The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts’ newly announced 2026-2027 Broadway at the Ordway series includes a big surprise in “Oh, Mary!”
The dark comedy won two Tony Awards and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Subscriptions for the six-show season start at $195 and are on sale now via ordway.org. Individual tickets for “Dirty Dancing: The Musical” are on sale now, with single tickets for the other shows going on sale later this spring.
The season includes:
“Dirty Dancing: The Musical” (Aug. 12-Sept. 6): The first of four shows in the season based on movies, “Dirty Dancing” transports the 1987 Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey smash to the stage. Set in the summer of 1963, it follows a young woman who falls in love with her dance instructor. St. Paul will be the debut for a new North American tour of the musical.
“Mystic Pizza” (Oct. 6-11): The 1988 rom-com flopped but also managed to launch the career of Julia Roberts. A musical adaptation of the film was a gag in the second season of “30 Rock” in 2007 and became a reality when the show debuted in 2021 in Maine. It includes a series of ’80s pop hits, including “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “The Power of Love,” “Manic Monday” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”
“The Music Man” (Dec. 8-27): Meredith Willson’s six-time Tony Award-winning musical follows traveling salesman Harold Hill and his attempt to swindle the small town of River City, Iowa. Hugh Jackman starred in a 2022 Broadway revival that broke records and ran for nearly a year.
“Oh, Mary!” (Jan. 6-17): Best known for his roles in cult streaming hits like “Difficult People,” “Search Party” and “At Home with Amy Sedaris,” actor Cole Escola wrote this spoof about the lives of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. It portrays the latter as an alcoholic stuck in an unhappy marriage with the deeply closeted president. It debuted off-Broadway in February 2024 for what was to be a six-week run. It was such a hit, it moved to Broadway that summer and has remained a fixture ever since. Escola, who won an acting Tony, originally portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln, a role that has since been played by a series of stars including Tituss Burgess, Jinkx Monsoon, Jane Krakowski and John Cameron Mitchell.
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“Legally Blonde” (Feb. 19-21): Based on Amanda Brown’s novel and the 2001 film, the show follows a sorority girl who enrolls at Harvard Law School to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner. Along the way, she ends up defending a woman in a murder trial. In a review of the original Broadway production, the New York Times called it a “high-energy, empty-calories and expensive-looking hymn to the glories of girlishness.”
“Waitress” (June 15-20, 2027): Jenna is a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage in this musical based on the 2007 film. An all-female creative team brought it to Broadway where it ran for nearly four years. It features original music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles (“Brave,” “Love Song”).
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