2027 Mainstage
2027 marks Magenta Theater’s 25th Anniversary Season, acknowledging the company’s legacy building community one stage at a time while also looking forward to an exciting new chapter as a performing arts center where people connect through shared stories, artistic expression, and community-building. This season, Magenta embarks on a special initiative focused on making connections between the company’s established values and the Mainstage season themes.
The 2027 theme, Community, was embedded into the annual artistic selection process, where all productions that were selected were based on proposals from artists or suggested by a community member. Over sixty proposals and hundreds of suggestions were considered, resulting in a 5-show mainstage series that features all of the mainstays of Magenta’s history: a relationship musical comedy, a contemporary play by a regional playwright, a little something from Shakespeare, a family-friendly murder mystery farce, and an homage to Dolly.
This season’s artwork was created through a collaboration between Magenta’s Managing Artistic Director, Caleb Bourgeois; Resident Photographer Bob Spink; and Graphic Designer Maya McFaddin Bourgeois. In an age of AI-generated artwork, we endeavored to create real photographic content utilizing our stage, lights, and stock props and costumes, and graphic layouts designed and created by real artists — celebrating our 2027 Season Value: Community, and the collaborations that make Magenta possible!
I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE
Book and Lyrics by Music by Joe DiPietro Jimmy Roberts
Orchestrations by Doug Katsaros
Directed by Kristen Svensen
FEB 5 - 21, 2027
The longest running off-Broadway revue in history has been revised for the 21st century! This celebration of the mating game takes on the truths and myths behind that contemporary conundrum known as “the relationship.” Through sketches and songs, Act I explores the journey from dating and waiting to love and marriage, while Act II reveals the agonies and triumphs of in-laws and newborns, trips in the family car and pick-up techniques of the geriatric set. This hilarious revue pays tribute to those who have loved and lost, to those who have fallen on their face at the portal of romance, to those who have dared to ask, “Say, what are you doing Saturday night?” The 2018 version features two new songs, revised lyrics and dialogue throughout the show to reflect dating in modern times.
I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
www.concordtheatricals.com
TICKETS: $32+fees ($34.40)
RUNTIME: Estimated 2 hours including one 15-minute intermission.
THE STORYTELLER
by Sara Jean Acuardi
Directed by William Thomas Berk
APR 9 – 25, 2027
TICKETS: $28+fees ($30.20)
RUNTIME: Estimated 90 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.
Seventeen-year-old Randi has always lived with her dad, off-grid on a rotting old houseboat, and she's sick of it. Every time she asks him how they got there or what happened to her mother, he weaves a magical tale of mermaids or stars. Why can’t he tell the truth? And whose story is this? Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Prospero’s misguided attempts to protect his daughter, The Storyteller explores the magic and danger of our narratives.
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
by William Shakespeare
Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
Directed by Holly Cooper
JUN 4 – 20, 2027
TICKETS $28+fees ($30.20)
RUNTIME: estimated 2 hours including one 15-min intermission
Falstaff decides to fix his financial woe by seducing the wives of two wealthy merchants. The wives find he sent them identical letters and take revenge by playing tricks on Falstaff when he comes calling. With the help of their husbands and friends, the wives play one last trick in the woods to put Falstaff's mischief to an end.
THIS MURDER WAS STAGED
by Jason Pizzarello and Patrick Greene
Directed by Olivia Johnson
OCT 1 - 17, 2027
TICKETS $28+fees ($30.20)
RUNTIME: Estimated 2 hours including 15-minute intermission.
It's opening night of a brand-new mystery play, but just as the killer is about to be revealed, the body of the play's director falls onstage instead. In that moment, the theater becomes an active crime scene, and everyone from cast to crew to even the audience becomes a suspect. But how is the intrepid detective supposed to find the killer when everyone and their mother (literally) has a motive to want the demanding director gone?
9 TO 5
Music and lyrics by Dolly Parton
Book by Patricia Resnick
Directed by Caleb Bourgeois
NOV 5 - 21, 2027
TICKETS $32+fees ($34.40)
RUNTIME: Estimated 2.5 hours + one 15-minute Intermission
9 to 5
Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
https://www.mtishows.com/
9 to 5, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and book by Patricia Resnick, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic.
Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains "otherwise engaged," the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can't she?