Curtain opens on Stratford Festival's 74th season this week-May 25th-30th 2026
Shakespeare's The Tempest opens the season Monday evening May 25
The Tempest will open the 74th season of the Stratford Festival on May 25.
NEWS RELEASE
STRATFORD FESTIVAL
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The Stratford Festival’s 74th season launches officially next week with the opening of the first seven of 2026’s 12 productions.
The excitement gets underway on Monday, May 25, with the opening of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Festival Theatre. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday evening sees the opening of the musical Guys and Dolls at the Festival Theatre. On Wednesday the Tom Patterson Theatre officially opens for the season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, followed by Thursday’s official season opening of the Avon Theatre with Death of a Salesman. The musical Something Rotten! opens at the Festival Theatre on Friday. Closing out opening week on Saturday is a matinee of The Hobbit at the Avon Theatre, followed by an evening performance of Waiting for Godot at the Festival Theatre.
Five more shows will open later in the season: The Importance of Being Earnest, Othello, The Tao of the World, The King James Bible Play and Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Monday, May 25
7.30 p.m. The Tempest
Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St.
Run time: 2:33
Red carpet timing:
6 p.m. — red carpet begins
6:05 p.m. — interview with Antoni Cimolino
6:20 p.m. — interview with Donna Feore
6:30 p.m. — Stratford Police Pipes and Drums parade to the Festival Theatre
6:40 p.m. — interview with Dan Chameroy
6:50 p.m. — shooting craps and champagne popping with musical ensemble
10:30 p.m. — after party in the Festival Theatre lobby
Tuesday, May 26
8 p.m. Guys and Dolls
Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St.
Run time 2:35
Wednesday, May 27
8 p.m. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Tom Patterson Theatre, 111 Lakeside Dr.
Run time: 2:53
Thursday, May 28
8 p.m. Death of a Salesman
Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St.
Run time: 2:57
Friday, May 29
8 p.m. Something Rotten!
Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St.
Run time: 2:44
Saturday, May 30
2 p.m. The Hobbit
Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St.
Run time 2:15
Saturday May 30
8 p.m. Waiting for Godot
Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St.
Run time: 2:32
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Stratford’s Guys and Dolls is a sure thing
Donna Feore's high-kicking musical production is a reminder that theatre is allowed to be pure fun — and that Stratford's men can really dance
1 / 2 Mark Uhre, Jennifer Rider-Shaw, Dan Chameroy and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane. (Stratford Festival 2026 Photo: Dariane Sanche)
If Stratford's musical season in 2025 was all about a dozen talented kids and a dog, 2026 is all about men.That's according to the audience at last night's opening of Guys and Dolls. While the male dancers' chests heaved following the famously athletic number ‘The Crapshooter's Dance,’ the audience got to its feet to shower these titans on toes with audible love.
The guys take centre stage
From the show’s first moments, leading men Dan Chameroy as Sky Masterson, Mark Uhre as Nathan Detroit, and Steve Ross as Nicely-Nicely Johnson set the tone. Never a dull moment when any one of these three are on stage. Their rich voices and bold style are impossible not to love, and Ross’ show stopping delivery of the iconic tune ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat’ brought the house down.
But the male cast goes much deeper than that. No fewer than 20 men – I couldn’t get an accurate count – take part in ‘The Crapshooter's Dance,’ performing sky-high acrobatics that had the audience gripping their armrests, wondering if one might fly an inch too far. But the guys nailed every single landing.
Dan Chameroy as Sky Masterson (centre) with members of the company, Guys and Dolls. (Stratford Festival 2026 Photo: David Hou). Submitted Photo
Last year I was marvelling at how Donna Feore's cast of children could sing and dance their way through Annie with such skill and joy. This year, I'm marvelling at men who do it in three-piece suits and brogues. Witnessing this much talent working together on the Stratford stage feels like a once-in-a-lifetime event.
So yes, the guys take up a lot of space in this 2026 production. What does that mean for the women? Clearly, it has the effect of asking the dolls to step it up a notch – they have to show up on a stage just moments after dozens of men were doing feats of Olympic-level dance.
The dolls deliver
And they do. The women in this production stand out spectacularly. Jennifer Rider-Shaw's Miss Adelaide is a force to be reckoned with – both by her betrothed sinner Nathan Detroit, as well as by the audience. Her brassy voice and comedic timing fill every inch of the Festival Theatre with energy.
As the star of the Hot Box Club's all-women cabaret, Miss Adelaide leads her troupe of dancers through a down-on-the-farm number that answers a question nobody knew they had: Can a woman dancing in a chicken costume look sexy? Turns out, yes. Cockadoodle-doo, ladies.
From left: Eric Abel, Bethany Kovarik as Carmen, Josh Doig, Jordan Mah and Zachary Williams, Guys and Dolls. (Stratford Festival 2026 Photo: Ann Baggley). Submitted Photo
Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane brings the perfect counterweight as Sarah Brown, the pious Save-a-Soul missionary who falls for high-roller Sky Masterson. Her solos ‘If I Were a Bell’ and ‘I'll Know’ are among the production's most beautiful moments — pure voice and feeling. Together, Rider-Shaw and Sinclair-Brisbane give this show its beauty and heart.
But if there are stars in this production, they are collective ones. The ensemble is the jackpot of Guys and Dolls, and director and choreographer Feore has built numbers of genuine spectacle. The sheer size of the cast on the Festival Theatre stage is intoxicating, bodies filling every inch, moving in precise formations that somehow never slip out of place. I can't name one without naming them all.
Costume designer Dana Osborne and set designer Michael Gianfrancesco put you squarely on a 1950s New York City street and keep you there. Mid-century masculinity — slim-cut suits with bold stripes, topped with fedoras — fills one side of the equation. On the other, the women's cinched waists, full skirts, and fabulous feathers.
The visual world is period-perfect without feeling like a museum piece. Neon signs pulse above clothing shops and nightclubs. The colour palette runs from deep orange and purple to brown, and blue. Rich and saturated. Stripes and feathers. It’s a city coming alive after years of wartime austerity.
And the music! Franklin Brasz leads a live pit orchestra through Frank Loesser's big-band score, and the sounds alone are worth the price of a ticket. At times I found myself looking up, wishing the pit were visible. When Brasz took to the stage for the show’s final number, baton in hand, the audience's response made clear that Stratford’s musicians are as beloved as anyone in the cast.
A city coming alive
Guys and Dolls has been a sure thing since it opened on Broadway in 1950. Adapted from the short stories of Damon Runyon — who spent the 1920s and ‘30s chronicling the gamblers, hustlers, and showgirls of Prohibition-era New York — it’s a rare musical that refuses to feel dated.
The humour is sharp without being cruel or sexist. And some of the iconic songs, like ‘Luck Be a Lady’ and ‘A Bushel and a Peck,’ have embedded themselves so deeply into contemporary culture that even audiences who have never seen this show will find themselves humming along.
In a moment where we spend considerable energy debating masculinity — what it is, and what to do with it — Guys and Dolls offers an answer that feels right for this moment. Here are men who can sing, dance, make you laugh, and land a backflip in a three-piece suit.
Feore has built a production that celebrates what men bring to the stage, without apology or irony. Theatre is allowed to be pure fun, and at Stratford, the men make sure of it.