Predicting the future is both a joy and a challenge for the leaders of performing arts organizations. There’s a lot of guesswork about which titles and works will appeal to audiences. Also, there is optimism that the whole package of season offerings will keep people returning regularly from late summer 2024 to late spring 2025.
This week four of Cincinnati’s outstanding performing arts organizations are announcing their 2024-2025 seasons almost simultaneously. CityBeat has spoken with the leaders of each organization — Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Cincinnati Ballet and the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras — about what they will put onstage at their theaters and concert venues.
This is a good time of year to spread the news for two reasons: Fans of theater, dance and music can sign up for subscriptions if they’re so inclined. It’s also a reminder that the ArtsWave campaign, managed by Cincinnati’s united arts fundraising organization, is underway, generating support for dozens of arts organizations. The collaborative intersection of these four organizations is a perfect example of why Cincinnati has one of the most vibrant arts scenes of any comparable city in the United States.
What’s new and exciting? Each organization is giving Cincinnati audiences the opportunity to see and hear brand new works. The Playhouse is offering a world premiere as well as the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner. Cincy Shakes has scheduled three premieres — yes, the classic stage company does more than just plays by Shakespeare — and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner. The Ballet’s season opens with its “New Works” series and closes with “Director’s Vision: No Boundaries.” The CSO and the Pops will have several new works mixed in with traditional orchestral repertoire concerts as well as the annual “Classical Roots” and “American Originals” programs.
Of course, there will also be plenty of classics. The Ballet will present the beautiful Giselle and, of course, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Cincy Shakes has scheduled four plays from the Bard’s canon. The Playhouse will again present its new adaptation of A Christmas Carol, as well as the renowned thriller Dial M for Murder. And the CSO and Pops orchestras range across a vast array of familiar works as well as new pieces and fascinating interpretations of long-standing favorites.
Want to know more? Read on for details!
CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK
The Playhouse has two theaters, the recently opened, state-of-the-art mainstage, Moe and Jack’s Place – The Rouse Theatre, and the historic Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre, where plays have been produced for six decades. “Overall,” said Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison in a phone conversation with CityBeat, “I would say that the season addresses all of our programmatic goals, in terms of big titles, new works, telling diverse stories. We continue to invest in BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of color] authors.]” He also points to the Playhouse’s arts and culture incubator, “The program in which we are making our spaces available to a cohort of local artists and arts organizations. It’s going really well. We are a home to a number of important smaller organizations. We’re so pleased to be able to leverage our new space for the benefit of the entire community.”
Moe and Jack’s Place – The Rouse Theatre
DIAL M for MURDER by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher (Aug. 17-Sept. 15, 2024). Murder and malice take center stage in a fresh adaptation of an iconic thriller. The setting is midcentury London. It’s been a year since Margot ended an affair and returned to life as usual with her husband, Tony — or so she thinks. Tony, in fact, spins an intricate web of suspicion and deception. When his plan goes terribly awry, it sets in motion a series of deadly, unexpected twists threatening everyone involved. Best known for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, this murder mystery is a clever, fast-paced new treatment for the stage.
RUTKA: A NEW MUSICAL, music and lyrics by Jocelyn Mackenzie & Jeremy Lloyd-Styles, book by Neena Beber. (Oct. 13-Nov. 10). The world premiere of an indie rock musical is based on Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust, a real diary left behind by Rutka Laskier, age 14. She’s trying to be a teenager in a Jewish ghetto in war-torn Poland in 1943. This compelling historical drama portrays young people with uncertain futures who still have hope, resilience and resistance. The Playhouse is producing this show with the hopes of moving it to Broadway.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, adapted by Blake Robison (Nov. 22-Dec. 29). Last December audiences flocked to the Playhouse’s new adaptation of Dickens’s classic holiday story. They’ll surely be back in 2024. Andrew May returns as Ebenezer Scrooge, the greedy curmudgeon visited by spirits on Christmas Eve who show him the errors of his ways. This production features a dazzling set, costume and lighting designs that add up to a magical holiday experience for families.
PRIMARY TRUST by Eboni Booth (Feb. 1-23, 2025). This recent off-Broadway hit is the story of Kenneth, a shy, Black 38-year-old man who sells books by day and drinks mai tais with his friend Bert by night. Suddenly laid off from his job, Kenneth’s comfortable, predictable life starts to crumble, but he finds kindness and friendship in unlikely places. Timothy Douglas, one of the Playhouse’s best guest directors, will stage this heartfelt portrait.
