La Jolla Playhouse's 2026-2027 season will feature three world-premiere musicals—The Family Album, GRIM, and Particle Fever—as well as the West Coast premieres of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose and Ngozi Anyanwu's The Monsters, and the world premiere of Mat Smart's A Black-billed Cuckoo.

The 2026-2027 subscription slate marks the final season curated by Tony winner Christopher Ashley, the Playhouse’s Artistic Director, who will depart the organization in January 2026 after nearly two decades, to lead New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company.

Purpose, winner of the 2025 Tony for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, will play the California venue in May-June 2026. Delicia Turner Sonnenberg will direct Jacobs-Jenkins' dramatically comedic look at the influential Jasper family, who have been a pillar of Black American politics for years.

Anyanwu's The Monsters, directed by Tamilla Woodard, will be presented in June as a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The play about sibling bonds follows Lil, who is obsessed with the art, strength, and beauty of Mixed Martial Arts, inspired by her older brother Big, a star of the local MMA circuit. The two haven’t spoken in years, until she suddenly appears at his door. 

The world premiere of The Family Album, a La Jolla Playhouse commission, will be presented in July-August 2026. Jess McLeod will direct the new musical, which has a book by Sam Chanse and music and lyrics by MILCK (aka Connie K. Lim) and AG (aka Adrianne Gonzalez). Conceived by MILCK and McLeod with a story by Chanse, MILCK, and McLeod, the musical concerns singer-songwriter Mia Bing, who is desperate to break through in the music industry. Just as she receives the call that could change her career, she’s pulled back to her childhood home where she’s once again the “disappointing” daughter of her Asian immigrant parents.

Shelley Butler will direct the world premiere of Smart's A Black-billed Cuckoo, set for September-October 2026. The comedy is set over 24 hours in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, as a close-knit birding group is thrown into chaos when some members glimpse the rare bird and others don’t. 

GRIM—with a book by Joey Orton and Brad Silnutzer and music and lyrics by Petro AP, Scott Hoying, Orton, and Silnutzer—will come to life in October-November 2026 under the direction of Sammi Cannold. This irreverent musical, which celebrates life and death, finds the Grim Reaper retiring after 300,000 years collecting souls. His daughter Diana must pass a simple test to take over; that is, until she unexpectedly falls for dorky human Josh.

The world premiere of the new musical Particle Fever, based on the documentary film by Mark Levinson and David Kaplan, boasts a book by Tony winner David Henry Hwang, music and lyrics by Bear McCreary and Zoe Sarnak, and a story by all three. Leigh Silverman will direct the February-March 2027 engagement, which plans to hurtle audiences into the most ambitious experiment ever attempted when more than 10,000 scientists from around the world joined forces to build the Large Hadron Collider and solve one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Prior to the start of the subscription season, La Jolla Playhouse will mount its annual WOW Festival, presented in partnership with UC San Diego, April 23–26, 2026, on the UC San Diego campus.

“After 18 years co-leading this amazing organization with my longtime partner Debby Buchholz, it is extremely bittersweet that this will be the final season I’ll be sharing at the Playhouse, but I’m ecstatic about these six extraordinary productions—programmed in partnership with Artistic Producing Director Eric Keen-Louie—which will leave audiences feeling moved and inspired,” said Ashley in a statement.

Ashley continued, “These six bold, vibrant new works will ignite the Playhouse’s stages in a season that marks both a grand finale and a new beginning. A huge piece of my heart will always remain at La Jolla Playhouse, and I look forward to celebrating the triumphs of this new season—and all the incredible seasons to come.”

Performance dates, casting, and additional creative team members will be announced at a later time.

Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.