If you’re ready to start mapping your theatergoing for the 2026-2027 season, here’s a rundown of the touring shows that Broadway in Cincinnati will present. It’s a full deck with offerings monthly from September through June at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for the Arts, located at 650 Walnut Street near the heart of Downtown. The season includes recent several Tonay Award winners and other recent Broadway productions, beloved classics of musical theater and a few special offerings including a holiday show from Cirque du Soleil.
The Great Gatsby (Sept. 15-27, 2026). This 2024 musical is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 American novel about love, wealth and tragedy during the Roaring Twenties. It offers a glitzy take on the story with a lot of Jazz Age fun. Design elements — costumes, set and visuals — were all highly praised. Image below by Matthew Murray and Evan Zimmerman
BOOP! The Musical (Oct. 20-25, 2026). For a one-week run (this will be one of the first stops of its 50-week national tour), this show about the cartoon character Betty Boop, who leaves the black-and-white world for real-life colorful adventures and a romance in present-day New York City. The show debuted in Chicago at the end of 2023 and landed on Broadway a year ago, where it earned three Tony Award nominations.
The Sound of Music (Nov. 10-15, 2026). Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved classic will be here for a week during the fall. The Golden Age show was made famous by the 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews as a spirited nun who transformed a family of dispirited kids into a singing ensemble. You probably know the words, but singing along is not advised …
’Twas the Night Before … (Dec. 2-13, 2026). For the holiday season Cincinnatians can take in Cirque du Soleil’s first ever holiday-themed production, during its two-week run. It’s a unique take on the classic Christmas poem featuring an aerial straps duo, hoop diving, hair suspension, dancing and more. This sounds like a must-see for families. Image below by Errisson Lawrence
Six (Jan. 5-10, 2027). This 2021 Broadway hit (winner of a Tony Award for Best Original Score) features the six wives of Henry VIII — from the 1500s — as girl-powered 21st-century pop icons. It was presented at the Aronoff in the spring of 2024 and did well enough to warrant a return this season for a one-week run.
Maybe Happy Ending (Jan. 19-31, 2027). This one is a big deal, winning six 2025 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It originated in South Korea in 2017, telling the story of a pair of retired human-like “helperbots” who discover each other late in the 21st century and develop a loving relationship. USA Today called the charming show “one of the best musicals in years.” It should be a best-seller for its two weeks at the Aronoff. Image below by Matthew Murray
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Feb. 16-28, 2027). A Broadway hit a quarter-century ago, adapted from the popular animated film, this fairytale musical is the story of a selfish prince turned into an ugly creature who is returned to human form by the love of a beautiful young woman. Full of onstage magic and with a tuneful score, it will another popular family attraction.
The Outsiders (March 16-28, 2027). Winner of four 2024 Tony Awards including Best Musical, this show is the coming-of-age story about working-class teenaged “Greasers” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1967 who dream about what they yearn to become in a world that’s not likely to accept them. The show features “high-octane” choreography and a score that blends folk-rock, Americana, bluegrass and roots music. This much-admired show has a two-week run. Image below by Matthew Murray
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (April 13-25, 2027). Most of Broadway in Cincinnati’s offerings are musicals, but this is a stage play rooted in the universe of Harry Potter. After an award-winning run in London, it opened on Broadway in 2018 as a two-production, six-hour offering that won six Tony awards including Best Play; following the pandemic it was reconfigured as a singular performance, and that’s the version that’s on tour. Set 19 years after the events of the 2007 novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, it’s the story of Potter’s son Albus, trying to live up to his father’s legacy. At the Aronoff for two weeks, it will offer Potterheads an evening of illusions and stage wizardry.
Hadestown (May 14-16, 2027). This is the second time for Broadway in Cincinnati to present Hadestown; it had a two-week run in April 2023. This time it’s a brief three-day run for the Tony Award winning Best Musical intertwining two emotional, mythic tales — doomed lovers Orpheus and Eurydice and King Hades and his wife Persephone — in what’s called a “hell-raising journey to the underworld” set to an evocative jazz/folk score.
Buena Vista Social Club (June 1-13, 2027). The 2026-2027 concludes with a two-week offering of a show inspired by true events that resulted in the Grammy Award-winning recording by legends of Havana, Cuba’s music scene. Full of hot trumpets and sizzling guitars and a fiery dance floor, the tour features a world-class band and a sensational cast of musicians, actors and dancers. Image below by Matthew Murray
