Red Bank’s Two River Theater has announced its 2016-17 season. The slate will feature a production of James Goldman’s The Lion in the Winter, starring Tony nominee Michael Cumpsty as Henry II of England; as well as August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom directed by Tony winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson – set to kick off the new season in September.

Cumpsty, who was recently seen Off-Broadway in The Body of An American, leads the cast of Goldman’s classic about the royal family during Christmas in 1183. The Tony-winning play first played on Broadway in 1966 starring Robert Preston as the king and Rosemary Harris as the queen.

The 2016-17 line-up will also feature Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane, a “wild comedy” commissioned by the theatre and directed by Leigh Silverman; A Very Electric Christmas, a theatrical event of music, movement, puppetry and light; Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Eric Tucker; Tony Meneses’ The Women of Padilla; and The Ballad of Little Jo, a musical about the American West written by Grammy-winning composer Mike Reid and lyricist Sarah Schlesinger.

“The mission of Two River has always been to produce theater that directs our attention to the most profound aspects of our shared human experience,” said artistic director John Dias in a press statement. “This season, we have a collection of plays that does just that. These plays dive deep into essential elements of our contemporary lives—love, honor, racism, family conflict, climate change, war, and more. And yet they do so in a joyously human way, painting indelible, moving, hilariously funny, and most of all, deeply honest portraits of people at their best, worst, and everything in between.”

For more information and to purchase subscription packages visit tworivertheater.org.