The Joffrey Ballet has announced its 2026–2027 season — the company’s 71st — and it’s built around a pair of ambitious firsts. Chicago gets its premiere of John Neumeier’s narrative ballet Liliom in September, and North America gets its first look at Christopher Wheeldon’s The Sleeping Beauty the following May. No other American company has staged either production together.
The season opens September 17–27, 2026 with Liliom, Neumeier’s adaptation of Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play — the same source material that became the musical Carousel. The ballet follows a charismatic but self-destructive carnival barker whose love story unravels through pride and violence, set against a Depression-era amusement park.
Photo: Todd Rosenberg
19 December 2026 16:00 + more dates
Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture
Michel Legrand, the three-time Academy Award-winning composer, wrote the score, blending classical and jazz textures. The work is rarely performed in the United States, and the Joffrey becomes the first American ballet company to mount it.
Christopher Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker — the company’s Chicago World’s Fair-themed reimagining — returns for the holiday season, December 4–27, 2026, with live music by members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra under Music Director Scott Speck.
Photos: Sergei Gherciu and Caroline McCabe
A mixed bill on love, and a world premiere
February 4–14, 2027 brings Notes on Love, a mixed repertory program framing love through four choreographic perspectives. Houston Thomas, a 2024 alumnus of the Joffrey’s Winning Works choreographic competition, contributes a world premiere: Dear Chicago: A Love Letter, set to an original score by Jonathan Bingham with layered poetry, conceived as a tribute to the city that shaped him.
The program also features Liam Scarlett’s Hummingbird — a pas de deux cycle set to Philip Glass’s Tirol Concerto — and two works by Nicolas Blanc, including Les Boeufoons, a co-commission with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra inspired by the legendary 1920s Paris cabaret Le Boeuf sur le Toit.
Photo: Jaiani Dylan Guitierrez
The season closes May 13–23, 2027 with the North American premiere of Wheeldon’s The Sleeping Beauty, featuring Jerome Kaplan’s costume and set design and Tchaikovsky’s score. Wheeldon, a two-time Tony Award winner, previously brought Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Swan Lake to international stages.
All performances take place at Lyric Opera House, 20 North Upper Wacker Drive. Three-program subscriptions (excluding The Nutcracker) start at $138 and are available now at joffrey.org.
