The Stratford Festival has unveiled a massive 13-production playbill for its 75th anniversary season in 2027, marking the debut lineup for new Artistic Director Jonathan Church.
The milestone season, which runs from late April through November 2027, features an ambitious mix of major musicals, Shakespearean drama, Canadian premieres, and prominent star returns.
Highlighting the musical lineup is a new production of Mary Poppins at the Festival Theatre, directed by Church and starring Vanessa Sears in the title role. The production will feature custom flying sequences designed specifically for the iconic open stage. Meanwhile, Donna Feore returns to the festival to direct and choreograph a revived staging of the hit musical Chicago at the Avon Theatre.
“One of the things that drew me to Stratford is the extraordinary range of work that can flourish here,” said Church. “There are very few theatre companies in the world where Shakespeare, major musicals, family theatre, new Canadian plays and large-scale historical drama can share the same season. That breadth is one of Stratford’s great strengths, and it is something I wanted to embrace in my first season as Artistic Director.”
Kat Sandler’s runaway hit adaptation of Anne of Green Gables also comes to The Avon Theatre. The play opens in September for a three-week run. It was commissioned by the Festival and first presented there in 2025.
Shakespeare remains a focal point of the anniversary celebration. Director Des McAnuff will lead a new production of Hamlet set in postwar Europe amid gathering political intrigue. The production’s official opening on July 13 marks the exact calendar date of the festival's very first performance in 1953. Over at the Tom Patterson Theatre, director Krista Jackson will bring a modern interpretation to The Taming of the Shrew, framing the classic comedy through the lens of modern reality television and public image.
The season also features notable historical works and Canadian adaptations. Church will make his Stratford directorial debut at the Avon Theatre, leading two-part stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Tudor novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Families can look forward to the world premiere of a new Canadian musical based on Mordecai Richler’s classic children's book Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang at the Tom Patterson Theatre, while the Studio Theatre will showcase Daniel David Moses’s play Almighty Voice and His Wife, directed by Yvette Nolan.
“Since Jonathan’s arrival at Stratford, he has brought enormous energy, curiosity and respect for this institution and its artists,” says Lawrence Stevenson, Chair of the Festival’s Board of Directors. “His first season is ambitious in scale, broad in appeal and confident in what Stratford can be. It is both unmistakably Stratford and unmistakably his own. The Board could not be more pleased to see him begin his tenure in this landmark 75th season.”
Rounding out the lineup are major acting returns, including veteran actor Saul Rubinek, who returns to the festival for the first time in over five decades to lead a three-play series exploring Jewish identity and memory. Rubinek will perform in The Merchant of Venice, the contemporary drama Playing Shylock, and his self-authored work All in the Telling, which details his family’s survival during the Holocaust. Additionally, television star Eric McCormack returns to Stratford to star in Noël Coward’s comedy Present Laughter at the Avon Theatre. Ticket sales for the 2027 season open to the general public in mid-November.
Four Stratford Festival commissioned productions developed under Antoni Cimolino's leadership are touring to other Canadian venues. Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s The King James Bible Play runs at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa from November 11 to 21, 2026. The National Arts Centre will also host The Diviners, adapted from Margaret Laurence's novel by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan, from January 12 to 23, 2027. Salesman in China, written by Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy, plays Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre via Mirvish Productions from June 8 to July 25, 2027. Kat Sandler’s adaptation of Anne of Green Gables will run at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton in October 2027.
“One of the joys of making theatre at Stratford is seeing that work find new audiences beyond our stages,” said Church. “Four productions that began their lives here under Antoni Cimolino’s leadership will now move on to other theatres, giving people across the country the opportunity to experience them. This season sees us partnering in various ways with the Citadel in Edmonton, Crow’s and Mirvish in Toronto, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Theatre Calgary, relationships I hope will thrive.”
