Raymond Lee in Hamlet, More Board South Coast Repertory 2026-2027 Season

South Coast Repertory has unveiled an expanded 2026-2027 season, which will include a new staging of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring Raymond Lee (Quantum Leap).

To be directed by SCR Artistic Director David Ives, the production will run May 8-June 5, 2027 and conclude the season.

To kick things off, the California company will produce Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods September 12-October 10 as part of SCR’s American Icons series. 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of thes Tony Award-winning musical about twists on classic fairy tale characters. This production will be directed by Peter Rothstein.

The West Coast premiere of Mehr Theatre Group’s International hit, Blind Runner, written and directed by Amir Reza Koohestani, will follow October 18-November 8. Blind Runner follows an imprisoned Iranian activist who convinces her husband to train a blind runner. The show is performed in Persian with English supertitles. Jerry Patch’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol will close out 2026 November 28-December 27, with SCR founding member Richard Doyle as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Another centerpiece of the season includes productions of Lauren Yee’s Mother Russia and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The two shows will play alternating nights on the same stage with overlapping casts. They run January 22-March 20, 2027. Mother Russia follows clueless Evgeny, who decides to risk it all at his surveillance job in order to win over Katya, a former pop star with a mysterious past. The Importance of Being Earnest, widely considered one of the classic English comedies, follows two carefree bachelors who've created false identities to add a bit of fun into their lives and escape responsibility. When their happiness begins to depend on two women and a mother whose approval they seek, hilarity ensues in the play by Oscar Wilde.

The family-friendly How I Became a Pirate, directed by Kari Hayter, runs February 19-March 7, 2027. Based on the award-winning picture book, this musical comedy follows Braid Beard and his band of goody pirates as they meet Jeremy Jacob, a 10-year-old eager to join their crew.

Three-headed Monster, directed by H. Adam Harris, tells a story about the power of friendship through the eyes of Kyrie, who returns home from Riker’s Island after serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. The world premiere of this new work runs April 4-May 2, 2027.

The world premiere of The Ingenue runs April 18-May 9, 2027, set in 18th-century London, following the witty scheming of Letitia and Doricourt who are both arranged to be married and desperate to get the other to call it off.

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