Arena Stage Announces Final Productions of its 2026/27 Season
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announced the addition of three productions to its 2026/27 Season: Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson's Mexodus, Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates: End Game, and Ashley Robinson's Brokeback Mountain. They will join The Fruits of Our Labor and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, both now in performances; Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show, DC's beloved holiday tradition; the U.S. regional premiere of Suzie Miller's Prima Facie; and the first-ever in-the-round staging of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Purpose.
"An apt analogy for this season is re-fueling in mid-flight," shared Executive Producer Edgar Dobie. "I'm very proud of the way everyone in the organization pulled together to pivot after a dramatic shift in season planning. We're pleased to announce the remaining shows in the 2026/27 Season, shows that are on-mission and will bring joy at a time when it's arguably in short supply. Your patience will be rewarded with top-notch theater."
"Arena's mission is to produce all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, entertaining, deep, and dangerous in the American spirit," said Arena Stage Associate Artistic Director Darren Johnston. "Each of the three productions joining our 2026/27 Season further that mission and expand the definition of who we are as Americans. A rarely told chapter of American history blazes across our stage with musical virtuosity. An uproarious comedy insists that 60-year-old women are the heroes of their own lives, not the support. Two Wyoming sheepherders strive to love and connect, a love that was too long shunned. These are essential theatrical experiences, essential American stories, and essential Arena."
The Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Mexodus kicks off 2027 in the Kreeger Theater. This groundbreaking hip-hop musical reimagines the Underground Railroad heading south to Mexico-unearthing a powerful, untold chapter of American history. Written by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, directed by David Mendizabal (Arena's Sanctuary City), with choreography by Tony Thomas (Arena's Tempestuous Elements), Mexodus uses instruments to build a live soundscape each night, layering rhythms, melodies, and harmonies to create full arrangements on the spot each performance.
Mexodus premiered in 2024 as a co-production with DC's Mosaic Theater Company and Baltimore Center Stage. Following award-winning Off-Broadway runs in 2025 at Audible's Minetta Lane Theatre and 2026 at the Daryl Roth Theatre, the musical returns to the DMV with its original creative team, including set designer Riw Rakkulchon (& Juliet), lighting designer Mextly Couzin (JOB), and Tony Award-winning sound designer Mikhail Fiksel (Dana H.), with costume design by Mendizabal. The cast will be announced at a later date.
"It is a thrill to partner with our friends at Arena Stage in bringing Mexodus back to DC!," shared Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas. "Developing and producing the 2024 world premiere production of this inspiring new musical with writers Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson remains a highlight of Mosaic's history and a personal honor for myself, Managing Director Serge Seiden, and the Mosaic community. Since that acclaimed production, Mexodus has taken the country by storm and its epic return back to the nation's capital couldn't be more timely. As we prepare for shifts in our local and national governments, I am confident that this innovative look at our country's history will offer audiences inspiration and hope to fight back despair and discrimination with unity, strength, and joy."
In April, two-time Emmy nominee Theresa Rebeck (NYPD Blue) reunites with Tony Award winners John Benjamin Hickey (The Normal Heart) and Julie White (The Little Dog Laughed) to reprise their roles as writer, director, and star, respectively, in the follow-up to Rebeck's acclaimed 2003 comedy Bad Dates. This sequel finds Haley-now 58 and widowed-as she navigates new technology and dating apps. Sharp-witted and deeply human, Bad Dates: End Game is a funny, fearless, and fresh portrait of one woman learning-on her own terms-what comes next. The comedy makes its DC premiere following early 2027 runs at Hartford Stage and George Street Playhouse. The full creative team will be announced at a later date.
Adapted by Ashley Robinson from Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx's short story, with songs by Dan Gillespie Sells (Everybody's Talking About Jamie), Brokeback Mountain will close Arena's 2026/27 Season. In the summer of 1963, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist met while tending sheep on an isolated Wyoming mountain. Their unexpected connection becomes a love that endures across two decades, even as marriage, family, distance, and the threat of violence keep them apart. Country-and-western music and intimate theatrical storytelling express what the men cannot say aloud in this stage adaptation of the award-winning novel and film. This Summer 2027 production will mark this play with music's East Coast premiere, following earlier runs at London's @sohoplace and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The full cast and creative team will be announced at a later date.