The Ivoryton Playhouse has announced its 2026 season, which has a particularly patriotic slant as it coincides with the United States Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The playhouse season runs from spring to winter unlike a lot of Connecticut theaters whose seasons run from fall to spring. The 2026 season opens March 26 through April 19 with the return of Mike Reiss’ “I’m Connecticut,” a romantic comedy that is also an ode to the Nutmeg State. Reiss is a Bristol native who has been a writer and/or producer with “The Simpsons” since the long-running show’s beginnings in the 1980s. He also created “The Critic,” “Queer Duck” and other animated shows and has written a book about his time with “The Simpsons.”
The playhouse last staged “I’m Connecticut” in 2013. The play had its world premiere in 2011 at UConn’s Connecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs. Other Reiss plays done at the Ivoryton Playhouse include “I Hate Musicals — The Musical” in 2017, and “Comedy is Hard” in 2015.
From May 7-31, 2026, the playhouse is doing “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” playwright Lanie Robertson’s concert-style biographical drama about jazz icon Billie Holiday. The show, set at the end of Holiday’s career in 1959, had its first production in Atlanta in 1986. Previous Connecticut productions include at Long Wharf Theatre in 2005 and at Playhouse on Park in 2022.
From June 25 through July 26, 2026, Ivoryton Playhouse offers “1776,” Sherman Edwards’ and Peter Stone’s Broadway musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The show has a huge cast, which should be an interesting challenge for the playhouse’s small stage. For its 2025 season, the playhouse did a different large cast musical, “My Fair Lady,” by having members of an ensemble each playing multiple roles.
Another musical happens Aug. 6 through Sept. 6, 2026 with “Come From Away,” the popular and heartwarming show about airline passengers unexpectedly rerouted to a small town in Newfoundland during the turmoil of 9/11. The Broadway hit had one of its first public readings at the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals in 2013. Following its Broadway success in 2017, “Come From Away” visited Connecticut on tour numerous times. The rights to perform the show are now available to small theaters.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the Ivoryton Playhouse is staging Shirley Lauro’s patriotic two-act play “A Piece of My Heart” Oct. 1-25, 2026. The play concerns six women who are serving in Vietnam. The characters include nurses, a Red Cross volunteer and a singer who is there to entertain the troops. “A Piece of My Heart” had its New York premiere in 1991. Lauro based the play on interviews with women who served in Vietnam whose stories were not well represented in the overall coverage of the war.
The season ends Nov. 19 through Dec. 20, 2026, with a second year of “Playhouse Holiday Jamboree.” The first go-round for this variety revue is playing currently at the playhouse through Dec. 21. It was devised by Ivoryton Playhouse regulars Katie Barton and Ben Hope and features a cast of local musicians, singers and actors.
Casts and creative teams for the 2026 shows have yet to be announced.
The Ivoryton Playhouse, located at 103 Main St. in the Ivoryton section of Essex, has existed since the late 1920s in a renovated building that had been a recreation hall for the piano key factory in town. From the ‘20s into the ‘70s, the playhouse mainly presented summer stock touring shows starring famous names from Broadway, movies and TV. The theater was reopened in the late 1980s by the River Rep troupe as a summer theater and, under new management, became a year-round theater operation in the early 2000s under the leadership of Jacqueline Hubbard, who serves as artistic director, executive director and occasional director and performer.
Subscriptions to Ivoryton Playhouse’s 2026 season are already on sale. Options include three- or six-play packages. Single tickets will go on sale March 3, 2026. More information is at ivorytonplayhouse.org.