Pre-pandemic, local theater-lovers had to wait many years for Broadway’s hottest musicals to arrive in San Diego on national tours. Not anymore.
Broadway San Diego – A Nederlander Presentation announced its 48th season on Tuesday and it includes five Tony-winning and -nominated musicals from the past three years. The season, which opens Sept. 30 and runs through August 2026 at the San Diego Civic Theatre, opens with “Suffs,” which won the 2024 Tony Awards for best book and score. It will also include the 2022 musical “& Juliet,” and the 2024 musicals “The Notebook,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Water for Elephants.”
The seven-show season will also include the return of two classics, “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” and “The Sound of Music.”
Before the 48th season arrives, there are still many shows left to go for Broadway San Diego’s 47th season, including several new shows that are added season events. The schedule includes “Wicked,” which is now playing through March 2; “Menopause the Musical 2,” Feb. 25-26; “Ain’t Too Proud,” March 28-30; Naruto: The Symphonic Experience,” April 3; “Alton Brown Live: Last Bite,” April 5; “Hamilton,” May 6-18; “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical,” May 27-June 1; “The Book of Mormon,” June 10-15; “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” June 24-July 6; and “Shucked,” Aug. 12-17.
Here’s the lineup for Broadway San Diego’s Season 48 at the San Diego Civic Theatre.
‘Suffs’: Sept. 30-Oct. 5, 2025
Winner of the 2025 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, this heartwarming and funny piece by creator and star Shaina Taub tells the true and inspiring story of the suffragettes who fought tirelessly and creatively for women’s right to vote in the early 20th century. It also steps forward in time to encourage today’s women to carry on the battle for equal rights. The musical’s co-producers included Hillary Rodham Clinton and Malala Yousafzai.
‘& Juliet’: Oct. 14-19, 2025
This energetic jukebox musical, featuring the song catalog of Swedish pop music writer/producer Max Martin, reimagines Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” from a contemporary and feminist perspective. It comically imagines what would happen if Juliet didn’t kill herself after finding Romeo dead by her side. It’s a raucous and gender-bending coming-of-age comedy written by “Schitt’s Creek” producer David West Read. Songs include “Since U Been Gone‚” “Roar,” “Baby One More Time,” “Larger Than Life‚” “That’s The Way It Is,“ and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”
‘The Notebook’: April 14-19, 2026
This 2024 Broadway musical, featuring an original score by singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, is based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling 1996 novel (and its 2004 tearjerker film adaptation) about two soulmates, Allie and Noah, who are torn apart by World war II and disparate finances until they reconnect later in life. The musical adaptation, by “This Is Us” scriptwriter Bekah Brunstetter, still has the famous kissing-in-the-rain sequence, but it’s staged with three sets of diversely cast actors playing Allie and Noah in their teens, 30s and 80s.
‘The Sound of Music’: May 26-31, 2026
Three-time Tony-winner Jack O’Brien, who served as artistic director of San Diego’s the Old Globe from 1981 to 2007, directed this touring production back in 2015 and it’s been making the rounds ever since. Now in its 65th year, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was inspired by the true story of the Von Trapps. Nun-in-training Maria falls in love with a widowed sea captain after she becomes the governess to his children. Then, after they marry, the family becomes a singing troupe and they escape over the Alps after the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938.
‘Disney’s Beauty and the Beast’: July 7-12, 2026
This lavish national touring production launched last year in celebration of the Broadway musical’s 30th anniversary. Based on the 1991 animated film, it features a Tony-winning score by Alan Menken and book by Tim Rice. The musical is based on the fairy tale about a kind-hearted young woman who falls in love with the beast who has imprisoned her in an enchanted castle.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’: Aug. 11-16, 2026
Alicia Keys, the part-time La Jolla resident and 16-time Grammy-winner, provided this peppy jukebox musical’s score. The book by Kristoffer Diaz is loosely inspired by Keys own hard-knock growing-up years in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Ali is a directionless and rebellious 17-year-old girl with an overprotective mother who eventually finds her ion in music after taking piano lessons from an elderly woman in her apartment building. The high-energy rock/pop/R&B musical was directed by former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif with lively hip-hop/step/jazz/ballet choreography by Camille A. Brown.
‘Water for Elephants’: Aug. 18-23, 2026
Inspired by the 2006 novel by Sara Gruen, this 2024 Broadway musical is the story of an orphaned young man during the Great Depression who s a circus and finds love, belonging and a new family. San Diego designer David Israel Reynoso earned a Tony nomination for his imaginative circus costumes. The book was written by “Jersey Boys” co-writer Rick Elice and scored by PigPen Theatre, which has performed a few times at the Old Globe.
Season tickets are now on sale with packages starting at $310 for seven shows at 888-937-8995 or broadwaysd.com.
