What to See, Hear and Experience in Orange County This Fall

We’re thrilled to share with you our writers’ picks for notable events in theater, dance, visual arts, culture and music for fall 2025.

Culture OC’s talented team of arts and culture writers has scanned the schedules, communicated with the presenting organizations and culled the calendars to bring you the best of fall 2026 – and, in some cases, a peek at what’s coming up in 2027. While some groups are relying on safe, bankable productions, others are pushing the envelope and hoping to attract audiences seeking something different.

Here’s a look at what’s coming up in the Orange County arts and culture scene this autumn. And if we missed something important, please let us know.

Dance

Orange County’s fall dance season arrives with a wide range of settings and styles, from outdoor gardens to concert halls. Local companies are staking claims on unconventional spaces and the county’s larger presenters bring in international companies and a West Coast debut. The season offers both homegrown contemporary work and full-scale narrative ballet, giving audiences a chance to catch the range of what O.C. dance has to offer. Here are four performances worth planning around. – Kaitlin Wright

Ballets Jazz Montréal: ‘Dance Me: Music by Leonard Cohen’

Founded in Montreal in 1972, Ballets Jazz Montréal has built its repertoire around blending jazz, ballet and contemporary technique. “Dance Me: Music by Leonard Cohen” sets that mix to the songbook of the Montreal-born poet and songwriter, who approved the project before his death. Three choreographers, Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Ihsan Rustem, split the work across songs including “Suzanne,” “Hallelujah,” “So Long, Marianne” and “Dance Me to the End of Love,” rather than one choreographer handling the full score. The production features original lighting meant to evoke a music concert and video design, alongside the choreography and Ballets Jazz Montréal’s 14 dancers.

Backhausdance: ‘Hive in the Garden’

Orange County’s own Backhausdance opens its 2026-27 season with a site-specific restaging of “Hive,” founder Jennifer Backhaus’ percussive, ensemble-driven work, staged among the greenery of Sherman Library & Gardens in place of a traditional black box theater. Backhaus built her reputation on athletic, emotionally direct choreography, and moving “Hive” outdoors reframes a piece originally designed for a proscenium stage into something the audience can walk around and experience up close. It’s also a rare chance to see a professional contemporary company perform somewhere other than a conventional theater, with the garden setting shaping how the piece comes to life.

Houston Ballet: ‘Sons de L’âme’

Making its West Coast debut, this intimate work pairs 16 Houston Ballet dancers with pianist George Li performing live, set to Chopin. It’s a departure from the grand-scale story ballets that usually anchor Segerstrom’s dance series, offering a chamber-scale alternative built around a single collaborative relationship between dancer and musician. With the piano onstage rather than tucked in a pit, the performance puts Li’s playing in direct conversation with the choreography, a structure that trades spectacle for something closer to a shared musical dialogue.

Shanghai Ballet: ‘The Butterfly Lovers’

One of China’s leading ballet companies brings its signature adaptation of the “Butterfly Lovers” legend, a story often called China’s answer to “Romeo and Juliet,” blending Western classical technique with Chinese folklore and music. The tale follows two star-crossed students whose love survives only through transformation after death, a myth that has been retold in Chinese opera, film and music for centuries. Shanghai Ballet’s production folds traditional Chinese instrumentation into a classical ballet score, giving Orange County audiences a rare look at how the company merges two distinct performance traditions into one evening-length work.

Visual Arts

Fall is a great time to check out what’s happening in the Orange County art scene. Most museums and art centers are featuring new or continuing exhibitions, including Laguna Art Museum, which will present “Radiant Terrains: Elements of Light in Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection,” Sept. 19-Jan. 10, 2027, and “Kim Manfredi: View with a Grain of Sand,” Oct. 3-Jan. 18, 2027.

The Bowers Museum will showcase “Picasso Ceramics from the Rosenbaum Collection,” Oct. 24-Feb. 28, 2027. And Coastline Art Gallery is bringing together 10 Southern California commercial art galleries, nonprofit art spaces and artist-run organizations for “Under One Roof,” through Nov. 6, with receptions on Sept. 19 and Oct. 24.

Here are some more highlights from the autumn season, which promises a cornucopia of visual delights. – Richard Chang

‘Toko Ueyama: The Hollows Between Mountains’

This exhibition is the first major museum show in California dedicated to the work of Japanese American artist Tokio Ueyama (1889-1954). Featuring newly conserved and never previously exhibited paintings, alongside archival materials, “Tokio Ueyama” positions the artist within the artistic, intellectual and political networks that shaped California, Japan and the broader Pacific during the first half of the 20^th century. A two-year collaboration with UC Irvine’s East Asian Studies department and a Tokyo-based translator has produced the first English-language translations of Ueyama’s personal papers, and the critical reception he received in the Japanese press of Little Tokyo and Japan. The exhibition is organized by Michaëla Mohrmann, assistant curator at the UC Irvine Langson O.C. Museum of Art.

