Fire up your DeLoreans, dust off your old Clue notepads and brush up on the lyrics of your favorite Neil Diamond tunes. In the Wharton Center’s 2025-‘26 Broadway series, nostalgia reigns supreme.
Tickets for Wharton Center subscribers are on sale now. The series package, which includes tickets to six out of the eight shows, not only offers the best prices of the year but allows members to lock in their seats for the whole season, as well as the ability to exchange seats for another performance if necessary. For more information, visit
whartonseason.com.
Executive director Eric Olmscheid said that even though Wharton is a smaller market for big Broadway shows, the team is proud of the fact that it can host these productions every year. For this season, the team wanted to select plenty of new shows based on touring availability and popularity.
“It’s part of my job as the primary curator of the season to see the work when it first opens on Broadway so we can assess it with real experience and information about what makes sense for our community,” Olmscheid explained. “It’s typically how we prefer to operate. We’ve seen all the shows, previewed them, and we’ve thought through if it will be a good fit for our market or not.”
The season will begin and end with jukebox musicals: “A Beautiful Noise,” running Sept. 16 through 21, and “& Juliet,” running June 23 through 28. The former is about the life of singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, while the latter is an alternate version of “Romeo and Juliet” where Shakespeare’s heroine forgoes tragedy for a new beginning.
Since there’s a wide variety of other jukebox musicals touring the country, Olmscheid didn’t want to select too many. Nevertheless, he’s excited about the ones he chose for Wharton.
“‘& Juliet’ is filled with so much great pop music,” Olmscheid said. “It’s a beautiful story about empowerment and not letting someone else write your own story.”
As for “A Beautiful Noise,” he’s confident that even those who aren’t fans of Diamond will know the music. “But we don’t encourage singing along during the show,” he joked.
The season also features three Tony Award winners for best musical: “The Wiz” (Dec. 9 through 14), “Hadestown” (Jan. 30 through Feb. 1) and “Kimberly Akimbo” (March 10 through 15). “The Wiz,” fresh off its 2024 Broadway revival, is one of the shows Olmscheid is most looking forward to.
“It took 49 years for it to come back to Broadway,” he said. “They did a beautiful job updating it for today’s stage.
“Hadestown” was the first musical production Wharton hosted after its pandemic hiatus. Knowing many weren’t ready to return to the theater in 2021, local audiences will have another chance to catch the train to the underworld.
Those who look back fondly on the ‘80s will get a double dose of nostalgia with “Back to the Future: The Musical” (Jan. 13 through 18) and “Clue” (April 7 through 12), both making their Wharton debuts. “Back to the Future” is a big-budget spectacle complete with a working DeLorean on stage, while “Clue” is an 80-minute comedy that incorporates elements from both the 1985 movie and the Hasbro game.
The show Olmscheid knew he had to lock down was the 30th-anniversary tour of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (Oct. 14 through 19).
“It was something we were focused on confirming as soon as we knew that tour was coming out,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful family show, and this new production is going to be lavish.”
“Beauty and the Beast” and “Hadestown” are special events and can be added on to the six-show package.
Olmscheid is proud of the season Wharton put together and hopes that more people will subscribe to the Broadway series, especially in this time of political division and anxiety.
“I think one of the most powerful things in the world we live in is having positive shared experiences,” he said. “And I think coming to a performance is such an important piece of what we can do together as a community. It doesn’t matter our interests, beliefs or values. I believe the value of the arts for our community is to gather us, to make us heal and think together. Now more than ever, I think the arts are important.”
“A Case for the Existence of God”
Through March 16
2 p.m. Thursday, Saturday-Sunday
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Williamston Theatre
122 S. Putnam St., Williamston
“Into the Woods”
March 7-9
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
Lebowsky Center for Performing Arts
122 E. Main St., Owosso
“Life of Pi”
March 11-16
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
1:30 p.m. Thursday
2 p.m. Saturday
1 p.m. Sunday
Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“The Importance of Being Earnest”
March 13-16 and 20-23
7 p.m. Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
Riverwalk Theatre
228 Museum Drive, Lansing
“Late Night Catechism”
7 p.m. March 15
Wharton Center Pasant Theatre
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Girls Night: The Musical”
3 p.m. March 16
Wharton Center Pasant Theatre
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Dentro (Inside): A True Story, If You Think So”
7:30 p.m. March 20
Wharton Center Pasant Theatre
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Broke-ology”
Ixion Ensemble Theatre
March 21-23 and 28-30
7 p.m. Friday-Saturday
3 p.m. Sunday
Stage One at Sycamore Creek Eastwood
2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing
“Two Trains Running”
7:30 p.m. March 22
Wharton Center Pasant Theatre
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Menopause the Musical 2”
3 p.m. March 30
Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Decision Height”
MSU Department of Theatre
April 1-5
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Studio 60 Theatre
542 Auditorium Road, East Lansing
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