The Stratford Festival is planning to remount its hit production of “Something Rotten” and stage a new revival of the classic Broadway musical “Guys & Dolls” next year, the Toronto Star has learned.
Two sources, with knowledge of the upcoming season, confirmed the shows to the Star. They were granted anonymity so they could freely discuss the programming, which has yet to be publicly announced.
Sources said the festival’s upcoming production of “Something Rotten” will be identical to the iteration from last season, which earned critical acclaim and quickly became one of the most successful Stratford musicals of the past decade.
Staged at the company’s largest venue, the Festival Theatre, the production featured direction and choreography by Donna Feore, who will return with the rest of the original creative team to remount the show. Much — if not all — of the original cast is also expected to return.
The musical comedy (with a score by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick, and a book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick) centres on two brothers who are playwrights in Renaissance England and desperately looking for their big break. Tired of living in the shadow of hotshot William Shakespeare, they seek out a soothsayer who informs them that the next big thing in the theatre will be musicals. With that advice in hand, the siblings set out to write the world’s first musical.
Stratford’s planned revival of “Guys and Dolls” comes less than a decade since the musical was last presented there in 2017, in a production directed and choreographed by Feore. While the festival has yet to secure the rights to the show, one source said Feore is also expected to direct and choreograph this new revival.
The production will mark the fourth time Stratford has presented the 1950 Broadway musical, which features music and lyrics Frank Loesser, and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.
Ann Swerdfager, publicity director for Stratford, said in an email statement that she could not confirm the musical lineup, “as planning for the 2026 season is still ongoing.”
Next year marks the final season for Stratford’s outgoing artistic director Antoni Cimolino, who assumed his current role in 2012. The festival is expected to reveal its complete 2026 lineup — along with Cimolino’s successor — later this summer or in the early fall. Stratford’s current season, featuring the musicals “Annie” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” is running through the start of November.
