Your Guide to
San Francisco's Performing Arts Events This Summer

By Joe Coleman

Here's a helpful round-up of the must-see performances in San Francisco this season.

From comedy and theater to opera and dance, San Francisco attracts the best of the best, giving visitors plenty of performances to choose from during their stay. Explore what’s playing this season and start planning your trip.

Dance

ODC/Dance presents: Summer Sampler

Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA

Savor the sweetness of summer with a taste of ODC/Dance. Experience world premieres from KT Nelson and Mia J. Chong, along with other favorites from the expansive ODC/Dance repertory. On from July 17 to 20, 2025.

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Joe Goode Performance Group: Are You Okay?

Rincon Center

Premiering at the historic Rincon Center in downtown San Francisco, Are You Okay is an immersive, site specific dance theater work that asks how we are managing in a world that is personally and collectively unstable.

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Theater

Dear San Francisco

Club Fugazi

Dear San Francisco is the critically-acclaimed intimate and immersive circus experience created by Bay Area natives and The 7 Fingers co-founders Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider. The production invites locals and visitors alike on a heart-stopping romp through the essence and the myth that has San Francisco has etched on our collective imagination. From the 1906 earthquake and Summer of Love to beat poetry and the mysterious fog, San Francisco comes vividly to life through a series of tableaus (acts), including hoop diving, Chinese pole, Korean plank, juggling, and “hand-to-trap” (a form first created by Shana Carroll), performed by an international cast of world-class acrobats.

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&Juliet

The Orpheum

Created by the Emmy®-winning writer from “Schitt’s Creek,” this hilarious new musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told. & JULIET asks: what would happen next if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as she ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love—her way. On from July 1 to 27, 2025.

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Co-Founders

American Conservatory Theater

Witness the launch of the next great hip-hop musical, born in the heart of the Bay! Co-Founders is the story of an underrated young Oakland coder, Esata, who hacks her way into the most competitive startup accelerator in San Francisco. Determined to save her house as an influx of wealth threatens to push her community out, Esata forms an unlikely partnership with a prep-school dropout. On from May 29 to July 6, 2025.

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Ride the Cyclone

New Conservatory Theater

Reaching for the skies takes on a whole new meaning when six members of a Canadian chamber choir take a fateful rollercoaster ride to the great beyond. When they awake in limbo, a mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell a story to win a prize like no other — the chance to return to life. Both madly hilarious and surprisingly introspective, this award-winning musical poses the question of what makes a life well-lived, or in some cases, worth saving. On from July 11 to August 15, 2025.

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Opera

Idomeneo

San Francisco Opera

Amidst a terrible storm, Idomeneo promises the god Neptune that he will sacrifice the first person he sees if he and his crew survive the tempestuous waters. Arriving to shore, his relief at safe passage quickly transforms into horror as the first person he lays eyes upon is his own son, Idamante. On through June 25, 2025

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Comedy

Lewis Black

The Masonic

After 35 plus years as a touring standup, Lewis is parking his tour bus for good next year, marking the end of his legendary world-touring career. Don't miss one of his final sets in San Francisco at the Masonic on August 16, 2025

Atsuko Okatsuka

The Masonic

Named one of Variety's "Top 10 Comics to Watch" in 2022 and the second Asian American woman to have a standup special on HBO, Atsuko Okatsuka is a force to be reckoned with. Enjoy her show at the Masonic on September 26, 2025.

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Donnell Rawlings

Cobb's Comedy Club

Donnell Rawlings is a comedic powerhouse. The actor and comedian is a former member of the Chapelle Show, The Wire, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Laker's Dynasty. He'll perform at Cobb's Comedy Club from June 21 to 22, 2025.

Randy Feltface

Cobb's Comedy Club

Australia's favorite purple puppet will make you laugh till you drop. See him at Cobb's Comedy Club from June 27 to 31, 2025.

Janeane Garofalo

Cobb's Comedy Club

Comedian, actress and SNL alum Janeane Garofalo will bring her alternative style of Comedy to Cobb's Comedy club from August 26 to 27, 2025.

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Joe Coleman

Joe Coleman has been writing professionally since 2019. Though always up for an international trek, there’s nothing he loves more than a road trip exploring the large cities and small towns of the United States. You can find more of his work at colemancreates.com.