Your guide to November 2026 Philly theater

InterAct Theatre Company produced Eureka Day back in 2019, and it returns to Spector’s oeuvre with This Much I Know (October 30 through November 22)—a trippy work that encompasses Stalinism, white supremacy, and the good old dysfunctional family. InterAct founder Seth Rozin directs a cast that includes Jessica DelCanton, Sorab Wadia, and Mark Worth.

A revival, Boop!, and Pippin

In South Philly, Theatre Exile revives one of its most celebrated plays: Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries (October 29 through November 15). First produced by the company in 2011, this one might not be for the squeamish. It follows a pair of friends, Kayleen and Doug whose maturity is often hampered by the trauma suggested in the play’s title. Jenna Kuerzi, so memorable in Exile’s 2023 production of Camp Siegfried, plays Kayleen. Newcomer Daniel Burgess is Doug. Deborah Block directs.

National tours offer regional audiences the chance to discover a show they might have missed on Broadway. This month, Boop! arrives at the Academy of Music for a two-week engagement, running November 17 through 29. If you didn’t catch this one in New York, don’t blame yourself: it only ran for four months last year. But Jerry Mitchell’s production launched the career of Jasmine Amy Rogers—soon to be seen as Maria von Trapp in Lincoln Center Theater’s springtime revival of The Sound of Music—and it could well do the same for touring lead Aliya Grace. I’m looking forward to discovering how the creators position an iconic character for a 21st-century audience.

Resident companies will try their hand at musicals as well. In Mt. Airy, Quintessence brings a new production of Stephen Schwartz’s Pippin to the stage, running November 18 through January 3 at the Sedgwick Theater. It’s always fascinating to see what vision is applied to this classic 1970s show, with its familiar songs like “Corner of the Sky” and “Morning Glow”. A Tony-winning Broadway revival set it at the circus, while a regional production in California once incorporated elements alluding to Japanese anime and manga. Clearly, there are many different directions to take this story of the son of Charlemagne. I’m sure director Alex Burns will find his own.

It’s panto season

Theatergoers also won’t have to wait until December to begin indulging in holiday traditions. A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker are still to come, of course, but at People’s Light in Malvern, the holiday season means panto. The suburban company takes a page from the British theater playbook, presenting an exaggerated pantomime, often based on a classic fairy tale. This year, the company revives its popular Cinderella panto, written by longtime company member Kathryn Peterson and composer/lyricist Michael Ogborn. According to the website, the production is suited for patrons aged 5 to 105. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, you’ll surely have a good time.

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