broadway News: Oh, Mary! Records, Megan Thee Stallion, and Shakespeare in the Park

Box Office Record — Oh, Mary!

Oh, Mary! Breaks Its Own Box Office Record

The outrageous comedy Oh, Mary! — Cole Escola’s beloved one-woman show that transferred from Off-Broadway to become one of the most talked-about productions of 2025 — broke its own all-time weekly box office record in the week following the Tony nominations, benefiting from the awards season attention and continued word-of-mouth enthusiasm from audiences who keep coming back. The show has become one of Broadway’s surprise long-run commercial phenomena.

Celebrity Guest — Moulin Rouge!

Megan Thee Stallion Makes History at Moulin Rouge!

Megan Thee Stallion concluded her landmark 8-week guest engagement at Moulin Rouge! The Musical on 17 May 2026, having made theatrical history by becoming the first female-identifying performer to play the role of Satine in the production’s history. The engagement drew enormous media attention and considerable box office momentum, introducing Moulin Rouge! to a substantial new audience. Plans for future celebrity guest engagements at the production have not been announced.

Shakespeare in the Park — Casting

Romeo & Juliet Gets New Cast at the Delacorte

The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo & Juliet for summer 2026 has received its full casting announcement. The production will be led by Ra’Mya Latiah Aikens as Juliet and Daniel Bravo Hernández as Romeo, with Francis Jue, LaChanze, and other distinguished performers filling out the ensemble. The free outdoor production at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is one of New York’s most beloved summer cultural traditions, and the casting — particularly LaChanze, who also produces Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway — has been warmly received.

Chess Closing Soon

Chess Announces Closure Date

After a commercially and critically successful run at the Imperial Theatre, Chess — the first-ever Broadway revival of the ABBA-scored musical — will play its final performance on Sunday 14 June 2026. The production, which starred Nicholas Christopher, Aaron Tveit, and Lea Michele, earned five Tony nominations and had been extended multiple times from its original closing date. Lea Michele departed the production on 21 June as planned; a replacement had not been confirmed at press time. The production’s run will stand as one of the season’s significant commercial and artistic achievements.

Book of Mormon — 15th Anniversary

The Book of Mormon Celebrates 15 Years on Broadway

The long-running satirical hit The Book of Mormon is preparing a major 15th anniversary celebration in June 2026. Original cast members will return for special performances, and the Original Broadway Cast Recording will be reissued on 26 June 2026 in a special 15th anniversary edition. The show remains one of Broadway’s most enduring commercial successes, still filling the Eugene O’Neill Theatre after a decade and a half.

Hugh Jackman — Off-Broadway

Hugh Jackman Starring in New Off-Broadway Play

Global superstar Hugh Jackman is currently starring in New Born, a brand new play at the intimate Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. The production — not a Broadway show but receiving considerable Broadway-adjacent attention — has drawn audiences and press in extraordinary numbers given the venue’s small size, confirming Jackman’s undiminished commercial appeal and his commitment to new stage work. Reviews have focused on the intimacy of the performance in the small venue, noting that Jackman’s screen-cultivated star presence translates powerfully into a more contained theatrical environment.

Awards Season — Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle

Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Results Are In

The recent awards season delivered its verdicts ahead of the Tonys. The Drama Desk Awards for 2026 named Schmigadoon! and The Balusters among their top winners. The Outer Critics Circle Awards — whose ceremony took place at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on 21 May 2026 — named Schmigadoon! as Outstanding New Broadway Musical and The Balusters (David Lindsay-Abaire’s new play) as Outstanding New Broadway Play. The Ragtime ensemble won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Ensemble Performance.

Last Chance: Shows Closing in Late May and June 2026

The end of May and the beginning of June will see a significant reshuffling of the Broadway landscape, with several Tony-season productions concluding their runs. Here is a complete guide to what is closing and when.

Upcoming Closings — Book Your Tickets Now

Beaches	Closed 24 May 2026	Majestic Theatre
Daniel Radcliffe in Every Brilliant Thing	Closed 24 May 2026	Hudson Theatre (show continues)
Isa Briones in Just in Time	Final perf. 29 May 2026	Nederlander Theatre
Becky Shaw	14 June 2026	American Airlines Theatre
Chess	14 June 2026	Imperial Theatre
The Balusters	21 June 2026	Circle in the Square
Dog Day Afternoon	12 July 2026	August Wilson Theatre
The Fear of 13	12 July 2026	James Earl Jones Theatre
Giant	28 June 2026	Studio 54
Death Becomes Her	28 June 2026	Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Fallen Angels	7 June 2026	Todd Haimes Theatre

Off-Broadway Roundup: Closings, Awards and What to Watch

The Off-Broadway scene in late May 2026 is equally active, with the conclusion of the annual Lucille Lortel Awards cycle marking the high point of the smaller-scale theatrical calendar.

