What to know about the 2025-2026 theater season
Theaters are pulling back the curtain on their upcoming season — and the calendar is packed with drama, mayhem and laughter.
Why it matters: The 2025-2026 lineup announcements help theaters lock in subscribers and boost revenue ahead of the fall, while giving audiences a glimpse of what's to come.
The big picture: Houston is home to one of the country's most active theater communities, with a mix of major institutions and smaller companies that stage work year-round.
Here's a snapshot of what the theater scene next season will look like:
Broadway at the Hobby Center
This season brings a mix of Houston premieres, high-energy newcomers and returning fan favorites.
The lineup opens with the first national tour of the Tony Award–winning "Kimberly Akimbo," followed by new-to-Houston productions like "Water for Elephants" and "The Great Gatsby." Fan favorites such as "Hadestown" and "Six" return.
Eight-show package subscriptions begin at $359.
Houston Grand Opera
HGO's theme this season is meant to "honor the light we hold for our art form, and the great composers and storytellers through the centuries — but for all the artists and creatives who bring light into our world," says CEO Khori Dastoor.
The company revisits "Porgy and Bess," which helped launch HGO as a trailblazer and went on to earn a Tony and a Grammy. The season also includes the company's first-ever production of Puccini's "Il trittico" and a revised version of the Pulitzer Prize–winning "Silent Night" by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell.
Full subscriptions start at $100.
Theater Under the Stars
Next season at TUTS leans into stories rooted in the past. "Million Dollar Quartet" recreates a 1956 recording session that brought together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other rock legends. "Back to the Future: The Musical" brings the beloved '80s film to the stage.
The season kicks off with "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," set at a fictional middle school spelling competition.
Subscription packages will be available April 21.
Houston Ballet
A mix of beloved classics and contemporary works awaits this season, with world premieres, audience favorites, and celebrated guest choreographers in the spotlight — from the haunting romance of "Giselle" to a vivid tribute to Frida Kahlo in "Broken Wings."
Season packages start at around $135.
The Alley Theatre
The Alley's upcoming season blends world premieres with inventive takes on well-known stories. Highlights include "English," the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner about five students grappling with identity and language in an English class; a stage adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code"; and "The Body Snatcher," a spine-tingling love story arriving just in time for spooky season.
Three-play subscription packages start at $195.
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15 minutes ago
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George Clooney's Broadway Adaptation of ‘Good Night and Good Luck' to Air Live on CNN
George Clooney is headed back to television…just not the way you think. Unlike former co-star Noah Wyle's return to the medical procedural genre with 'The Pitt,' Clooney will be taking to the small screen via The Great White Way. For the last few months, he's been performing at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre in a theatrical adaptation of his 2005 Oscar-nominated biopic 'Good Night and Good Luck.' Now he'll bring that story back to the place it first started: on television. More from IndieWire Everything Coming to Hulu and Disney+ in June Matthew Weiner and 'Hacks' Creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky to Mentor AFI 2025 Writers' Room Ready Program Airing Saturday, June 7 on CNN, CNN will air a live performance of 'Good Night and Good Luck' in what will be the Broadway show's penultimate performance. It's also the first time in Broadway history a play has been televised live. As per The New York Times, the play will be preceded and followed by coverage and discussion around the show, it's history, and the current state of journalism. The play covers a period of time in 1953 when stalwart newsman Edward R. Murrow and his team of reporters took aim at Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. At the time, his House Un-American Activities Committee was causing undue terror around the nation, but thanks to Murrow's newscasts on CBS, the junior senator from Wisconsin was ultimately investigated and censured by 1954. Echoing the value of how news can make an impact, Clooney chose to partner with CNN to broadcast 'Good Night and Good Luck' as a symbol of journalism's enduring strength. 'We were looking at taking the play on the road, and taking it to London, and taking it to Paris, but we also thought it never is going to be exactly what it is right now, with the same cast, and we thought it would be nice to have a record of it,' Clooney told the New York Times. 