In and Around New York
After an abbreviated 2025 season, the renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park has come fully back to life. Shakespeare in the Park has “Romeo and Juliet” (through Sunday), followed by “The Winter’s Tale” (July 25-Aug. 23), with Raúl Esparza, Lily Rabe, Steven Skybell and Chuck Cooper. Later, the Public Theater’s bighearted Public Works program will stage “Public Record” (Sept. 4-8), and Taylor Mac and Matt Ray will perform songs from their rock opera “Bark of Millions” (Sept. 18-20), with a large cast including Machine Dazzle.
Downtown on the Hudson River, Little Island will present shows in its amphitheater — one of the most delicious places for live, alfresco performance in Manhattan — including Justin Vivian Bond’s “Summer’s Eve” (July 29-31); the Tony Award winner Qween Jean’s “Summer Legacy Ball,” billed as a ballroom extravaganza (Aug. 1); Louis Cato’s “The Harlem Renaissance” (Aug. 19-23); and the world premiere of Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez’s “Marina” (Aug. 27-30), commissioned for this year’s Whitney Biennial and described as an “underwater fairy tale.”
Upstate in Garrison, N.Y., Hudson Valley Shakespeare has a powerful lure in its new permanent open-air theater, designed by Studio Gang. With Eric Berryman as Edgar in “King Lear” (through Sept. 17), the season also includes “As You Like It” (through Sept. 18) and “Les Misérables” (Aug. 12-Sept. 27).
Devotees of works in progress can find a smorgasbord of readings and workshops in Poughkeepsie at New York Stage and Film (July 10-Aug. 2). Among the panoply of notable artists this summer is the director Bill Rauch, fresh off his Tony Award win for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.” His new project, with Deaf West Theater, reimagines Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” (July 31-Aug. 2).
And at the Adirondack Theater Festival, in Glens Falls, N.Y., Lillias White stars in the world premiere of “Mother. Daughter. Father. Son.” (July 8-19), a play by Douglas Lyons (“Table 17”).
Northeast
Lovers of musical theater know to head to a couple of New England institutions in the summer. In Connecticut, Goodspeed Musicals is presenting “Crazy for You” (through Aug. 16), a jukebox packed with classic Gershwin songs. Further north, in Maine, the Ogunquit Playhouse is presenting “Hello, Dolly!” (through July 18) with a stacked cast led by Beth Leavel, Ruthie Ann Miles and Matt Doyle. It will be succeeded by a revival of the jazzy “City of Angels” (July 23-Aug. 22), which won six Tony Awards in 1990, including best musical.
Western Massachusetts is different this year: no Williamstown Theater Festival, which has gone biennial, and no Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, who died in January. But in bucolic Lenox, her company is producing its customary classic-and-modern mix, indoors and out, including “Twelfth Night” (July 4-26), “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” (July 30-Aug. 23) and “Hamlet” (Aug. 13-30).
In neighboring Pittsfield, Barrington Stage Company is presenting new works like Keelay Gipson’s “Estate Sale” (June 30-July 25) and Phanésia Pharel’s “Dead Girl’s Quinceañera” (Aug. 5-29) alongside stalwarts like “A Chorus Line” (July 15-Aug. 8) and “Noises Off” (Aug. 19-Sept. 6).
The many-tentacled Berkshire Theater Group is in Pittsfield, with Matthew López’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride” (July 31-Aug. 16); in Stockbridge, with Chess Jakobs’s “The American Five” (through July 11) and Abi Morgan’s “Lovesong” (July 22-Aug. 23); and in Williamstown, with concerts by Broadway actors: Bonnie Milligan (July 11), Norm Lewis (Aug. 8) and Lillias White (Aug. 22), all featuring Seth Rudetsky on piano.
At the opposite end of Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, the Cape Playhouse in Dennis is a perennial destination for musical fans. Among this year’s temptations in the old wooden theater: Javier Muñoz, Christine Toy Johnson and Erik Lochtefeld in “Into the Woods” (June 24-July 11), and Julia Murney in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (Sept. 2-19), directed by Claybourne Elder.
A ferry ride away, Nantucket Performing Arts Center has an intriguing series of plays, with Nina Hellman in Jaclyn Backhaus’s “Men on Boats” (July 15-29) and Judith Ivey in Kate Walbert’s “First” (Aug. 4-13). And on the Outer Cape, in a tiny theater just off the beach in Wellfleet, Harbor Stage Company follows Brenda Withers’s new comedy “Prize Fight” (through July 11) with Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” (July 16-Aug. 8) and Will Eno’s “The Realistic Joneses” (Aug. 13-Sept. 4).
