California Theatre

Covering The San Francisco Bay Area & Sacramento Valley Since 2001

California Theatre • 345 S 1st St, San Jose, CA 95113

Plays • Musicals • Opera • Dance

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Upcoming Production

• SEP 13 - 27, 2026 •

Don Giovanni / Opera

For Tickets & Info:

Don Giovanni is a darkly comic opera that mixes romance, deception, danger, and supernatural tension into one unforgettable story. Created by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, the production follows a wealthy and reckless nobleman whose endless appetite for seduction leaves chaos everywhere he goes. As Don Giovanni moves through the streets of Spain with his sarcastic servant Leporello close behind, broken hearts, furious enemies, and dangerous secrets begin piling up around him. Women he once charmed start demanding justice, while others become tangled in his games without realizing how far his arrogance can reach. The opera constantly shifts between sharp humor and genuine menace, creating a thrilling atmosphere where elegant parties and playful disguises can suddenly turn tense in an instant. Mozart’s music gives every scene emotional weight, from lively comic exchanges to haunting moments that seem to warn that trouble is closing in. Filled with passion, revenge, mystery, and larger-than-life personalities, Don Giovanni remains one of opera’s most gripping and entertaining masterpieces.

Coming Soon

• OPENS NOV 15, 2026 • Fiddler on the Roof / Musical Set in the tiny Russian village of Anatevka in the early 1900s, Fiddler on the Roof is a heartfelt musical that follows Tevye, a hardworking Jewish milkman trying to hold his family and traditions together as the world around him begins to change. With five strong-willed daughters growing up fast, Tevye finds himself caught between old customs and new ideas about love, marriage, faith, and freedom. Life in the village is filled with humor, music, celebration, and struggle, but uncertainty hangs over every moment as outside pressures slowly threaten the community’s way of life. Featuring unforgettable songs like “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Sunrise, Sunset,” the production blends comedy, romance, family drama, and emotional storytelling into one of theatre’s most beloved classics. Beneath the lively dances and memorable characters is a deeply human story about parents learning to let go, children searching for their own paths, and ordinary people trying to keep hope alive when life feels as unstable as a fiddler balancing on a rooftop.
• OPENS DEC 19, 2026 • The San Jose Nutcracker / Ballet The Nutcracker is a classical ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale, where Clara’s Christmas Eve turns wonderfully strange after she receives a mysterious nutcracker doll. As the party fades and the house grows quiet, the familiar world of family, gifts, and candlelight begins to stretch into something larger, stranger, and more magical. Clara is swept into a dreamlike adventure filled with dancing toys, brave battles, snowy forests, glittering sweets, and characters who seem to step straight out of a child’s imagination. Tchaikovsky’s music gives the story its sparkle, moving from playful holiday warmth to sweeping fantasy, while the ballet’s elegant choreography turns each scene into a living storybook. With its mix of childhood wonder, festive beauty, humor, mystery, and grand classical dance, The Nutcracker invites audiences into a world where Christmas feels enchanted, danger wears a storybook face, and one special gift opens the door to a night Clara will never forget.
• OPENS FEB 14, 2027 • Doctor Atomic / Opera Doctor Atomic is a tense historical opera that turns the race toward the first nuclear test into a pressure cooker of ambition, fear, science, and conscience. Set around the Manhattan Project in 1945, the story follows J. Robert Oppenheimer and the people surrounding him as they prepare for a weapon that could change war, politics, and humanity itself. Military leaders push for results, scientists wrestle with doubts, and families feel the strain of living near a secret too enormous to stay hidden forever. Rather than treating history like a dusty classroom lesson, the opera moves like a psychological thriller, using music, poetry, and real-world urgency to explore what happens when brilliant minds create something they may not be able to morally control. The result is a serious, haunting, and gripping live theatre experience about power, responsibility, and the terrifying moment when human invention stands at the edge of the unknown.
• OPENS APR 18, 2027 • Carmen / Opera Carmen is a passionate opera set in Seville, where soldiers, factory workers, smugglers, and bullfighters move through a world buzzing with danger, desire, and pride. At its center is Carmen, a fiercely independent woman who refuses to be owned by anyone, especially Don José, a dutiful soldier whose orderly life begins to unravel when he falls under her spell. As music, flirtation, jealousy, and rebellion swirl around them, the story pulls audiences into crowded streets, smoky taverns, and tense encounters where every choice feels like a lit match. With its bold heroine, unforgettable Spanish atmosphere, and emotional stakes that keep tightening scene by scene, Carmen is an opera about freedom, obsession, temptation, and the high cost of wanting someone who will not be controlled.