The Lucille Lortel Awards — the Off-Broadway community’s equivalent of the Tony Awards — were announced at the beginning of May, recognising outstanding productions at venues below the 500-seat threshold. Natalie Venetia Belcon of Buena Vista Social Club took the Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical award for her Off-Broadway work, a recognition that contributed to her Tony win earlier in the season. The ceremony, held at NYU Skirball, celebrated a season of Off-Broadway work that has been notably strong across a wide range of venues.

The Pushover, a new play described as featuring “three bad-ass women who collide and collude at a spa in New Mexico, and a bare-bones Asian restaurant in Queens,” closed Off-Broadway on 2 May after a well-reviewed run. The show, which BroadwayWorld singled out for its distinctive voice and its specific engagement with the language and psychology of women of colour on the margins, received considerable attention from producers looking for work to develop further.

Mother Russia, Lauren Yee’s new play at the Pershing Square Signature Center, continued its run through May to strong reviews. Set in the early 1990s in St. Petersburg, the play features New York theatre veterans Steven Boyer, Adam Chanler-Berat, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and David Turner in a story about two friends, a former pop singer, and a mysterious past — exactly the kind of character-driven, actor-forward new work that the Signature Center specialises in developing.

At Playwrights Horizons, the late May programming features new work in the development pipeline for next season, with several workshop productions generating early buzz among the theatrical community. Details on next season’s full Off-Broadway schedule are expected in late June.

The Shakespeare in the Park announcement (detailed above) has also generated considerable Off-Broadway-adjacent interest, with the Public Theater’s summer programming now confirmed as including both the central park Romeo & Juliet and a series of complementary programmes at the Public’s downtown Newman and Martinson venues. Full details of the summer 2026 schedule at the Public are expected within the next two weeks.

The air is thick with excitement following the Tony nominations. For passionate theatregoers, Broadway offers an embarrassment of riches — from star-studded plays to groundbreaking new musicals. New York City’s Theatre District is pulsating with unparalleled energy as May 2026 unfolds, marking a thrilling peak in the Broadway season.

Multiple Broadway guides summarising the end-of-May 2026 Broadway landscape

Looking Ahead: New Productions Announced for Fall 2026 and Beyond

The end of the current Broadway season is also the beginning of announcement season for the next one, and May 2026 has seen a flurry of reveals about what will be coming to Broadway in fall 2026 and through 2027.

Announced Broadway Productions — Fall 2026 & Beyond

Much Ado About Nothing	Tom Hiddleston & Hayley Atwell · Winter Garden Theatre · Opens 19 Nov 2026 · Dir: Jamie Lloyd
Galileo	Raúl Esparza, Joy Woods · Shubert Theatre · Opens 6 Dec 2026 · Music: Zoe Sarnak
Inter Alia	Rosamund Pike · Music Box Theatre · Opens 1 Dec 2026 · By Suzie Miller
Billy Crystal Solo Show	Crystal returns to Broadway with new solo show about memories of his LA home lost in the 2025 Palisades fires · Venue TBC
Beetlejuice Tour	North American Tour launches 2026-27 season · Over 50 cities announced
The Lost Boys National Tour	Tony-nominated musical announces touring production · Dates TBC
Buena Vista Social Club Tour	Five-time Tony winner announces national tour for fall 2026
Mamma Mia! 25th Anniversary Tour	Relaunched at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall · Full US tour planned

The most discussed of the upcoming announcements is undoubtedly the Jamie Lloyd production of Much Ado About Nothing, which is bringing two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most beloved stars to Broadway. Tom Hiddleston — best known as Loki but with a substantial theatre career including a Tony-nominated Broadway debut in 2019 — and Hayley Atwell — making her Broadway debut — play Benedick and Beatrice in what London reviewers have called a “disco-tastic” party of a production. The show received strong reviews in its London premiere in 2025 and is expected to be one of the most commercially anticipated Broadway productions of the 2026-27 season.