South
Arena Stage in Washington is devoting the steamy months to Kwame Kwei-Armah’s “CrazySexyCool — The TLC Musical” (through Aug. 9). Retelling the story of the hit-making 1990s R&B band TLC, this new show is set to their songs: “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” “Unpretty” and more.
The Atlanta powerhouse Alliance Theater is presenting the world premiere of “Basura” (through July 12), a musical inspired by a real-life Paraguayan orchestra playing instruments made of recycled materials. Gloria Estefan and her daughter, Emily, wrote the score, while the book is by Karen Zacarías, one of the most produced playwrights in the United States.
Since 1991, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., has been presenting new works. The 2026 edition (July 10-Aug. 2) follows suit with five plays, including Yussef El Guindi’s “Refugee Rhapsody,” Lisa D’Amour’s “The Smoker” and Beth Kander’s “Best Line Wins” — which bears the intriguing subtitle “A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May & Mike Nichols.”
We’ll leave the argument about whether Maryland is part of the Mid-Atlantic or the South to another time and place, but for now let’s include that state’s Olney Theater Center here. Running through July 12 is the chef Carla Hall’s new autobiographical solo, “Please Underestimate Me.” Overlapping slightly is Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman’s Tony-winning “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (July 2-Aug. 23).
Midwest
The Wisconsin-based American Players Theater (which recently won the Tony for regional theater) returns with another quality slate presented in repertory through the entire summer. There is some Shakespeare, as usual, including “The Two ‘Gentlemen’ of Verona,” adapted by Aaron Posner with music by Greg Kotis, of “Urinetown” fame. But the season covers a lot of stylistic ground, from Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” to Jen Silverman’s “Witch” and Eugène Ionesco’s “The Chairs.”
Another “Urinetown” alum, Mark Hollmann, is part of the team behind the new musical comedy “Iceboy!” (through Aug. 9) at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. The show imagines the unlikely encounter between a 1930s Broadway diva (Megan Mullally), Eugene O’Neill (Nick Offerman) and the Neanderthal title character (Grey Henson).
Also in Chicago, Gary Cole stars in Amy Morton’s production of the Mia Chung play “Catch as Catch Can,” at Steppenwolf (through July 12). The company is also presenting Alex Edelman’s follow-up to his acclaimed “Just for Us” — another solo, titled “What Are You Going to Do” (Aug. 12-16).
In St. Louis, the Muny is presenting big family-friendly musicals, with some eye-catching casting, like Taylor Louderman and Paulo Szot in “South Pacific” (July 6-12) and Casey Likes in “Newsies” (July 16-22).
Mountains
For scenery, it’s hard to beat Creede Repertory Theater, high in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. This summer it’s the musicals that immediately draw attention, with the crowd-pleasing “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and the anthology “Working,” whose score includes contributions by Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor and Mary Rodgers.
As for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, in Boulder, it’s presenting four productions in repertory through Aug. 2. Obviously, “Twelfth Night” and “Julius Caesar” are by the fest’s namesake, while David Davalos’s “Friends/Romans/Countrymen” is a riff on that second play. A stage version of the movie “Shakespeare in Love” completes the slate.
The venerable Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City is an oasis of drama in a landscape that’s a magnet for outdoorsy types. Among the lineup: “Hamlet” (through Sept. 4), “Twelfth Night” (through Sept. 5) and “She Loves Me” (June 24-Oct. 3).
West
In the small mountain valley city of Ashland, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival produces a flock of concurrent shows. “The Taming of the Shrew” (through Oct. 11), “Henry IV, Part 1” (through Oct. 10) and Kate Hamill’s “Emma” (through Oct. 9) are on the outdoor Elizabethan stage. The many indoor productions include Keiko Green’s “You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World!” (through Aug. 21) and the musical “Come From Away” (through Oct. 24), directed by Laurie Woolery.
San Diego’s two major companies barely slow down in summer. At the La Jolla Playhouse, the playwright Ngozi Anyanwu stars with Sullivan Jones in her two-hander “The Monsters” (through June 28), about siblings who connect through the practice of boxing. Next is the new musical “The Family Album” (July 17-Aug. 16), with a score by MILCK and AG.
Nearby, the Old Globe is dedicating quality time to Shakespeare, with “Measure for Measure” (through July 12) and “Much Ado About Nothing” (Aug. 2-30). Offering a take on a different kind of master, the inventive director Emma Rice brings her staging of the Alfred Hitchcock film “North by Northwest” (July 3-Aug. 2).
Further up the coast, Berkeley Repertory Theater is premiering the musical “The Lunchbox” (through July 12), based on the movie of the same title. With a score by the Lazours and the film’s director, Ritesh Batra, the Mumbai-set show is about what happens after a lunch delivery is brought to the wrong person.
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