Jennifer Nettles, 'A Christmas Carol,' more in PAC NYC's 2026-27 season

Perelman Performing Arts Center, known as PAC NYC, will host theatre, music, dance, opera, and educational programming in its fourth Off-Broadway season.

Summary

• PAC NYC's 2026-27 theatre season includes the Jennifer Nettles-led musical Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo; the holiday return of A Christmas Carol; the new musical The Gorgeous Nothings; and the new play The Unsinkable
• The season also includes one-night music; dance; opera; and educational performances as well as limited-time theatre festivals
• One free event is a September 13 concert performance of Come From Away

The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) has set its 2026-27 season of artistic programming, consisting of both one-night events and full runs of theatre, music, dance, opera, and more productions.

As previously announced, the season begins with Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo from June 28 to July 26. Grammy Award winner Jennifer Nettles wrote and stars in the the musical as real-life apothecary Giulia Tofana, for whom one act of self-defense ripples into a string of casualties in her Sicilian town.

The complete cast and creative team have been announced, and tickets are now available.

Two free concerts will commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11: Sounds of Remembrance on September 11, performed by The New York Philharmonic and the U.S. Army Field Band Soldiers’ Chorus, and an open-air concert performance of the Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away on the World Trade Center campus on September 13.

From November 20, 2026, to January 3, 2027, PAC NYC will welcome back Jack Thorne and Matthew Warchus's Tony Award-winning production of A Christmas Carol, first seen at the venue in the 2025-26 holiday season. Read our review of the production.

From January 16-23 is the Democracy Cycle festival of performance pieces exploring the theme of democracy. Two full productions — the dance piece Baye & Asa's At the Altar and the song cycle The Puerto Rico Experiment, by Angélica Négron with Balún and Roomful of Teeth — will be presented alongside various works-in-progress in theatre, music, opera, and dance.

On January 29 is Timothy Long's North American Indigenous Songbook, a curated concert of music by Native American, First Nations, and Métis composers. The concert features pianist, conductor, and composer Long alongside Marion Newman, R. Carlos Nakai, and Martha Redbone Roots Project.

The next musical theatre production at PAC is The Gorgeous Nothings, inspired by the buried history of a hidden wing of the Men’s Penitentiary on Welfare Island in NYC, where inmates were imprisoned for homosexuality in the 1930s.

The show is conceived and written by Travis Lee Russ; arranged and orchestrated by Dan Schlosberg; arranged by Alejandro Senior; and directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford, with a score from the Great American Songbook. Performances run February 16 to March 14.

Running concurrently with The Gorgeous Nothings is the play The Unsinkable, from February 10 to March 7. Written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and directed by Aya Ogawa, the show is inspired by the stories of the six Chinese seamen who survived the Titanic sinking, told through the eyes of one 17-year-old Little Fong with flourishes of puppetry, dance, and opera.

Next, the opera showcase Vox, featuring 20- to 30-minute excerpts from four in-progress operas with a full orchestra and chorus, will take place on April 1.

On April 3 is the return of the Motion/Matter: All-Styles Dance Battle, where dancers from NYC’s street and club scenes compete before a panel of all-star judges for a cash grand prize.

The final event announced for the 2026-27 season is PAC's annual Family Day of all-ages indoor and outdoor workshops, performances, interactive creation stations, dance, live music, and more. Family Day will be held on a date in May to be announced.

PAC NYC will also bring back its Icons of Culture series of conversations with cultural changemakers, with dates and participants to be announced. Also ongoing throughout the season is PAC's series of free performances by guest DJs, emerging local artists, and more in its lobby.

Photo credit: A Christmas Carol off Broadway. (Photo by Andy Henderson)