Kerry Washington, Kara Young, and more will star in an Off-Broadway presentation of Whoopi Goldberg-penned monologues at Lincoln Center Theater, part of the company's newly announced 2025-2026 season, the first under new Artistic Director Lear deBessonet. Whitney White (The Last Five Years) will direct The Whoopi Monologues, with performances beginning July 6, 2026, in the company's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater ahead of a July 14 opening night.
Washington and Young will be joined by three additional performers, to be announced. The performance will re-create Goldberg's self-titled 1984 Broadway debut solo show, for which she won Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards in 1985. The show was filmed for broadcast on HBO, a recording that also earned Goldberg a Grammy Award. She revived the work on Broadway as Whoopi in 2004, getting a 2005 Tony nomination in the short-lived Best Special Theatrical Event category.
The Newhouse season will open with a U.S. premiere for Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's Kyoto, coming to LCT following sold-out runs in London's West End and Stratford-upon-Avon. Co-directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin (Stranger Things: The First Shadow), the work is set at the Kyoto Conference Centre on December 11, 1997, as nations attempt to negotiate a climate change agreement with notorious American oil lobbyist and strategist Don Pearlman. Performances will begin October 8 ahead of a November 3 opening night, with Stephen Kunken reprising his performance as Pearlman from the earlier stagings.
Next up will be a new production of family holiday opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon and performing December 16, 2025-January 4, 2026. Opening night will be December 18. Opera star Joyce DiDonato will star in the Menotti classic, being produced here in association with The Metropolitan Opera.
In the company's Off-Broadway Claire Tow Theater, LCT3 will join Seaview to present The Comedy Series. The performances will feature three comedians working on material that evolves before the audience's very eyes, with no two performances to be the same. Jenny Slate will be one of those comedians, with the other two to be announced. Performances will begin in October.
Moving into 2026, The Lazours' Night Side Songs will come to the Tow beginning February 14, 2026, opening March 2. The musical celebrates the resilience of the human spirit, giving voice to doctors, patients, researchers, and caregivers. The piece's title draws inspiration from Susan Sontag's quote that "illness is the night side of life." Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour (We Live in Cairo) have written the work, and Taibi Magar (We Live in Cairo) is directing. The show comes to the Tow following a co-world premiere via American Repertory Theater and Philadelphia Theatre Company, plus an earlier staging at Lincoln Center in the Under the Radar Festival.
Julia May Jonas offers a counterpoint to Arthur Miller's All My Sons with A Women Among Women, coming in a revised version to LCT3 after world premiere runs at The Bushwick Starr and New Georges last season. Performances will begin May 16, 2026, in the Tow, with opening night set for June 1.
The upcoming season also includes a previously announced Broadway revival of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Ragtime, beginning September 16 in the Vivian Beaumont Theater ahead of an October 16 opening night, with deBessonet at the helm; and a reading series of works at the Tow, with selections curated by Ayad Akhtar, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl, Marco Ramirez, and J.T. Rogers. An additional Broadway offering is to be announced.
The company is also hosting a Silent Disco Listening Party of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis' Warriors, an event set for July 30 at The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza. Miranda and Davis will both be on hand, joined by a special gust DJ and special guests from the concept album's cast.
“I am honored to welcome these beautiful artists to Lincoln Center Theater, and to roll out the red carpet for audiences next year in my first season as artistic director,� says deBessonet in a statement. “The richness and range of work speaks to theatre as a place for wonder, truth, and heart—a place where democracy thrives, and we can experience a restored sense of human connection. I’m excited for all that is to come, and grateful to steward this magnificent theatre into its next glorious chapter.�
“LCT is a theatre that shapes careers, and LCT3 is a vital part of that ecosystem. It is a great pleasure and privilege to invite these new artists and LCT3 alumni to join in my first season," adds LCT3 Artistic Director and Producer Maria Manuela Goyanes. "And we are experimenting too, with new collaborations, new producing models, and even a new stage configuration in the Tow next year. Come on through!"
Visit .
