Out and About in Fall 2025

Cyndi Lauper (Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, courtesy of Live Nation)

Cyndi Lauper

Aug. 23 That’s all we really want—some fun, when the working day is done. Which is why we’ll be heading out to Wheatland this August to catch Cyndi Lauper in the final days of her worldwide farewell tour. The Grammy-Tony-Emmy-winning artist—who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November—is hitting the Toyota Amphitheatre stage with Gen X classics like “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “She Bop,” “Time After Time” and “True Colors.” toyotaamp.com

Mission Gráfica

Through Sept. 14 A leader in activist printmaking, San Francisco’s Mission Gráfica studio has been a hub of vibrant and diverse Northern California art for over 40 years. Mission Gráfica: Reflecting a Community in Print  brings 42 screen prints to the California Museum, featuring pieces that honor cultural celebrations like Juneteenth and Day of the Dead, and address issues like gentrification and gender inequality. californiamuseum.org

Artwork by Mariana Garibay Raeke and photo by Robert Hsiang, courtesy of the California Museum

Breath(E): Toward Climate and Social Justice

Aug. 7–Dec. 1 This exhibit from Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum—which debuted last fall as part of the Getty-backed, SoCal-based PST Art, considered the largest art event in America—travels upstate to UC Davis’ Manetti Shrem Museum. The show will display nearly 50 environment-focused works, including photos chronicling the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and an embroidered mural mapping climate refugee movements. manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu

Sacramento Banana Festival

Aug. 16-17 Celebrating its 14th year, this annual William Land Park bonanza is as a-peeling as ever. Look for a multicultural parade, a classic car show, a showcase of up to 50 local artists, four fashion shows, and roughly two dozen different purveyors offering everything from locally grown bananas and banana cheesecake to banana fish fry and tacos with banana guacamole. bananafestivalsac.org

The Lehman Trilogy

Aug. 27–Sept. 28 “An intimate epic that becomes a masterly study of acting as well as of the intricacies of high finance,” wrote The Guardian  in its review about The Lehman Trilogy  when it premiered in London in 2018. Using just three actors to trace the multigenerational rise and shocking downfall of Wall Street stalwart Lehman Brothers, the Italian drama written by Stefano Massini (and adapted into English by British playwright Ben Power) earned the Tony Award for best play in 2022 and now opens Capital Stage’s new season. capstage.org

Chalk It Up

Aug. 30–Sept. 1 Some 200 artists, with 1,000 pounds of chalk? Let the pastel masterpieces ensue. This Labor Day weekend tradition returns to midtown’s Fremont Park for its 35th year sporting square after square of sidewalk art, over a dozen musical acts, complimentary chalk for kids, and a chance to revisit the fest’s best pieces from the past three and a half decades. chalkitup.org

Lost ’80s Live: Rewind Fest

Aug. 31 “A Flock of Seagulls were the perfect band for 1982,” Rolling Stone  once wrote. Given the group’s bold fashion choices, bolder hairstyles and infectious New Wave bops like “I Ran” during the Decade of Decadence, we can’t argue. At Thunder Valley, the Flock headlines a 10-act ticket of ’80s sensations, including General Public (“Tenderness”), The Vapors (“Turning Japanese”) and Big Country (“In a Big Country”). thundervalleyresort.com

Gold Country Fair

Sept. 4–7 Themed “We’ve Got a Good Thing Growing,” Auburn’s summer send-off returns to the Gold Country Fairgrounds with everything from master gardener showcases to home brews and hand-raised livestock. Exhibits will also celebrate the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood, while NFL champions and former 49ers Tom Rathman and John Taylor help debut the Auburn Trading Card Show. goldcountryfair.com

Alejandro Fernández

Sept. 19 Alejandro Fernández is Mexican ranchera music royalty. But his father, Vicente Fernández, who passed away in 2021, was the undisputed king. Honoring that legacy, the four-time Latin Grammy winner brings his De Rey a Rey  (From King to King) tour to the Golden 1 Center performing his father’s most beloved songs, including “No Me Sé Rajar,” “Volver, Volver” and “Estos Celos.” golden1center.com

Alejandro Fernández (Photo by Chino Lemus, courtesy of the Golden 1 Center)

& Juliet

Sept. 24–Oct. 5 “What if Juliet didn’t die?” That’s the question posed and answered by this unofficial sequel to Romeo and Juliet  penned by Schitt’s Creek  writer David West Read and featuring chart-topping pop songs by hitmaker Max Martin like the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” The Broadway Sacramento presentation of the jukebox musical stars Rachel Simone Webb as Juliet (pictured) and Sacramento native Teal Wicks—who made her Great White Way debut in 2011 playing Elphaba in Wicked—in the role of Shakespeare’s wife, who inspires her husband to rewrite the ending of his tragic love story. broadwaysacramento.com

& Juliet (Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy of Broadway Sacramento)

Royal Chicano Air Force

Sept. 26–April 5 In 1975, the locally based Royal Chicano Air Force art collective organized the city’s first Day of the Dead event. RCAF in Mictlán: 50th Anniversary of Día de los Muertos  brings 50 years of celebrations to the Sacramento History Museum through nearly 100 photos, posters, videos and other artifacts, along with new artwork from RCAF co-founder Stan Padilla. sachistorymuseum.org

Stop Making Sense

Oct. 3 Legendary New Yorker  critic Pauline Kael called Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense  “close to perfection.” The Mondavi Center will host a screening of the Taking Heads’ 1984 concert film, which was recently remastered and is still considered among the best in the genre, followed by a talk with founding band member Jerry Harrison. mondaviarts.org

Between Riverside and Crazy

Oct. 3–19 Lauded for “its hilarious, loving and unvarnished vision of the universal human hustle” by The New York Times, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ dark comedy about a retired NYPD police officer and his freshly paroled son earned a 2015 Pulitzer Prize. This fall, it heads to Celebration Arts with company founder James Wheatley and artistic director James Ellison III in the starring roles. celebrationarts.net

Between Riverside and Crazy (Illustration courtesy of Celebration Arts)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban In Concert

Oct. 17 & 18 Alongside a screening of the film that follows Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts, the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera will perform John Williams’ final score of the movie series. This cinematic and musical spell sees the 82-person orchestra joined by 48 choral performers at downtown’s SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center. sacphilopera.org

All Harry Potter characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., publishing rights © JKR

Connections

Oct. 24–Nov. 2 The Sacramento Ballet’s season opener at midtown’s Clara Studios will be a home-grown triple-billing, featuring new works by three company choreographers. Artistic and executive director Anthony Krutzkamp will debut his first-ever all-male work, while dancer Julia Feldman will showcase an all-female arrangement and instructor Colby Damon will present a piece set to ’60s classics like Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.” sacballet.org