PARANORMAL ACTIVITY & More Lead R. Scott Reedy's Boston Summer Theatre Picks
Our critic shares his top picks for Boston summer theatre.
Looking to escape from the hot sun? Why not check out one of the many intriguing offerings at greater Boston venues where this summer’s vibrant theater scene boasts pre-Broadway productions, national tours, and summer-stock productions of everything from Shakespeare to classic and contemporary plays, musicals, and concerts. Bay State audiences have much to look forward to, including:
“Paranormal Activity”
Emerson Colonial Theatre, July 11–30
Boston will again be burnishing its long-held reputation as a pre-Broadway try-out town when “Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage” plays the Emerson Colonial Theatre, July 11–30, immediately prior to going to Broadway, where it begins performances at the August Wilson Theatre on August 14.
Inspired by the 2007 movie of the same name and the film series that followed it, the plot, unique to the stage show, is about James and Lou, a young couple who move from Chicago to London to escape their past. They can’t shake their demons, however, who follow them across the Atlantic. While the couple’s hauntings take a toll on their marriage, they must work together to battle the evil forces at play – and they set up a camera in their home to see what is haunting them.
Written by Levi Holloway, a Tony Award nominee for “Grey House” in 2023, and directed by Felix Barrett, pioneering founder and artistic director of the acclaimed Punchdrunk, whose immersive “Sleep No More” played a record-breaking 14-year run in New York at The McKittrick Hotel following an acclaimed U.S. premiere at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, “Paranormal Activity” also features illusions by Tony Award winner Chris Fisher, whose work includes the West End and Broadway productions of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
For tickets and information:
https://us.atgtickets.com/events/paranormal-activity/emerson-colonial-theatre/
“A Chorus Line”
Barrington Stage Company, through August 8
It’s been reported that Alan Paul, artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, auditioned some 500 performers for this summer’s production of “A Chorus Line” – the longest such process he’d ever undertaken. The call was for “triple-threat” performers who could act, sing, and dance. After all the singular sensations were considered, 26 were chosen. “A Chorus Line” begins performances July 15 at Barrington Stage’s Boyd-Quinson Theater in Pittsfield.
For tickets and information:
https://barringtonstageco.org/series/a-chorus-line/
“A New Era”
The Strand Theatre, Dorchester, July 17 – August 8
Company One Theatre (C1) will present “A New Era,” a world premiere by Boston playwright Miranda Austen ADEkoje, under the direction of C1 co-founder and associate artistic director Summer L. Williams.
Blending historical source material with contemporary sensibilities, the play tells the story of real-life activist Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, founder of the Woman’s Era club and journal, played by Patrice Jean-Baptiste. The story begins in 1895 as Ruffin organizes the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America in Boston from her Beacon Hill home, where she and six other formidable women from across the deeply divided country join her to birth a new movement.
Williams and ADEkoje have been longtime collaborators: Williams first directed ADEkoje as an actor in C1’s 2011 production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet as part of “The Brother / Sister Plays,” which won IRNE Awards for Best Ensemble and Best Play. From 2010 to 2012, ADEkoje was a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre Company and was part of C1’s PlayLab in 2013–2014. Recently, her short plays have been produced by the Lyric Stage Company, The Huntington, Front Porch Arts Collective, New Repertory Theatre, and Plays in Place, among others.
For tickets and information:
https://companyone.org/a-new-era/
Boston Lyric Opera’s Street Stage, Free Concert in the Courtyard
At locations throughout the Hub, July 18 through August 28
Boston Lyric Opera’s mobile opera performance series Street Stage hits the road again this summer to bring the power of live opera directly to Bostonians and visitors. Begun as a creative response to the Covid pandemic, the series has since become an annual citywide tradition. Whether staged in neighborhood settings or on BLO’s mobile stage, Street Stage presents world-class live performances of opera arias and duets as well as selections from Broadway and the Great American Songbook.
Free and open to all, Street Stage will be at Piers Park in East Boston on July 18 at 6 pm, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway on July 21 at 6:30 pm, Moakley Park in South Boston on July 29 at 5:30 pm, Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain on July 30 at 6:30 pm, Charlestown Navy Yard on August 15 at 3:30 pm, and Titus Sparrow Park in the South End on September 13 at 4 pm.
