59E59 Theaters Unveils Productions for Fall 2026 Season

59E59 Theaters has unveiled its Fall 2026 season, featuring a collection of new plays and musicals from Red Bull Theater, No.11 Productions, The Goodwill Theatre, Primary Stages, and Penguin Rep Theatre across 59E59’s three stages. 

The newly announced productions include the world premiere of Red Bull Theater’s God’s Spies by Bill Cain, directed by Nathan Winkelstein. Set during the plague of 1603, when London’s theaters have closed, the play imagines William Shakespeare quarantined with a young Puritan lawyer and a streetwise prostitute as he confronts questions of life, death, and what he will write next. Following the disappointment of Timon of Athens, Shakespeare finds himself on the brink of creating what may become his masterpiece: King Lear.

Also joining the season is Penguin Rep Theatre’s presentation of The Steel Man, written by Cary Gitter and directed by Joe Brancato, the team behind Gene & Gilda and The Sabbath Girl. Inspired by a true story, this drama follows Jake Gellert as he struggles to forge his own identity in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, Leo, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor consumed by the past. No.11 Productions will present the world premiere of Starstuff, directed by Ryan Emmons, a highly visual, expressionist production following a young woman on a cosmic quest for self-discovery, while The Goodwill Theatre presents the world premiere of Tim and Scrooge, with music by Neil Berg, book and lyrics by Nick Meglin, and direction by Nick Corley, an imaginative musical radio play that picks up 12 years after Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol.

These shows join the previously announced Primary Stages productions Fantasma by Benjamin Benne, directed by Laurie Woolery and presented by Primary Stages and Lucille Lortel Theatre, in association with Jan McAdoo; Aasif Mandvi: A Work in Progress, written by and starring Aasif Mandvi and directed by Kimberly Senior; and Baby Shower Katie by Beth Hyland, directed by Jaki Bradley. Together, the productions explore questions of family, memory, identity, parenthood, and the stories we inherit and tell about ourselves.

59E59 Theaters’ model allows participating theater companies to focus more of their resources on creating and presenting their work  by eliminating weekly theater rental costs. Supported by a $10 million gift from the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, the model is designed to make producing in New York more sustainable while supporting ambitious new work on 59E59’s stages.

Fantasma

By Benjamin Benne
Directed by Laurie Woolery
November 3 - December 13

On Christmas Eve, three generations of women gather in Rosie’s newly renovated kitchen to make chuchitos – a traditional Guatemalan recipe passed down by heart, touch, and intuition.

While her granddaughters attempt to document the dish step-by-step, they discover that what’s being preserved isn’t just food, and that recording and remembering are entirely different things. Spanning nearly two decades, Fantasma is a bittersweet exploration of what we keep, what we lose, and the impossibility of ever capturing it exactly right.

The Steel Man

Penguin Rep Theatre presents
By Cary Gitter
Directed by Joe Brancato
October 28 - November 14

With Amanda Kristin Nichols, Sam Guncler, and Leighton Samuels

Inspired by a true story, The Steel Man follows Jake Gellert as he struggles to escape from the shadow of his larger-than-life father, Leo, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor. While Leo remains consumed by the past and a desire to avenge the family he lost, Jake searches for a way to forge his own identity and help his father find peace.

From the team behind hit shows Gene & Gilda and The Sabbath Girl, this play is a powerful drama that delves into themes of legacy, identity, and the complex bond between father and son.

Starstuff

No.11 Productions presents
Created by No. 11 Productions
Directed by Ryan Emmons
December 16 - 27

With Julie Congress, Steven Conroy, and Aubrey Lace Taylor

Through a series of spectacular falls, a young woman named Star plunges into a cosmic quest for self discovery. This highly visual, expressionist production freefalls from the top of a mountain to the depths of the DMV in a playful exploration of our shared humanity.

Told with No.11 Productions' (Sugarcraft) signature whimsy and theatrical magic, this luminous new myth invites us to look up, turn inward, and rediscover our connection to one another and everything around us.

Tim and Scrooge

The Goodwill Theatre presents

Music by Neil Berg
Book and Lyrics by Nick Meglin
Directed by Nick Corley
January 19 - February 14

This is not the sequel to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol — it's Act II.

Twelve years after Ebenezer Scrooge found a new outlook on life, he’s left everything to Tim (who’s not so “tiny” anymore). But the business world isn’t as easy as it looks, and soon Scrooge has to risk an eternity in purgatory in order to save the entire Cratchit family from ruin.

From the editor of Mad Magazine and the composer of How My Grandparents Fell in Love comes a new musical radio play that’s fun for the whole family!

God’s Spies The Making of King Lear

Red Bull Theater presents
By Bill Cain
Directed by Nathan Winkelstein
January 9 - February 6

What do you write after you have written the world’s greatest play?

Hopefully, not another Timon of Athens. Fortunately for Shakespeare, he is caught in the middle of the pandemic of 1603 and theaters are closed for a year. The plague opens his eyes to the mysteries of life and death when he is quarantined with a young Puritan lawyer and a mature streetwise prostitute.

Will Shakespeare thrive creatively? Will his follow up play be as disappointing as his last? Or will he write his masterpiece?

Aasif Mandvi: A Work in Progress

Primary Stages presents
Written by and Starring Aasif Mandvi
Directed by Kimberly Senior
February 27 - April 11

A funny, furious, and deeply personal solo show about the stories we tell ourselves, how long they hold, and what's left when they finally don't. Part immigrant epic, part celebrity confession, part 3am parental spiral, Aasif Mandvi traces the journey of the immigrant boy who crossed an ocean to chase the American dream, mastered every room he was never supposed to be in, and perfected the art of making the right people comfortable, only to realize that all along, the joke was on him.

Part of the inaugural Primary Stages Studio Series

The Studio Series offers artists a professional space to test their boldest ideas. Here audiences are invited into the living process of making theater, witnessing work evolve across a limited run where no two nights will be the same.

Baby Shower Katie

Primary Stages presents
By Beth Hyland
Directed by Jaki Bradley

Best friends Rebecca and Hannah are at a crossroads: Rebecca desperately wants a child, while Hannah can't imagine anything worse.

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