BENJAMIN BUTTON, James Ijames' WELCOME TABLE, and More Set For The Public's 2026-27 Season

The Public Theater has announced the lineup for The Public’s Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 season at The Public’s Astor Place flagship on 425 Lafayette Street and The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Following nine shows, one of The Public’s largest seasons will continue in Spring and Summer 2027; programming will be announced in September.

The Public will feature world premieres of plays by Obie Award winner Ryan J. Haddad, Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames, and Tony Award winner Richard Nelson; the North American premieres of Darren Clark and Jethro Compton’s Olivier Award-winning THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and Public Works’ PUBLIC RECORD; the New York premiere of Red Bull Theater’s HOW SHAKESPEARE SAVED MY LIFE, written and performed by Jacob Ming-Trent; a rare revival of Susan Glaspell’s 1921 play THE VERGE by Fiasco Theater; and the New York returns of Bedlam’s acclaimed ARE THE BENNET GIRLS OK? and Taylor Mac’s BARK OF MILLIONS. The Public’s programming and mission-driven work continues year-round with nightly performances at Joe’s Pub’s; artistic programs including Free Shakespeare in the Park, Mobile Unit, and Public Works; and numerous artist development programs, residencies, and fellowships dedicated to offering a home for artists at various stages of their careers.

Artistic Director Oskar Eustis said, “The Public's 2026-27 season is exploding with the deeply engaged, wildly diverse, and theatrically bold work that has long been our mission. From the revival of Susan Glaspell's forgotten masterpiece The Verge to brilliant emerging playwright Emily Breeze; from the latest work of Public Theater stalwarts like Taylor Mac, Jacob Ming-Trent, Richard Nelson, Ryan J. Haddad, James Ijames, and Lisa Sanaye Dring to the New York debuts of brilliant talents like Jethro Compton, Darren Clark, Emily Lim, and Dan Canham; our theater continues to embrace the full, wondrous democratic spectacle of New York City. And we will announce still more work in September! The Public can only fill its role as a civic theater by offering up our stages and auditoriums to the ever-expanding democratic metropolis we cherish, and we plan to fulfill that role as vigorously as we can.”

The Public is also reimagining its flagship building, opening its spaces to match the energy of the work on its stages. In partnership with NoHo Hospitality Group and the founders and longtime partner Joe's Pub LLC, The Public will transform the lobby, Levin Mezzanine, and The Library at The Public into more vibrant, welcoming spaces designed for more gathering, conversation, and connection. 

The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Performance Initiative will return for all 2026-27 productions. Free tickets to a performance of every production will be available via a digital lottery.

The Public Theater will celebrate the anniversaries of several historic productions that were first performed at The Public and Delacorte Theater. In 2026, The Public honors the 50th anniversary of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (May 1976); 25th anniversary of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog (July 2001); and the 10th anniversary of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat (October 2016). In 2027, The Public marks the 60th anniversary of the revolutionary musical HAIR (October 1967), also the production that opened The Public’s Astor Place home; 55th anniversary of Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winner That Championship Season and Alice Childress’ Wedding Band (September 1972); 35th anniversary of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (May 1992); and 20th anniversary of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size (January 2007); as well as the 70th anniversary of Joseph Papp’s original touring Mobile Theater, the precursor to Free Shakespeare in the Park and the modern reimagined Mobile Unit. The Public invites audiences to join us in celebrating these anniversaries with special exhibits, events, readings, and more.

PUBLIC THEATER PROGRAMMING

The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park will return this summer with two new productions at the revitalized Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  Each year, Mobile Unit  tours the city with free performances of a Shakespeare play across the five boroughs. Public Works engages year-round with community members by offering classes, free tickets to performances, and more. Public Forum returns this summer with special Monday evening events featuring conversations and performances by great artists and thinkers of our time.

Joe’s Pub will continue with a new season of vibrant nightly performances by artists from all over the world, including Joe’s Pub favorites Toshi Reagon, Sandra Bernhard, Justin Vivian Bond, and Rizo. The Joe’s Pub season will additionally feature the 2026-27 Vanguard Residency curated by groundbreaking comedian Murray Hill and New York Voices commissions by Morgan Bassichis and EMEL.

