If the excitement, color, and spectacle of Broadway Musicals is what you’re looking for, look no further. Festival Theatre offers the finest in musical theatre in Southeastern, MA and is nationally known for its outstanding professionalism on all levels of production.

Festival Theatre is a professional regional not for profit performing arts organization dedicated to:

  • Producing a varied selection of the best of Musical Theatre – from the classics to the contemporary.
  • Utilizing quality production techniques,  dynamic challenging staging, and choreography.
  • Engaging the best local and national talent available, thus nurturing theatre artists.
  • Responding to the diverse needs of the artistic community and the public.
  • Serving as a cultural resource to enrich the community, the state, and the region.
  • Festival Theatre is the winner of the NETC Moss Hart Award as Best Theatrical Production in New England for: Les Miserables, Hairspray, and Mary Poppins
  • Sponsored in part by The Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The New Bedford Festival Theatre was founded in 1990 by Armand Marchand and has presented 30 summers of fully mounted musical productions that have entertained over nearly 300,000 theatre-goers.

Under the artistic Direction of George Charbonneau, Festival Theatre has received national recognition for its productions such as La Cage aux Folles, Nunsense, Evita, Maurey Yeston’s Phantom, The Pirates of Penzance, Forever Plaid, Crazy for You, Joseph…Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, South Pacific, Annie, Oklahoma!, Chicago, Peter Pan, Smokey Joe’s Café, Jekyll & Hyde, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret, Oliver, Cats, 42nd Street, The Producers, Gypsy, Hair, A Chorus Line, Singin' in the Rain and The Sound of Music.

Celebrating 34 years of Bringing the Best of Broadway to Southern New England.

Contact the Zeiterion Box Office at 508.994.2900 or Festival Theatre at 508.991.5212 for further information.

Board of Directors 2023

  • John A. Burke, President
  • Alison Arruda, Vice-President
  • Peter J. Guy, Treasurer
  • Catherine Madsen, Recording Secretary
  • Wendy Hall, Executive Producer
  • George Charbonneau, Artistic Director
  • Dr. Elizabeth Bettencourt, Associate Artistic Director
  • Armand Marchand, Founder
  • Debbie Anderson
  • Sarah Cadieux Pacheco
  • Diana Henry
  • Denis Lawerence, Jr.
  • Diana Henry
  • Steven Nowell