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La Jolla Playhouse has revealed its 2027/2028 season, the first to be programmed by new Artistic Director Jessica Stone. The 2027/2028 season will feature two world-premiere musicals, including Silver Linings Playbook – A New Musical (February/March 2028), book by Tony Award nominee Rick Elice (Playhouse’s Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher), music and lyrics by Ian Axel & Chad King of the band A Great Big World, based on the motion picture of the same name and the novel by Matthew Quick, directed by Tony Award nominee Jessica Stone; and I think Big Cat is stealing my words (August/September 2027), a memoir with music by Daniel Zaitchik, directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, in a co-production with Roundabout Theatre Company.
The season will also include the world premieres of A Magical Orange Grove in a Nightmare (May/June 2027), by Noah Haidle, directed by Arya Shahi; Palm Springs (June/July 2027), a Playhouse commission by UC San Diego MFA graduate Jeff Augustin (Playhouse’s Last Tiger in Haiti), directed by UC San Diego MFA graduate Joshua Kahan Brody (Playhouse’s Last Tiger in Haiti); The Cutter Incident, by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (Playhouse’s I Am My Own Wife), directed by Tony Award winner and Playhouse Founding Artistic Director Des McAnuff (Playhouse’s Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy); and the West Coast premiere of The Attic: Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back (July/August 2027), a production by The 7 Fingers, written, directed and choreographed by Shana Carroll. More information on the 2027/2028 season will be available shortly at lajollaplayhouse.org.
Prior to the start of the subscription season, La Jolla Playhouse will mount its annual WOW Festival, taking place April 15 – 18, 2027. Presented in Partnership with UC San Diego, the 2027 WOW Festival will feature four action-packed days of theatre, dance, music, puppetry, spectacle events and more, with multiple performances by renowned local, national and International Artists occurring throughout the weekend on the UC San Diego campus. A complete roster of artists and projects will be announced in the coming months.
About the 2027/2028 Season
A Magical Orange Grove in a Nightmare
By Noah Haidle
Directed by Arya Shahi
World-Premiere Play
Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre; May/June 2027
Henry Shipp is an attentive and loving father. But there’s one enormous strike against him: he doesn’t believe his son Elliot is real. To be fair, he isn’t. Elliot is a character in a play you are watching, and Henry is the only one who perceives this, to the dismay of his mother, ex-wife and the custody-court judge. So, should Henry be allowed to care for a son he knows is fiction? This world-premiere play blends absurdity, poignant comedy and theatrical invention to explore Henry’s struggles with psychosis and the slippery boundary between reality and illusion. Award-winning playwright Noah Haidle brings empathy, wit and delightful eccentricity to this deeply personal story, inspired by his lived experience with bipolar I disorder. This new work invites you into a world where reality is up for debate and empathy may be our surest way through. Sound beautiful and terrifying? It is.
Palm Springs
By Jeff Augustin
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody
World-Premiere Play
Mandell Weiss Forum; June/July 2027
Arnaud has left his job, his husband and hit the road for a weekend in Palm Springs, where he first learned to embrace his queerness. He’s planning a solitary escape to reckon with some life-changing news. But when he meets Nicholas, being alone is no longer in the cards. Over the course of one unforgettable night, a constellation of strangers transforms Arnaud’s evening into something wilder, more intimate, more risqué and more unexpected than he ever imagined. Together, they’re determined to show him it’s never too late to strut and take up space in a way he never allowed himself to before. Playwright Jeff Augustin brings gleeful irreverence and fearless honesty to a story about the plans we make and the lives we actually live. Reuniting Augustin with director Joshua Kahan Brody after their Playhouse premiere of The Last Tiger in Haiti, Palm Springs is an audacious celebration of desire, and the joy of showing up as your fullest self. A La Jolla Playhouse commission.
