The Shaw Festival is setting its sights on a diverse 2027 season, with two major musicals, classic comedies, a dark take on fairy tales and a return to the works of Bernard Shaw.
The 65th season will feature Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” “The Color Purple,” “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Grimm Tales,” among 11 productions across three theatres in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The season begins March 31 and runs until Dec. 23, with “South Pacific” and “The Color Purple” marking the first time in Shaw Festival history that two musicals will be presented on the Festival Theatre stage during the main season.
“Two big, beloved and wildly different musicals on the Festival Theatre stage — surrounded by murder, mayhem, Shaw, Stoppard and a few rather gruesome fairy tales — gives our artists and audiences an irresistible playground for 2027,” said artistic director Tim Carroll in a news release.
“With this diverse range of titles, we’re also working on new ways to share these shows through our Beyond the Stage workshops and events to bring our audiences even closer to the art, their creativity and each other.”
At the Festival Theatre, “South Pacific,” with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, previews April 10 and closes Oct. 30.
“Arsenic and Old Lace,” the 1939 black comedy play centering the maniacal Brewster family, put American playwright Joseph Kesselring on the map and became best known through the 1944 film adaptation. It previews May 9 and closes Oct. 9.
“The Color Purple,” the musical based on Alice Walker’s award-winning novel of the same name, features a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. It previews June 26 and closes Oct. 31.
The Festival Theatre lineup is rounded out by “Jumpers,” British playwright Tom Stoppard’s satirical exploration of the world of academic philosophy, which previews Aug. 11 and closes Oct. 31.
Meanwhile, the Court House Theatre will continue to host productions as the construction of the new Royal George Theatre gets underway — the old theatre was demolished in June. The new, larger venue is set to open where the old jewel-box theatre once stood in fall 2028.
Among the productions to be staged at the Court House Theatre, Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” previews April 28 and closes Oct. 9, marking the first play written by Shaw to be performed there since 2017.
“Our audiences have enthusiastically welcomed the return of the Court House Theatre as a Shaw venue this year, and we couldn’t be more delighted to bring Bernard Shaw back to the stage where the Shaw began in 1962,” said Tim Jennings, the Shaw’s executive director and CEO.”
“There’s something very special about celebrating where we started while also looking ahead to the reopening of the Royal George Theatre in fall 2028 and an exciting new chapter for the Shaw.”
The 2027 season will also kick off at the Court House Theatre, with Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” previewing March 31 and closing Oct. 8.
In “Grimm Tales,” adapted from the Brothers Grimm’s “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” by Carol Ann Duffy and dramatized by Tim Supple, brings to life “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “Hansel and Gretel” and other fairy tales and folklore, as they were told in macabre detail by the Brothers Grimm. This play previews June 9 and closes Oct. 10.
The Court House lineup also includes Agatha Christie’s “The Rats and The Patient,” which previews Sept. 11 and closes Oct. 10.
Meanwhile, over at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, J.M. Barrie’s “What Every Woman Knows” previews May 20 and closes Oct. 10.
“Goblin: Pygmalion” is a creation from the Canadian theatre company Spontaneous Theatre by Bruce Horak, Ellis Lalonde and Rebecca Northan. It previews June 16 and closes Oct. 10.
Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” previews Aug. 5 and closes Oct. 9.
The Shaw has yet to announce which productions it will stage for the holiday season, running Nov. 18 to Dec. 23, but says details will be announced in the coming weeks.
