The Best Plays and Musicals to See This Fall in the Bay Area

This past July is officially on record as the hottest California month in decades. And while cooler temperatures will be ushered into the Bay Area soon, theater companies are hoping that local stages continue to stay hot well into the fall.

Companies are also gearing up to showcase their most artistic selves while continuing to find creative ways to achieve and maintain financial solvency. Here are 10 terrific shows from Labor Day to Thanksgiving one can start with to help support Bay Area theater companies.

‘Private Lives’

Toni Rembe Theater, San Francisco
Sept. 12–Oct. 6, 2024

Loathsome couple Elyot and Amanda aren’t looking for a reunion when they embark on a French vacation with new spouses. Yet the pull of their prior passions proves to be too much to resist, and a humor-filled comedy of manners ensues, rich with Noël Coward’s exquisite use of prose. A reunion of sorts from an acclaimed bilingual production of Romeo and Juliet at Cal Shakes in 2022, multiple cast members now move to American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater to be directed by KJ Sanchez. The play’s original setting of France, meanwhile, is swapped out for Argentina, where an exotic and sensual tango informs Coward’s narrative.

‘Once on This Island’

The Pear Theatre, Palo Alto
Sept. 13–Oct. 13, 2024

The story of a young Black peasant girl and the love she finds with a mixed-race aristocrat in Haiti is the basis for this one-act musical. While the show itself carries a history of consequential productions, its significance as the kickoff for The Pear Theatre season is tinted with an impending loss. Sinjin Jones, who took over as artistic director of the Palo Alto company in early 2020, will leave at the end of the 2025 season. Jones has played a vital role in leading the company through the pandemic, all while revitalizing the 22-year-old theater troupe by promoting diversity and equity in addition to strengthening the company’s educational and community programs.

‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’

Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley
Nov. 8–Dec. 15, 2024

Playwright Jocelyn Bioh is no stranger to Berkeley Rep, having premiered the musical Goddess there in 2022. Her next visit to the East Bay is with Broadway’s sleeper hit of last fall, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, with Whitney White returning to the director’s chair in this co-production with Arena Stage and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Bioh’s play is an exercise in joy with serious themes about immigration and access to the American dream, all fused with a scorching Afrobeat soundtrack of the genre’s biggest stars. The play also features one of the coolest stage effects in recent memory throughout the entire show, culminating in some true theater magic at the end.

‘King James’

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Mountain View
Oct. 9–Nov. 3, 2024

After the rousing success of the United States men’s national basketball team, capped by a thrilling finish and a gold medal, there’s no better time to dive into this story of two friends who enter into an unexpected connection. These men, whose fortunes run through the early, prodigious career of Lebron James, are the creation of Pulitzer-finalist playwright Rajiv Joseph. TheatreWorks’ artistic director Giovanna Sardelli, a frequent collaborator of Joseph, kicks off the company’s 54th season directing this tale of hoops and hopes.

‘Ride the Cyclone’

New Conservatory Theatre Center, San Francisco
Sept. 20–Oct. 20, 2024

This grizzled and gritty musical follows a Canadian school choir group who perish on the Cyclone roller coaster — but, while in limbo, are offered a chance to return to life via a mechanical fortune teller. The piece has had a bit of a zany history since its 2008 premiere, created by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell. The musical’s success reached something of a zenith in 2022 – on TikTok, millions of Gen Z users began diving deep into Ride the Cyclone songs, stories and lore. The musical is dark, but also quite fun, and its regional premiere gives the Bay Area a chance to see what the hype is all about.

‘Dragon Lady’

Center Repertory Company, Walnut Creek
Oct. 27–Nov. 24, 2024

Seattle’s Sara Porkalob is a piercing, shooting star, tackling the theater world on her own terms, and her trilogy of plays that chronicle the women in her life are produced all over the country. For those who missed her critically acclaimed run in Marin last fall of Dragon Lady, where she morphs into multiple characters while showcasing her buttery singing voice, a second chance in Walnut Creek is a gift. Presented in association with Marin Theatre Company, Porkalob’s one-person show about her grandmother’s perilous and painful journey from Manila to the United States is a masterclass in how to command a theater space with splash and panache.

‘Angels in America, Parts I and II’

Oakland Theater Project at Marin Shakespeare Company
Sept. 27–Oct. 27, 2024

For this interpretation of one of theater’s greatest achievements, Tony Kushner’s two-part opus Angels in America, Oakland Theater Project goes on the road to San Rafael at Marin Shakespeare Company’s new indoor space. Kushner is not known for writing pieces that are slim, and over two plays, Angels easily surpasses seven hours. But what exists within those hours is incredibly powerful, raw and utterly thrilling.

There are endless themes within this story about AIDS’ impact on multiple couples in 1985. The Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play encompasses the taboo of homosexuality in the 1980s, the AIDS crisis that disproportionately impacted gay couples, and the crisis of religious faith, all intersecting with appearances by historical figures. The Bay Area is home to Angels in America in many ways, from its initial commission at the former Eureka Theatre in San Francisco in 1990 to a hugely consequential production at Berkeley Rep in 2018. (Lisa Ramirez, featured in OTP’s production, also played The Angel in Berkeley that year.)

‘Lizzie: The Musical’

6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa
Oct. 4–27, 2024

Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. In 1893, she was fully acquitted and lived the rest of her life in the same city the murders took place, Fall River, Massachusetts. And now, in Santa Rosa in 2024, her story is ready to shred at 6th Street Playhouse in the form of the 2009 rock musical. Expect all the components that make for a brutal tale of rage, sex, murder and mystery, plus power chords.

As a precursor to the bloody delights of the visceral musical’s sharp rock score, some gentler fare is going down at 6th Street, with the musical 4 Guys Named José…and Una Mujer Named María opening at the end of August.

‘As You Like It’

Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda
Sept. 12–29, 2024

Cal Shakes faced some serious uphill battles to produce their first full production in two years, implementing a fundraising campaign that netted $365,000 — over their stated goal. While the future of the company is still fluid (the fundraiser is only supplementing the budget for this production), the company is firmly focused this 50th anniversary production of William Shakespeare’s classic at their picturesque outdoor space.

Elizabeth Carter directs this pastoral comedy with one of Shakespeare’s most beloved female characters, Rosalind, who flees persecution in search of safety and love in the Forest of Arden, with many colorful characters entering her world along the way.

‘Murakami: The Strange Library’

Z Space and Word for Word, San Francisco
Nov. 13–Dec. 8, 2024

A library best described as a nightmare is the setting for Haruki Murakami’s short novel The Strange Library. With a lonely young boy, a mysterious girl and a tortured sheep man, the story is brought to life by Word for Word, a program of Z Space. The program has performed more than 70 stories since 1996, bringing theatrical flair to written word of all types. Lead teaching artist with the Youth Theater Project Lisa Hori-Garcia collaborates with Bay Area actor and designer Keiko Shimosato Carreiro to direct Murakami’s popular children’s story.