THE RUINS World Premiere and More Set for Guthrie Theater 2025–2026 Season

The Guthrie Theater has revealed nine productions as part of its 2025–2026 mainstage season, plus a world premiere to open the Dowling Studio in fall 2025. The full lineup features an electrifying new adaptation of A Doll’s House by Amy Herzog, adapted from the Ibsen classic; Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Primary Trust; the Guthrie’s 51st production of A Christmas Carol; Matthew López’s dance-filled family portrait Somewhere; William Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Anthony Shaffer’s heart-pounding thriller Sleuth; Lauren M. Gunderson’s new adaptation of Little Women; Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s heartwarming musical Come From Away; and Noël Coward’s quick-witted comedy Private Lives. The Guthrie plans to reactivate the Dowling Studio on Level Nine with the world premiere of George Abud’s The Ruins: a play through music.

The 2025–2026 Season begins with A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, with a new version by Pulitzer finalist Amy Herzog, directed by Tracy Brigden. Performances run September 13 – October 12, 2025, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

In Herzog’s compelling adaptation, housewife and mother Nora Helmer lives a delicately constructed — and seemingly perfect — life. When a long-held secret comes to light, the foundation of Nora’s fragile world begins to crumble. Torn between playing the doll-like part that’s been built for her or leaving behind everything she’s ever known, Nora is faced with an impossible choice.

Herzog is an award-winning writer whose plays include Mary Jane, 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize finalist), After the Revolution and Belleville. Her adaptation of A Doll’s House opened on Broadway in March 2023 and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. This will be Herzog’s first play at the Guthrie.

Opening the season on the McGuire Proscenium Stage will be Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust, a hopeful story of courage that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Directed by Marshall Jones III, performances run October 11 – November 16, 2025.

In a small town in upstate New York, 38-year-old Kenneth has everything he needs: a job he loves, his Best Friend Bert, daily mai tais at Wally’s and a simple routine — until he finds himself unemployed. After accepting a new job at Primary Trust Bank, his relationship with Bert is threatened, and Kenneth must face his past before he can fully embrace his future. This Pulitzer Prize-winning new play reveals our universal need for human connection and each other.

Booth is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and the recipient of a Steinberg Playwright Award, Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting and John Gassner Award. Her play Primary Trust premiered Off-Broadway in 2023 and quickly became one of the most-produced plays across the country. This marks Booth’s first play at the Guthrie.

On November 8, 2025, the Guthrie’s cherished holiday tradition continues with the 51st production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Lavina Jadhwani and directed by Addie Gorlin-Han, based on the original direction by Joseph Haj. Performances run through December 28 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

Next, the Guthrie will stage the heartfelt family drama Somewhere by playwright and screenwriter Matthew López, directed by Joseph Haj. Performances run December 13, 2025 – February 1, 2026, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage.

It’s 1959, and the musical West Side Story has captured the hearts of America, including the tight-knit Candelaria family who dream of making it big in show business. When an exciting update about a West Side Story film arrives, it is overshadowed by devastating news — their Manhattan neighborhood is being demolished to build Lincoln Center, and they have 30 days to vacate. Filled with music and dance, this heartfelt family drama explores the tension between pursuing dreams and managing the realities of life.

López is the author of The Inheritance, one of the most honored American plays in a generation, and The Legend of Georgia McBride, which played on the McGuire Proscenium Stage in 2018 — the same summer the Guthrie produced the smash-hit musical West Side Story, which was also directed by Haj and featured new choreography by Maija García. Haj and García will team up again on Somewhere to bring this dance-filled play to Guthrie audiences.

Next on the Wurtele Thrust Stage, the Guthrie will produce Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s chilling tale of ambition. Performances will run January 31 – March 22, 2026.

When three witches utter a surprising incantation — “All hail Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter” — a soldier and nobleman’s course is forever altered. Macbeth and his ambitious wife seek to kill King Duncan and usurp the throne. The pair is successful, but their satisfaction is fleeting, and the two embark on a perilous path of destruction. Shakespeare’s thrilling story of treachery and ambition reveals the villainy that can emerge when power is sought.

On the McGuire Proscenium Stage, the Guthrie will produce the Tony Award-winning thriller Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer, directed by Kimberly Senior. Performances will run March 7 – May 10, 2026.

When Milo Tindle visits detective writer Andrew Wyke in his English countryside home, the last thing he expects is for Andrew to propose they stage an elaborate jewelry burglary. The plan goes swimmingly at first, but both men soon realize they’ve met their match. What follows is a heart-pounding, high-stakes game of cat and mouse where each man’s web of lies, bargains and misdirections leads to the ultimate checkmate.