In addition to its Street Stage series, the BLO – now entering its 50th season – will present a free Concert in the Courtyard at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square on August 28 at 12:30 pm. Attendees are welcome to bring lunch and settle by the courtyard fountain or at cafe tables to enjoy performances featuring BLO’s Emerging Artists and a sneak peek into BLO’s 2026–27 season. Registration is not required but seating will be first come, first served. In the event of inclement weather, the concert will be moved indoors to Rabb Lecture Hall.
For more information:
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common, July 22 – August 9
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC), in partnership with the City of Boston, celebrates its 30th season of presenting free summer productions with the play that started it all – the Bard’s beloved comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” CSC’s inaugural production which it presented in Copley Square in 1996.
Steven Maler, CSC’s founding artistic director, directs the production in which young lovers escape to a wonderland of freedom and desire, drawn together and torn apart by forces they can’t quite control. With the doings transported to a neon-lit festival, rules dissolve and self-expression blossoms. The summer air will pulse with music, mystery, and mischief as Puck and his fairy band move like mysterious DJs of fate. Every corner of the festival’s Boston Common setting promises to hum with temptation, transformation, and the electric thrill of love and community.
The cast will include (in alphabetical order) Michael Broadhurst as Flute, Annika Burley as Helena, Meghan Carey as Hermia, Nick Cearley (NYC’s The Skivvies) as Puck/Philostrate, Nora Eschenheimer as Hippolyta/Titania, De’Lon Grant as Theseus/Oberon, Jack Greenberg as Demetrius, Jaime José Hernández as Lysander, Karen MacDonald as Quince, Paul Melendy as Bottom, and Brooks Reeves as Egeus/Starveling. The cast also features CSC2 Company members Nicolas Bolton as Mustardseed, Patrick Curran as Snout, Evan Danyliw as Moth, Bella Grace Harris as Fairy, Alex Leondedis as Snug, Dani Grace Nissen as Peaseblossom, and Alexandra White as Cobweb.
For tickets and information:
https://commshakes.org/production/dream26/
“Buyer & Cellar”
Hub Theatre Company of Boston, at Club Café, July 18 – August 1
Broadway’s original “funny girl,” Barbra Streisand has fascinated theater, film, television, and music fans for decades – so much so that some even find the basement of her Malibu home interesting. That’s probably not too surprising, though, since the space serves as Streisand’s personal Main Street-like mall.
Hub Theatre Company of Boston will conclude its 13th season with Jonathan Tolins’ quirky 2013 comedy “Buyer & Cellar,” directed by Daniel Bourque and starring Elliot Norton and IRNE Award winner Victor L. Shopov as a struggling actor who lands the role of his dreams – curating Streisand’s numerous collections.
The show will run at Boston’s Club Café from July 18 through August 1, 2026, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sunday matinees at 2 pm, and Thursday, July 30th at 7:30 pm. Tickets to all performances are “pay what you can.”
For more information:
https://www.clubcafe.com/club-events/buyer-cellar/
“Lovesong”
Berkshire Theater Group’s Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge, July 22 – August 29
A gentle and quietly powerful play by Abi Morgan, “Lovesong” traces a marriage across decades, revealing how love evolves, deepens, and endures. Moving fluidly between youth and later years, the play places two versions of a couple side by side, allowing past and present to unfold simultaneously onstage. The story explores love, aging, and the ways in which memory shapes identity. As time moves forward, the impact of early choices reverberates across a lifetime, illuminating the fragility of happiness, the resilience of partnership, and the inevitability of change. At its heart, “Lovesong” is an intimate look at devotion and the quiet moments that define a shared life.
Directed by Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (“Proof”), a longtime collaborator and creative force at Berkshire Theatre Group, this production brings together artists deeply connected to the Unicorn stage. Karen Allen, a popular BTG performer and Berkshire resident known internationally for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” returns to a theatre she has long called home. Broadway veteran David Garrison, who appeared at BTG in the world premiere of “Coming Back Like a Song,” also joins an accomplished acting company that includes Rebecca Brooksher and Shawn Fagan, both familiar faces to BTG audiences, having appeared in numerous Unicorn productions including “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Photograph 51,” and “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” all directed by Auburn.
