Theatre Horizon Announces 2025/26 Season, Including World Premiere of WISHING TO GROW UP BRIGHTLY

Theatre Horizon, the award-winning professional theater nestled in the heart of Norristown’s Arts Hill District, just announced its 2025/26 season, a lineup showcasing five distinct theatrical experiences, including a world premiere, a beloved musical revue, and two productions created in collaboration with the community. The theatre’s 21st season includes Oedipus in Seattle, an unconventional adaptation of Oedipus Rex; the world premiere of Wishing to Grow Up Brightly, a bold new musical; XOXO: MontCo's Variety Show, a production created and performed by Norristown and Montgomery County residents; and the Tony Award-winning Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show. Additional programming includes the R&B Brunch & Speakeasy.

"Our 2025/26 season highlights our signature blend of heartfelt storytelling, boundary-pushing innovation, and deep community roots, offering something as surprising, daring, and emotionally resonant as the Norristown audiences we serve," said Matthew Decker, Interim Artistic Director and Theatre Horizon Co-Founder. "This lineup represents what we do best: champion new voices, celebrate joy, and build transformative experiences between artists and audiences."

The season opens with Oedipus in Seattle by Savannah Reich. In this mashup of Greek tragedy and 1993 rom-com, two actors, who have never seen the script or rehearsed, take the stage cold to perform a show that blends Oedipus Rex with Sleepless in Seattle. What unfolds is an irreverent, laugh-out-loud, and oddly moving meditation on fate, free will, and the power of storytelling. Featuring a rotating cast of Theatre Horizon and Philadelphia theatre favorites, every night is a unique performance. Performances run September 24 to October 5, 2025.

Next, Theatre Horizon presents Wishing to Grow Up Brightly, a genre-defying new musical co-created by Amanda Morton (The Color Purple, A New Brain, Into the Woods, Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending, Gutenberg! The Musical! and KPOP) with longtime collaborator Theatre Horizon’s multi-time Barrymore Award-winning Interim Artistic Director Matthew Decker (The Few, A New Brain, Into the Woods, Broadway’s upcoming La La Land), Josh Totora, and Brenson Thomas. In this surreal and heartfelt story, South Korean adoptee Amanda Newton returns to her white childhood home after her father's death. There, she discovers her father's preserved memories through a futuristic service called reMemorex, launching her on a time-bending journey through grief, identity, sitcom nostalgia, and long-silenced questions. Morton, a three-time Barrymore Award recipient for Outstanding Music Direction for productions at Theatre Horizon and Wilma Theater, inspired this story, and Decker directs. Wishing to Grow Up Brightly has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Performances run November 5 to November 23, 2025.

In February 2026, Theatre Horizon presents a community-created variety show celebrating love and belonging. Inspired by 1970s television specials like The Jacksons and The Carol Burnett Show, XOXO: MontCo’s Variety Show, directed by Ontaria Kim Wilson, features comedy, spoken word, and original music written and performed by Norristown and Montgomery County residents. Anchored by a live house band and local emcee, XOXO: MontCo’s Variety Show embodies the theater’s deep roots in community storytelling. Auditions begin in October, and performances run from February 11 to February 22, 2026.

The 2025/26 season wraps with Ain’t Misbehavin’, the Fats Waller Musical Show directed by native Philadelphian Amina Robinson (The Color Purple), two-time Barrymore Award winner for Outstanding Direction of a Musical, in her return to Theatre Horizon. This Tony Award-winning musical revue brings the Harlem Renaissance to life through the music, spirit, and charisma of jazz legend Fats Waller. Audiences will revel in an evening of timeless hits like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” performed by a dynamic ensemble. Robinson’s other directing credits include productions at The Wilma Theater, The Arden Theatre, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Azuka Theatre, IAMA Theater in Los Angeles, Queens Theater in New York, Passage Theater in New Jersey, The Lantern Theater, and Temple University. Performances run April 29 to May 18, 2026.