The Attic: Things I’ve Seen While Lying on My Back
A production by The 7 Fingers
Written, Directed and Choreographed by Shana Carroll
West Coast Premiere
Mandell Weiss Theatre; July/August 2027
A fearless company of circus artists brings its “thrillingly modern brand of circus” (Time Out New York) to the Playhouse for the first time. First love, childhood dreams, parenthood, loss and unexpected turns – the moments in our lives that send us tumbling are often the ones that shape us most. Inspired by the remarkable life of Tony Award-nominated director and former trapezist Shana Carroll, The Attic transforms her memories into visually astonishing feats of strength, courage and physical daring, exploring how we fall, recover and carry on. The 7 Fingers, Montreal’s multidisciplinary creative collective, is an international sensation known for its “pulse-raising magic” (New York Times). Prepare to be swept up in a “joyous and warm-centered” portrait of resilience and a life fully lived (Chicago Tribune).
I think Big Cat is stealing my words
A memoir with music by Daniel Zaitchik
Directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury
A Co-Production with Roundabout Theatre Company, New York, NY
World-Premiere Musical
Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre; September/October 2027
Netty knows words. She’s a retired English professor. But lately, they’ve been disappearing. The letters on a Scrabble board refuse to make sense. Names of flowers hover just out of reach. When her son Daniel comes home, neither of them can quite make sense of what’s happening. Could Netty’s big, quiet cat be eating her words? Singer-songwriter Daniel Zaitchik both writes and performs in this intimate world premiere. Praised for “music every bit as wonderful as his sophisticated word play” (The Wrap), his lush score is illuminated by the piano at the center of Netty’s book-filled Massachusetts home. As the seasons turn, their days fill with the small rituals that make a life, and a very Big Cat who keeps getting bigger. Obie Award-winning artist Shayok Misha Chowdhury directs this tender, deeply moving memoir about the mysteries of memory, the bond between mother and son, and the beauty of learning to let go. Originally commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company.
The Cutter Incident
By Doug Wright
Directed by Des McAnuff
World-Premiere Play
Mandell Weiss Theatre; November, 2027
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) joins forces with two-time Tony Award-winning director and La Jolla Playhouse Founding Artistic Director Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy, The Ballad of Johnny and June) to bring an extraordinary chapter of American history to the stage. It’s 1955, and scientist Jonas Salk is racing toward a breakthrough that could save countless lives. He plans to stop the polio epidemic sweeping across America. But as the stakes mount, he finds himself caught in a volatile compound of warring scientists, political agendas, laboratory disasters and growing distrust of vaccines. Set at the dawn of a medical breakthrough whose legacy lives on at San Diego’s Salk Institute, The Cutter Incident is a gripping exploration of ambition and the forces behind progress. This riveting new play asks what happens when the drive to save lives collides with politics, fear and human fallibility.
Silver Linings Playbook – A New Musical
Book by Rick Elice | Music and Lyrics by Ian Axel & Chad King
Based on the motion picture of the same name and the novel by Matthew Quick
Directed by Jessica Stone
World-Premiere Musical
Mandell Weiss Theatre; February/March, 2028
The first show to be directed by new Artistic Director Jessica Stone is a world-premiere musical based on the motion picture of the same name and Matthew Quick’s bestselling novel. Pat Solatano Jr. is determined to put his life back together and win back his estranged wife after a tumultuous year involving a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Then he meets Tiffany, a sharp, unpredictable young widow with struggles of her own, who offers to help him in exchange for becoming her partner in a dance competition. As rehearsals bring them closer, what begins as a transaction becomes an unnervingly honest relationship, and Pat starts to wonder if the future he’s fighting for is the one he really wants. From Jersey Boys writer Rick Elice, with an exuberant score by pop hitmakers Ian Axel and Chad King of the band A Great Big World, this hot-headed, achingly honest and unabashedly big-hearted musical finds humor in our mess, hope in our setbacks and the silver lining in being a little bit broken. Produced by special arrangement with James D. Stern and Lionsgate.
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