New York City Center names 2026-27 season of musicals

The historic venue presents four rarely revived musicals each year, including a fall gala presentation and three shows in its winter-spring Encores! Series.

Summary

• New York City Center will present You're a Good Man Charlie Brown; Hallelujah Baby!; and Kiss of the Spider Woman in its 2027 Encores! series
• The venue will also present In the Heights in fall 2026
• All four shows will play limited concert runs

The Off-Broadway venue New York City Center has set its 2026-27 season of musical theatre programming, featuring four limited runs of classic shows seldom produced in NYC.

As previously announced, NYCC's annual gala presentation, now extended from October 28 to November 15, is of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes's In the Heights. The show, directed by David Mendizábal, follows a group of residents of Washington Heights, Manhattan over the course of three summer days as they navigate love, ambition, family, and community.

The next three productions in NYCC's season are part of its annual Encores! series of rarely revived musicals. The first is You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, directed by Tony Award winner Sam Pinkleton (Oh, Mary!, The Rocky Horror Show). The show, adapted from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comics, features a book and score by Clark Gesner and the original Off-Broadway orchestrations from 1967, not including the 1999 Broadway revival’s later additions.

Performances run from February 3-14.

Next is Hallelujah, Baby!, a 1967 musical about Georgina, a young African American woman navigating showbiz, love, and prejudice as she tries to find success and equality in the civil rights era. The show has a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

Performances run from March 17-28.

The last Encores! show of 2027 is Kiss of the Spider Woman, running from April 28 to May 9. Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton) directs and choreographs the musical about the intimate and dangerous bond that forms between two political prisoners in Argentina. The show by Terrence McNally (book), John Kander (music), and Fred Ebb (lyrics), adapted from Manuel Puig's novel, was recently made into a 2025 film starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Tonatiuh.

All of NYCC's musical theatre productions are concert stagings, meaning that they are presented with minimal sets and costumes, instead putting the orchestra and the often-starry casts front and center. Actors may also perform with scripts in hand.

Additional cast and creative team members for all of NYCC’s upcoming productions have yet to be named. This article will be updated with the latest announcements.