By Patti Roberts

‘Tis time to say goodbye to the holiday season of merriment and mirth, along with the guests who showed up — Santa, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Darcy and Bennet families, and the Nutcracker. And it’s time to say hello to the 2025 theater season. 

January is a bit slow for the opening of plays since everyone is recovering from the onslaught of Christmas productions. But theaters are not throwing away their shots. 

The blockbuster musical “Hamilton” is returning to Sacramento, as well as “Dear Evan Hansen,” and three companies are staging local productions that are new to the area — “English,” “The White Chip,” and “The Twilight in the Golds.”  

“Hamilton”  

The groundbreaking and box-office record breaking musical biography of Alexander Hamilton was first staged locally in September 2021 by Broadway Sacramento. It was Broadway Sacramento’s first show post-COVID shutdowns and it was an overwhelming success.  

“This is a once-in-a-generation cultural phenomenon that has electrified audiences around the world,” said Broadway Sacramento’s President and CEO Scott Klier. “We’re proud to bring this epic work back so Sacramento audiences can once again experience Lin-Manuel Miranda’s genius.”  

Venue: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center 

Address: 1301 L St., Sacramento 

Dates: Jan. 8-19 

Cost: $79 – $399  

Tickets: broadwaysacramento.com 

“The White Chip” 

B Street Theatre is presenting the West Coast premier of “The White Chip,” described as one man’s journey to sobriety told with a wicked sense of humor and honest look at addiction. It’s B Street’s first mainstage production in its 2025 season. 

“This play is the perfect way to start the new year,” said B Street’s Executive Artistic Director and CEO Lyndsay Burch. “It beautifully captures persevering to change habits, embracing new beginnings and the importance of hope for the days to come.” 

Venue: B Street Theatre 

Address: 2700 Capitol Ave., Sacramento 

Dates: Jan. 15 – Feb. 9  

Cost: $28 – $35  

Tickets: bstreettheatre.org 

 
“English”

Capital Stage is presenting the Sacramento premiere of “English,” which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It’s set in a 2008 Iranian classroom, where four adult students are learning English in hopes of studying or living abroad. It explores language, identity and cultural assimilation, and what part of their identities they will lose in the process. 

“I’d never seen these characters on stage before, and the play made me laugh and moved me profoundly,” Capital Stage Artistic Director Michael Stevenson said. “It’s a beautiful meditation on language, identity and hope.” 

Venue: Capital Stage  

Address: 2215 J St., Sacramento 

Dates: Jan. 29 – March 2  

Cost: $33 – $56  

Tickets: Capstage.org  

“Dear Evan Hansen” 

This Tony and Grammy-winning musical is “a musical that follows a bullied high school senior with social anxiety who invents an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn.” 

It’s considered one of the first productions that uses social media as a method of storytelling. First staged by Broadway Sacramento in 2020, the play returns to the area at Folsom’s Harris Center for the Arts. 

Venue: Harris Center for the Arts  

Address: College Pkwy, Folsom  

Dates: Jan. 28 – Feb. 2  

Cost: $85 – $135  

Tickets: harriscenter.net  

“The Twilight in the Golds”  

Chautauqua Playhouse is staging quite the thought-provoking play that examines people’s beliefs and perceptions and how their attitudes are affected when it becomes quite personal. 

“The Twilight in the Golds” is a story of fictional genetic research and how it affects a couples’  pregnancy and their reactions when tests reveal their baby is destined to be gay; forcing the Gold family to reevaluate some of their values   

Venue: Chautauqua Playhouse 

Address: 5325 Engle Road #110 (La Sierra Community Center), Carmichael 

Dates: Jan. 10 – Feb. 2  

Cost: $23 – $24  

cplayhouse.org This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.