La Jolla Playhouse

Experience excellence in performance and production at this Tony-Award winning regional theatre, enthralling audiences for more than 75 years. From its tree-dotted district on the UC San Diego campus, the venue originates entertaining and thought-provoking plays and musicals — many Broadway bound.

Founded by Hollywood luminaries Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer in 1947, the theatre initially enjoyed more than a decade of performances starring greats from stage and film. The Playhouse then went on hiatus from 1964–1982. While shuttered, a handful of dedicated supporters worked to keep the Playhouse alive, eventually seeing it revived on the campus of UC San Diego in 1983. Importantly, the Playhouse would be led by Des McAnuff, who served as artistic director from 1983 to 1994, and again from 2001-2007.

La Jolla Playhouse has since risen to prominence as one of the most celebrated regional theatres in the country. Under McAnuff, many new works have gone on to Broadway, including Big River, The Who’s Tommy, and Jersey Boys. In 1993, the Playhouse was awarded the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. This period also saw the beginning of the Playhouse’s acclaimed Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour, in which a brand new, Playhouse-commissioned work brings the magic of theatre into San Diego schools. The Playhouse also launched its Page To Stage Development Program in 2001, as part of its commitment to developing new plays and musicals. Two Page To Stage Productions have garnered Tony Awards: I Am My Own Wife (also a Pulitzer Prize winner) and Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays.

Today, under the artistic direction of Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the internationally-renowned nonprofit continues its mission of advancing theatre as an art form to tell stories that inspire empathy and create a dialogue toward a more just future. Following are synopses of the Playhouse’s remaining 2025/26 Season, which features several world premieres:

• The smart and witty adaptation of the iconic 1988 film Working Girl (October 28-December 14). The feel-good musical focuses on ambitious New York City receptionist Tess McGill, who works to reclaim the business idea stolen by her boss.

• The holiday season will see the return of of Burnout Paradise (December 17 – 21), which enjoyed sold-out run at this year’s WOW Festival. Part comedy, part controlled mayhem, the show begins as a simple wager between the audience and four performers on treadmills, then spirals into a brilliantly absurd, physical and laugh-out-loud exploration of life’s nonstop pace.

• The new year will cook up The Recipe (February 10-March 8, 2026), a funny, colorful and delicious new play about the early life of the endlessly fascinating Julia Child, a girl from Pasadena – and her path from confusion to discovery, fear to strength, failure to success.

The Playhouse will also hold its annual WOW Festival in April 2026. The signature performance program takes art outside traditional theatre walls and into unique spaces. The WOW Festival offers site-specific and interactive performances, installations, and workshops, ranging from plays, musicals, and exhibitions to puppeteering, silent discos, and dance. Innovative and immersive, many WOW events tap audiences in as part of the show.

The curtain then rises on The Joan Jacobs 2026/27 Season, which will include three world-premiere musicals and three extraordinary plays to ignite the Playhouse’s stages.

• The season kicks off with Purpose (May 12-June 7, 2026), an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the members of the black, politically prominent Jasper family. The 2025 Tony-Award and Pulitzer Prize winner explores themes of sacrifice, succession, faith, identity, and legacy using humor and smart dialogue.

• Early summer will see The Monsters (June 2-June 28, 2026), the gritty and action-charged story about a female Mixed Martial Arts fighter reconnecting with her estranged, aging brother, a successful figure in the local MMA circuit. Raw and riveting, this emotional knockout wrestles with the demons we must face to reconnect, rebuild, and forgive.

• The season then turns the page to The Family Album (July 17-August 16, 2026), the poignant musical about singer-songwriter Mia Bing. Just as she receives the call that could change her career, she’s pulled back to her childhood home, where she’s once again the “disappointing” daughter of her Asian immigrant parents, still haunted by an unresolved secret.

• The world premiere of A Black-Billed Cuckoo (September 15-October 11, 2026), follows, centering on 24 hours in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where a close-knit birding group is turned upside down when some of its members glimpse this rare bird and others don’t. Award-winning playwright Mat Smart introduces us to a fascinating community of people who revel in the idea that any given day might bring something they’ve never seen before.

• A celebration of life… and death is the theme of GRIM (October 27-November 29, 2026), a deeply moving world-premiere musical. After 300,000 years collecting souls, the Grim Reaper is retiring. All that stands between his daughter, Diana, and the big job is a simple test. That is, until she unexpectedly falls for dorky human teen Josh, and the beautiful chaos of humanity, planet Earth… and the DMV. If she loves life, can Diana really be in charge of ending it?

• The 2026/27 Season closes with Particle Fever (February 16-March 21, 2027). Based on the acclaimed documentary, this exhilarating new musical hurtles audiences into the most ambitious experiment ever attempted. More than 10,000 scientists from around the world joined forces to build the Large Hadron Collider and solve one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. If successful, the result would forever change how we understand our own existence.

Each of the four La Jolla Playhouse theatre spaces has fewer than 500 seats. The venue is at 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla. View all shows and purchase tickets at lajollaplayhouse.org.