The past two weeks have seen Cincinnati’s largest performing arts organizations announce their plans for the 2026-2027 season.
Some of those reveals have been inspired. Others, a revelation.
What struck me most, though, was not the offerings of any one institution. Rather, it was what a treasure Cincinnati’s arts community is. I mean, this article deals with just six arts organizations. There are dozens more out there, museums and film festivals, chamber music series and dance companies. We are so, so fortunate to live in a place like this. So, for all the recommendations in this list, remember that there are dozens more out there. Consider this just the first entries in your arts shopping list.
Before I get too carried away, though, let’s take a look at what I regard as some of the high points of the coming season.
Cincinnati Ballet
This is the second full season programmed by artistic director Cervilio Miguel Amador. And whoa! Though he is relatively new to being a company director, Amador has clearly found his artistic voice. This is a season jam-packed with world premieres and creations by choreographers we have never seen in Cincinnati.
“We have eight new creations in one season,” Amador said. “I don’t think we have ever done that in Cincinnati before.”
The season-opening “Kaplan New Works Festival” is regularly a highlight of the ballet season. But even with that high bar to meet, Amador has stacked the deck with this one, with new works by Polish choreographer/dancer Robert Bondara, Anne Jung (a former dancer with the Nederlands Dans Theater), South African choreographer Mthuthuzeli November and Melody Walsh, a former principal dancer with the Houston Ballet.
Even the old things are new with this season. Cincinnati Ballet has performed “Romeo and Juliet” many times before. But for the 2026-2027 season, the company is introducing a new production, created by Washington Ballet artistic director Edwaard Liang,
“Nutcracker” is there, too, of course. But likely to be as much a crowd-pleaser is “LIVE!,” which will see the return of Cincinnati favorites Over-the-Rhine, this time with full orchestrations, provided by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
View the full season schedule here.
Dig deeper at www.cballet.org.
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
“These are dark times we are living in right now,” said Brian Isaac Phillips, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s producing artistic director.
Cincy Shakes’ response?
Laughter. Lots of it, with hefty doses of farce and buffoonery. And don’t fret, there will also be room for some gut-wrenching political commentary, as well. “Hamlet,” anyone?
First, though, the fun.
One of Cincy Shakes’ most popular recent productions was “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a tale about a small theater company where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Well, the same playwrights that created that show have written another over-the-top theater spoof called “Peter Pan Goes Wrong.” It runs May 28-June 27, 2027.
On the darker side of things, they’ll also present a stage adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 film, “Network.” It was a savage indictment of the melding of TV news and entertainment. Unfortunately, in the ensuing half-century, the mix has grown even more disheartening. But it also offers an opportunity for ferocious theater. Lucky us.
View the full season schedule here.
Dig deeper at www.cincyshakes.com.
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Cincinnati Pops
Where to start? Seriously, the season offerings from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops dwarf those of any other performing arts organization in the area. What’s most amazing, though, is that even after more than 130 years in business, the CSO can continue to surprise.
There are still plenty of the musical warhorses on the schedule; Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto,” Ravel’s “Bolero” and Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23,” among others.
But maestro Cristian Macelaru has plenty of surprises up his sleeve. There’s a weekend of “Extraordinary Women” concerts featuring not only 19th century composers, but also the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s “Concerto for Orchestra.” The season opens with a collaboration between the orchestra and Wynton Marsalis with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. And in January, we’ll hear the first U.S. performance of George Enescu’s Symphony No. 3 in nearly 100 years.
Pops conductor John Morris Russell has cobbled together a fascinating season, too, from a “Bluegrass Summit” with fiddler Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, The Steel Wheels and 2020 International Bluegrass Music Awards Entertainer of the Year, Sister Sadie. Later, there is “Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar,” which brings together the unlikely combination of Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” with Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning album, “Damn.”
View the full season schedule here.
Dig deeper at cincinnatisymphony.org.
Know Theatre
The Know Theatre ius growing up. Don’t panic. It’s not abandoning its mission as the edgiest theater in town.
“But I think it’s time for us to move out of mom’s basement,” said producing artistic director Bridget Leak. What does that mean? Lots and lots of things, from tossing the nasty couch that had been resident in theater’s basement lobby forever and opening up its doors to collaborate with other artistically restless groups to reinvigorating some of the staples of past seasons.
Take “Serials,” the theater’s competitive round-robin of short plays that unfold over the course of several weeks. Under the guidance of Alexx Rouse and Zach Robinson, the series has found new life and uncovered handsful of writers eager to see their ideas realized on the stage. Similarly, the Know now has a burgeoning education program through its collaboration with Caroline Stine’s InBocca Performance group.
The mainstage offerings feel more mature, too, while still leading us into often-uncharted theatrical territory with shows like Bess Wohl’s “Make Believe” and the world premiere of Hannah Gregory’s “Wuthering: A Musical on the Moors,” which began its life as a one-act show in the Know’s annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
View the full season schedule here.
Dig deeper at knowtheatre.com.
Playhouse in the Park
The Playhouse has premiered scores of new plays since its founding in 1960. But during the 2026-2027 season, the theater will introduce a dedicated new play series called “Made in Cincy: New Works Festival.” As the name suggests, there will be an emphasis on plays whose roots somehow connect to Cincinnati. First up is “Talk,” a satire of modern media written by Cincinnati-born superstar playwright/author/TV writer Theresa Rebeck. It’s a gangbuster way to launch the series, which will also include works by resident artists Maggie Lou Rader and Isaiah Reaves and the workshopping of a new commission by Nathan Alan Davis, whose “Origin Story” was a particularly memorable piece of the Playhouse season in 2023.
“A Christmas Carol” will be part of the mix, as well as a return of “Cincinnati King,” about the remarkable musical tale of Cincinnati’s King Records. And to kick off the season, producing artistic director Blake Robison has chosen Arun Lakra’s “Heist.”
“It’s an edge-of-your-seat, high-tech crime caper,” Robison said. “Think ‘Oceans 11’ with lots of lasers and flying.”
View the full season schedule here.
Dig deeper at cincyplay.com.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati
ETC almost never announces it upcoming seasons as early as its competitors. Artistic director D. Lynn Meyers wheels and deals as long as possible as she tries to secure production rights for shows that are, for one reason or another, elusive.
This year, however, Meyers has made an exception. She’s not ready to announce the entire season. But she agreed to share the opening show of ETC’s ’26-’27 lineup.
It’s a world premiere musical revue called “Corner of the Sky: The Music of Stephen Schwartz.” Yes, that Stephen Schwartz, the Broadway and Hollywood composer responsible for dozens of memorable songs from shows like “Wicked,” “Pippin,” “Godspell,” “The Prince of Egypt,” “Pocahontas” and many others.
The show was conceived and created by College-Conservatory of Music graduate Scott Coulter and directed and choreographed by Vince DeGeorge, CCM’s chair of musical theatre. The show plays Sept. 5-27.
Dig deeper at ensemblecincinnati.org.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: These are the Cincy tickets everyone will be fighting for this year
Reporting by David Lyman, Special to The Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