The Public will also host several artist development programs, residencies, and fellowships, including supporting upcoming theater artists and writers through the Emerging Writers Group, Joe’s Pub Working Group, Vanguard Residency, New York Voices Commissioning Program, and Jose Solís’ BIPOC Critics Lab. Residencies and fellowships include Writer in Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and Directing Fellow Emma Rosa Went. The Judith Champion New Work Series, which presents public readings of exciting new plays from a dynamic group of visionary playwrights, will return in June 2026; the EWG Spotlight series will present the work of the current Emerging Writers Group cohort in Spring 2027.

FALL 2026 & WINTER 2027 PROGRAMMING

PUBLIC WORKS’ PUBLIC RECORD

North American Premiere
Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring
Based on the Concept and Creative Direction by Emily Lim and Dan Canham, Musical Supervision and Songs by Ross Millard, and Words by Stewart Pringle
Music Supervision by Michael Thurber
Co-Directed and Choreographed by Dan Canham
Directed by Emily Lim

September 4-8
Delacorte Theater

New Yorkers from all five boroughs are coming together to create a live album—on stage, in real time. PUBLIC RECORD, based on a concept by Dan Canham and Emily Lim, brings Public Works community members, musicians, and dancers into a cast of over 100 to capture how our city sings, moves, and tells its story in this moment. Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring, with music by Michael Thurber, direction by Emily Lim, and co-direction and choreography by Dan Canham, this electrifying new production stands as an act of collective hope, joy, and resistance. The album will be preserved by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts forever, ensuring that long after summer fades, it will remain a powerful reminder that the true record of a city isn’t just its headlines—it’s the sound of neighbors standing side by side.

PUBLIC RECORD was originally commissioned and produced by The National Theatre, Sunderland Culture, and Sunderland Empire, and created with the people of Sunderland, as part of The National Theatre's Public Acts programme.

HOW SHAKESPEARE SAVED MY LIFE

New York Premiere
A Co-Production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Folger Theatre 
Written and Performed by Jacob Ming-Trent
Directed by Tony Taccone

September 15-October 18 (Opening: September 27)
Shiva Theater

In the Red Bull Theater production of HOW SHAKESPEARE SAVED MY LIFE, Jacob Ming-Trent dares to rescue himself from the “slings and arrows” of his past. Born with a gift for poetry but rejected as unfit to play the part of the poet, Ming-Trent invites us to take a deep dive into the crevices of his youth. His search for home is relentless, and the results are by turns hilarious and tragic. Calling on the Bard and a host of genius rappers, half-crazed preachers, and soulful poets to throw him a lifeline, he takes us on a propulsive ride that reaffirms the power of language. It all adds up to one man’s attempt to reclaim his life, and through that journey we connect to the deeper parts of ourselves, and, ultimately, to each other. Directed by Tony Taccone.

SONGS FROM BARK OF MILLIONS

Performed by the Plethora
Music and Musical Direction by Matt Ray
Lyrics and Direction by Taylor Mac
Joe's Pub in the Park

September 18-20
Delacorte Theater

The event of the season is coming to The Delacorte Theater for three free performances. MacArthur Fellowship-winning icon Taylor Mac reunites with Obie Award-winning composer Matt Ray to share songs from their epic rock-opera meditation on queerness, BARK OF MILLIONS, featuring special guests and performers from the original production. This special concert version—adapted for an evening in Central Park—is an electrifying blend of performance, live music, and drag spectacle. Inspired by queer figures past and present, the duo crafts an expansive new canon of original songs, inviting audiences into a space of reflection, community, and exuberant celebration. As Mac says, if you’re not invited to the party, throw a better one! Produced by Pomegranate Arts.

