Old Globe’s 2026 season features 3 world premieres

The Tony-award winning Old Globe Theatre released its lineup of 12 shows for its 2026 season Friday, including classics and world premiere plays.

The lineup includes two Shakespeare favorites, a new musical and the previously announced “Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler,” which will open the season at the Balboa Park venue on Feb. 7, in a new version by Erin Cressida Wilson, starring Katie Holmes and directed by Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein.

Another play, Old Globe-commissioned and from the Fiasco Theater Company, is Bartleby, adapted for the stage by Noah Brody and Paul L. Coffey and directed by Emily Young. The world premiere comedy runs from Feb. 20 – March 15, 2026.

The Old Globe also will produce three classics, including the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play, “August Wilson’s Fences” directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.

Heading into the summer, the Old Globe’s 2026 Summer Shakespeare Festival, from June 14-Aug. 30, 2026, will feature “Measure for Measure,” a timeless tale of power and hypocrisy, directed by Vivienne Benesch, and “Much Ado About Nothing,” the famed clash of the sexes, directed by Edelstein.

The Old Globe’s fifth production of the season will run from Sept. 6 to Oct. 11 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage. The new musical will be announced at a later date.

The lineup, courtesy of the Old Globe, includes: 

Feb. 7 – March 8, 2026 – The world premiere of a re-worked classic, Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, in a new version by Wilson, directed by Edelstein and starring film, television and stage star Holmes (Broadway’s Our Town, Off Broadway’s The Wanderers).

April 4 – May 3, 2026 – August Wilson’s Fences, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Deceived, Trouble in Mind), is a cornerstone of the playwright’s the American Century Cycle.

May 15 – June 14, 2026 – the San Diego premiere of Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi and directed by Weyni Mengesha, a Soulpepper Theatre Company and Adam Blanshay Productions comedy that inspired the hit Netflix series.

July 3 – Aug. 2, 2026 – the North American premiere of North by Northwest, adapted and directed by Emma Rice and based on the film classic by Alfred Hitchcock that starred Cary Grant.

Sept. 6 – Oct. 11, 2026 – new musical that the Old Globe likens to Cabaret, Ride and Regency Girls.

The remaining world premiere is the comedy Alien Girls, by Amy Berryman, running from April 18 – May 10, 2026. There is also a San Diego premiere of The Hombres, a comedy by Tony Meneses, from May 30 – June 21, 2026.

Cyrano, by Jason O’Connell and Brenda Withers, and Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks, also will hit the stage during the summer of 2026.

Tickets are currently available by subscription only. Five-play packages start at $234.