The Imelda Marcos bio-musical “Here Lies Love” injects some disco shimmer to the Middle Theatre Group 2025-26 season introduced Tuesday.
The corporate behind the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Discussion board in downtown L.A. and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver Metropolis launched a lineup that additionally contains the Jocelyn Bioh play “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”; Eboni Sales space’s new play “Primary Trust”; a stage riff on the “Paranormal Activity” motion pictures; the musical “& Juliet” and a twenty fifth anniversary revival of “Mamma Mia!”
“Here Lies Love,” that includes music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and lyrics by Byrne, made historical past as Broadway’s first musical with an all-Filipino forged. The manufacturing earned 2024 Tony nominations for rating, sound design, scene design and choreography in addition to reward from critics together with the New York Occasions’ Jesse Inexperienced, who applauded the ”infernally catchy songs.”
The musical additionally confronted criticism for historic distortion and what some noticed because the underplaying of corruption, censorship and violent political oppression within the Philippines throughout the Marcos regime. The musical has been up to date since its 2013 Off-Broadway premiere on the Public Theater to emphasise the Folks Energy Revolution that spurred the top of the Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos period.
In New York, producers reworked the Broadway Theater to evoke Studio 54. Middle Theatre Group will current “Here Lies Love” within the Taper in a run scheduled to open Feb. 11. Snehal Desai, CTG’s creative director, will helm the manufacturing.
The comedy “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” earned Tony nominations final 12 months for greatest play, route, scenic design and sound design, and Dede Ayite received the award for her costumes. Set in Harlem, Bioh’s play facilities on a group of West African immigrants who “confront the challenges of being outsiders in their own neighborhood.”
Whitney White will direct a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Enviornment Stage in Washington, D.C. It opens on the Taper on Oct. 1.
Sales space’s “Primary Trust” was the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama. The Pulitzer quotation referred to as it “a simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man who finds a new job, new friends and a new sense of worth, illustrating how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community.”
Caleb Eberhardt in La Jolla Playhouse’s West Coast-premiere manufacturing of “Primary Trust” final 12 months.
(Wealthy Soublet II)
After seeing the play’s West Coast premiere at La Jolla Playhouse final 12 months, Occasions theater critic Charles McNulty wrote: “This is a quirky, small-scale, quietly reflective work that’s as tenderhearted as it is spryly comic and as poignant as it is ultimately uplifting.
“It’s refreshing to see such a prodigious honor bestowed on a piece of writing that’s content to go about its human business without the need to inflate its own importance.”
Knud Adams will direct the Taper manufacturing, which opens in Could 2026.
Listed here are the six main productions within the 2025-26 CTG schedule (in chronological order) introduced by Desai, managing director and chief government Meghan Pressman and producing director Douglas C. Baker. A seventh manufacturing shall be introduced at a later date.
“& Juliet”Guide by David West ReadMusic by Max Martin & FriendsDirected By Luke SheppardAhmanson TheatreAug. 13-Sept. 7
“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”Mark Taper ForumOct. 1-Nov. 9
“Paranormal Activity”Primarily based on the “Paranormal Activity” movies from Blumhouse and Solana Movies, tailored right here by association with Paramount Footage and Melting PotWritten by Levi HollowayDirected by Felix BarrettCo-production with American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Shakespeare Theatre Firm of Washington, D.C. Ahmanson TheatreNov. 13-Dec. 7
“Here Lies Love”Mark Taper ForumFeb. 11-March 22
“Primary Trust”Mark Taper ForumMay 20-June 28, 2026
“Mamma Mia!”Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson & Björn UlvaeusBook by Catherine JohnsonDirected by Phyllida LloydAhmanson TheatreJune 23-July 19, 2026
The corporate’s “CTG:FWD” programming contains three reveals on the Kirk Douglas: “Puppet Up! — Uncensored,” an audience-driven affair that includes creations from the Jim Henson Co., operating July 16-27; “Guac,” author and star Manuel Oliver’s one-man present, from the daddy of a son who was killed within the 2018 mass taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, Fla., operating Oct. 14-Nov. 2; and “The Enormous Crocodile,” a musical based mostly on the work of Roald Dahl, Dec. 5-Jan. 4. “Like It Like Harlem,” a manufacturing in partnership with Muse/ique, is scheduled for Aug. 8-10 on the Taper.