‘Shaped by Place: Nature, Nurture and Becoming’

This OCCCA exhibition will feature artists who have lived and worked in Hawaii, Tahiti, Japan and Norway. May Hege Kristoffersen is a Norwegian painter, who works intuitively to process her thoughts and feelings from her experiences using art therapy with mentally ill patients. Malissa Mataaiai Itchner is a Tahitian painter who lives on the remote island of Huahine, about 100 miles north of Tahiti. She incorporates ancient cultural symbols and icons in her colorful, abstract interpretations of the island, which is a major archeological site. Robin Repp lived on Huahine in 1975 and has returned there over the years more than 60 times to photograph, paint and film while immersing herself in the language and customs. Her father was Norwegian.

Nanihi Rivera is a Tahitian American student from Orange County School for the Arts and Marilyn Senka Drageset is from Sogetsu Ikebana, Japan. These two are special guest artists in the show.

‘What Fearful Shadows: Contemporary Artists Envision Early American Horror’

“What Fearful Shadows” will feature original works that fuse folklore, history and psychological depths, as artists reimagine “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the Salem witch trials and the works of Edgar Allan Poe, through the lens of modern culture. The works range from illustrative to interpretive, and the show invites artists to explore themes like paranoia, identity, outsiderhood and societal fear. There will be storytelling performances, guest lectures, themed movie nights and an artist residency weekend, noon-5 p.m. Nov. 7 and 8.

‘Otherworldly: Science Fiction Art from the Hilbert Collection’

This out-of-this-world exhibition will explore California’s role in imagining the future through science fiction in animation, illustration and entertainment art. Highlights will include concept art by Eyvind Earle for Disney’s “Man in Space,” “Star Wars” drawings by Robert Bailey, animation cels from “The Jetsons” and the 1960s “The Adventures of Tintin” animated series, along with paintings and illustrations inspired by space exploration and technological innovation. Curated by Mary Platt, the director of the museum, “Otherworldly” will celebrate the artists whose imaginations helped shape popular visions of tomorrow.

Theater

“Into the Woods,” which kicks off South Coast Repertory’s 63^rd season from Sept. 12 to Oct. 8, will probably generate the most buzz this fall on Orange County stages. And it should, as the production is coinciding with the 40^th anniversary of the show’s opening, and is probably the most beloved work of  Stephen Sondheim, merely the most influential and critically acclaimed composer of the American musical theater.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other noteworthy shows on the calendar over the next few months, including two plays that lean heavily into modern technology, and one that takes its cue from one of the most infamous tabloid newspaper covers of the late 20^th Century. – Joel Beers

‘Wild Child’

The world-premier musical by Dan Marshall and Julianne Wick Davis, which will be presented in partnership with the Breathe Project,  follows two teenagers who form a bond through their online avatars. But their virtual refuge is abruptly disrupted when they are sent to a secluded wilderness therapy program, where the boundary between their digital lives and the real world begins to blur. According to the Laguna Playhouse’s website, the show features a “vibrant pop-rock score” and explores “what it means to disconnect, show up, and heal.”

‘Blind Runner’

A rare occurrence of an external theater company producing at SCR, this play is courtesy of the Mehr Theatre Group, which began life in Iran in 2008 and is now based in Paris, France. According to its website, the company specializes in “text-driven, documentary-inspired pieces that combine personal archives, interviews and everyday documents with a precise, minimalist staging.” The production makes striking use of live video, with cameras capturing the performers and allowing the images to be manipulated and reframed as the action unfolds. Recipient of a 2015 OBIE citation, the Persian-language drama, presented with English subtitles, follows three interconnected lives. At its center is a man who, at his wife’s urging, agrees to help a blind woman prepare for a race in Paris. After the race, the pair embark on an even more audacious challenge: crossing the 38-kilometer Channel Tunnel on foot from France to England, racing against the arrival of the first train of the morning.

‘Bat Boy: The Musical’

And now for something completely different: Inspired by a particularly sensational cover story in a 1992 issue of the Weekly World News, this musical about a half-bat, half-child launched in 1997 in Los Angeles, before moving to Off-Broadway in 2001, winning a slew of awards and eventually becoming a cult musical produced around the world. At its best it’s raunchy, campy fun that occasionally turns serious, as beneath the trashy tabloid premise, it explores religious hypocrisy and small-town gossip, wrestling with themes like otherness, prejudice, conformity and the age-old tendency of humans to turn outsiders into monsters.

Culture

Orange County is a bustling community filled with events throughout the year, but this fall marks for a few returns, a couple anniversaries and a new edition for a beloved film festival. 

The Segerstrom Center of the Arts’ 40th anniversary falls this year as a free occasion for one night only, while the Irvine Global Village Festival will also celebrate its 25th anniversary. Locals in Laguna Beach are familiar with the annual Coast Film & Music festival, but this year the festival will be adding a concert series, along with month-long programming. 

