Shoshana Bean is trading the cavernous Palace Theatre for a 330-seat room on the Massachusetts coast. The Tony-winning Broadway star will perform in Rockport on Friday, September 19, 2026, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a stop built entirely around her own songwriting rather than the show that made her famous this year.
A Tony Win, Then a Detour Home to Original Music
Bean won the 2026 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Lucy Emerson in Broadway's *The Lost Boys*, according to CBS Boston. She is taking a one-week break from the show this September and October to tour, per the same report, before returning to the production. The Rockport date falls within that stretch, and Bean plans to keep balancing her Broadway commitments with her own music rather than choosing one over the other.
The Rockport performance is part of a wider run: BroadwayWorld reports the date belongs to a 14-city fall “Only Smoke Tour” crossing North America from September 13 through October 21, 2026. It marks Bean's return to a region that already knows her well.
Only Smoke, and Nothing From the Stage
Bean has released her fourth album, *Only Smoke*, and has said it is one of her favorite projects and the one closest to her heart in authenticity and vulnerability, according to CBS Boston. UCPAC describes the 13-track record, released in November 2025, as an emotionally raw account of a severe breakup and the healing that followed. Bean has had limited opportunities to perform the album live, and per CBS Boston, she has said the Rockport concert is among the first chances for audiences to hear that music performed in person.
Notably, Bean will not perform songs from *The Lost Boys* or any other show during the concert, opting instead to highlight only her original material. She has said that performing her own stories is different from interpreting someone else's work, a distinction CBS Boston frames as central to how she is approaching this tour. She was reportedly offered the role in *The Lost Boys* immediately after releasing *Only Smoke*, adding an unusual overlap between the two chapters of her year.
An Oceanfront Room With a View
The venue itself is part of the draw. Built in 2010 by Rockport Music, the Shalin Liu Performance Center seats 330 people and features a floor-to-ceiling glass wall behind the stage with views of Sandy Bay and Rockport Harbor, according to Rockport Music. Bean will perform with a live backing band featuring guitarist Kevin Ramessar, bassist Al Carty, and drummer Jamie Eblen, the venue notes.
Deep Roots on the North Shore
Bean is no stranger to Massachusetts stages. She starred as Fanny Brice in *Funny Girl* at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly in 2016, an engagement that earned her the 2017 IRNE Award for Best Actress in a Musical, according to CBS Boston. She has called that Massachusetts run one of the best summers of her life, the outlet reports, giving her upcoming Rockport show a homecoming quality for local audiences who first saw her onstage a decade ago.
Her Broadway résumé stretches back further still. She made her Broadway debut in the original 2002 cast of *Hairspray*, later became the first replacement to take over as Elphaba in *Wicked* in 2005, and went on to star as Jenna in *Waitress*, according to BroadwayWorld. Beyond the stage, American Theatre Wing notes that as an independent recording artist she has released six studio albums and EPs, including one that reached number one on the Billboard Jazz Chart.
For Rockport concertgoers, the September 19 show is less a Broadway victory lap than a chance to hear an artist step out from behind a character. Between Tony-nominated turns in *Hell's Kitchen* and *Mr. Saturday Night* and now a win for *The Lost Boys*, Bean has spent years interpreting other people's stories on the biggest stages in New York. In the glass-walled hall overlooking Rockport Harbor, CBS Boston reports, she is set to tell her own.
