Goodspeed Musicals recently announced the lineup for its upcoming 2026 season at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam. Topics covered in the four-show lineup include the son of God, a Depression-era comic strip icon, a goose and musical theater itself.
One of the selections is atypical for the venue for two reasons: It’s British rather than American and a rock opera rather than a traditional musical. The other three shows fall in familiar categories: A reworked 1930s-style show, a world premiere developed at the Goodspeed through readings and workshops and a musical classic, in this case one that the Goodspeed has done twice before including its world premiere 50 years ago.
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” April 17 through June 7, 2026. This choice continues a recent trend at the Opera House toward shows from the 1970s and early ‘80s, following “Dreamgirls” and “A Chorus Line.” “Jesus Christ Superstar” was the first full-length hit by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, following their previous Bible-themed work “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (which began as a short cantata and was later expanded into a full show).
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” which chronicles the final days of Jesus Christ largely through the perspective of his apostle Judas Iscariot, was released as a popular concept album in 1970 and its songs were major international hits before it was ever staged. Its Broadway premiere was in 1971, and a film was made in 1973.
There have been many revivals, national tours and major regional productions over the years. Many Connecticut theaters have done their own productions, from Seven Angels in Waterbury to Downtown Cabaret in Bridgeport to UConn’s Connecticut Repertory Theatre summer series to Ridgefield’s ACT of CT. A years-long national tour marking the show’s 50th anniversary played at The Bushnell in 2020, the Shubert Theatre in 2023 and the Waterbury Palace in 2024.
One advantage for any theater staging “Jesus Christ Superstar” is that, unlike musicals that become defined by their original Broadway productions, there is no dominant production to measure it against. Webber and Rice did not care for the original New York production directed by Tom O’Horgan, so other early versions went in different directions.
The Goodspeed production is directed by Tatiana Pandiani, director of the current Long Wharf Theatre production of “Torera” playing at New York City’s WP Theater through Oct. 19. Pandiani has directed at important small theaters in New York City and at regional theaters around the country. Other music-based shows on her resume include Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” in Princeton, New Jersey and the klezmer-scored play “Indecent” by Paula Vogel in Anchorage, Alaska.
“Crazy for You,” June 19 through Aug. 9, 2026. “Crazy for You” was the most successful example of a wave of musicals in the 1980s and ‘90s which sought to revive, yet heavily revise, musicals from 50 or 60 years earlier so they would attract modern audiences. Most of these shows had scores by heavyweight pop composers such as George and Ira Gershwin or Cole Porter.
“Crazy for You” is based on the Gershwin-scored 1930 musical “Girl Crazy,” with a new book by Ken Ludwig, the prolific comic playwright whose adaptation of “Murder on the Orient Express” was at Hartford Stage in 2018, whose “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” was at Long Wharf Theatre that same year and whose many other plays include “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Moon Over Buffalo.”
Ludwig has added a lot to the basic plot of “Girl Crazy,” in which a spoiled wealthy young man is sent by his family to manage a ranch in a Western state. “Crazy for You” amped up the story’s backstage Broadway theater elements and also put in even more Gershwin songs, particularly ones from Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies. Gershwin hits in “Crazy for You,” besides the title song, include “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “Embraceable You,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
The Goodspeed production of “Crazy for You” will be directed by the company’s associate artistic director, Michael Fling, who has not directed at the Goodspeed before but has been involved in many shows there in other capacities and has directed musicals elsewhere, notably at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School.
“The Snow Goose,” Aug. 28 through Oct. 18, 2026. This is the world premiere of a new adaptation of Paul Gallico’s classic tale of an isolated man and a young girl on the English coast who nurse a bird back to health and develop an extraordinary supernatural bond. The novella has been adapted by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie, who are known collectively as the musical theater team Noisemaker. Goodspeed commissioned the project through its Goodworks program and gave “The Snow Goose” a public reading at its Festival of New Musicals in 2024. “The Snow Goose” is set in wintertime, and in part due to a popular TV movie that used to air during the holidays, is often associated with Christmastime, yet it is not a Christmas story and is happening in the third rather than fourth slot of the Goodspeed season schedule.
“The Snow Goose” will be directed by Marshall Pailet, who wrote and directed the World War I-set musical “Private Jones” at the Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre in 2023. The show will be choreographed by Misha Shields, who’s worked with Pailet several times (including on “Private Jones”) and is also known in Connecticut for choreographing Melia Bensussen’s production of “The Winter’s Tale” at Hartford Stage in 2023.
“Annie,” Oct. 30 through Dec. 27. 2026. The Goodspeed’s role in developing this classic musical is well known for how it took an out-of-town run for the show to develop the style and tone it needed as well as find investors who were as enthusiastic about this adaptation of Harold Gray’s “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip as the show’s creators were. “Annie,” with a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, world premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in August 1976, which makes 2025 the show’s 50th anniversary, though others may measure it from its Broadway premiere in 1977. A revival is also timely since “Annie” composer Charles Strouse died earlier this year.
This is not the first time Goodspeed has done an anniversary revival of “Annie.” The theater did a 20th anniversary production in 1996, helmed by the show’s co-creator Martin Charnin (who also directed a separate national tour of “Annie” that same year).The Goodspeed also had a hand in the ill-fated “Annie” sequel variously known as “Annie Warbucks” or “Annie 2,” giving it a workshop at its Terris Theatre in 1990.
For this new 2026 production, Goodspeed has enlisted Jenn Thompson. Not only is Thompson a regular director at the Goodspeed Opera House, having done “Anne of Green Gables,” “Oklahoma” and Charles Strouse’s first hit “Bye Bye Birdie.” As a child, she was in the cast of the long-running original Broadway production of “Annie” for two years. Thompson just directed a popular, critically acclaimed national tour of “Annie,” which traveled the country from 2022 to 2025 including stops at the Shubert Theatre and the Waterbury Palace. That tour was praised for restoring scenes which had been cut from other “Annie” revivals. Thompson is also well known in Connecticut theater from when her family’s River Rep company staged summer seasons at the Ivoryton Playhouse from 1987 through 2005.
Goodspeed Musicals is already offering season subscriptions. Single tickets for next year’s shows will go on sale in February. For more details on the 2026 Goodspeed Opera House, go to goodspeed.org/seasons/2026-season.
