Don't go chasing waterfalls, or maybe do. Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage has unveiled their 2025-2026 season, the company's 75th. The season will include Crazysexycool - The TLC Musical, based on the hip-hop trio's iconic music. Kwame Kwei-Armah has written the jukebox musical and will direct the premiere, with Chloe O. Davis choreographing. The show will take the company's Kreeger Theater June 12-August 9, 2026.
鈥淏ringing this story to the stage is a dream come true,鈥� said TLC member Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins. 鈥淲e have performed in a lot of different venues all over the world throughout our career, but bringing our story and music to the theater is a totally new and exciting challenge.鈥�
鈥淲e have some of the best people in the business working on this project,鈥� said TLC member Rozonda 鈥淐hilli鈥� Thomas. 鈥淎udiences will get to hear our story鈥攎ostly fact with a sprinkle of fiction 鈥� told in our own way, and of course it鈥檚 set to all your favorite hits!鈥�
Arena Stage will also premiere a new adaptation of Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, George Abbott, and Douglass Wallop's Damn Yankees, with a revised book by Will Power (Fetch Clay, Make Man) and Doug Wright (Good Night, Oscar; I Am My Own Wife) and new additional lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime). Sergio Trujillo will direct and choreograph the revival, playing the company's Fichandler Stage this fall, September 9-November 9.
The Faustian tale, based on Wallop's novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, sees a middle-aged baseball fan sell his soul to the devil to become the ultimate baseball star his team needs to go all the way. The 1955 original Broadway production was choreographed by Bob Fosse and starred Gwen Verdon, introducing such now-iconic songs as "Whatever Lola Wants" and "Who's Got the Pain." The upcoming revision will reportedly retain the original score, with a book "gentle re-tooled for its first major revival in the 21st century," according to press notes.
And Damn Yankees isn't the only golden age musical in Arena鈥檚 upcoming season. Arena Stage will also present Richard LaGravanese's edit of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical Pal Joey. The production will play Arena's Kreeger Theater January 30-March 15, 2026
The revised version of the 1940 musical, which reimagines the title character as a Black jazz singer trying to make it on the Chicago nightclub circuit, premiered at New York City Center Encores! in 2023. Tony Goldwyn will co-direct the Arena mounting alongside choreographer Savion Glover, both of whom co-helmed the earlier staging as well. The revision also features additional material by Daniel "Koa" Beaty.
The project has been in the works since at least 2021, when it was announced that Glover and Goldwyn were working with LaGravenese on a new Broadway-bound revival. LaGravenese and Beaty have revised John O'Hara's original book, adapted from his novel. Along with the plot changes, their revision interpolates Rodgers and Hart songs from other works, including 鈥淲here or When,鈥� 鈥淭he Lady Is a Tramp,鈥� 鈥淚t Never Entered My Mind,鈥� 鈥淢y Heart Stood Still,鈥� 鈥淔alling in Love With Love,鈥� and 鈥淭here鈥檚 a Small Hotel.鈥�
Other highlights in Arena Stage's season includes the world premiere of Reggie D. White's Fremont Ave., a co-production with California鈥檚 South Coast Repertory that will perform in the Kreeger Theater October 8-November 23 with Lili-Anne Brown at the helm. The work centers on a card game between three generations of Black men (in the shadow of the family's matriarch) that becomes a reckoning with masculinity, identity, and the weight of silence.
The final world premiere will be The Bengsons' My Joy is Heavy, a new play with music to be directed by Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown). The work explores the grief of pregnancy loss, inspired by the Bengsons' own experiences. The production will play the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle in the summer of 2026, with dates to be announced.
The season also includes a new staging of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Inherit the Wind, to be directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell and produced in association with The Feast, performing February 27-April 5, 2026; Waterwell's production of Lameece Issaq's A Good Day to Me Not to You, directed by Lee Sunday Evans and performing March 27-May 3, 2026; and Christopher Chen's The Motion, directed by Hana S. Sharif and performing May 6-June 14, 2026. The company's annual holiday offering, Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show, will return to the Fichandler Stage December 5-21.
鈥淭he story of Arena has always been rooted in a simple, powerful truth鈥攖hat theatre, at its best, is a gathering place for reflection, for revelation, and for joy,鈥� says Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif in a statement. 鈥淔or 74 seasons, we have stood firmly in that purpose, tending to the dreams of visionaries past while welcoming the voices of tomorrow. This milestone anniversary is not just a culmination but a continuation, a living promise that the values which shaped our beginning will forever guide our way forward.鈥�
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