Weathervane Playhouse’s new 2026-2027 season will kick off Aug. 20 with the beloved musical “The Secret Garden,” based on the children’s classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
It’s part of an eight-show, 92nd season that includes classic favorites, Broadway hits, suspense and comedy.
Melanie Pepe, Weathervane’s executive artistic director, is directing the magical “The Secret Garden.” In choosing the new 2026-2027 season, she said the community theater was looking for the highest level of community engagement it could get, both onstage and backstage.
“We’ve had really high participation with youth, with the development of the Weathervane Musical Theatre Company, so some of the onstage opportunities are sort of tailored toward youth involvement because of that,” she said.
Those youth opportunities are prevalent in the musicals “The Secret Garden,” “Annie” and “Mean Girls.”
“We’re leaning heavily into musicals right now because that’s what our audiences are responding to,” Pepe said.
The theater is also offering opportunities for young designers, so college students studying theater tech design can work on designing a show or operate a sound board or light board to attain real-life, practical skills.
Weathervane Playhouse 2026-27 Season
Here’s the season schedule:
● “The Secret Garden,” Aug. 20-Sept. 6. The enchanting musical, reimagined from the children’s book by composer Lucy Simon and book writer Marsha Norman, tells the story of 11-year-old orphan Mary Lennox, who goes to live with her reclusive Uncle Archibald and her disabled cousin, Colin. She discovers wonders, including a magic garden, that help her in her new life.
Weathervane’s show will star youngsters Esther Nichols and Parker Towns as Mary Lennox, youth actors Luke Astrosky and Holden Peterson as Colin Craven, Sydney Jahnigen as Lily and Keon Dalziel as Dickon.
Weathervane will be producing “The Secret Garden,” which Pepe described as one of the first Broadway light operas, for the first time. The director said she appreciates working with actors — both adult and kids — who have the singing and acting chops to do this challenging, enchanting musical.
“It’s really about love and recovery, which, of course, is the whole parallel of the garden” that returns to life in the story, Pepe said. “At the beginning of the story, the (characters) are focusing their time and energy on what they’ve lost. And by the time we get to the end of the story, they’re focusing their time and their energy on what they’ve found,” Pepe said.
● “Deathtrap,” Oct. 8-Nov. 1. Fred Gloor directs this 1979 comedic thriller by Ira Levin. Sidney Bruhl, a normally successful writer of Broadway thrillers, is struggling until he sees an opportunity with one of his student’s new scripts. Sidney decides not only that he and his student should “collaborate” but also that he should knock the student off and steal his play.
“As a murder mystery writer, he has to plan a murder,” Pepe said. “That’s just fun.”
Weathervane will be producing “Deathtrap” for the first time.
● “Annie,” Nov. 27-Dec. 20. New to Weathervane’s holiday slot is the worldwide musical phenomenon “Annie,” directed and choreographed by Marissa Leenaarts. Based on the popular comic strip by Harold Gray, the musical was created by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. Among its great musical theater tunes is “Tomorrow.”
Weathervane, which last produced “Annie” 14 years ago, is bringing it back for the musical’s 50th anniversary.
“That one’s a special show and we wanted to wait a few years before we brought it back,” Pepe said. “It’s such a heartwarming story.”
Young choreographer Brandon Briggs, who played Donkey in Weathervane’s “Shrek,” will be working on choreography with Leenaarts.
● A yet-to-be-named encore production will run Jan. 14-24, 2027. Weathervane will remount a previously produced work whose title will be announced Sept. 2. The original cast will return to reprise the show.
“All we can say is that it’s a show that we sold out that’s returning,” Pepe said. “It’s really exciting.”
● “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” Feb. 18-March 14. The musical revue features the music of Fats Waller, who rose to fame during the Golden Age of the Cotton Club. This work celebrates the stride piano, jazz and swing music that Waller made famous during his career.
The show will be directed by Richard Morris Jr. and music directed by Edward Ridley Jr.
“It’s such an incredible, classical American musical theater piece,” Pepe said.
● “Mean Girls,” April 15-May 9. The musical by Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond and Neil Benjamin, directed and choreographed by Marissa Leenaarts, follows new girl Cady Heron as she takes on The Plastics at her suburban high school. The Tony Award-winning musical is adapted from Fey’s hit 2004 film.
“It’s a fun story, it provides roles for younger performers and it’s funny as heck,” Pepe said of the musical, which the theater is doing for the first time.
● “In the Heights,” June 3-July 4. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical tells the story of a vibrant Latino community in Washington Heights that’s on the brink of change. The director will be announced.
For this Weathervane premiere, the theater is seeking diversity not only with onstage performers but also diversity of voice on the artistic and design sides, Pepe said.
“I know we have a lot of performers and designers and artists in our community that haven’t been here yet and I’m really hoping that (with) that show, they’ll see that as an open invitation to come and learn more about Weathervane,” she said.
She stressed that “In the Heights” has an incredibly strong story.
“It’s not your standard musical theater songs and the skills that are needed in order to tell that story are different from what a lot of musical theater performers have,” Pepe said. “It’s two-and-a-half hours of patter song, so that’s tough.”
● “8X10: The Eileen Moushey TheatreFest,” July 8-11. The 10-minute play festival, which was created and first produced by Moushey, is in its 15th season.
It will feature eight plays selected from hundreds of submissions from around the world. All of them are linked by a beauty salon setting and audience member vote for their favorite plays.
The beauty salon set, which comes straight from “In the Heights,” will be built out for the 10-minute play festival. This will be the third year that the festival has a full set, along with full lights, sound and costumes.
Single tickets for Weathervane’s 92nd season are available now, as well as subscriptions and flexible coupon books. See weathervaneplayhouse.com or call 330-836-2626.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Weathervane’s 92nd season has classics, Broadway, suspense, comedy
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