For tickets and information:
https://www.berkshiretheatregroup.org/event/lovesong/
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical”
Citizens Opera House, Boston, July 29 – August 2
After a sold-out 2024 engagement, Broadway in Boston will bring “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” – the 2021 winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical – back to Citizens Opera House.
Based on the hit 2001 Baz Luhrman film of the same name, the stage production – which had its world premiere at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre on July 10, 2018, and closes on Broadway on August 29 after 24 previews and 2,297 regular performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre – is a turn-of-the-20th-century-set musical mash-up extravaganza with a score of familiar pop songs by everyone from Adele, Elton John, and Katy Perry to Madonna and Lady Marmalade.
For tickets and information:
https://boston.broadway.com/shows/moulin-rouge-the-musical-2/
“Dear Evan Hansen”
Harbour Lights Theatre at Carr Ampitheater in Hingham, August 6-9
The South Shore-based Harbour Lights Theatre will bring the Tony Award-winning Benji Pasek and Justin Paul musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” with book by Steve Levenson, to Hingham’s Carr Amphitheater August 6–9, 2026. Under the direction of Tony Award nominee Adam Pascal (“Rent”), the production will feature a cast of Broadway and television performers as well as local actors.
Leading the cast are Harbour Lights artistic director and Duxbury resident Mickey White (“Hairspray” North American tour) as Evan Hansen, Tony Award nominee Orfeh (“Legally Blonde: The Musical”), and television actor Jill Whelan (“The Love Boat”). Whelan will play Cynthia Murphy, mother to Zoe, played by Victoria “Tory” Vagasy, a Tik Tok sensation and “America’s Got Talent” season 16 finalist, and Conor Murphy, portrayed by Dillon Klena (“Jagged Little Pill” North American tour). Also in the cast are Chris Medlin (Broadway’s “Mean Girls” and “Diana: The Musical”) as Jared Kleinman, and Kayla Louison as Alana Beck.
For tickets and information:
https://www.harbourlightstheatre.com/shows/dear-evan-hansen
Boston Pops at Tanglewood with guests Hugh Jackman and Cynthia Erivo
Tanglewood, Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, August 11 and 21
The bucolic Berkshires, summer home of the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras since 1934, have been the perfect setting for memorable summer concerts by some of Broadway’s biggest names. This year is no exception, with two-time Tony Award recipient Hugh Jackman (“The Music Man,” “The Boy from Oz”) making his Tanglewood debut with the Boston Pops on August 11 and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (“The Color Purple”) – who opened the Boston Pops 2025 season at Symphony Hall – making her Tanglewood debut with the Pops on August 21.
So, whether you prefer a seat under The Shed or a blanket on the lawn, if seeing Broadway and film stars live in concert is your thing, then you’ll want to be at Tanglewood for Hugh Jackman and Cynthia Erivo.
For tickets and information:
https://www.bso.org/events/tanglewood-events/boston-pops-at-tanglewood
Photo caption: Cher Álvarez and Travis A. Knight in “Paranormal Activity.” Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.
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Harlem Quartet: Pushing Boundaries Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (8/10-8/10) |
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Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella Youth Edition North Shore Music Theatre (8/21-8/21) |
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Paris Kampanelas Paris Cabaret Starline Room Dinner Theatre (8/09-8/09) |
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Koe Wetzel & Shane Smith and The Saints Leader Bank Pavilion (8/19-8/19) |
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The Sound of Music Boch Center Wang Theatre (11/17-11/22) |
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Start Making Sense: Talking Heads Tribute Payomet Performing Arts Center (8/29-8/29) |
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The Norwegians Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre (9/04-10/04) |
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CCTP 2026 Season of New Plays Cape Cod Theatre Project (7/02-7/25) |
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Puppet Showplace Theater Presents: The Tiny Bird Show by Carole D'Agostino Puppet Showplace Theater (8/09-8/09) |
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Larry McCray Payomet Performing Arts Center (8/12-8/12) |