EVITA, RENT, GREASE and More Lead Boston's Hot Summer 2025 Theater Picks

Because of its great cultural and intellectual influence, Boston has been known as the Athens of America for centuries. That sobriquet is as true today as ever thanks to the area’s vibrant theater scene featuring pre-Broadway productions and national tours, Tony Award-winning regional theaters, and a host of other theater companies presenting everything from Shakespeare to classic and contemporary plays, musicals and concerts. Greater Boston audiences have much to look forward to this summer, including:

Back to the Future

Citizens Bank Opera House, July 8–20

As anyone who’s seen the 1985 science fiction hit “Back to the Future” knows, the story’s central character, Marty McFly – the role that made Michael J. Fox a movie star – is a teenaged rock-music fan who is accidentally transported “Back in Time” to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown. Before he can return to 1985, Marty must make sure his high school-aged parents feel “The Power of Love” in order to save his own existence.

Adapted for the stage as “Back to the Future: The Musical,” the show opened in London’s West End before transferring to Broadway in 2023. This North American tour, now beginning its second year, will be presented by Broadway in Boston.

For tickets and information:

https://boston.broadway.com/

Kufre n’ Quay

Boston Arts Academy, July 10–26

The Boston Arts Academy and Wheelock Family Theatre continue the sweeping nine-play Ufot Family Cycle with the world premiere of “Kufre n’ Quay.” In her fifth installment of the award-winning cycle, playwright Mfoniso Udofia tells the coming-of-age story, set in Harlem in 2019, of a 12-year-old African boy who arrives in New York’s Little Senegal and joins a youth center.

There, Kufre, son of Iniabasi and grandson of Abasiama, forms a friendship with an African American girl. The play explores the ways in which we navigate the contrast between African and Black American culture, and will be directed by award-winning Nigerian filmmaker, actor, and playwright John Oluwole ADEkoje.

For tickets and information:

https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/bostonarts/kufre-n-quay

Boston’s Lyric Opera’s Street Stage

Boston Lyric Opera's mobile opera performance series Street Stage will once again bring the power of live opera directly to Boston residents and visitors this summer.. Started as a creative response to the pandemic, the series has since become a tradition across the city. Whether staged in neighborhood settings or on BLO’s custom-built mobile stage, Street Stage presents world-class live performances of opera arias and duets as well as selections from Broadway and the Great American Songbook. 

Free and open to all, Street Stage will be at Piers Park in East Boston on July 19 at 3 PM, SoWa Open Market in South Boston, July 27 at 11 AM, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway on July 30 at 6:30 PM, Moakley Park in South Boston, August 20 at 6 PM, and the Charlestown Navy Yard, August 23 at 3:30 PM. 

As You Like It

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company on Boston Common, July 23 – August 10

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC), in partnership with the City of Boston, continues its 26-year tradition of presenting free summer productions on Boston Common, America’s oldest public park, with the Bard’s lush romantic comedy “As You Like It.”

Steven Maler, CSC’s founding artistic director, helms the production in which, after her father’s kingdom is seized by his power-hungry brother Orlando (Michael Underhill), Rosalind (Nora Eschenheimer) and her cousin Celia (Clara Hevia) flee in disguise. They seek refuge in the Forest of Arden, where they find new freedom and wisdom about love, family, community, and acceptance. Rounding out a cast of Boston luminaries – including Remo Airaldi, Kandyce Whittingham, John Kuntz, Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Brooks Reeves, Joshua Olumide, and Jared Troilo – is Tony Award nominee Paul Michael Valley (“1776”) in his CSC debut. Valley is best known by soap-opera fans for his long-running role as Ryan Harrison on “Another World.”

For tickets and information:

https://commshakes.org/production/asyoulikeit25/

Rent

The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, through July 12

America’s oldest summer theater – and one of the last surviving venues from the fabled summer-stock era – continues its 2025 season with the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Rent,” with book, music, and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson. Directed on the Cape by Chip Miller, the cast of “Rent” features Broadway performers including Chris McCarrell (“The Lightning Thief”), Jordan Barrow (“Wicked”), Ashley Blanchet (“Frozen”), and Tsilala Brooks (“Suffs”).

Set in the East Village of New York City, “Rent,” with its tale of falling in love, finding your voice, and living for today while balancing the need for financial survival against creative freedom, is a contemporary classic well suited to the iconic Cape Playhouse, where summer has long been one of the “Seasons of Love.”

For tickets and information:

https://capeplayhouse.com/2025-rent/

The Understudy

Hub Theatre Company of Boston, at Club Café, July 19 – August 2

Multi-award-winning actress and director Paula Plum has played all manner of roles in her long, deservedly ballyhooed career in Boston theater. So Hub Theatre Company wisely chose Plum to helm its upcoming production of Theresa Rebeck’s “The Understudy,” a comedy about what transpires when a smug movie star is cast in a coveted role in a long-lost Kafka play on Broadway. When the action star meets his understudy, a stressed stage manager must keep a battle between the two from ensuing. Look for oversized egos, misplaced props, raucous rehearsals, and lots of laughs.

For tickets and information:

http://www.hubtheatreboston.org/

Evita

Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, Robinson Theatre, Waltham, July 11–20

As Argentina’s most famous First Lady, Eva Perón captured the hearts of a nation and the attention of the world. Featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s unforgettable score – including, of course, the iconic “Don't Cry for Me Argentina – “Evita” musicalizes the meteoric rise of one of history's most captivating figures. From humble beginnings to the pinnacle of power and fame, Eva's journey, told through sweeping melodies, is a riveting story of ambition, love, and what makes even a questionable legacy. Isabella Bria Lopez stars in the title role in Reagle’s take on this sung-through musical masterpiece.

