The Stephen Foster Story is Bardstown’s summer night out: a two-hour outdoor musical about the Pennsylvania-born songwriter, staged in the J. Dan Talbott Amphitheatre inside My Old Kentucky Home State Park and packed with more than 50 of his songs. The 2026 season ran June 13 to August 8 and is now over, so your next chance is summer 2027. If 2027 follows the 2026 pattern, expect a mid-June opening, an early-August close, 8 p.m. curtains and adult tickets around $28, so start watching for dates in spring and build a June or July trip around a performance.
What the show is about
Paul Green wrote the drama, and the Stephen Foster Drama Association, a nonprofit founded in 1958, has staged it every summer since 1959. The state park calls it Kentucky’s longest-running outdoor drama, and in 2002 the General Assembly named it the state’s official outdoor musical.
The story follows Foster’s life and career, with a cast singing the songs Americans still half-remember from school: “Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Hard Times (Come Again No More)” and, of course, “My Old Kentucky Home,” now the state song. The park’s description counts over fifty of his compositions. The show also depicts the hardships and horrors enslaved people lived through, which gives the familiar tunes a heavier edge than you might expect. Costumes are period, the hillside setting does a lot of the work, and the finale lands just a few hundred yards from Federal Hill, the house tied to the song.
Foster himself was born on July 4, 1826, so the 2026 season, the show’s 67th, fell in his 200th birthday year. It also brought an unusual reset: all four principal roles went to new actors at once, something artistic director Johnny Warren told the Kentucky New Era he had not seen in 27 years with the company.
The songwriter and the song
Stephen Collins Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, wrote more than 200 songs and died in New York’s Bellevue Hospital at 37. He published “My Old Kentucky Home” in January 1853 through Firth, Pond & Co. His sketchbook draft was titled for Poor Uncle Tom, a sign he was writing in the shadow of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and in 1855 Frederick Douglass wrote that songs like it could awaken “sympathies for the slave.” Kentucky adopted it as the state song on March 19, 1928, and in 1986 the General Assembly replaced a racial slur in the lyrics with “people.”
Bardstown’s claim on the song is emotional more than documentary. Foster was a cousin of the Rowans at Federal Hill, and his brother Morrison said he visited, but historians have never confirmed that Stephen did. None of that dims the moment when the cast sings it on a July night with the mansion over the hill. Many of the costumed guides who sing it on the mansion tour also perform in the show. The song’s full history has its own page.
The 2026 season in brief
| Detail | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Opening night | Saturday, June 13 |
| Early schedule | Wednesday-Saturday through July 4 |
| Later schedule | Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from July 7 |
| Closing night | Saturday, August 8 |
| Broadway show | “Annie,” Wednesday and Friday evenings in July and August |
| Curtain | 8 p.m. |
The association also ran a summer “Live at the Park” concert series of tribute bands on Monday and Friday nights ($30-$34), from The Crashers on June 1 to Creedence Revived on August 28, and a free sensory-friendly “Lights Up” dress rehearsal the night before opening. Expect a similar mix in 2027; the summer concerts page tracks the series.
How much are tickets?
The association’s tickets page currently lists:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Adults | $28 |
| Seniors | $25 |
| Children 6-12 | $15 |
| Children 2-5 | $9 |
| Under 2 (on a lap) | Free |
| Groups of 15+ paid adults | $25 each |
| Season pass | $180 |
Add a $4 processing and facility fee to each ticket. Military, AAA and Nelson County resident discounts go through the box office by phone, not online. All seats are reserved, sales are final (exchanges are allowed), and the season pass has covered the concerts plus one Stephen Foster Story and one Broadway show. Treat these as a guide until 2027 prices post.
Tips for the night
Arrive when seating opens, 45 minutes before the 8 p.m. start, and use the time to find your seat before dusk. Pack bug spray, since this is an open-air theater in a wooded park on a July night, and a seat cushion if you like comfort. The amphitheater is accessible; mention any needs when you book. If thunderstorms roll through, the what-to-expect page explains the rain plan: the show moves indoors to Nelson County High School with a meet-and-greet, and you get a rain check for an outdoor performance.
Summer heat in central Kentucky is real. Drink water through the day, especially if you spent the afternoon on a warehouse tour, and don’t drive after tasting.
What’s at the amphitheater now
The stage is dark for theater, but the grounds are busy this fall. The free Bardstown Scarecrow Trail runs from September 25 to November 6, 2026: a drive-through line of scarecrows built by local artists, businesses and schools along the amphitheater driveway, open daily until dusk, with public voting through October 31. Donations to the drama association are welcome. The association also runs a Youth Performing Arts Academy with summer camps.
Where to eat and stay on show night
Curtain is at 8 p.m., so eat by 6:30. Downtown is a three-minute drive west, with casual spots and full dinners around Court Square; the best restaurants in Bardstown guide sorts them by style. To walk to the amphitheater, look at the motels on East Stephen Foster Avenue, one of which sits across from the park entrance; where to stay compares them with downtown inns. Summer weekends with performances are among the busier times for rooms, so book lodging when you book seats.
Getting there and parking
The amphitheater is at 411 E. Stephen Foster Ave. (US 150), inside My Old Kentucky Home State Park, a bit under a mile east of Court Square. It’s a 3-minute drive, or a pleasant walk on a summer evening if you’re staying downtown or at one of the motels along Stephen Foster Avenue. Bring a small flashlight for the walk back.
Pair it with
The classic Bardstown summer day: take the 3 or 4 p.m. mansion tour at My Old Kentucky Home, hear a guide sing the song in the house, eat an early dinner downtown (date-night options here), then walk into the amphitheater at 7:15. Read up first on Stephen Foster and the song, including the 1986 lyric change, and see what else fills the calendar in summer in Bardstown. After the show, a downtown bar keeps the night going; Bardstown at night has the list.
