The Shaw Festival will mount 11 shows in its 2026 season, including two musical productions and a workshop presentation of a new play by a Tony Award-winning dramatist.
The lineup, announced Wednesday by artistic director Tim Carroll, will be headlined by “Funny Girl,” set to run at the repertory company’s largest stage, the Festival Theatre, from April to October 2026. Eda Holmes will direct the classic Broadway musical comedy, which features numbers like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People.”
Several weeks later, Crow’s Theatre artistic director Chris Abraham will return to helm the British farce “One for the Pot,” about a young man who must prove he’s the rightful heir to a significant inheritance, as other men who share his name also try to stake their claims. Written by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton, the comedy will be the second show to open at the Festival Theatre.
Abraham directed another British farce, “One Man, Two Guvnors,” at the festival in 2024.
The final show to open on the festival’s mainstage will be a new revival of Peter Shaffer‘s bristling drama “Amadeus,” which imagines a thrilling rivalry between the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The fiery work originally premiered in 1979 and won the Tony Award for best play two years later. It was then adapted into a hit film of the same name, which garnered the Oscar for best picture in 1985.
“‘Amadeus’ is already a classic of the theatre. It’s a timeless play,” said Carroll, who will direct the production, in a phone interview. “It’s a piece that has such powerful themes about talent, mediocrity, and the relationship between hard work and natural gifts. I think every single person has felt the feeling of having worked so hard yet there being another person who finds it all so much easier.”
The Shaw Festival’s 2026 season will be its first since the closure of the Royal George Theatre, which is to shutter at the end of this year due to issues with its foundation. The company has said it plans to rebuild the venue over the next three years. During this closure, the festival will use the Court House Theatre, which closed in 2017, as a temporary venue.
The downtown theatre will host three shows. First is the psychological thriller “Sleuth,” by Anthony Shaffer (the twin brother to “Amadeus” playwright Peter). Peter Fernandes, known for his performances on stages across Canada, will direct.
Next up is director Brendan McMurtry-Howlett’s production of “Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense,” an Olivier Award-winning comedy inspired by the stories of P.G. Wodehouse.
Later in the summer, the Court House Theatre will host a workshop presentation of an untitled, experimental work by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who will embed himself in the festival and work with members of the acting company to create the new play.
Carroll, who’s known Jacobs-Jenkins for nearly a decade and previously programmed two of his plays at the festival, said he’s been wanting to deepen the company’s relationship with the American playwright, one of Broadway’s most in-demand writers. It was Jacobs-Jenkins, however, who suggested working with the Shaw Festival ensemble to create a play.
“The thought of giving some of our actors the opportunity to work with a world-class artist like Branden was way too good to pass up. I couldn’t be more thrilled that he’s agreed to do it,” said Carroll.
Rounding out the summer season are three plays programmed for the in-the-round Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, the company’s smallest venue. Fiona Sauder will pen and direct “The Wind in the Willows,” based on the classic children’s story of the same name, and the A.A. Milne play “Toad of Toad Hall.”
In addition to “Amadeus,” Carroll will also direct the season’s sole Shavian play, “Heartbreak House,” about the inhabitants and visiting revellers at a bohemian estate, all oblivious as their society teeters on the precipice of war.
Meanwhile, director Philip Akin will helm Adrienne Kennedy’s acclaimed play “Ohio State Murders,” which follows a celebrated Black author who’s forced to confront disturbing memories from her past as she gives a lecture at her alma mater.
Later in 2026, the Shaw Festival will present two musicals as part of its holiday programming. At the Festival Theatre, Kimberley Rampersad will direct a new revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.” And at the Court House Theatre, Jonathan Tan will direct the children’s musical “A Year With Frog and Toad,” based on Arnold Lobel’s beloved book series.
Casting has yet to be announced for the upcoming programming. The Shaw’s current season is slated to run through December.