For tickets and information:

https://www.reaglemusictheatre.org/shows/19/evita

The Meeting Tree

Company One, Front Porch Arts Collective, and the City of Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture, Strand Theatre, July 18 – August 9

A new play by B. Elle Borders, directed by Summer L. Williams and with dramaturgy by afrikah selah and Ilana M. Brownstein, “The Meeting Tree” finds Sofia Langton on a mission to succeed where her grandmother failed, by regaining the rights to the Alabama farm where her family was once enslaved. But there is something odorous about the land, and it sits right smack in the middle of a fractured family tree. Can Sofia heal the wound that has divided her family for six generations? Find out in this story of family connection and healing.

For tickets and information:

https://companyone.org/the-meeting-tree/

Grease

Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, July 9–28

School may be out but “Grease” is always in, and it will be once again when Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) presents the Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey musical about working-class teenagers at a Midwest high school in the late 1950s. First performed in 1971 in Chicago, the show moved off-Broadway in early 1972 and then to Broadway later that same year.

A hit 1978 movie version of the musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, not to mention Broadway revivals headlined by everyone from Rosie O’Donnell to Brooke Shields, have earned “Grease” an enduring place in pop culture. With songs like “Summer Nights,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” “Born to Hand Jive,” and the title number, “Grease” will be the word for years to come.

Rydell High School may be fictional, but at NSMT its principal, Miss Lynch, will be played by the real-as-can-be Kathy St. George. Recipient of the 2025 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence from the Boston Theater Critics Association, the always entertaining St. George will have audience members wishing they could be sent to the principal’s office.

For tickets and information:

https://www.nsmt.org/grease.html

The Garbologists

Gloucester Stage Company, July 3–26

When, in Lindsay Joelle’s play “The Garbologists” – being directed by Rebecca Bradshaw in its regional premiere – Marlowe joins Danny’s route, the two get off to a rocky start, bickering over everything from trash hunting to 19th-century printmaking. Danny, a white, blue-collar, New York City sanitation worker values seniority, while Marlowe, a Black, Ivy  League-educated sanitation rookie, is determined to prove a point and make amends. When their two worlds collide, improbable bonds form in this new comedy starring the mirthful Paul Melendy and the splendidly versatile Thomika Marie Bridwell in her Gloucester Stage debut.

For tickets and information:

https://gloucesterstage.com/garbologists/

Camino Real

Williamstown Theatre Festival, July 17 – August 3

Obie Award-winning director Dustin Wills returns to Williamstown to reimagine “Camino Real,” Tennessee Williams’ sprawling 1953 epic written in the lead-up to the McCarthy trials, in a production starring Golden Globe nominee Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”), Daytime Emmy Award winner Nicholas Alexander Chavez (“General Hospital”), who played Lyle Menendez on the 2024 Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” and  television and film actress Whitney Peak who will be seen in the upcoming feature “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” set for release in 2026.

The original Broadway production of “Camino Real” ran only 60 performances and the play has never been a mainstream success. Even with that, however, Williams is arguably the greatest American playwright of the 20th century and his works are always worth revisiting. In its first significant revival since the 1999 Williamstown production, “Camino Real” remains a clarion call to the Romantics of the world –drowning in an ocean of cynicism, suspicion, and censorship—to use their unflagging spirit as a life raft.

For tickets and information:

https://www.wtfestival.org/main-events/camino-real/

Dying Is No Excuse

Berkshire Theater Group’s Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge, August 7-30

Before she was Sylvia Fine, Fran Drescher’s flashily attired and meddlesome mom on TV’s “The Nanny,” Renee Taylor was known as the Academy Award-nominated co-screenwriter, with her late husband Joseph Bologna, of the 1970 film “Lovers and Other Strangers,” based on their 1968 play of the same name. The couple also co-authored some 20 other Broadway plays and movie screenplays. So theatergoers from Boston and beyond will want to head to Stockbridge this summer for the world premiere of “Dying Is No Excuse,” a new play written by and starring Taylor, and being directed by Grammy and Tony Award winner Elaine May (“The Waverly Gallery”).

There will be no excuse to Miss Taylor’s deeply personal reflection on her decades-long personal and creative partnership with Bologna in this tribute to a marriage built on creativity, collaboration, and laughter.

For tickets and information:

https://www.berkshiretheatregroup.org/event/dying-is-no-excuse/

Keith Lockhart 30th-Anniversary Celebration

Tanglewood, Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, August 22

A 30th anniversary is a big deal, and when it involves beloved conductor Keith Lockhart and his tenure with the Boston Pops, then one celebration is simply not enough. So after conducting a sold-out 30th-anniversary concert in his own honor in May at Boston’s Symphony Hall, Lockhart will take up the baton again at Tanglewood in August.

Joining the maestro this time around will be special guests including Lynn Ahrens, Jason Danieley, Ben Folds, Mandy Gonzalez, Bernadette Peters, Guster's Ryan Miller, John Pizzarelli, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Time for Three.

So whether you prefer a seat under the shed or a blanket on the lawn, you’ll want to be at Tanglewood in the bucolic Berkshires on August 22.

For tickets and information:

https://www.bso.org/events/boston-pops-august-22

Don't Miss a Boston News Story Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...