By Cathy Cassinos

It’s “goodbye summer, hello fall” in the world of Sacramento theater, signaling the start of a new season for many local production companies. From the grand-scale productions of the Broadway on Tour series to community groups offering an array of works in more intimate settings, September brings a little something for everyone.

A new season always brings a sort of giddy anticipation. Here’s just a sampling of the diverse and exciting shows coming our way in September.

“Company”

Sacramento theater gets a shot of adrenaline every September with the start of the Broadway on Tour series, which follows on the heels of the summer-long Music Circus season. The 2024-25 season kicks off with “Company,” one of the late, great Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved and enduring works. Groundbreaking when it debuted on Broadway in 1970, “Company” came back with a vengeance in 2021, when a new rendition of the musical snagged five Tony Awards. Variety magazine called it “brilliantly conceived and funny as hell.”

Based on a book by George Furth and powered by Sondheim’s clever songsmithery, “Company” asks the age-old question of whether it’s better to be married or single. The story centers around Bobbie — 35 years old and single — who attends a series of social events with married friends and gets a crash course in Marriage 101. Through it all, “Company” manages to be both deeply insightful and wickedly funny, and the songs — including “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” and “The Ladies Who Lunch” — do much of the talking.

Sondheim revivals have been flourishing in New York and London since his death in 2021, and Sacramento now joins the parade. We are, indeed, in good company.

Venue: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, 1301 L St., Sacramento
Dates: Sept. 17 – 22

Cost: $42 – $165

Tickets: broadwaysacramento.com

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane”

Drawn to dark comedies? “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” tells the tale of Maureen, a lonely 40-year-old woman whose manipulative mother schemes to ruin her first — and possibly last — chance at love. The two ladies live together, with Maureen taking care of her aging mom: The situation is toxic. They constantly take jabs at one another, with dialogue that is as “funny as the situation is bleak,” according to a review in the The Guardian.

Smartly written and well-crafted, “Beauty Queen,” which premiered in Ireland in 1996, created quite a stir when it arrived on the New York theater scene two years later: I know, because I lived there at the time. The public loved it and so did the critics, boasting four Tony Awards.

Written by award-winning British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, the play seems a perfect choice for Big Idea Theatre, known for producing innovative, often daring works.

Venue: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd. #1, Sacramento

Dates: Sept. 6 – 28

Cost: $15 – $20

Tickets: bigideatheatre.org

Radium Girls

Based on a true story, this provocatively-titled play takes us back to 1926, when radium was considered a miracle cure, Madame Curie was a worldwide celebrity and luminous watches were in vogue. But when female factory workers who painted the watches — aka “radium girls” — developed mysterious maladies leading to their deaths, a fight for legal justice began. That battle forms much of the compelling drama in “Radium Girls.” 

Written by D.W. Gregory and a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, “Radium Girls” offers a searing look at the commercialization of science and the American pursuit of wealth over health. This new Ooley Theatre production, presented by the Artist’s Collective, will feature several of its members in both acting and directing roles.

Venue: The Ooley Theatre, 2007 28th St., Sacramento

Dates: Sept. 19 – Oct. 5

Cost: $12 – $22

Tickets: onthestage.tickets/the-ooley-theatre

“Fairview”

Midtown’s Capital Stage is diving into heavy waters as it starts its new season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fairview.” This family “dramedy,” written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, sounds innocuous enough: The setting is a household where preparations for grandma’s birthday party are underway. But what unfolds is anything but benign. The Pulitzer committee described “Fairview” as a “hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure,” ultimately exposing deep-seated prejudices. 

Fierce and in-your-face — the New York Times called it “ruthless” — “Fairview” is an apt choice for Capital Stage, known for its commitment to bold, edgy works. The 2024-25 season also marks the 20th anniversary of the professional nonprofit theater company, acclaimed as one of the region’s best.

Venue: Capital Stage, 2215 J St., Sacramento

Dates: Sept. 4 – 29

Cost: $27 – $52
Tickets: capstage.org

The Producers

Need a good laugh? Consider heading to the award-winning Sutter Street Theatre in Folsom, whose off-Broadway series gets off to a fun start this fall with one of the most popular musical comedies of all time. “The Producers,” which comes from the brilliantly wacky mind of Mel Brooks, started life as a 1967 film and eventually turned into a musical, becoming one of the hottest tickets on Broadway in the early 2000s when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick co-starred. The show was such a smash that it ran for six years and won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards.

The plot of “The Producers” pivots around a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and his accountant as they scheme to get rich by producing the biggest flop in history, bilking their backers out of millions. But their plan backfires when the show is a surprise hit, leading to all hell breaking loose. One New York Times reviewer described it as a show that “comes at you like a supersonic train from its first scene, and never lets up. It’s fast, fierce, shameless, vulgar and altogether blissful.” 

Venue: Sutter Street Theatre, 717 Sutter St., Folsom

Dates: Through Sept. 15

Cost: $20 – $26

Tickets: sutterstreettheatre.com

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.