THE BOOK CLUB PLAY by Karen Zacarías (March 22-April 20, 2025). In 2009, Robison’s first season, he directed a sold-out run of this comedy about books and the people who love them in the Shelterhouse Theatre. Since then it’s been a hit across the country. This time Robison is bringing it to the Playhouse’s main stage. When a documentary camera rolls on the members of a devoted book club, their discussions of life and literature take on new meaning. One of America’s busiest playwrights, Zacarías, whose Native Gardens and Shane were popular Playhouse productions, will surely please audiences with this comedy.
Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre
MR. PARENT by Melinda Lopez (Sept. 7-Oct. 6). A writer-performer tells real-life, personal stories about being a struggling actor-turned-urban public school teacher in a deeply felt, hilarious solo performance. It’s performed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent — and it’s his own personal story about never being too old to learn a thing or two.
THE BEST OF THE SECOND CITY (Oct. 24-Dec. 22). Having sold out with every past performance at the Playhouse, this legendary comedy troupe returns for the holidays with an evening of laughs, skits and improv from the company that launched the careers of many of America’s greatest comedians. The production will include new and classic sketches and songs as well as remarkable on-the-spot skits based on audience suggestions.
ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi (March 1-30, 2025). The 2023 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama portrays four Iranian adults gathering in a classroom to learn English with the hopes of passing the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Each has a reason, and Marjan, their Iranian-born English teacher, abolishes their native tongue from the classroom as they struggle to navigate the mechanics of language. It’s a story that’s touching and funny while it explores the human desire to belong.
BIRTHDAY CANDLES by Noah Haidle (April 19-May 18, 2025). A show that tenderly explores motherhood, family, love, loss and finding one’s place in the universe. Every year Ernestine bakes a birthday cake and celebrates with her family, a ritual that unfolds onstage across 90 years of birthdays from 17 to 107.
CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
Artistic Director Brian Isaac Phillips, in a phone interview about Cincy Shakes’ next season with CityBeat, said, “I love the mix of it, taking great classic stories and making them alive and relevant, while contributing to the future of the American theater with these world premieres. We’ve got four Shakespeare plays, three world premieres and two regional premieres.” He cites an informal “Project Hamlet” that connects these categories with Hamlet touring the region this summer for Free Shakespeare in the Park, the Pulitzer Prize-winner Fat Ham to open the season, and A Room in the Castle, a tale involving the women of Hamlet which Cincy Shakes commissioned Lauren Gunderson, one of America’s most prolific playwrights, to create.
HAMLET by William Shakespeare (Free Shakespeare in the Park, July 12-Sept. 1, in various locations across the Tri-State). A riveting blend of passion, ghosts and royal drama that promises to heat up summer nights at parks throughout the Tri-State. While grieving his father’s murder, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, faces a web of deceit, betrayal and impending war: His mother has married his father’s brother, who happens to be the murderer.
KINDRED SPIRITS by Alice Scovell (Aug. 2-18). A world premiere sequel to Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit by the playwright behind Cincy Shakes’ previous Oscar Wilde sequel The Rewards of Being Frank. This story brings Coward’s familiar characters back to life, spirited with intrigue and laughter as the whimsical chaos of the spirit world collides once again with the realm of the living. Love, jealousy and the unpredictable nature of the afterlife are all wrapped up in a spirited, comedic romp with laughs and otherworldly surprises.
FAT HAM by James Ijames (Sept. 6-22). This play, winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize, is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s about Juicy, a queer Black man, who finds himself at a family barbecue that’s a wedding reception for his mother and his uncle. The ghost of Juicy's murdered father appears as a specter out of the smoke, demanding vengeance. The play explores loyalty, identity and power dynamics. The New York Times called it “a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy.”
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN by David Catlin (Oct. 11-Nov. 2). Just in time for Halloween, this play offers a fresh look at the gothic tale first devised by Mary Shelley, the mother of science fiction. It begins on a dark and stormy night as friends challenge each other to tell a frightful tale. This adaptation asks the question: Who is the real monster — Victor Frankenstein, its creator, or the creature he has made?
TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare (Nov. 15-Dec. 7, 2024). This comedy of mistaken identities and romantic entanglements is a family‐friendly spectacle full of colorful characters, misunderstandings and mishaps. This is a co-production with the Prague Shakespeare Company; after its performances here, the cast of Cincy Shakes and Czech actors will head to Europe for an English-language offering in Prague. It’s the company’s first international collaboration.
