59E59 Theaters Reveals Summer 2025 Season Lineup

59E59 Theaters has announced the lineup of its Summer 2025 season, featuring a robust collection of shows celebrating iconic love stories, a comedic peek into the life of government staffers, and exhilarating psychological dramas.

The season will also include the annual East to Edinburgh Festival, an opportunity for U.S. theater companies to introduce and fine tune their productions before heading to the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

“Every season is a new adventure at 59E59 Theaters, and this summer encompasses the best of live theatrical experiences, from comedy with heart to deeply human stories that leave you feeling changed and excited to explore newfound questions or themes in your daily life,” said Val Day, artistic director of 59E59 Theaters. “We're honored to serve as a welcoming home for resident companies and visiting theaters alike who deserve an opportunity to push their creativity, hone their craft and engage New York City audiences in the mission and vitality of live theater.” 

Summer 2025 marks one year since 59E59 Theaters implemented its new model, which removes weekly rent for theater companies and allows them to focus on their creative works. The model, supported by a $10 million gift from the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, spurs more diverse, bold productions for 59E59 Theaters' stages. 

“We're proud to open our three stages to such talented artists and to bolster their performances with a full slate of resources,” said Brian Beirne, managing director of 59E59 Theaters. “From marketing and box office support, to eliminating weekly rent, we're cultivating a space where everyone in the theater industry feels empowered to create great work and take risks that leave our audiences wanting more.” 

Through partnerships with 59E59 Theaters, Co-Op Resident Companies play an integral role in shaping the programming of each season. The summer season features productions by four Co-Op Residents, including Penguin Rep Theatre, New Light Theater Project, Happenstance Theater, and Twilight Theatre Company.

Penguin Rep Theatre's presentation of Gene & Gilda, a new play written by Cary Gitter and directed by Joe Brancato, charts the love story of comedy legends Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein) and Gilda Radner (Saturday Night Live). The story is a celebration of their partnership as they navigate fame, laughter and life's greatest challenges. New Light Theater Project will present This is Government, written by Nina Kissinger and directed by Sarah Norris. The quirky comedy takes place during a tense workplace lockdown in a Washington, DC congressional office, capturing the chaotic, heartfelt and often absurd realities faced by staffers on the front lines of American political dysfunction. 

Also featured this season is This Much I Know, presented by Theater J, written by Jonathan Spector (Eureka Day), and directed by Hayley Finn. The time-bending, mesmerizing show weaves a narrative about psychology, ideology and decision-making that's inspired by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow. The show draws audiences into a high-stakes journey exploring the ways we shape and are shaped by the choices we make. 

Throughout July, 59E59 Theaters will welcome 15 productions for its annual festival East to Edinburgh, which spotlights and workshops plays with U.S. based theater companies preparing for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The festival is a prime example of the theater's global connections and unique ability to serve as a platform for artists and productions. 

Full casting and creative teams for the productions will be announced at a later date. More information about the shows can be found below. For details regarding tickets and performance schedules, visit www.59E59.org. 

About the Shows 

July 23 - September 7
Penguin Rep Theatre presents

Gene & Gilda

By Cary Gitter

Directed by Joe Brancato

With Jordan Kai Burnett and Jonathan Randell Silver

Comic geniuses Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka, Young Frankenstein) and Gilda Radner (Saturday Night Live) had a love like no other. What started as a friendship on a movie set grew into an electric and enduring romance. In this heartfelt and hilarious new play, Wilder and Radner share their love and their laughter with us, even as they navigate some of life's hardest challenges.

 July 10 - August 10
Twilight Theatre Co. in association with Kitchen Theatre Company presents

Polishing Shakespeare 

By Brian Dykstra

Directed by Margarett Perry

With Brian Dykstra, Kate Levy, and Kate Siahaan-Rigg

A dot-com billionaire pays an esteemed American theatre company to translate Shakespeare into English (Wait. What?). A sly comedy inspired by an unbelievably true story. To sell out or not to sell out - is that the question?

A runaway hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, Polishing Shakespeare arrives Off Broadway.

July 8 - 27

East to Edinburgh 

A unique showcase of 15 New York shows headed to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the largest arts festival in the world).

East to Edinburgh was created as a way to help shows get on their feet so companies experience the same production constraints that all shows experience during the Fringe, while giving companies a clean, comfortable, and nurturing space to fine-tune their productions. This year's whirlwind festival features fifteen adventurous productions from around New York and across the US.

August 14 - 31
The Simon Studio
Roger Hendricks Simon, Artistic Director

presents

In the Shadow of Her Father

By Omar Bakry

Directed by Vincent Scott

With Inji El Gammal, Roger Hendricks Simon, and Haythem Noor

In the Shadow of Her Father is a family drama about a Middle Eastern woman named Ava in rural Ohio who leads a mundane life, working at a pet store by day and caring for her possessive alcoholic adoptive father at night as he suffers severe PTSD from his time in the Vietnam War.

When an Egyptian stranger named Nabil knocks on her door, he sparks a passion and rebellion in her that changes everything, inspiring Ava to discover her true identity and confront her father's secrets. 

September 5 - 28
New Light Theater Project and Pendragon Theatre present

This is Government

By Nina Kissinger

Directed by Sarah Norris

It's summer in Washington, DC and low-level staffers are fielding irate constituent's calls for congressman Bochman during yet another workplace lockdown. While everyone outside investigates a suspicious red Camry, they find themselves stuck in the one place no one has ever wanted to work overtime: the US government.

As their patience and snack supply runs out, they follow clues and evidence to get to the bottom of how this situation unfolded and why. A quirky comedy with heart, This is Government grapples with the real-time consequences of political disarray.

September 20 - October 19 

Theater J presents

This Much I Know

By Jonathan Spector

Directed by Hayley Finn

With Firdous Bamji, Ethan J Miller, and Dani Stoller 

A psychology professor's search for his missing wife launches us on a time-hopping fugue, weaving together the stories of Stalin's daughter defecting to America, the son of a white supremacist growing to doubt the beliefs he was raised with, and the secret despair of becoming an accidental killer. 

Inspired by the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman about the science of decision-making, Jonathan Spector (Eureka Day) takes us on an explosively theatrical interrogation of how we make decisions, how we change our minds, and how much responsibility we bear for the things we do not control.

September 10 - October 11
San Francisco Playhouse in association with Voices Festival Productions and The New York Arab American Comedy Festival presents

Home? A Palestinian Woman's Pursuit of Life, Liberty, & Happiness

Written and performed by Hend Ayoub

Directed by Carey Perloff

In Israel, she's Palestinian. In the Arab world, she's Israeli. In America, she's an “other.”

Through a panoply of vivid characters including her five-year-old self, an Egyptian casting director, her dying mother, and many others, Home? follows the true story of Hend Ayoub's journey to define her identity and find a place where she belongs. With warmth and humor, her poignant struggle asks: In a world divided by nationality and ethnicity, where is home for those caught between worlds?

October 8 - November 2

Happenstance Theater presents

Dreadful Episodes

Devised by Happenstance Theater 

Under the Co-Direction of Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell

With Stephanie Baird, Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, James Owens, and Sarah Olmsted Thomas

Dreadful Episodes is a hilarious and virtuosic theatrical collage adorned with live music and physical comedy, inspired by the illustrations of Edward Gorey, Victorian reverie, ill-fated romance, calamitous croquet, and the dangers of windy cliffs.