'And then we thought, because the newscasts are all done live, it is the perfect thing to try to create on live television, which is always exciting — there's no safety net, and it's a fun thing to do.' In addition to streaming the play live, Clooney is also in the process of negotiating a deal for the live recording to be hosted on a streaming platform later on. Before co-writing the screenplay with producing partner Grant Heslov and then directing the film version, Clooney initially envisioned 'Good Night and Good Luck' as a televised play, similar to how '12 Angry Men' and 'Marty' were mounted during the actual 1950s. Getting the chance to showcase the material in this manner brings his relationship to the story full circle, but the Tony-nominated actor doesn't think its themes will ever go out of style. 'Unfortunately, this play always is timely,' Clooney said. 'What journalists do for a living is always going to be challenged by people in power — they don't like it unless they can control it.' The Broadway production co-stars Ilana Glazer, Glenn Fleshler, Clark Gregg, Carter Hudson, Christopher Denham, Fran Kranz, Mac Brandt, Will Dagger, and Georgia Heers. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
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15 minutes ago
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With ‘Good Night, and Good Luck' on CNN, George Clooney Trusts the Power of Live TV, One More Time
'George Clooney figured it this way: If he was going to come back to television, he might as well do something different.' That's not my lede; that intro belongs to Hilary De Vries. She wrote it for The New York Times in April 2000 when Clooney first returned to television. Just a year after he left the cast of 'E.R.,' the former Doug Ross convinced CBS president Leslie Moonves to mount a live production of 'Fail Safe,' one of the actor's favorite films. More from IndieWire Sarah Michelle Gellar, Allison Hannigan Say 'Buffy' Reboot Will Honor Michelle Trachtenberg: 'We'll Do What's Appropriate' Lucie Arnaz Says 'You Can't Talk to Aaron Sorkin,' Reflecting on 'Being the Ricardos' - 'It Was So Wrong' 'I suggested we do a remake and Les said 'Yes,'' Clooney said 25 years ago. 'Then I said, 'Let's do it live,' and Les said 'OK,' and then I said, 'And let's do it in black-and-white,' and he said, 'Then you have to be in it.' […] I thought that was a fair trade-off to get CBS to do something — a live broadcast — that they hadn't done in more than 30 years.' Now, it's nearly 30 years later (give or take a presidential term) and Clooney is back with another live TV production inspired by a black-and-white film — this time, one of his own. 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' adapted from Clooney's 2005 movie, has proven just as successful on Broadway as it was in theaters. The movie netted $54 million off a $7 million budget en route to six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. On stage, it became the first play to earn more than $4 million in a single week, and CNN claims it's the 'highest-grossing play in Broadway history.' On Sunday, the show will compete for five Tony Awards, including a potential Best Actor trophy for Clooney. But what happens one night earlier may mean more to the awards circuit veteran: 'Good Night, and Good Luck's' penultimate performance is set to air on CNN (and stream on Max), straight from the Winter Garden Theatre, marking the first time a play has ever been broadcast and televised live from Broadway. 'I can't tell you how exciting it is to do something that's never been done,' Clooney said in a press release. 'CNN is the perfect place to bring this story of courage to so many more people than we could have ever hoped. Live TV. No net. Buckle up everyone.' He's right. What audiences will see Saturday night on CNN is something different. Musicals have been recorded, edited, and released (like 'Hamilton' on Disney+, 'Purlie Victorious' on PBS, and Sony Pictures Classics' upcoming 'Merrily We Roll Along'), and plays have been live-streamed, but those are typically smaller productions on niche services. TV, even in its modern bifurcated state, is a whole other ballgame. Considering the number of plays that have wowed New York since live television became an American utility, the event's significance may feel hard to grasp. But the presence at its center is easy to embrace. Few A-list stars trust and encourage the connection television creates between an artist and their audience like George Clooney. It's as evident in the stories he tells as the ways he tells them. Conversely, the goodwill earned from his decades-long relationship with viewers makes him a trusted figure — someone we've welcomed into our homes before and will be eager to greet again, whether in a familiar role or via an unprecedented event. For as unlikely as it would sound 25 years ago, bringing 'Good Night, and Good Luck' from the big screen to Broadway and from Broadway to our living rooms now seems inevitable; an ideal bridge from one medium to another, with Clooney as the perfect guide to usher us across. Clooney's charisma doesn't need a thorough dissection — it's always