HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Included in 25-26 Season at New Conservatory Theatre Center

New Conservatory Theatre Center has announced the line-up for a fierce 2025-26 Season. In keeping with their commitment to bring new voices to stage, the 2025-26 Season brings six shows to the stage with a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, World, Regional, West Coast & Bay Area premieres, and a holiday special by the Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy.

Nationally and internationally renowned as San Francisco’s premier LGBTQIA+ and Allied theatre center, NCTC’s 2025-26 Season highlights a stunning line-up of exuberant Queer stories featuring whimsical tales of discovery, intergenerational connection, and finding unexpected community. 

NCTC’s 25-26 Season begins with the Regional Premiere of Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Hot Wing King. It’s springtime in Memphis, and that means wing season! Cordell Crutchfield and his band of culinary friends, The New Wing Order are lighting the flames to serve up the savory, ready to capture the tantalizing title of Hot Wing King. But victory is not guaranteed when the sauce hits the fan, and family adds spice to the pot. Katori Hall’s Pulitzer-winning sumptuous tale fills the heart as well as our stomachs with love.

October brings a vivacious and hilarious World Premiere of Marga Gomez’s Spanish Stew. From the incomparable Marga Gomez comes an adventure back in time to 1976. Eager to escape traditional family values, a young Marga follows her love, aka ‘Friend from College’, deep into the bustling heart of San Francisco. When a survival job lands her an opportunity to bring back a treasured family recipe, Marga finds both comedy and love from home in the most unexpected places.

In December comes a double-header of holiday joy, as the hit musical, Ruthless! makes its return to the NCTC mainstage. Back by popular demand - and court order - our 23-24 season hit musical Ruthless! is back in the big house. Eight-year-old Tina Denmark knows she was born to play Pippi Longstocking, and she will do anything to win the part in her school musical. "Anything" includes murdering the leading lady! You don’t want to miss this aggressively outrageous musical lauded by 48 Hills as “a hilarious tonic for the holiday season”.

The sparkling holiday joy and laughter continues in December with a special three-day holiday event, starring J. Conrad Frank as the Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, in Katya: A Holiday Spectacular! A beloved San Francisco tradition celebrating an unprecedented 18th year, Katya: A Holiday Spectacular! returns to where it all began, the New Conservatory Theatre Basement. For three nights only, the Yuletide doesn’t get any gayer, as Katya gifts you songs ranging from classic holiday fare and merry madcap medleys, to full-on disco Klezmer lunacy. Join your Auntie Katya for a night aglow with the intoxicating joy of the holiday season!

The new year will begin with Gods & Monsters, based on the novel by Christopher Bram, written and adapted by Tom Mullen. Director of the classic film, Frankenstein, James Whale is spending his retirement away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Will James find peace from his torment, or will his inner monster beguile him to deeper depths? Tom Mullen provides a theatrical adaptation of Christopher Bram’s novel and Oscar-winning film, with a plunge into the inner soul.

What better place than here, what better time than now? In April is a trip back to y2k with the  Regional Premiere of Christopher Oscar Peña’s, how to make an American Son. A Madonna concert. Stealing Dad’s credit card. Sounds like a great idea! Teenage Orlando enjoys a lavish and privileged life-thanks to his family’s successful business. But, his Honduran-born father has different ideas of where his hard-earned cash should go. This audacious new comedy dares to ask: who is entitled to privilege? 

Finally, NCTC closes the season with the punk rock extravaganza, Hedwig and the Angry Inch by John Cameron Mitchell (Text), and Stephen Trask (Music & Lyrics). Neither the Berlin Wall, nor a botched operation is enough to stop Hedwig Schmidt from clawing out of the rubble and rising to new heights. The self-proclaimed “internationally ignored song stylist” is ready to set the record straight and rock the stage in the performance of a reclaimed lifetime. 

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