Settle in for Sacramento’s Fall Arts Season

Les Misérables

Oct. 24-29 Long before Hugh Jackman took to the barricaded Parisian streets in the 2012 film adaptation, the plight, redemption and tragedy of Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean was sweeping up generations of theatergoers. Over 40-some years—Les Misérables is one of the longest running musicals in the world—songs like “Bring Him Home,” “On My Own,” “One Day More,” “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” have become instantly recognizable, even to those who haven’t teared up themselves during the allegorical drama about a hunted and haunted ex-convict and an ill-fated revolution. And the latest national touring version doesn’t disappoint—as the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Any opera company in the nation would be glad to showcase this level of ensemble singing of Claude-Michel Schönberg’s internationally famous score, exquisite diction and all, and would struggle to combine such singing with such intense and emotional acting.” Given that, our hearts are already full of love for this Broadway Sacramento production. broadwaysacramento.com

Courtesy of Celebration Arts

Thurgood

Through Oct. 22 Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. The lawyer who instigated the 1954 case that finally ended school segregation. The first Black Supreme Court justice. It’s hard to overstate Thurgood Marshall’s towering legacy—when President Obama moved into the Oval Office, he hung a portrait of the civil rights icon on the wall. Thurgood by playwright George Stevens Jr.—who penned and directed the 1991 miniseries Separate but Equal, starring Sidney Poitier as Marshall, about the historic Brown v. Board of Education case—is a one-man play in which the justice relives memories of his storied life, from child- hood through his nearly 24 years on the highest court in the land. “The history in question is charged with a moral urgency that still resonates today,” The New York Times wrote in its thumbs-up review of the work’s Broadway debut in 2008, and that statement is even more true 15 years later, when all eyes are on the Supreme Court. Celebration Arts brings back its founder James Wheatley—who retired last year after nearly 40 years helming the local Black theater organization—to direct this fall’s staging of the Tony-nominated play. celebrationarts.net

Photo by Doug Hinebaugh, Courtesy of Harris Center

On Your Feet! 

Nov. 2–5 Married since 1978, one year after founding the Miami Sound Machine, Emilio and Gloria Estefan are the slinky, shimmery king and queen of Latin pop, with almost 30 Grammys and Latin Grammys between them. And in 2015, the lives, careers and unmistakable hits of the iconic couple—including “Words Get in the Way,” “Conga” and “Anything for You”—got the royal treatment on Broadway with On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan. “The show builds to the full flowering of this Cuban-fusion sound, song after familiar song from the Estefan canon, mounted in full production numbers,” Variety rhapsodized. Coming to Folsom as part of the Harris Center’s newest Broadway series, the jukebox musical includes a six-piece band playing live backup for the performers on stage. So be prepared: Whether you’re in the front row or the last, the rhythm is gonna get you. harriscenter.net

Courtesy of B Street Theatre

Jump

Through Nov. 5 Charly Evon Simpson—who recently wrote for HBO’s Industry—was inspired to pen Jump after reading a New Yorker story about people who leapt off the Golden Gate Bridge but survived, and the revelations they experienced on the way down. Jump is a family drama, centering on a young woman named Fay and her sister packing up their childhood home after the death of their mother from cancer, a process that takes a surreal turn when she meets a mysterious stranger on a bridge over troubled waters. An exploration of themes like grief, depression and redemption, leavened by moments of bittersweet comedy, the play—which will be staged by B Street Theatre—tells a story that is at once heartbreaking and heartwarming. bstreettheatre.org

School of Rock

Nov. 17–Dec. 10 What happens when you take a Jack Black comedy, add the writer of Downton Abbey, the lyricist of Disney’s Tangled, and the Broadway legend responsible for everything from Phantom of the Opera to Jesus Christ Superstar? Turns out, you get the Tony-nominated musical School of Rock. Adapted by the dream team of Julian Fellowes, Glenn Slater and Andrew Lloyd Webber, and replete with 14 new songs on top of the 2003 film’s set list, the show follows down-on-his-luck musician Dewey Finn as he fakes his way into a substitute teaching position at a prestigious private school, only to then turn his class of ruled and schooled students into a rebellious rock ’n’ roll band. Woodland Opera House’s production brims with a cast of talented youngsters, all under the age of 14, playing instruments live on stage as they head-bang through songs like “Teacher’s Pet” and “Stick It to the Man.” woodlandoperahouse.org

Portrait by Jeremy Sykes

Jack Gallagher

Dec. 9 Even setting aside his three-time Emmy-winning run as a host on PBS, his recurring role as Larry David’s doctor in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and his lauded debut on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1985, Sacramento writer-actor Jack Gallagher has been a mainstay with capital city comedy lovers ever since premiering his first one-man show, Letters to Declan, at the B Street Theatre back in 1993—and he’s gone on to bring seven more to the stage in the years since. This December, he heads to The Sofia with fellow funnymen Kenny Rogerson and Tony V (comedy veterans themselves who have appeared on the likes of Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman) for One Night Only with Jack Gallagher and Friends, featuring a festive mix of stand-up, storytelling and playful banter. bstreettheatre.org

Photo courtesy of Thunder Valley Casino Resort

Jo Koy

Dec. 15 & 16 Once upon a time in 2016, a comic named Jo Koy bet his career—and his credit score—by producing and paying for his own special, featuring lines like “I’m half white and half Filipino. That means my dad was in the military. A lot of soldiers were fighting for this country—my dad was dating.” Netflix subsequently bought and released it as Jo Koy: Live from Seattle—which boasts a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score—and the rest, as they say, is comedy history. Koy has since made three more specials for the streamer and landed major roles in both live-action flicks (2022’s Easter Sunday) and animated ones (August’s The Monkey King). Calling him a “legend and groundbreaker,” Variety magazine—who put him on the cover in 2020—cited “a consistency in quality that most comics would envy.” His relatable stories have sold out arenas, including the Golden 1 Center back in May. Just seven months later, Koy returns to town for a night of closer-up comedy at Thunder Valley. thundervalleyresort.com