By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
There is good news for theatre enthusiasts who like to plan ahead. Burlington’s Theatre Burlington and Drury Lane Theatre have announced their 2026/2027 show seasons. Further afield, in Burlington’s adjoining towns, Waterdown and Dundas, the community theatres also have exciting material on the schedule. Here’s what’s coming up.
Theatre Burlington takes on (and takes down) capitalism with a production of Vern Thiessen’s Icemen, which will open on September 25, 2026. Two Depression-era workers kidnap their rich boss in a desperate bid to save their livelihoods from becoming outdated by technology’s progress. With AI looming over everything, threatening jobs like a storm cloud threatens picnics, a story like this may resonate with a lot of people.
November 28, 2026, will be the opening date of Vic Hyde’s Sleeping Beauty, a favourite with children. Following this will be a lively, crime-filled whodunnit by Douglas Rodger, scheduled to open on February 12, 2027. Titled How Could You, Mrs. Dick, it’s a fictionalized depiction of Hamilton resident Evelyn Dick’s supposed murder of her husband in the 1940s. Did she really do it, or is something even more sinister afoot?
Closing off the season will be a Kristen Da Silva work, Five Alarm, opening on April 16, 2027, and then the annual Playtime theatre fest, opening on May 29, 2027. In Five Alarm, a culinary as well as theatrical experience, an ambitious cook tries to recreate her family’s famous chilli recipe for a cooking contest while coming to terms with her past.
“The show I’m most excited about next season is Theatre Burlington’s production of How Could You, Mrs. Dick,” says Kathy Hyde-Nagel, Theatre Burlington’s publicity chair. Hyde-Nagel is also the daughter of the late Burlington playwright Vic Hyde. “For the past three years, we have produced all-Canadian seasons, and with this show, it is even more ‘hyper-local’ with the action taking place in Hamilton.”
“This show was last produced in this area by The Players Guild in 2006, so I think it was definitely time to revisit this true-life crime story,” Hyde-Nagel continues enthusiastically. “It has a little bit of everything: sex, crime, dismemberment, hard-boiled reporters, and an ending that’ll leave you with more questions than answers. There’s also a rumour that The Guild may still have the ‘torso’ used in their production that we are hoping to borrow!”
Drury Lane Theatre will be taking a long break after the closing of its May 2026 show Nice Work If You Can Get It, which is bound to be a grand success. On November 6, 2026, the theatre will be jumping right back into it with a musical production of A Christmas Story, based on the 1983 family comedy film directed by Bob Clark. The story follows the wild misadventures of Ralphie Parker, an imaginative young boy who wants nothing more for Christmas than a dangerous toy all the adults say he can’t have. At one point, a classmate (infamously) gets his tongue stuck to a pole on a dare.
After said tongue is (painfully) removed from said pole, Drury Lane Theatre will be continuing on with the holiday festivities with their annual family fun pantomime production. This year, it will be Snow White, A Christmas Pantomime, set to premiere on December 11, 2026. Following the fairy tale will be the 46th Annual Music Hall, opening on February 12, 2027, then a musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved novel Little Women, with an opening night scheduled for May 7, 2027.
Drury Lane’s artistic director Carol MacKenzie couldn’t be more pleased with the well-planned lineup. “Drury Lane is so excited by this upcoming season,” she expresses wholeheartedly. “With musicals based on classic literature or holiday movies, patrons will discover themes of family connections, storytelling, and music that lifts the spirits.”
“Add in the antics of our annual pantomime and the entertaining 46th Annual Music Hall variety show, and we complete a package of musicals that will appeal to everyone,” MacKenzie promises further.
The esteemed Michael MacLennan has been welcomed back to Drury Lane Theatre to direct Little Women in 2027. The original story follows the four gifted March sisters as they use their wits, talents, and big hearts to move up in the world and navigate love. Jo March, the popular heroine who was inspired by Alcott herself, tries to find a balance between her devotion to her family and her ambitions as a writer of fiction. Now, at Drury Lane, she will sing as well as write stories.
“I am looking forward to returning to Drury Lane to bring Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel to the intimate stage at Drury Lane,” says MacLennan, whose credentials for directing musicals inspired by great books are exemplary. Not coincidentally, his first collaboration with Drury Lane Theatre was an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden in 2008.
“The heartwarming story of the March family will be performed by a talented, chamber-sized company of actors and singers,” MacLennan goes on. “It is a lovely story and score, and will hopefully inspire a new generation of Little Women fans.”
Highbrow literature has also found its way into the lineup of Dundas Little Theatre, which has scheduled Erin Shields’ adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, for an opening night on April 16, 2027. Satan’s fall from heaven and corruption of the human race will be imaginatively rendered in this tribute to Milton’s creative experiment with the devil’s point of view.
Much earlier than that, the theatre will voluntarily become chaotically dysfunctional with a production of The Play That Goes Wrong, scheduled to open on November 6, 2026. On January 29, 2027, audience members will also become acquainted with King Henry VIII’s scholarly and pragmatic sixth wife, Catherine Parr, the perpetual survivor, in a production of Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife.
“I’m looking forward to The Play That Goes Wrong,” says Valerie Van Landschoot, co-chair of Dundas Little Theatre. “It’s a technically challenging show, and it’s going to take a lot of work and creativity from everyone involved to pull it together. It’s a very funny play and is sure to be a crowd pleaser.”
More spine-tingling than funny, Village Theatre Waterdown has opted for a fall 2026 production of the Gothic horror novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Shortened to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the theatre looks forward to telling the gruesome story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a man of science who subjects himself to an experimental potion that transforms him into an uncontrollable, rampaging criminal. The hidden dark side of humanity, brought out by a poisonous substance, will be at the psychological centre of this creepy tale.
With so much literature on the horizon, the local theatres have practically put together a course syllabus! Interested theatregoers can regularly check the websites for available tickets.
