The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled its 2026-27 season, headlined by Tony Award-winning Broadway star Jonathan Groff making his RSC debut as Rosalind in an all-male staging of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” directed by RSC co-artistic director Daniel Evans.
Groff, who can currently be seen starring in “Just in Time” at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre, previously originated the roles of Melchior Gabor in “Spring Awakening” and Kristoff in Disney’s “Frozen” franchise, and claimed his Tony for his portrayal of Franklin Shepherd in the recent “Merrily We Roll Along” revival. He will be joined by Fisayo Akinade as Celia. Akinade earned screen recognition through Russell T. Davies’ Channel 4 series “Cucumber” and “Banana,” and appeared as Mr. Ajayi in the 2022 Netflix series “Heartstopper.” The production runs Sept. 26 through Nov. 7 in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Harriet Walter will return to the company to reprise her role as Brutus in a revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s 2012 Donmar Warehouse production of “Julius Caesar,” originally staged under artistic director Josie Rourke and executive director Kate Pakenham. The all-female production is set in a women’s prison. The revival, co-produced with KPPL Productions, will tour to secondary schools across England from Sept. 21 through Oct. 23 before a run at The Other Place from Nov. 5-28.
The school tour anchors the RSC’s celebration of two decades of educational partnership work. The company’s Associate Schools Program now reaches more than 280 schools across 100 towns and cities in England. Each performance will be supported by workshops and post-show discussions, with the touring program culminating in a Young Creatives Festival at The Other Place on Nov. 21.
The Swan Theatre will stage a two-part dramatization of George Eliot’s “Middlemarch,” with Nina Raine writing the adaptation and Jeremy Herrin directing, in a co-production with Second Half Productions. Part 1 opens Oct. 1, Part 2 follows Oct. 10, with both running through Jan. 16.
Rounding out the season, theater company Told by an Idiot brings Alexandre Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers” to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in a new adaptation written and directed by company co-founder and artistic director Paul Hunter. The production runs Nov. 28 through Jan. 9.
The previously announced world premiere of “Game of Thrones: The Mad King,” written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, arrives at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in summer 2026, in a co-production involving Simon Painter, Tim Lawson, Mark Manuel, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures on behalf of HBO, and Sir Leonard Blavatnik and Danny Cohen for Access Entertainment.
RSC co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey described the season as one where themes of “identity, transformation, freedom, justice and the liberation that comes from breaking free of expectations loom large this autumn, as classic stories and universal struggles take on powerful new resonance in the hands of some of the most exciting artists of today.”