Our 2027 season launches with the Chicago premiere of the Tony-nominated musical Dead Outlaw, in a co-production with Porchlight Music Theatre at the Biograph's Začek McVay Mainstage, and continues with Jeremy Wechsler's continued collaboration with Joshua Harmon on the Chicago premiere of We Had a World.
February 10 – March 21, 2027
Začek McVay Mainstage Theater at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.
Dead Outlaw
Book by Itamar Moses
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna
directed by Jeremy Wechsler
choreographed by Brenda Didier
A Co-Production with Porchlight Music Theatre
Chicago Premiere
Winner of 4 Best Musical Awards, including the Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics' Circle, and Outer Critics Circle! Tony Nominated for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score! Dead Outlaw brings you the surprisingly true tale of the rootinest, tootinest outlaw this side of six feet under. From the varmints that brought you The Band's Visit comes the story of Elmer McCurdy, who terrorized the west from beyond the veil for nigh on 60 years.
SEE! Love unfulfilled!
HEAR! Sweet songs of Elmer's sufferin'!
Brought to you by the ne'er-do-wells from Theater Wit and Porchlight Music Theatre, Dead Outlaw is chuggin' into yer still-beatin' hearts for its Chicago premiere this winter.
A truly one-of-a-kind production, complete with a whole lot of laughs and a surprising amount of heart. It needs to be seen to be believed! Entertainment Weekly
March 12 – April 25, 2027
We Had a World
by Joshua Harmon
directed by Jeremy Wechsler
Chicago Premiere
On the heels of their collaboration on Prayer for the French Republic, Theater Wit Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler continues his celebrated collaboration with playwright Joshua Harmon with the Chicago premiere of We Had a World. When a dying woman calls her grandson and asks him to write a play about their family — with a caveat that he make it "as bitter and vitriolic as possible" — what unfolds is a searing, funny, and deeply personal recreation of thirty years of family fights, monstrous behavior, enormous cruelty, and enduring love.
We Had a World premiered off-Broadway in May 2025 at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
Rooted in a multigenerational Jewish family, Harmon has a gift for finding the universal in the specific, and the result is one of his most intimate and nakedly autobiographical works yet. Stage and Cinema