GOOD TIME CHARLIE

World Premiere
Written by Ryan J. Haddad
Directed by Danny Sharron

September 24-October 18 (Opening: October 9)
Martinson Hall

Ryan J. Haddad returns to The Public with his joyous, moving new play GOOD TIME CHARLIE. As a young man, Charlie dreamt of a life on the stage, but his parents thought dentistry sounded better, so he channeled his passion for culture into his nephew Ryan—a fellow theater-loving gay kid with Broadway ambitions. Spanning more than three decades, GOOD TIME CHARLIE is a multigenerational story of gay men growing up, falling in love, and cherishing the arts. Directed by Danny Sharron, this comedic, theatrical love letter celebrates the people who teach us how to dream.

Featuring Ryan J. Haddad. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

North American Premiere
Book and Lyrics by Jethro Compton
Music and Lyrics by Darren Clark
Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Choreographed by Chi-San Howard
Directed by Jethro Compton

October 8-November 15 (Opening: October 21)
Newman Theater

Following a highly acclaimed production in London’s West End, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON makes its North American premiere at The Public this fall. Olivier Award-winning writing team Jethro Compton and Darren Clark reimagine F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic story of an old man who is not at the end of his life, but at the beginning. Set in a Cornish fishing village on the coast of Great Britain, and brought to life by a company of 15 actor-musicians, this is the magical tale of a love that defies all odds.

WE’LL SEE

Conversations Among the Apple Family on the Night of the Midterm Elections

World Premiere
Written and Directed by Richard Nelson

October 25-November 22 (Opening: November 3)
Barbaralee Theater

The latest in Richard Nelson’s The Rhinebeck Panorama, his acclaimed 12-play series about three families in Rhinebeck, New York, WE’LL SEE follows the Apple family on midterm election day, November 3, 2026. The Apples are anxious, looking for a way to get through the night. They gather at Barbara’s for a family dinner. They tell stories, catch up, laugh, make fun of themselves, eat, sing, and talk about their lives and the incidental moments of their day, while asking themselves a question: “Do we define ourselves by what we are not, by what we hate?”

Reprising their roles as the Apple family, WE’LL SEE will feature Sally Murphy (Jane), Maryann Plunkett (Barbara), Laila Robins (Marian), and Jay O. Sanders (Richard). Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

THE VERGE

Written by Susan Glaspell
Directed by Jessie Austrian

October 27-November 22 (Opening: November 5)
LuEsther Hall

This fall, Fiasco Theater and The Public partner to celebrate a hidden American classic: THE VERGE by Susan Glaspell, Pulitzer Prize winner and founder of The Provincetown Players. In Glaspell’s 1921 masterpiece, botanist Claire Archer is on a quest to create a new life: a plant unlike any that has ever come before. When her husband, lover, and soulmate each arrive in her greenhouse seeking heat in a snowstorm, chaos ensues. But as Claire pushes—sometimes violently—against the constraints of her own good breeding, she wonders if the only way to transcend boundaries is to destroy them. By turns witty farce, devastating philosophical debate, and scathing feminist cry, THE VERGE defies genre and pierces the bounds of theatrical realism. Jessie Austrian directs this new Fiasco production, featuring Tony Award winner Miriam Silverman.

Featuring Miriam Silverman (Claire Archer). Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

WELCOME TABLE

World Premiere
By James Ijames
Directed by Rachel Chavkin

Winter 2027

In the spring of 1963, acclaimed writer James Baldwin sent a searing telegram to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, blaming his brother’s administration for violence across the country amidst the battle for civil and human rights. To his credit, the Attorney General called Baldwin back and said, “We need to talk.” What followed was the infamous Baldwin-Kennedy meeting, which brought together a group of artists, thinkers, and activists, including Lorraine Hansberry, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and Freedom Rider Jerome Smith, to engage in tough conversations about how to imagine a better country. Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist James Ijames returns to The Public with a bold reimagining of that pivotal meeting, set in an afterlife where these iconic figures wrestle with their legacy. Directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, WELCOME TABLE channels the fire of Baldwin’s call to action and reminds us that the struggle for justice continues to echo with striking urgency today.

ARE THE BENNET GIRLS OK?

By Emily Breeze
Directed by Eric Tucker

Winter 2027