Variety is proud to announce the 2026 edition of its annual 10 Broadway Stars to Watch. These actors, composers, librettists, and playwrights — working on shows including “Purple Rain,” “Warriors,” “Spring Awakening,” “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Wanted” — represent the future of theater. This year’s roster of standouts will be honored at our annual Business of Broadway Breakfast, hosted by Tom Felton, who is currently reprising his signature role, Draco Malfoy, in the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” At the Oct. 5 event, Variety will celebrate the upcoming season with exclusive conversations with Rachel Zegler, Diego Rodriguez and James Olivas for “Evita,” which opens in spring 2027; Aaron Sorkin, Bradley Whitford, Tom Blyth, Krysta Rodriguez and Michael Arden for “A Few Good Men,” which begins previews on Oct. 8; and Bartlett Sher, Adam Speers and the cast of “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” which launches in January 2027.
Here are Variety‘s 10 Broadway Stars to Watch for the 2026-27 season. Compton likes wearing many hats. After writing the book and lyrics for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” designing the set and directing the show on the West End, he’s bringing it all stateside.
The musical — which retains only the core premise of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story and departs significantly from the David Fincher film — sets the tale in a Cornish fishing village, with a folk score performed by a cast of actor-musicians as Benjamin ages backwards. Compton’s urge to multitask came out of necessity.
He started as a producer working with “exceptionally tight margins.” “I realized the only way I could make the budgets stack up was to hire myself to do as many roles as possible. It also turned out to be a wonderfully efficient way of working, as it drastically reduced the number of meetings I had to attend,” he says. His resourcefulness is clearly working — Compton has been developing the show for seven years, and its West End iteration brought home three Olivier Awards, including for best new musical.
I don’t feel like I’m ever wearing both hats at the same time,” he says. In the rehearsal room, I’m the director.” He adds, “I love and loathe them in equal measure!” Most listened to cast album “Come From Away” Theater superstition you believe“It’s bad luck to say, “Good luck,’ on opening night.” Years ago, Duchan was warned not to expect success as a librettist until he was in his 40s: “I’ve always understood this career as something of an endurance test.” At 43, he’s making his Broadway debut with “Purple Rain,” the stage version of the classic Prince album and film, about the rise of a tormented young musician known as the Kid. Duchan’s big break comes more than a decade after he emerged on the New York theater scene with 2012’s Off Broadway musical “Dogfight,” based on the 1991 movie starring River Phoenix.
An adept multitasker (and an expert at translating from screen to stage), Duchan is working on another major musical adaptation, “Practical Magic,” based on the 1998 fantasy comedy starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as witchy sisters. If I haven’t clocked my 10,000 hours yet, I’ve gotta be pretty close.” First Broadway show“Les Misérables” at the Broadway Theatre Go-to Broadway karaoke song“The Feeling We Once Had” from “The Wiz” Show that needs a revival“We haven’t seen ‘The Most Happy Fella’ on Broadway in over 30 years.” It’s hard to typecast Folds. The actress, comedian, writer and improviser has built a career at the intersection of musical theater, hip-hop and comedy.
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