EVERY CHRISTMAS STORY EVER TOLD (AND THEN SOME!) by Michael Carleton, James FitzGerald, and John K. Alvarez (Dec. 13-29). For 19 years this has been a holiday hit. After a false start at staging A Christmas Carol, it devolves into a silly and irreverent look at numerous “Beloved Holiday Classics,” including pop culture favorites such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Rudolph, The Grinch, Charlie Brown and more. Leavened with topical references that keep audiences — adults and older teens, no Santa believers — in stitches through an evening of high‐octane jollity and frivolity.
A ROOM IN THE CASTLE by Lauren M. Gunderson (Jan. 24-Feb. 9, 2025) Based on the women of Hamlet, this world premiere explores Shakespeare’s tragedy through Ophelia's perspective. The focus shifts from the morbid prince to her emotional journey amidst the chaos of the Danish court. Her narrative begins with the blossoming of a secret romance with Hamlet, filled with promise and youthful passion. But as the court's intrigue deepens, Ophelia finds herself ensnared in a web of political machinations and familial expectations, struggling to maintain her agency. Will her ending be a departure from Shakespeare's original that redefines her fate?
MACBETH by William Shakespeare (Feb. 28-March 23, 2025) In this contemporary production of the “Scottish play,” ambition and political intrigue take center stage. When three witches foretell that Macbeth will ascend to the throne, he and his ambitious wife craft a ruthless plot to make it so. Their journey into darkness is a violent portrayal of unchecked ambition and the corrupting influence of power. This timeless tale will be reimagined for today, where the lines blur between reality and the supernatural.
THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare (April 11-May 4, 2025). A romantic tale, replete with magic and monsters, love and liquor, and retribution and redemption, this is the story of the exiled sorcerer Prospero, marooned on an enchanting, yet ecologically fragile island. When fate places his old enemies within his reach, literal and metaphorical tempests result. Cincy Shakes plans a green, low environmental impact production, using sustainability to present Shakespeare’s romance.
MRS. DALLOWAY: THE NEW MUSICAL by Lindsey Augusta Mercer (May 23-June 15, 2025). A new adaptation of Virginia Wolfe’s classic novel features consummate hostess Clarissa Dalloway organizing a party where serendipitous reunions cause her to confront her past and dismantle the carefully crafted façade she tirelessly upholds. This world premiere reimagines the poignant, introspective love story of unspoken desires and forbidden romance novel using a score infused with contemporary pop‐folk sensibilities.
This is Cervilio Amador’s first season as the Ballet’s interim artistic director. Asked what goes into assembling a season during a phone conversation with CityBeat, he said, “Overall, it’s a dance between bringing works that are new to our community and new to our dancers and finding the past with works that have already been created, the so-called classics that do storytelling. I also want to continue to push the art by bringing new voices. I am committed to the classics but also to the visionaries of today.”
THE KAPLAN NEW WORKS SERIES (Sept. 6-15, Aronoff Center). Four of those visionaries of today get the season underway with a curated collection of fresh, world-premiere works. The much sought-after choreographers Amador has recruited are Harlem-based Darrell Grand Moultrie, who has created works for Beyoncé as well as American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, BalletX, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; Christian Denice, an up-and-coming choreographer who has worked with the Cincinnati Ballet’s dancers; Los Angeles-based choreographer and dancer Caroline Dahm; and award-winning Gustavo Ramirez from Spain, who has created works for Ballet Hispánico, Jacob’s Pillow, Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street, Scottish Dance Theatre, and others. Staged in the intimate Jarson-Kaplan Theater, the contemporary series is a perennial patron favorite.
GISELLE (Oct. 31-Nov. 3, Music Hall). Perhaps the most romantic ballet of all time, this hauntingly beautiful 19th-century work explores enduring love, devastating betrayal and ultimate forgiveness. Giselle is a peasant girl who descends into madness and dies of a broken heart after her lover betrays her. Last performed by the Ballet in 2011, it’s a new work for the company’s virtuoso principal dancers. The corps de ballet will portray the “Wilis,” eerie ghostly spirits of girls who have died before their wedding days. Accompanied by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
THE NUTCRACKER (Dec. 19-29, Music Hall). It’s the 50th anniversary of this beloved holiday classic featuring Tchaikovsky’s melodic score, performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. When Clara receives a magical nutcracker for Christmas, her dreams come to life. Joined by her Nutcracker Prince, she meets the Sugar Plum Fairy and a cast of colorful characters.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (Feb. 20-March 2, 2025, Music Hall). Choreographer Septime Webre’s The Wizard of Oz portrays Dorothy on the yellow brick road, complete with the Wicked Witch and her flying monkeys. The production, a blend of Broadway and ballet, features special effects and gorgeous sets and costumes. With music from Matthew Pierce, performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
DIRECTOR’S VISION: NO BOUNDARIES (May 1-4, 2025, Aronoff Center). Works new to Cincinnati by three important choreographers at the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall. Internationally renowned Alexander Ekman’s Cacti is a playful and witty parody of contemporary dance. Amador calls Ekman today’s “rule breaker” in the world of dance. The Ballet’s production of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Delmira will be just the second time the piece has been mounted. It’s inspired by the life and tragic death of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini (1886-1914), one of the first female Latin American poets of the modern era. The third piece of the program will be Our Story by David Morse, Cincinnati Ballet’s own choreographer. It explores the unique singularity of history’s darkest chapter, the Holocaust.
