New York outdoor summer theatre Hudson Valley Shakespeare has unveiled its 2027 season, which will celebrate the Garrison company’s 40th anniversary.
The theatre, which primarily offers Shakespeare classics alongside select non-Shakespeare (and generally non-musical) titles each summer, will present the rare musical production, staging Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine‘s Pulitzer-winning Sunday in the Park With George June 6-September 4, 2027. Amanda Dehnert will direct.
Originally premiering on Broadway in 1985, Sunday in the Park With George is inspired by the iconic pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, focusing on its artist, Georges Seurat, and imagining the characters that he painted in it. In the musical’s second act, Seurat’s great grandson, also an artist, wrestles with his legacy and, as Sondheim famously put it, “the art of making art.” The work has become one of Sondheim’s most beloved titles, boasting a score that includes “Finishing the Hat,” “Putting it Together,” “We Do Not Belong Together,” and other Sondheim mainstays.
Also on offer will be Aaron Posner’s The Cherry Tortured, Or the Parable of the Great Unsticking, which reimagines Chekhov’s 19th century Russian tale to be set in modern-day Hudson Valley. Artistic Director Davis McCallum will direct, with performances running June 4-July 31 (HVS’s season performs in repertory, with multiple titles overlapping).
But the company has not dispensed with the Bard. The season will also include new stagings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Ryan Quinn and performing June 2-September 25; and Macbeth, directed by Jenn Thompson and running August 7-October 3.
“As we look ahead to our 40th anniversary season, it feels both like a homecoming and a bold step into the future,” says McCallum in a statement. “From the enchanted forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Hudson Valley Shakespeare’s story began four decades ago, to the ominous shadows of Birnam Wood, these plays explore the wild terrain of human desire, and the supernatural forces stirring within the natural world. They are big, gloriously human stories, brought to life by an extraordinary ensemble of artists and an audience willing to come along for the ride. Forty years on, our belief in the alchemy of live theatre remains unchanged, but the possibilities of what we can create together have never felt more exciting.”
Sunday in the Park With George will be presented by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Visit HVShakespeare.org.
