You're Invited

Sara Bareilles in partnership with Lincoln Center Theater & The Strangers Project

Good Grief

Stories & Song

A three-day installation and performance series celebrating the release of Sara Bareilles' new album, Good Grief. Read through hundreds of handwritten anonymous stories woven together with her music. Share your own story to add to the collection.

August 28 – 30, 2026

Lincoln Center Theater Christopher Lightfoot Walker Lobby at the Vivian Beaumont 150 West 65th Street, New York City

What to Expect Count Me In

Free & open to the public

Sara's daily performance is standing room only, and space is limited. Your RSVP does not guarantee entrance to the space for the performance, which is first come, first served.

"Tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine."

Sara Bareilles
The Album
Good Grief album cover: Sara Bareilles against weathered white wood, on aged paper

Good Grief arrives August 28th, and we're coming together to celebrate the heart of the work: our stories.

Sara's long-awaited new album transforms heartbreak into hope. All weekend, her pre-recorded performances will pour from the Steinway Spirio at the center of the space. Her music becomes the soundtrack to this gathering of story and song.

Visitors will have the first opportunity to buy Good Grief on vinyl, CD, and other formats. The album and Sara's merch are on sale throughout open hours and at each day's performance.

Follow Sara on Instagram · @sarabareilles
The Experience

Sara Bareilles & The Strangers Project are transforming the Christopher Lightfoot Walker Lobby at the Vivian Beaumont into an immersive gathering of story and song. You can drift in any time the doors are open.

1

Read the stories

Hundreds of anonymous, handwritten true stories from The Strangers Project, gathered from strangers since 2009, fill the space. Wander, read, and receive what people you'll never meet have offered.

2

Leave your own story

Paper and pens are waiting for you. One page, handwritten, anonymous, true. Whatever is honest. Your page joins a living collection that has been growing for seventeen years.

3

Listen to audio stories

Part of Sara's Good Grief experience. Her fans were invited to record their stories of grief, and a curated selection plays through the installation. Sit with them, and add your own to the collection if you want to.

4

Hear Good Grief played on the Steinway Spirio

It is a high resolution player piano: sensors read every gradation of hammer velocity and pedaling from the original performance, so a real acoustic Steinway reproduces Sara's touch, phrasing, and pedaling with nobody on the bench.

5

Hear Sara live

Sara joins in person each day for a live performance on the Steinway Spirio at the center of the space. It is standing room only, and runs 15 to 30 minutes.

The Strangers Project

Since 2009 The Strangers Project has been asking one question: "What's it like being you?"

More than 100,000 people have sat down with a blank page and anonymously shared their truths about love, loss, fear, hope, and everything in between. When you stand inside a room of their stories, something opens: the sense that you are not the only one carrying what you carry. That is why this space exists. The stories on these walls are gifts from people you will never meet, and the conversation only deepens when you add your own. Here are some, straight from the collection:

Follow The Strangers Project on Instagram · @strangersproj
Collage of handwritten stories: reaching hands covered in stars, a twelve-year-old's list of people they look up to, and pages about fear, belonging, and growing older
A visitor reading handwritten stories clipped to twine with clothespins and fairy lights at a Strangers Project installation
RSVP · Save the Date

This is a free gathering. Please RSVP below for the date you'd like to attend. This is a drop-in installation so come and go as you please throughout the day!

Before you pick a day

This experience is designed for you to walk in and out of. Come read stories, share your own, and celebrate Good Grief with us.

Each day, Sara's piano will be playing the Good Grief album, and Sara's merch is on sale throughout the day.

Sara's daily performance is standing room only, and space is limited. Your RSVP does not guarantee entrance to the space for the performance, which is first come, first served.

Choose your day
Click the day you want to come
You're coming on
1

Your RSVP is just a headcount. No tickets will be issued and nothing is assigned. We will use your email to send your confirmation, a reminder, and any day-of details.

Presented Together

Sara Bareilles

Good Grief, her long-awaited new album, arrives August 28th, 2026. This gathering celebrates its release by doing what Sara's music has always done: making room for the whole of what it means to be human.

@sarabareilles

The Strangers Project

The Strangers Project is an ongoing collection of anonymous, handwritten true stories, shared by strangers since 2009. Founded by Brandon Doman, the project has gathered more than 100,000 stories through interactive pop-up installations across the country, inviting passersby to read the stories of strangers and leave one of their own. Learn more at strangersproject.com.

@strangersproj

Lincoln Center Theater

LCT's mission is to bring exceptional theater to life. Building on a legacy of artistic excellence, LCT strives to expand what is possible: to make the magic of theatre more palpable, empowering visionary artists and extending the invitation for the community to join in celebrating the power of live performance. This upcoming season embodies this mission-driven work and is the second under the leadership of Kewsong Lee Artistic Director Lear deBessonet, Managing Director Mike Schleifer, Executive Producer Bartlett Sher, Stacey and Eric Mindich Producer Nicole Kastrinos, and LCT3 Artistic Director and Producer Maria Manuela Goyanes.

Established in 1985 by Board Chair John V. Lindsay, Director Gregory Mosher, and Executive Producer Bernard Gersten, and led for 33 years by André Bishop, LCT is one of the leading nonprofit theaters in the country, producing an annual season of plays and musicals that have been seen by millions around the globe. It is one of 11 autonomous constituents of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Each year, the three theaters that make up LCT welcome nearly 400,000 audience members to its home on the Lincoln Center campus.

Over the last 40 years, LCT and its outstanding productions have received many of the highest accolades, including 91 Tony Awards, 101 Drama Desk Awards, 84 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 36 Obies, 13 NY Drama Critics Circle Awards, and one Pulitzer Prize, as well as two finalists.


@lctheater
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