Galileo — a new musical about the Italian scientist and astronomer, with music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and Michael Weiner and a book by Danny Strong (whose book for the Chess revival also appeared this season) — stars the reliably extraordinary Raúl Esparza, whose Tony-nominated career makes him one of Broadway’s most anticipated leading men whenever he announces a new project. The musical premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2024 and its Broadway transfer, directed by Michael Mayer, represents one of the most keenly awaited new work arrivals of the coming season.

Inter Alia, the new drama by Australian playwright Suzie Miller (whose Prima Facie was a landmark recent Broadway event), brings Rosamund Pike to the Music Box Theatre — the Pike’s Broadway debut and a reunion of Miller with the New York theatrical community that greeted Prima Facie with such enthusiasm. The play follows a London Crown Court judge whose family is rocked by an unthinkable personal crisis, and early word from workshop readings has been strong.

Industry News: IATSE and the Kennedy Center, Beanie Feldstein Expecting, and More

Industry — IATSE vs Kennedy Center

IATSE Condemns Kennedy Center Management Over Union Contract Violations

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has issued a formal condemnation of the management of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, alleging that the Kennedy Center is violating its union contract obligations. The dispute — which centres on staffing levels, working conditions, and the interpretation of existing contractual terms — has drawn attention in the broader theatrical community as part of ongoing tensions between union labour and arts institution management across the country. IATSE has not yet announced specific action, but the formal condemnation is the first step in a process that could escalate to work action if negotiations do not progress.

Personal News — Beanie Feldstein

Beanie Feldstein Announces Pregnancy

Broadway and film actress Beanie Feldstein — known for her performances in Funny Girl on Broadway and Booksmart on screen — has announced that she and her wife Bonnie-Chance Roberts are expecting their first child. The couple, who married in 2023, shared the news via social media. Feldstein has not yet announced any productions she will be doing in the coming season, though her profile remains high following the attention generated by her Funny Girl engagement.

Personal News — Joshua Henry

Ragtime Star Opens Up About Fatherhood Challenges

Tony-nominated Ragtime star Joshua Henry opened up in a BroadwayWorld interview about the challenges of balancing Broadway performance with fatherhood. Henry, who has three young children, described the pain of missing his son’s soccer game due to a performance schedule — a genuinely poignant window into the practical realities of sustaining a Broadway career alongside family life. The interview has resonated widely with theatrical audiences and other performing parents who recognise the specific sacrifice the eight-performances-a-week schedule demands.

Tour — Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice North American Tour Confirmed for 2026-27

First look images have been released for the North American touring production of Beetlejuice The Musical, which will visit more than 50 cities during the 2026-27 touring season. The tour follows the enormous commercial success of the Broadway production and the global reach of the 2023 Tim Burton sequel film, and is expected to generate significant interest across the country. Full casting and city-by-city routing are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

The State of Broadway at the End of May 2026: A Summary

The end of May 2026 finds Broadway in a condition that might be described as energetic uncertainty — the particular mixture of excitement and anxiety that characterises the peak of awards season, when everything is in motion simultaneously. The Tony nominations are in, the winners are not yet determined. The biggest productions of the season are beginning their final weeks, and their replacements are already being announced. The star transitions are generating media attention and audience enthusiasm. The industry debates — about economics, union relations, and the sustainability of Broadway’s current business model — are ongoing and unresolved.

What is clear, from the extraordinary volume of activity and the quality of the nominations list, is that the 2025-26 Broadway season has been one of genuine artistic ambition. The presence of The Lost Boys, Schmigadoon!, Ragtime, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Liberation (the Pulitzer winner), and The Balusters in the Tony nominations reflects a season that has taken significant creative risks — with new musicals, radical reimaginings, and ambitious new plays — and that has been rewarded, at least by the nominators, for doing so.

The 7 June Tony ceremony will be the season’s final punctuation mark. Until then, get your tickets quickly to whatever is on your list — because in the final weeks of May and the first weeks of June, Broadway’s most exciting season in years is preparing to take its bow.

Tags: Broadway news May 2026 Tony Awards 2026 Lost Boys Broadway Schmigadoon Broadway Mariska Hargitay Broadway debut Daniel Radcliffe Every Brilliant Thing Beaches Broadway closing Dog Day Afternoon Broadway Cats Jellicle Ball Broadway Hugh Jackman New Born Off Broadway Broadway closings summer 2026 Much Ado About Nothing Tom Hiddleston Broadway June Squibb Tony nomination record Off Broadway news May 2026 Tony Awards June 7 2026

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