been obvious, even if he's sharpened it to a lethal point over the years — but whether you first met him as Doug (on 'E.R.'), Ace (on 'E/R'), or plain ol' George (on 'The Facts of Life'), those early roles left an impression. On NBC's megahit medical drama, he was a hero. A doctor who saved kids' lives by day and hit the town each night (sometimes, with the moms). An everyman and dreamboat all in one. His humble 'aw shucks' grin and Midwestern demeanor (read: good manners) are only bolstered, not betrayed, by the mischievous glint in his eye and rogue, often righteous, antics — those unapproachable good looks made affable by easily forgiven character flaws. By the time 'Fail Safe' came around, Clooney had already started converting his stardom from TV to film (an oft-perilous leap in late-'90s Hollywood). 'From Dusk Til Dawn,' 'Out of Sight,' and 'Three Kings' proved he could pick good projects (after 'Batman & Robin,' uh, did not), and Clooney was only a year or two away from leading beloved hit blockbusters like 'The Perfect Storm' and 'Ocean's Eleven.' Making a TV movie could be seen as a step backward, even if returning to television after finding success in film would only endear him further to fans. Clooney didn't need to go back to TV for 'Fail Safe.' He chose to go back to TV for 'Fail Safe,' which raises the simple question, 'Why?' Even in 2000, when TV movies were still a thing and movie stars on TV weren't, 'Fail Safe' was far from a money grab. Variety's ratings report described the production as 'anything but fail-safe,' and while the broadcast did well, it still finished second in Sunday night viewership to 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' Adapted from the same book that inspired Sidney Lumet's 1964 film, the black-and-white feature was directed by Stephen Frears and starred Richard Dreyfuss, Noah Wyle, James Cromwell, Sam Elliott, Don Cheadle, Harvey Keitel, and Clooney (among others). Despite playing pilot Jack Grady, a relatively minor role (Variety's review griped he spent 'most of the movie behind an oxygen mask') Clooney was the film's driving force behind the scenes — just as he was when 'E.R.' went live for its Season 4 premiere. 'The first time I saw 'Fail-Safe' was on TV when I was still in high school and I was just blown away,' Clooney told The New York Times. 'I just loved the story and I thought the look of the film, in black-and-white and with no musical score, was just stunning. […] I've literally seen it a 100 times.' Set during the height of the Cold War, the movie is a cautionary tale rooted in catastrophe brought about by chance, miscommunication, and distrust. When an unknown aircraft breaches American airspace, the military scrambles planes armed with nuclear bombs to wait near designated fail-safe points outside Russia. Although the original aircraft proves harmless, a technical error activates one of the bombing groups anyway, and the pilots head for Moscow, believing they're under orders to destroy the Russian capital. Amid its tragic dissection of a ruthless system built to grind out the last vestiges of humanity (before destroying humankind), 'Fail Safe' illustrates how fear can breed disaster, whether it's found in the rush to protect one country by destroying another, or in building world-ending weapons to begin with. If a glitch can bring about World War III, shouldn't we limit the fallout of a single irreversible mistake? Shouldn't we learn to trust each other? To listen to each other? To connect as intelligent, empathetic human beings, rather than rely on the technical prowess of faceless, unfeeling machines? The original film was largely dismissed at the time, after arriving in the same year as Stanley Kubrick's similarly-plotted and satirically-accessible 'Dr. Strangelove,' and its political leaders belong to a bygone era. (Accepting the president's moral character is key to the plot, and our sitting president has no moral character, so…) Still, 'Fail Safe's' message resonated with Clooney, and he wanted to share it with as wide an audience as possible. By 2000, any TV with Clooney was still considered must-see, and the live stage production offered an early opportunity for the future United Nations Messenger of Peace, Council of Foreign Relations member, and husband to an actual, real-life hero to blend his onscreen persona with his public passions. He wanted to tell this story. He wanted to lend his voice to this story. You can see where this is going. In the five years between the premieres of 'Fail Safe' and 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' Clooney's popular image faced political pushback. For speaking out against the war in Iraq, he was labeled a 'traitor,' and the response prompted him to write 'Good Night, and Good Luck' with Grant Heslov. Originally, they even conceived the drama as a live production for CBS. That was the home of Edward R. Murrow, their subject, and it was Clooney's recent home for 'Fail Safe' as well. Much of the story — about Murrow's conflict with Senator Joseph McCarthy over his ongoing communist witch hunt — even played out on TV, via the anchor's nightly newscasts. It's only in hindsight that the decision to make a feature film seems obvious. When it premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' was just Clooney's second directorial feature. Its acclaim not only cemented the actor as a respected filmmaker — he earned three Oscar nominations that year: one for directing 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' one for writing it, and the third, which he won, for his supporting turn in 'Syriana' — but gave him the clout to open his Smokehouse Pictures, his own production house with Heslov. But the acclaim didn't just mean more commendations for Clooney; it meant more attention to the film's message. 