By Sheila Wickouski
Arena Stage is celebrating all four seasons of its diamond 75th anniversary year with musicals, comedy and drama. The schedule for the upcoming 2025/26 season was announced with a special event in late April, and it includes:
Damn Yankees – While the baseball season ends in autumn, it doesn’t have to end with musicals like “Damn Yankees.” This award winning musical initially opened on Broadway in 1955. “Dusted off and spit-shined for a new generation,” it still includes unforgettable iconic songs like “Whatever Lola Wants.” Fichandler Stage, September 9 to November 9, 2025.
Freemont Ave – This dramatic-comedy by Reggie D. White follows three generations of Black men at a card game that becomes a “reckoning with masculinity, identity and weight of silence passed down.” Kreeger Theater, October 8 to November 23, 2025.
STEP AFRIKA!’S MAGICAL MUSICAL HOLIDAY STEP SHOW – Now part of the winter tradition, the show again brings high-energy stepping, festive music, and non-stop holiday cheer. Fichandler Stage, December 5 to December 21, 2025.
As the calendar flips to 2026, two timeless shows will take the stage.
Pal Joey – A Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart classic set in the 1940s Chicago nightclub scene, ambitious songster Joey Evans seeks the right connections. Original songs like “Bewitched,” “What is a Man,” and “I Could Write a Book,” are paired with additions from Rodgers and Hart like “This Can’t Be Love” and “The Lady is a Tramp” for a new take on the original show. Kreeger Theater, January 30 to March 15, 2026.
Inherit the Wind – Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s classic recreates the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. The courtroom drama pits two towering legal minds against each other in a battle over science, religion, and the right to think freely. The show is also part of Arena’s own history, first performed in 1955 and directed by Zelda Fichandler. It made American theater history when, in 1973, Arena was the first American theater selected by the State Department to tour the Soviet Union with two plays: Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and “Inherit the Wind.” Fichandler Stage, February 27 to April 5, 2026.
The weather warms in springtime, and so does the theater calendar with two new shows.
A Good Day To Me Not To You – The one-woman show by Lameece Issaq is about dreams, disasters and everything else in the unpredictable, topsy-turvy life of a 40-something former dental lab tech who is “emotionally multitasking everything on fire.“ Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle, March 27 to May 3, 2026.
The Motion – The play by Obie Award Winner Christopher Chen starts as a debate and quickly spirals into “a world-altering unraveling as four scholars are thrust into a kaleidoscopic odyssey through memory, identity, and the fragile boundaries of belief…their emotionally charged journey into the core of the human condition—where certainty shatters, vulnerability reigns, and no conviction emerges unscathed.” Fichandler Stage, May 6 to June 14, 2026.
CRAZYSEXYCOOL – THE TLC MUSICAL – Summer time at Arena is going to be super hot with this new musical based on the music performed and recorded by 90s hip-hop trio TLC, who “blazed a trail and changed the game…creating the look, sound, and soul of a generation.” With their unforgettable anthems, fly dance moves, and head-turning style, the group defined what it meant to be women in music. Visionary writer and director Kwame Kwei-Armah brings TLC’s (mostly true) story of unshakable sisterhood to the stage, featuring a powerhouse cast, high-octane choreography, and multi-platinum Billboard hits like “Waterfalls,” “Unpretty,” and, of course, “No Scrubs.” Go beyond the fiery scandals, explosive creative clashes, and harrowing tragedies to experience this remarkable tale of defiance, triumph, and love. Kreeger Theater , June 12 to August 9, 2026.
My Joy is Heavy – The new show by Obie-winning duo Abigail and Shaun Bengson and Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin tells through soul stirring and honest music their real-life journey through the grief of pregnancy loss and the unexpected moments of joy that carried them forward. Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle, Summer 2026