In addition to its full season, the Ballet’s Second Company, CB2, will perform SNOW WHITE for its “Family Series” (April 24-27, 2025). This one-hour, narrated ballet, presented at the Aronoff Center, features CB2 dancers from the Otto M. Budig Academy. It’s the familiar fairy tale of a jealous queen, her beautiful stepdaughter and a kiss from a handsome prince. The program is offered as an introduction to dance, suitable for preschool and older children.
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CINCINNATI POPS
CSO President Jonathan Martin suggests that the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra seeks to be the “most relevant orchestra in America” by offering a wide array of concerts featuring broadened programming. He cites, in particular, an October program featuring the virtuoso bluegrass musician, banjo player Béla Fleck, in a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which he arranged and will perform.
In a phone conversation with CityBeat, Martin said creating this season while winding down a search for the CSO’s next music director meant assembling programs that offered “weight,” including concerts conducted by several world-renowned veterans as well as one-evening solo recitals by outstanding classical artists: violinists Joshua Bell and Hilary Hahn and pianist Conrad Tao. Highlighting two of its own remarkable performers, the CSO will present principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn and principal horn Elizabeth Freimuth as featured soloists.
The season offers concerts led by some of the world’s most illustrious conductors of classical music: Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Donald Runnicles and Jaap van Zweden. The CSO season offers 18 subscription concerts from September through May. Here are some highlights and special recitals:
GERSHWIN’S RHAPSODY IN BLUE (Oct. 4 & 5). The highlight will be Gershwin’s melodic Rhapsody in Blue arranged and performed by multi-Grammy Award winner and American banjo player Béla Fleck. Guest conductor Thomas Wilkins will also lead “Symphony No. 3 in C Minor” by Florence Price (1887-1953), a renowned Black composer, pianist and teacher.
CSO RECITAL: JOSHUA BELL (Oct. 6). Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martínez are joined by celebrated pianist Peter Dugan for “Voice and the Violin,” an evening of romantic arias and modern classics featuring music by Mendelssohn, Bernstein, Puccini and more.
BERNSTEIN & SHOSTAKOVICH (Nov. 16-17). Conductor and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient Marin Alsop, who has led orchestras in the U.S., South America, and Europe, will conduct Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Leningrad. The May Festival Chorus will be part of this program.
HANDEL’S MESSIAH (Dec. 6 & 7). Sir Andrew Davis, conductor laureate of orchestras in Toronto and Melbourne, as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, will conduct the CSO and the May Festival Chorus in his orchestration of Handel’s majestic Messiah. Featured soloists for the program are soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, tenor Paul Groves, and bass John Relyea.
CSO RECITAL: HILARY HAHN (Jan. 14, 2025). Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn returns to Music Hall for the first time since 2016 for a recital featuring solo works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The New York Times praised her playing as “at once impetuous and authoritative, brilliant and beautiful.”
THE MAGIC CELLO (Jan. 24-25, 2025). CSO Principal Cello Ilya Finkelshteyn will perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Cello Concerto No. 1,” with guest conductor Christian Reif. The program also includes Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute, a CSO co-commission by Jimmy López Bellido and Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 7.”
STRAUSS & DEBUSSY (Jan. 31- Feb. 1, 2025). CSO Principal Horn Elizabeth Freimuth will perform Richard Strauss’s “Horn Concerto No. 1.” Guest conductor Jun Märkl will also lead Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks and Debussy’s Images.
CSO RECITAL: CONRAD TAO (March 5, 2025). Critically acclaimed and Cincinnati favorite pianist Conrad Tao returns to Music Hall for a solo recital of works by Debussy, Schumann and Tao’s own explosive explorations of the piano’s far-reaching potential.
