Atlantic Theater Company's New Family Musical 'Finn' Begins Casting in NYC for November 2026 Run

Atlantic Theater Company's beloved youth-focused imprint, Atlantic For Kids, is moving forward with a brand-new original family musical called Finn, and the production is currently in casting and pre-production ahead of a November 2026 launch in New York City. For theater professionals, choreographers, musical directors, and casting contacts working in the New York stage world, this one is worth putting on your radar now. With a imaginative underwater setting, a celebrated children's media writer at the helm, and a creative team that reads like a deliberate assembly of family entertainment specialists, Finn looks poised to be one of the more distinctive family productions in Atlantic For Kids' pipeline.

The project comes from writer Chris Nee, who is best known as the creator of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Doc McStuffins for Disney Junior, as well as Ridley Jones and Ada Twist, Scientist on Netflix. Nee has built one of the most recognizable careers in children's storytelling in the country, with a consistent focus on themes of empathy, identity, and self-discovery. That sensibility maps directly onto Finn, which follows a young shark navigating the tension between duty and creative passion as he dreams of joining an elite organization called the Shark Guard while refusing to give up his love of dancing. The book and lyrics are co-written by Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, the writing team behind the Off-Broadway musical Invisible Thread and the viral holiday phenomenon A Christmas Story: Live on Fox. Kooman and Dimond bring significant musical theater craft to the project, and their experience writing for both stage and television production gives this creative partnership real range. Ryan Dobrin is directing, with Fernanda Douglas serving as Musical Director and Phil Colgan handling choreography, a role that will be central to a show in which the protagonist's dancing is a defining story engine.

Alison Beatty serves as Artistic Director, overseeing the production under the Atlantic Theater Company umbrella. Atlantic Theater Company is one of New York's most respected not-for-profit theater institutions, founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and a group of students from Mamet's acting workshop at NYU. The company operates out of its home stages in Chelsea and has a strong record of developing new work that bridges literary rigor and theatrical accessibility. Atlantic For Kids is the company's dedicated youth programming arm, producing original musicals and plays for young audiences and school groups, often with an eye toward meaningful themes rather than simple entertainment. The company is not a commercial Broadway producer in the traditional sense, but its productions carry genuine artistic credibility and draw from the deep pool of New York theater talent. For crew and artists working in the nonprofit theater sector, Atlantic is known as a serious, professionally run organization with strong institutional support.

Production is set in New York City, and given Atlantic Theater Company's established Chelsea home base, local theater professionals should expect rehearsals and performances to take place within that infrastructure. New York's theater community needs no introduction to the resources available in the city, from union-affiliated stage managers and production managers to specialized scenic and costume shops with deep experience in family and fantasy productions. An underwater coming-of-age musical with a young protagonist who dances will almost certainly require inventive scenic design, puppet or costume work to realize its marine world, and a choreographic approach that can convey movement vocabularies suggesting aquatic life. That combination of design demands makes this a particularly interesting project for designers working in the family and children's theater space. The production window runs from November 16, 2026 through January 31, 2027, suggesting a holiday-adjacent run that fits neatly into the family audience calendar.

Casting is currently underway, with Gama Valle leading the casting process and Gregory Jafari VanAcker serving as Associate Casting Director. For talent agents and managers representing young performers or adults comfortable in family musical contexts, now is the time to be in contact with that office. The production's status as active casting means the creative team is making decisions in real time. Beyond performance, the technical and design departments for a production of this scope at an institution like Atlantic will include a Production Manager, Scenic Designer, Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, and Costume or Puppet Designer, among others. Given the show's theatrical conceit, a strong Properties Master and possibly a movement or puppetry consultant could also be part of the conversation.

Full production details, contact information, and crew listings for Finn are available now on ProductionList.com. If you are a New York-based theater professional in design, production management, stage management, or performance, this is a listing worth bookmarking and checking regularly as the creative team fills out its roster ahead of the November start. Atlantic For Kids productions draw genuine community attention, and positions on a project like this from a team of this caliber tend to fill quickly through the city's well-connected theater network.

Click here for production info or to contact producers