BARCELONA, CLUE, and More Set For San Jose Stage Company's 44th Season
Artistic Director Randall King leads the lineup, which also includes THE FULL MONTY and TOPDOG/UNDERDOG.
San Jose Stage Company has announced its 44th season, featuring five powerful stories brought to life through the intimate, immediate theatrical experience for which The Stage has become known. The 2026/27 season spans from a seductive psychological drama to a madcap murder mystery, from a musical comedy to a Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, and a blistering examination of media, power, and spectacle.
“These five productions are wild, absurd, and thought-provoking, filled with humor, heart, and plenty of high stakes—all experienced the way theatre was meant to be: live, intimate, and of the moment,” says Artistic Director Randall King. “Season 44 brings together five stories where the ground is constantly shifting—where chance, desire, and consequence can change everything in an instant, and nothing stays predictable for long.”
Season 44 launches with Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Bess Wohl’s Barcelona (September 23–October 18, 2026), a seductive drama making its Bay Area premiere. Set over a single night, the play begins with a chance encounter between two strangers and gradually reveals something far more complicated, as desire, identity and assumptions collide with the personal and political. The Stage previously presented the regional premiere of Wohl’s Grand Horizons in April 2023, earning the production an Excellence in Theatre Award for Entire Production – South Peninsula from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
For the holidays, The Stage cranks up the chaos with Clue, (November 18–December 20, 2026) the murder mystery inspired by the beloved board game and cult classic film. Set inside the increasingly chaotic Boddy Manor, the killer comedy brings together six notorious suspects, a mysterious host and an arsenal of familiar weapons in a rapid-fire whodunit filled with escalating mayhem.
The Stage kicks off the new year with The Full Monty (February 3–28, 2027) the Tony Award–nominated musical by Terrence McNally and David Yazbek. Six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers hatch an unlikely plan to “take it all off” in a one-night-only strip show. With an irreverent sense of humor and a score packed with heart, The Full Monty celebrates resilience, friendship and the courage to put yourself on the line.
The season continues with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize–winning Topdog/Underdog (March 31–April 25, 2027). Centered on brothers Lincoln and Booth—whose names carry the weight of American history—the play transforms sibling rivalry and the hustler’s game of three-card monte into a razor-sharp battle over brotherhood, power and who gets to control the hand they’ve been dealt. Fiercely funny and emotionally volatile, Parks’ landmark drama remains one of the defining works of contemporary American theatre.
The Stage caps the season with Network (June 2–27, 2027), Lee Hall’s internationally acclaimed stage adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s Academy Award–winning film, nearly 50 years after the iconic movie was released in 1976. A technical feat of live theatre, the production will fuse camera work, live video and dynamic staging as veteran news anchor Howard Beale’s on-air breakdown becomes a ratings phenomenon. Half a century later, its satire of media sensationalism and the influence of corporate power remains strikingly immediate.
In addition to its five-production mainstage season, The Stage will continue to expand its programming throughout Season 44 with special events, limited engagements, education and community partnerships, and other opportunities that bring artists and audiences together beyond their traditional production calendar. Additional programming will be announced throughout the season.
For more than four decades, San Jose Stage Company has grown alongside the city it calls home. From its theatre at the corner of First and William Streets, The Stage is part of the concentration of theatres, museums, galleries, music venues and cultural organizations that make downtown San José’s SoFA District a gathering place for arts and culture in Silicon Valley.
“There is an extraordinary creative energy in downtown San José right now,” said Executive Director Cathleen King. “The Stage has had the honor of being part of this vibrant community for more than 40 years, watching the neighborhood and the city evolve around us. Theatre gives people a reason to come together, to share a room, encounter a story and experience something that cannot be replicated anywhere else. We’re proud to continue creating that experience here in the heart of San José.”
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ELTON DOM: The Young Elton Experience Great Star Theater (9/10-9/13) |
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Julius Caesar Marin Shakespeare Company (8/14-9/13) |
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Pickleball Hillbarn Theatre (8/20-9/13) |
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The Fantasticks San Anselmo Playhouse (9/04-9/07) |
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The Death of Meyerhold Shotgun Players Ashby Stage (11/28-1/01) |
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“Hollywood Exiles & Modern Noir” Piedmont Piano Company (1/24-1/24) |
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show Spooktacular Tour with Barry Bostwick Curran Theatre (10/11-10/11) |
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“E4TT Call For Scores: Solo Piano, Vol. 3” Community Music Center (10/18-10/18) |
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Candace Johnson’s The Conductress: Adventures in Teaching Gospel Music The Marsh Berkeley (8/28-8/30) |
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The Glass Menagerie The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (9/18-9/20) |