STRAUSS’ ALPINE SYMPHONY (April 5-6, 2025). Sir Donald Runnicles, past music director of the San Francisco Opera and principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, will conduct Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony. The program will also feature Hamish MacCunn’s The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, and violinist Maria Loudenitch performing Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto.”
MAHLER’S “SYMPHONY No. 6” (April 25-27, 2025). Gustav Mahler’s immense Symphony No. 6, Tragic, will be conducted by Jaap van Zweden, the recent music director of the New York Philharmonic and newly appointed leader of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. In conjunction with his appearance, the CSO will present an autism-focused, sensory-sensitive program curated and led by van Zweden. The program will be open to the entire community, including those with autism. Inspired by van Zweden’s son, who learned to communicate with the aid of music, the conductor and his wife, Aaltje van Zweden-van Buuren, have made it their life’s work to help other children diagnosed with autism.
GRIEG & ELLINGTON (May 9-10, 2025). Damon Gupton, the Pops principal guest conductor, makes his CSO debut with a program Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor featuring pianist Michelle Cann and Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. The program also includes works by Dvořák, Stravinsky and Arthur Honneger.
POPS CONCERTS
Pops Conductor John Morris Russell (JMR) will lead four entertaining subscription programs, including a concert featuring travel authority Rick Steves; Cincinnati’s beloved Holiday Pops tradition, with Broadway star Norm Lewis; another installment of the “American Originals” series, this season focused on the Harlem Renaissance; and a program featuring another Broadway star, Mandy Gonzalez. Russell will conduct the Pops’ New Year’s Eve concert featuring the music of Cole Porter. Conductor Damon Gupton will lead the Pops for a program focused on pop star Tina Turner as well as a special event film presentation of Home Alone.
RICK STEVES: “EUROPE: A SYMPHONY JOURNEY” (Sept. 13-15, 2024). The acclaimed travel authority and broadcast host joins JMR and the Pops for a multimedia experience. Romantic-era classics performed by the orchestra will be presented with high-definition video cinematography of European landscapes and commentary by the affable Steves.
“AMERICAN ORIGINALS: THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE” (March 21-23, 2025), JMR and the Pops continue their exploration of the roots of American music by celebrating the centenary of New York City’s evocative Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 30s. This concert will feature musical stories about the birth of jazz and blues with performances of the music of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, poetry of Langston Hughes and the dance stylings of Josephine Baker.
“MANDY GONZALEZ: LA VIDA BROADWAY” (May 2-4, 2025) Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez, best known for originating the role of Nina Rosario in the award-winning Broadway musical In the Heights, returns to Music Hall. This celebration of Latine voices of Broadway, such as Lin Manuel Miranda, Rita Moreno and Linda Ronstadt from In the Heights, Hamilton, Moana and more.
Pops Principal Guest Conductor Gupton will lead a special Thanksgiving weekend screening of the 1990 holiday film Home Alone on a high-definition screen above Music Hall’s stage (Nov. 30-Dec. 1) with the Pops playing John Williams’s film score. The 2024 New Year’s Eve concert led by JMR will feature the music of American composer and songwriter Cole Porter, whose witty lyrics have become songbook standards on Broadway and in films. Gupton and the Pops will pay tribute to the iconic musical legacy of Tina Turner, the “Queen of Rock and Roll” (Jan. 17-19, 2025), showcasing her decades-long career that garnered 12 Grammy Awards and produced 100 million records sold worldwide. JMR leads the CSO’s annual Classical Roots concert (April 4, 2025) at Music Hall. Since its first events in neighborhood churches in 2001, this event has grown into a vibrant spring celebration of the African American musical experience. At its heart is the Classical Roots Community Choir, which performs in concerts and collaborations throughout the year.
A final note for anyone unable to attend concerts at Cincinnati Music Hall: For the fifth consecutive season, the Live From Music Hall digital concert series will continue to expand the CSO’s global reach through free livestreams of full-length CSO and Pops concerts. Following each digital premiere, most concerts will be free and accessible to the general public for seven days; CSO and Pops subscribers and donors receive extended viewing privileges via the CSO and Pops On Demand portal. Subsequently, select excerpts from each livestream will be released as digital singles, available to watch for free on the Orchestra’s website and social media channels.
FOR MORE DETAILS AND SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS: cincyplay.org, cincyshakes.org, cballet.org, and cincinnatisymphony.org.
