{"id":331304,"date":"2026-08-27T20:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331304\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:48:10","slug":"penelope-musical-starring-grace-mclean-added-to-classic-stage-company-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331304\/","title":{"rendered":"Penelope Musical, Starring Grace McLean, Added to Classic Stage Company Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

A limited engagement of\u00a0Penelope\u2014a contemporary musical retelling of Homer\u2019s The Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus\u2019 wife\u2014will be part of\u00a0Classic Stage Company<\/a>‘s 2026\u201327 season.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed\u00a0show will star its co-creator,\u00a0Grace McLean<\/a> (Suffs<\/a>; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812<\/a>).\u00a0Performances are scheduled for December 10\u201320\u00a0at CSC\u2019s Lynn F. Angelson Theater. Opening night will be December 11.<\/p>\n

Penelope\u00a0features music and lyrics by\u00a0Alex Bechtel<\/a> and a book by Bechtel, McLean, and\u00a0Eva Steinmetz\u00a0with direction by\u00a0Steinmetz. Bechtel, who will be featured on piano, will be joined by\u00a0four to-be-announced musicians, who will all be seen on stage\u00a0as a musical Greek chorus.<\/p>\n

“Penelope
\n waited 20 years for Odysseus to return from the Trojan War,” according to press notes for the contemporary chamber musical. “Now
\nshe’s ready to share her side of the story\u2026but she’s going to need a
\ndrink first.” Additional creative team members will be announced at a later date<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Penelope
\n received the 2026 Richard Rodgers Award for Best New
\nMusical from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The production
\njust concluded a\u00a0run at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n

Penelope
\n premiered at Hudson Valley Shakespeare in 2023, followed by productions at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia,\u00a0and Theatre
\nHorizon in association with Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.\u00a0In
\n 2025, the first full production, starring McLean, played The Ancram
\nCenter in New York. Penelope: Live from Joe’s Pub was recently released by Joy Machine Records and is now streaming on Spotify<\/a> and all listening platforms.<\/p>\n

Penelope is presented in association with rigor + ruckus.<\/p>\n

Tickets will go on sale to the general public September 3 following pre-sales that begin September 1 for CSC Patrons and September 2 for Encore FlexPass holders.<\/p>\n

Visit\u00a0ClassicStage.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A limited engagement of\u00a0Penelope\u2014a contemporary musical retelling of Homer\u2019s The Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus\u2019 wife\u2014will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-331304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}