AMADEUS, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH to Lead Rec Room Arts' Anniversary Season
Matt Hune, Stefan Azizi and Sophia Watt lead the Houston company into its second decade as an Equity theatre.
Rec Room Arts has announced its 2026/2027 season, marking ten years of producing theatre in the heart of Houston. The anniversary season brings together four works about obsession, rebellion, identity, terror, and reinvention: Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, a new American adaptation of Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the Tony Award-winning rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and the Houston premiere of Ike Holter's The Light Fantastic.
Led by Artistic Director and Co-Founder Matt Hune, Executive Director Stefan Azizi, and Associate Artistic Director Sophia Watt, Rec Room enters its second decade following its transition to an Actors' Equity Association theatre, a significant step in the company's continued investment in professional artists while preserving the intimate, artist-driven work that has defined Rec Room since 2016.
The anniversary also follows a six-month transformation of Rec Room's downtown home. Audiences returning this fall will find renovated and expanded restrooms, upgrades to the Green Room Bar, improvements to backstage artist spaces, and The Nook, a new premium pre-show experience.
"Ten years felt like the right moment to program a season that refuses to behave," says Hune. "These are plays about obsession, revolution, self-invention, terror, and transcendence. They're funny until they aren't. They're heartbreaking until they're exhilarating. Looking back over the last decade, Rec Room has always been drawn to artists who challenge certainty and audiences willing to lean into the unknown. This season feels as unruly, alive, and surprising as the ten years that brought us here."
REC ROOM ARTS' 2026/2027 THEATRE SEASON:
AMADEUS
Tony Award & Drama Desk Award Winner
by Peter Shaffer
Directed by Matt Hune
SEPTEMBER 17 – OCTOBER 10, 2026
A confrontation on genius, envy, and the terrible silence of God.
Vienna. Antonio Salieri summons the ghosts of his past to answer a question that has haunted him for decades: why did God choose Mozart instead of him? As memory gives way to obsession, the story of one of history's greatest composers unfolds through the eyes of the man who believed he destroyed him.
Rec Room transforms Amadeus into an intimate theatrical séance where memory, ritual, and myth converge. Peter Shaffer's masterpiece becomes an act of confession, exploring the mysteries of creation and the unbearable cost of witnessing greatness from its shadow.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST
A Fearless New American Adaptation
Adapted from Dario Fo
Directed by Matt Hune & Rory James Leech
DECEMBER 10, 2026 – JANUARY 2, 2027
Christmas time at the station. A blistering farce for an era of conspiracy theories, institutional distrust, and rebellion.
After a suspicious death threatens to expose a web of corruption, an unpredictable outsider known only as the Maniac infiltrates the investigation. As identities shift and reality begins to unravel, everyone scrambles to control the narrative before the truth slips through their fingers.
Rec Room reimagines Dario Fo's classic as a contemporary American satire infused with detective noir, Cold War paranoia, and razor-sharp absurdity. Set beneath fluorescent lights and fading holiday decorations, this fearless adaptation asks what happens when institutions stop protecting the truth and begin manufacturing it.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
Four-Time Tony Award Winner
Text by John Cameron Mitchell
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Trask
Music Director John Amar
FEBRUARY 4 – MARCH 6, 2027
A fearless and exhilarating celebration of resilience and the search for love.
Hedwig is an internationally ignored rock star with an unforgettable story to tell. Raised in Communist East Germany, abandoned by lovers, betrayed by fame, and fueled by anthems that demand to be played at full volume, Hedwig takes the stage for one unforgettable night of music, heartbreak, and unapologetic self-invention.
Backed by a blistering live band, this groundbreaking musical follows Hedwig's lifelong search for love, belonging, and the elusive "Origin of Love." Winner of four Tony Awards and one of the most celebrated rock musicals ever written, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is equal parts concert, confession, and theatrical event.
Rec Room transforms its intimate sixty-seat theatre into a live rock venue where there is no distance between performer and audience. Loud, hilarious, heartbreaking, and deeply human, this cult classic asks whether we ever truly become whole, or whether we learn to embrace the beautiful pieces that remain.
There are musicals you watch. There are concerts you attend. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is something else entirely.
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
Houston Premiere
by Ike Holter
Directed by Sophia Watt
MAY 13 – JUNE 5, 2027
A genre-bending horror comedy where every laugh brings you one step closer to the dark.
In an unremarkable town on an uneventful evening, something truly terrible happens. An ordinary family is thrust into a desperate game of survival against forces that are anything but human. As one impossible night spirals further beyond comprehension, they discover that the only thing more dangerous than what is waiting outside their door is what they refuse to face inside it.
Funny, frightening, and wholly unpredictable, Rec Room reunites with longtime collaborator Ike Holter (Sender, Exit Strategy, Put Your House in Order) for The Light Fantastic, blending old-school horror and razor-sharp comedy into one unforgettable theatrical experience. In Rec Room's intimate theatre, the distance between audience and performance disappears, placing every terrifying twist just a few feet away.
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Jesus Christ Superstar Deluxe Theatre (8/14-8/17) |
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Therapy Gecko Punch Line Houston (9/20-9/20) |
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show Spooktacular Tour with Nell Campbell House of Blues (10/23-10/23) |
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Hardy WhiteWater Amphitheater (11/21-11/21) |
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Drunk Pirates Emerald Theatre (5/14-9/19) |
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AC/DC NRG Stadium (8/31-8/31) |
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Rocky Horror Picture Show House of Blues Houston (10/23-10/23) |
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PROOF 4th Wall Theatre Company (9/11-10/03) |
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Anarkali Reimagined Luxtrium (10/22-10/25) PHOTOS |
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Frankenstein Pearl Theatre (10/30-11/02) |