When Sleuth opened on Broadway, it received the 1971 Tony Award for Best Play and ran for more than 1,200 performances. Sleuth is Shaffer’s best-known work and will be the first of his plays to be produced by the Guthrie.

On the Wurtele Thrust Stage, the Guthrie will produce Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a new adaptation by Lauren M. Gunderson based on Alcott’s beloved novel and directed by Jackson Gay. Performances will run April 18 – June 21, 2026.

Gunderson’s adaptation of the coming-of-age classic celebrates the wonderful and trying journey of the March sisters from girlhood to adulthood. Jo March desperately wants to be a writer — an unusual dream for a teenage girl in 1860s Massachusetts. With her father away during the Civil War, Jo and sisters Meg, Beth and Amy, at home with their mother Marmee, remain joyful despite their modest circumstances. As time passes, the women grow ever closer as they navigate love, loss and new beginnings.

Gunderson has led American Theatre’s list of most produced playwrights three times in the past 10 years. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and has also received the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in American Theatre Award and Lanford Wilson Award. Her stage adaptation of Little Women was co-commissioned by City Theatre, Northlight Theatre, People’s Light and TheatreWorks.

The final production on the McGuire Proscenium Stage will be the uplifting new musical Come From Away, with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, directed by Kent Gash. Performances will run June 6 – August 9, 2026.

At 9:26 a.m. on September 11, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration shuts down U.S. airspace in response to terrorist attacks, forcing 38 planes to divert to Gander, Newfoundland. The hospitable residents of the small Canadian town greet all 7,000 passengers with food, clothing and open hearts. Based on the inspiring true story of Gander’s unexpected guests, this joyful musical honors our common humanity and highlights the importance of reaching out to those in need.

For Come From Away, the husband-wife writing duo of Sankoff and Hein won Olivier Awards for Best New Musical and Best Original Score, as well as Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Book of a Musical. They also received Tony and Grammy nominations for the work. Come From Away marks the first musical to be produced on the McGuire Proscenium Stage since Roman Holiday in 2012.

The final production of the Guthrie’s 2025–2026 Season will be Noël Coward’s quick-witted comedy Private Lives. Performances will run July 18 – August 23, 2026, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

In this delicious will-they-won’t-they comedy, divorcees Elyot and Amanda called it quits five years ago. Now they’re both on marriage number two and honeymooning at a popular resort town in France with their new spouses, Sibyl and Victor, who remain unconvinced that the flames between the former dynamic duo have fizzled. When the couples discover they are vacationing at the same hotel, insults and romantic sparks fly.

Coward is one of the most prolific and uniformly successful of the English dramatists who wrote between the World Wars. Previous productions of Coward’s work at the Guthrie include Design for Living, Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever.

In the 2025–2026 Season, the Guthrie will reactivate the Dowling Studio on Level Nine with the poignant world premiere of The Ruins: a play through music by George Abud, directed by Osh Ashruf. Performances will run September 19 – October 12, 2025.

In a single room, two young people find themselves facing each other — and the harsh truth of their own mortality. Each enters the room with a stringed instrument, and over the course of eight movements, they share their rage and ecstasy, finding in music the language that words fail to convey.

Abud is an Arab American actor and writer whose works explore the intersections of music, poetry and Arab American identity in the 21st century. With The Ruins, which received a developmental residency at New York Stage and Film in 2022, Abud offers a gentle investigation into big questions of life, death, fulfillment and meaning.

GUTHRIE THEATER 2025–2026 SEASON (in chronological order)

A Doll’s House

by Henrik Ibsen
a new version by Amy Herzog
directed by Tracy Brigden
September 13 – October 12, 2025
Wurtele Thrust Stage

The Ruins: a play through music

by George Abud
directed by Osh Ashruf
September 19 – October 12, 2025
Dowling Studio

Primary Trust

by Eboni Booth 
directed by Marshall Jones III
October 11 – November 16, 2025
McGuire Proscenium Stage

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens
adapted by Lavina Jadhwani
directed by ADDIE GORLIN-HAN
based on the original direction by Joseph Haj
November 8 – December 28, 2025
Wurtele Thrust Stage

Somewhere

by MATTHEW LÓPEZ
directed by Joseph Haj
December 13, 2025 – February 1, 2026
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare
directed by TBA
January 31 – March 22, 2026
Wurtele Thrust Stage

Sleuth

by Anthony Shaffer
directed by Kimberly Senior
March 7 – May 10, 2026
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women

adapted by LAUREN M. GUNDERSON
from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
directed by Jackson Gay
April 18 – June 21, 2026
Wurtele Thrust Stage

Come From Away

A New Musical
book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein
directed by Kent Gash
June 6 – August 9, 2026
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Private Lives

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