'Good Night, and Good Luck' exemplifies the necessity of the fourth estate. It venerates Murrow not just as a man whose courage and convictions came together to protect a country intent on destroying itself, but also as a journalist — a pillar of the American system that the Constitution relies on to stand firm, particularly when the other columns are crumbling. 'Power kind of hates the fourth estate,' Clooney said recently. 'They hate journalism. […] When the other three estates all fail you, you really need that fourth estate. It has to be the people that hold people to account.' As much as 'Good Night, and Good Luck' illustrates the necessity of journalism, it's also a testament to the power of television and the people behind it. TV critic James Poniewozik said of the play, 'In many ways, watching it is really like watching television.' For one, both the film and the play don't use an actor to portray McCarthy; they rely on archival footage of the actual senator. That gives the impression, in the stage production, that Clooney's Murrow is going toe to toe with the real-life McCarthy. His nightly news reports are even projected on a giant screen so the seated audience can better see the anchor's face, much like they saw McCarthy's on their TVs at home. Providing a closer like at Clooney, too, should only benefit the broadcast version. If, as Clooney told Stephen Colbert, Murrow was the 'most trusted man in America before Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America,' Clooney is an actor audiences trust in their homes and trust with a message. (Fun fact: Cronkite introduced the Clooney's live version of 'Fail Safe.') He's never been shy about speaking his mind, and performing 'Good Night, and Good Luck' eight times a week for 12 weeks goes to show just how dedicated he is to amplifying its convictions. Bringing it to television is a homecoming, sure, but it's also an extension of his desire to make an impact. No one is expecting 'Good Night, and Good Luck' to do for Max what 'Hamilton' did for Disney+. As of Saturday morning, it's unclear whether the play will even be available to stream after the initial broadcast. Still, between Clooney's resilient stardom and 'Good Night, and Good Luck's' continued relevancy, the Broadway show's popularity should come as no surprise. It offers a unique opportunity for Clooney to try something different (as he's wont to do) while revitalizing a moral lesson for an era in desperate need of it. Yes, Clooney performed on stage before (39 years ago, he had a small role in 'Vicious,' a musical about Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious), and yes, audiences had seen this story already (and can watch it again anytime they want via Blu-rays, streaming, or VOD), but marrying a new risk with a new format — as Clooney does again when he goes live on CNN — is more than enough to warrant our attention one more time. He learned that with 'Fail Safe,' if not sooner. In her Vulture review, theater critic Sara Holdren writes, 'Clooney speaks not only of television and news media, but of theater, of all the informative, entertaining, and communicative arts: 'These instruments can teach, they can illuminate; yes, and they can even inspire,' he says. 'But they can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use them to those ends. Otherwise, they are merely wires and lights in a box.'' Behind the camera or in front, on Broadway or in our homes, he respects his audience enough to honor their unspoken agreement: When Clooney asks for the spotlight, he's going to earn it. 'Good Night, and Good Luck' airs Saturday, June 7 at 7 p.m. ET on CNN. The live telecast will be available to stream on and the CNN apps — with no cable or satellite login required — as well as for Max subscribers (across all plans). Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
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41 minutes ago
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Old-Fashioned Baby Names Showdown Quiz
For a while there, it seemed like EVERYONE was trying to come up with the most clever, new, unique baby name. Now, Oliver and Emma are back to being trendy. If only English authors of the 1800s could see us now! ✨ The 32 baby names in this quiz were popular in the 1920s. One hundred years later, do they deserve a second life? Sign up for a BuzzFeed Community account to make your own Showdown now!
