By SHARON EBERSON

American Theatre Magazine has released its lists of the Top 10 Most Produced Plays and Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights for the upcoming 2025-2026 season, with Pittsburgh companies notably helping playwrights and shows to find a spot on both lists.

Pittsburgh Public Theater will produce No. 2 on the plays list, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust by Eboni Booth, as its second play of the season. 

Although the list is called “Most Produced Plays,” musicals have some of the top spots, including No. 1: the “9/12” musical Come From Away. The next musical on the list is Frozen, tied with Fat Ham at No. 5. The Disney stage adaptation of Frozen began its regional journey last year, including Pittsburgh CLO‘s co-production with Kansas City Starlight and Lied Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. City Theatre produced a co-production of award-winning Fat Ham, also in 2024.

In its first regional production, No. 8 Dear Evan Hansen will be produced by Pittsburgh Musical Theater to end its season, while adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women — including the rolling premiere by playwright Lauren Gunderson, at City Theatre in November — made the list at No. 9. 

Gunderson is No. 1 in American theater with 24 productions, the third time she has led the list, gathered annually for the nation’s only general-circulation magazine devoted to theater, and founded in 1984 by the arts service organization Theatre Communications Group (TCG). Both lists are culled from 1,446 productions at 293 TCG member theaters, plus 156 productions at nonmember and commercial theaters.

Come From Away creators Irene Sackoff and David Hein are No. 2 on the list, which does not include the works of Shakespeare nor productions of A Christmas Carol (ATM counts 44 for the upcoming season). However, August Wilson plays are in the mix, and the late Pittsburgh playwright is tied at No. 5, with 13 productions nationwide.

The various productions by regional theaters are influenced by the release of rights to award-winning and/or commercial successes on Broadway and on tour, and new-play development partners. City Theatre’s season-opening premiere of Another Kind of Silence, for example, is due in part to the company being a core member of the National New Play Network.

American Theatre Magazine’s lists, by Rob Weinert-Kendt, are below. Follow ATM at https://www.americantheatre.org/. 

TOP 10 MOST-PRODUCED PLAYS/MUSICALS OF 2025-2026

1. Come From Away (23 productions)
2. Primary Trust (21)
3. Eureka Day (14)
4. Fat Ham (9)
5. Frozen (9)
6. The Heart Sellers (8)
7. Ain’t Misbehavin’ (7)
8. Dear Evan Hansen (7)
9. Little Women (7, in versions by Heather Chrisler, Lauren Gunderson, Kate Hamill, and Allan Knee)
10. The Roommate

Top 20 MOST PRODUCED PLAYWRIGHTS

(26, due to co-writers of Come From Away and The Play That Goes Wrong, and ties)

• Lauren Gunderson (24 productions)
• Irene Sankoff & David Hein (23)
• Eboni Booth (21)
• Jonathan Spector (15)
• August Wilson (13)
• James Ijames (13)
• Kate Hamill (13)
• Jen Silverman (11)
• Ken Ludwig (11)
• Rajiv Joseph (10)
• Lloyd Suh (10)
• Henrik Ibsen (9)
• Arthur Miller (9)
• Jennifer Lee (9)
• Jeffrey Hatcher (8)
• Richard Maltby Jr. (8)
• Sandy Rustin (8)
• Tennessee Williams (8)
• Katori Hall (7)
• Joe DiPietro (7)
• Sanaz Toossi (7)
• Steven Levenson (7)
• Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer (7)

Categories: Arts and Ideas, Our Posts

Tags: 2025-2026 Pittsburgh Theater, Most-Produced Plays, Most-Produced Playwrights