John Leguizamo, Tony Shalhoub, Celia Keenan-Bolger, more featured in The Public Theater's 2025-26 season

The renowned Off-Broadway institution will present nine theatrical productions in its downtown venue, plus a summer season of Shakespeare in the Park.

The Public Theater has set its 2025-26 Off-Broadway season, consisting of nine plays and musicals at its downtown Manhattan home.

Kicking off the season in fall 2025 is the New York premiere of The Other Americans, written by and starring John Leguizamo as Nelson. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the play about a Colombian American laundromat owner in Queens, who is determined to protect his business and family as the laundromat starts to fail and his son returns from a mental wellness facility after a traumatic incident.

Performances will run from September 11 to October 12, with opening night on September 25.

Next is the New York premiere of Oh Happy Day!, a reimagining of the Noah's Ark story from writer Jordan E. Cooper and director Stevie Walker-Webb, both Tony Award nominees for Ain't No Mo'. The show begins at a birthday barbecue in Mississippi, and absurdity ensues after the family patriarch's estranged son returns.

Cooper stars as Keyshawn, and the show features original songs by Donald Lawrence. Performances run from October 2-26, opening October 15.

Zoë Kim’s Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) is the next production in the season, another New York premiere. Kim wrote and performs this autobiographical solo show that reckons with her Korean American identity and family, and the different ways love is learned, given, and reflected inward.

Performances run from October 14 to November 9, with opening night on October 24. Chris Yejin directs, and the show is presented in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company.

Next up is the previously announced musical The Seat of Our Pants, adapted by Ethan Lipton from Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of Our Teeth. The show follows the Antrobus family through millennia of catastrophes, existential dread, and new beginnings. Leigh Silverman directs, and Sunny Min-Sook Hitt choreographs.

Newly announced is the cast, consisting of Ally Bonino as the Fortune Teller, Bill Buell as Turkey/Ensemble, Damon Daunno as Henry Antrobus, Andy Grotelueschen as Announcer/Ensemble, Amina Faye as Glady Antrobus, Allison Ann Kelly as Ensemble/Musician, Ruthie Ann Miles as Mrs. Antrobus, Geena Quintos as Mammoth/Ensemble, and ensemble members David Ryan Smith and Nat Lopez.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date. Performances run from October 23 to November 30; opening night is November 13.

Also previously announced is Else Went's Initiative, directed by Emma Rosa Went. The show follows the intertwined lives of seven early-aughts teenagers all seeking to find their way in, and get out of, “Coastal Podunk, California.”

The first Public Theater show in 2026, beginning performances in January, will be Ulysses. The staged adaptation of James Joyce's text is created by experimental theatre company Elevator Repair Service. Seven people sit down for a reading, which turns into a debaucherous occasion as they fly through Joyce's various writing styles in 2.5 hours.

John Collins directs this show that stitches together verbatim passages from the classic novel. Co-direction and dramaturgy are by Scott Shepherd.

Next up is Antigone (This Play I Read in High School), written by Anna Ziegler and directed by Tyne Rafaeli. Reimagining the story of Oedipus’s daughter Antigone, the show follows an independent young woman determined to control her body in a kingdom ruled by archaic laws that seek to do so for her.

The show will star Tony Award winners Celia Keenan-Bolger as the Chorus and Tony Shalhoub as Creon. Additional casting will be announced later.

The next production in the season is Public Charge, written by Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga and directed by Doug Hughes. The show follows an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who grows up to leave her Wall Street law firm to supervise Caribbean and Central American Affairs for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the process, she tries to deploy aid to Haiti, navigate immigration politics, deal with espionage, and free an American inmate wrongly imprisoned in Cuba.

The final production in the season is the world premiere of Jeena Yi's Jesa, directed by Mei Ann Teo. Presented with Ma-Yi Theater Company, the show follows four sisters who reunite to perform their father’s Jesa, a traditional ritual honoring the dead. Old wounds, secrets, and literal and emotional ghosts arise in the process.

Additional details on casting, creative teams, and performance dates for the above productions have yet to be announced.

In addition to the above programming, the Public will host a variety of concert- and cabaret-style performances in its Joe's Pub space throughout the year, curated by Justin Vivian Bond.

The Public will also present a full summer season of Shakespeare in the City, including multiple Shakespeare in the Park productions at the Delacorte Theater, a Mobile Unit tour of a classic Shakespeare play around the five boroughs, and a Public Works production featuring NYC community members in the cast.

Photo credit: John Leguizamo, Tony Shalhoub, and Celia Keenan-Bolger. (Photos courtesy of The Public Theater)