Out and About in Winter 2025/26

Photo by Guy Aroch, courtesy of Edge Publicity

JOHN LEGEND

Nov. 22 We may be just ordinary people, but as one of only 27 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winners in history, John Legend is anything but. After last year’s swoon-worthy Thunder Valley stop, the singer-songwriter returns to Lincoln during the 20th anniversary tour for his debut album, Get Lifted. Expect to hear songs from that Grammy-winning album—including “Ordinary People” and “Stay with You”—alongside more recent hits like “All of Me.” thundervalleyresort.com

CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS: COLDPLAY X IMAGINE DRAGONS

Through Feb. 7 The California State Railroad Museum takes you on an intimate musical ride as it hosts a series of evening concerts illuminated by over 5,000 electric candles and heightened by chamber versions of Coldplay and Imagine Dragons songs. The Listeso String Quartet performs ethereal arrangements of hits by the two pop rock bands, including “Fix You,” “Sky Full of Stars,” “Radioactive” and “Believer.” feverup.com

BLACK ARTISTS IN AMERICA: FROM THE BICENTENNIAL TO SEPTEMBER 11

Through Jan. 11 This latest installment in the touring series by Memphis’ Dixon Gallery & Gardens is premiering at the Crocker Art Museum following last year’s Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial exhibit, which also showed at the Crocker. More than 50 paintings, sculptures and other works capture the 20th century’s final decades through 9/11 from the perspective of renowned artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Ernie Barnes and Varnette Honeywood, whose mixed-media collage Sabbath is shown above. crockerart.org

Sabbath by Varnette Honeywood (© 2025 Varnette P. Honeywood Estate, courtesy of the Horseman Foundation and the Crocker Art Museum)

25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

Nov. 7-30 “Can you spell irresistable? Drat! I mean, irresistible?” wrote The New York Times of Rachel Sheinkin’s musical comedy. The perennial Tony-winning crowd-pleaser focused on a spelling contest between six middle school student participants—and four audience members chosen to compete with them during every performance—heads to the Davis Musical Theatre Company stage in November. dmtc.org

CHICAGO

Nov. 18–23 Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the town and all that jazz? This six-time Tony winner—set in the titular city during the Roaring ’20s and chronicling the story of vaudeville vet Velma Kelly and chorus girl Roxie Hart as they wait to stand trial for murder—brings its Bob Fosse-influenced razzle-dazzle to Folsom’s Harris Center a half century after making its Broadway debut in 1975. harriscenter.net

HEART

Nov. 21 Take Heart, classic rock fans: After a five-year hiatus, the band fronted by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson is back on stage again, and stopping by Hard Rock Live in Wheatland for the final California show of its Royal Flush reunion tour. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will perform a night of hits from their decades-long career, like “Barracuda,” “These Dreams,” “What About Love” and “Alone.” hardrockhotelsacramento.com

MOUNTAIN MANDARIN FESTIVAL

Nov. 21–23 Wood-fired mandarin chicken pizza? Mandarin-glazed doughnuts? How about the signature Mandarin Madness cocktail made with coconut rum and fresh mandarin juice? This annual citrus celebration heads back to Roseville’s @the Grounds with mounds of Placer-grown mandarins and a mountain of fruit-forward treats. mandarinfestival.com

’TIS THE SEASON: HOMETOWN HOLIDAYS, TRADITIONS OF SACRAMENTO & NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Nov. 23–Dec. 22 B Street Theatre’s annual holiday play returns with an extra helping of hometown cheer. Styled as a regional newscast featuring roughly a dozen yuletide scenes—each written by area playwrights, including company artistic manager Sean Patrick Nill and executive producer Jerry Montoya—the new ’Tis the Season show spotlights local winter traditions like visiting Apple Hill and checking out the festively bedecked Fab 40s. bstreettheatre.org

Image by Lunia Blue, courtesy of B Street Theatre

SACRAMENTO HMONG NEW YEAR FESTIVAL

Nov. 28–30 Given that Sacramento is home to the third largest Hmong population in the country, it’s fitting that this River City fête is one of America’s largest Hmong New Year festivals (which take place every November to celebrate the fall harvest). This year’s event at Cal Expo marks 50 years since the Hmong people’s exodus from Laos began in 1975 after a communist takeover and will feature historical exhibits like a meticulous recreation of a Hmong village, as well as traditional dancing and singing, and cultural fare like Lao papaya salad and Hmong-style pork belly ribs. sacramentohmongnewyear.com

Photo courtesy of Sacramento Hmong New Year Inc.

HOLIDAY HITS WITH A SPLASH OF SASS

Nov. 29 Making its SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center debut, the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus helps kick off the holiday season with its festive annual extravaganza. Alongside the group’s signature mix of classic carols and holiday pop mash-ups, this year’s concert will include Dolly Parton tunes like “Hard Candy Christmas” and “Coat of Many Colors,” with local drag queen Shelita Taylor serving as event host and transforming into the Queen of Country. sacgaymenschorus.com

MOMIX

Dec. 3 Part dance, part acrobatics, Momix “fills the stage with a marvelously dizzying flow of physical activities and illusions,” wrote the The Wall Street Journal  about the troupe’s Alice production. If that description makes you curiouser and curiouser, you can check out Momix’s innovative take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  when the ensemble comes to the Mondavi Center in December. mondaviarts.org

Photo courtesy of the Mondavi Center

NUTCRACKER 

Dec. 12-21 The holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Land of Snow and Kingdom of Sweets. The Sacramento Ballet pirouettes its way through mystical realms in its refined rendition of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker as conceived by a trio of choreographers—Colby Damon, Julie Feldman and Nicole Haskins—and performed by a cast that includes about a hundred children at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center. sacballet.org

THE LION KING

Jan. 7–25 This six-time Tony-winning musical will roar into the capital city for the first time in over a decade this winter. The Broadway Sacramento production, which will play the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, boasts Julie Taymor’s groundbreaking puppets and Elton John and Tim Rice’s enduring songs from Disney’s 1994 film of the same name, including “Circle of Life,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Hakuna Matata.” broadwaysacramento.com

Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy of Broadway Sacramento

THE SOUND INSIDE 

Jan. 28–Mar. 1 This Tony-winning play by Adam Rapp “thrillingly unfurls like a series of puzzle boxes,” writes the Los Angeles Times. Capital Stage mounts the intense two-character drama, which follows the deepening platonic relationship between a talented but enigmatic freshman student at Yale and his creative writing professor (a job Rapp himself once held) who is navigating a terminal cancer diagnosis. capstage.org

TCHAIKOVSKY & SCHUMANN

Jan. 31 In 2019, Zlatomir Fung, then 20, became the youngest cellist ever—and the first American in over 40 years—to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Now he joins the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera on stage to perform Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center. The evening will also include Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 and pieces from Catán’s Florencia. sacphilopera.org