Bay Street Artistic Director Scott Schwartz Talks “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Bonkers in the Boroughs” with Joy Behar, and More

Scott Schwartz is the Artistic Director of Bay Street Theater and an internationally renowned artist whose work has been seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, across the United States, in Great Britain, Europe, and Asia. When he took up his position as Bay Street’s Artistic Director in 2014, he promised a “new vision” for the theater, one that would ensure an exciting and sustainable future for our cultural community.

Now, twelve years later, Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater is celebrating its 35th anniversary. In a phone interview with Hamptons.com, Schwartz said he is especially upbeat about its upcoming season. He said, “I think it’s going to be one of our best yet. I’m excited about it. It’s our 35th anniversary, so we wanted to give our audience a really thrilling summer, and what I’m particularly excited about is we’re doing something that we’ve actually never, ever done before, which is we’re doing 2 musicals and 2 world premiere plays.”

Schwartz then said,  “We’re starting with a play about a fashion icon on which our friend Donna Karan is an executive producer. It is a one-man show about Halston, called Mister Halston. It is about the famous fashion designer. We have Michael Wilson, who was the director of Grey Gardens, directing Mister Halston.”

Playing Halston will be Matt McGrath, who Schwartz said, “Is a longtime friend of Bay Street’s and has been in many shows for us and is coming back to Star as Halston. It’s going to be amazing.”

He explained that it is a one-act, one-man show that really digs into Halston’s life, including the complexity of who he was, adding it’s definitely for “Anyone interested in fashion, but also the 70s and the 80s and sort of the scene in those periods. I think it’s going to be  a real winner.” The production will run June 2nd through to June 21st.

The second show of the season will be, as Schwartz said, “A wonderful musical about James Cagney called Cagney. It’s a real celebration of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and Jack Warner is a character. All of these famous figures from the Golden Age are in it.” This show tells the story of Cagney’s rise to fame and stardom. He was very famous for playing George M. Cohan and singing Yankee Doodle Dandy, and with the show running over the 4th of July , “…it will be a “patriotic show, without being political.” Schwartz added, “The thing that’s amazing about Cagney is that it’s full of spectacular dance, because he was a spectacular dancer.  There is tap, and all forms of dance. I think it’s going to be this really fun, nostalgic dance-filled show.” Cagney will run from June 30th until July 26th.

Then, Bay Street is following Cagney with the show that Schwartz is currently working on as its director,  a revival of the wonderful Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen. He explained that the show won the Tony Award for best musical and best score, and the original production, adding that Ben Platt won the Tony Award as best actor. Dear Evan Hansen, according to Schwartz, “It’s a great contemporary musical with a fantastic pop score. It’s about high schoolers and their parents and people dealing with how to connect in this sort of modern technological world.” He added, “I think it’s going to be absolutely thrilling. And the cast is phenomenal. This actor playing Evan, Kenny Lee, is staggeringly good. He’s a star in the making. And the show is very exciting,  and it feels really now and of the moment. The show was done recently in New York on Broadway, but we’re approaching it in the Bay Street style to make it feel totally new. It will be intimate and fresh and take advantage of how close the audience is to the action.” Dear Evan Hansen will run from August 4th until August 29th.

The last show of the 2026 mainstage season is billed as a bonus show. It is a new show written by Joy Behar. It consists of 5 short plays, and the whole evening is called Bonkers in the Boroughs. Schwartz said, “Each play is set in a different borough in New York, and they’re comedies about life and love in New York. Joy herself will be appearing in the show, and there are other actors as well. How great it is to have Joy and her amazing actor and comedian friends closing our season.”  It runs from September 1st to September 6th.

When asked about the Annual Bay Street Gala, Schwartz said, “This year is going to be one of our most spectacular galas ever. We’re honoring Lin Manuel Miranda, the composer of Hamilton,and In the Heights,  and so many other things. We’re thrilled to be honoring him while celebrating our 35th anniversary. And so it’ll be both a celebration of Lin, who’s at the forefront of the musical theater world, and then Bay Street. We’ve contributed to the world of the theater for 35 years and will continue to do so for hopefully more than 35 more.”