Below is more information about this year’s fall season picks. – Kristina Garcia 

Ruby Jubilee: 40th Anniversary Celebration for the Segerstrom Center of the Arts

The Segerstrom Center of the Arts will celebrate 40 years of art and music with a free event across all its venues and on the plaza. 

The 40th anniversary is an all-day family-friendly event centering around live performances, activities and backstage access. In the evening, the center will be hosting an ‘80s-inspired birthday bash celebration paying homage to Segerstrom’s opening night in 1986 as the Orange County Performing Arts Center. 

The day will commence on the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza, where performances will be made by the Mater Dei High School Band, a community recorder choir and Pacific Chorale’s Big Sing. Attendees can join in on the celebration through crowd participation with Pacific Chorale’s Big Sing, as well as dance lessons inspired by Tuesday Night Dance. 

In Segerstrom Hall, visitors will be able to experience the bustle of the center’s opening night on Sept. 29 with a screening of the 1986 red carpet broadcast of the event. The venue will also feature drop-in ballet master classes from the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School and performances by the Orange County School of the Arts ensembles.

The Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall will feature performances from the Pacific Symphony and Philharmonic Society of Orange County youth ensembles. The Philharmonic Society’s Music Mobile and Instrument Petting Zoo will also be present, allowing families to engage with different instruments through a hands-on experience. 

Studio D: Art School for All Abilities will revamp the Samueli Theater into an all-inclusive, sensory-friendly environment for attendees to participate in activities, drop-in classes and watch performances.

Attendees can wander to the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art to take tours of the current exhibits and focus on other artmaking and creative activities such as sculpting and drawing.

Irvine Global Village Festival

The Irvine Global Village Festival returns to the Great Park for its 25th anniversary. The occasion brings together different cultures and traditions from around the world for a family-friendly event offering international tastes, music, performances and art. 

Known as Irvine’s signature event, the festival goes back to 1988 when the first multicultural festival was created to explore and appreciate the diversity and understanding between cultures. Though there was a break for several years, the festival came back in 2000 and rebranded as the Irvine Global Village Festival in 2002. 

Since the festival’s comeback, it has received several accolades including the 2021 California Park & Recreation Society Award of Excellence and was voted “Best Festival” by OC Weekly in 2009. 

Every year the festival offers an abundance of entertainment and activities for festivalgoers to choose from. This year’s entertainment includes music and dance performances spanning different cultures. 

Visitors can also stop by the global marketplace to look through handmade items and art, and check out the Junior Makers section to take a look at what the younger merchants have to offer. 

For families who are looking for fun for the kids, the festival features a Kids Village made for children to work on crafts and participate in interactive activities. The festival will also have the park’s Great Park Balloon and Carousel operational at the event. 

8th Annual Coast Film & Music Festival

The 8th Annual Coast Film & Music Festival will have programming all month long through a series of independent films, live performances, panels and community events. 

The festival will be set up at several venues across Laguna Beach including the Festival of Arts grounds and Forum Theater, Rivian South Coast Theater, Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center, Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, Forest Avenue and the Irvine Bowl. 

During this year’s event, the festival will be debuting “Concerts in the Canyon,” a two-weekend concert series on Oct. 3 and 4, and closing out the festival program from Oct. 23-25 at the Irvine Bowl. All shows will run from 7-10 p.m., no matter the weather. Both weekends will not be the same as the other, offering a broad range of music for audiences.

“Laguna Beach has long deserved live world-class music at one of Southern California’s best untapped venues, and we couldn’t be more proud of the bands we’ve assembled for Concerts in the Canyon and Coast Film & Music Festival — two weekends that will be an annual fall tradition,” said Enich Harris, co-founder of the festival and concert series, in a statement. 

Some of the featured artists include Grammy-nominated R&B artist Aloe Blacc, three-time Grammy winner Ben Harper, modern folk singer-songwriter Amos Lee, folk-pop singer/songwriter Lily Meola and many more.

While the featured films have yet to be announced, attendees can expect independent films that focus on the human experience, environment, music, adventure, surf or outdoor culture, with many screenings featuring a conversation after the movie with the filmmakers. 

Those interested in the film selection can expect the complete film program to be announced in the coming weeks. 

The ticket options account for attendees who may want to participate in everything the festival has to offer, those who only want to see the films, or for those who only want tickets for the opening/closing weekends of the festival. 

Classical Music

After the traditionally sparse summer season of classical music here in O.C., it’s always nice when fall arrives and performances move indoors (to our exceptional concert halls) and serious music is once again on the agenda. What’s more, this year we inaugurate a new music director at the Pacific Symphony, with concerts worthy of the occasion. Our other musical organizations will hardly be left behind, making their own notable, and plentiful contributions. – Timothy Mangan

Shelley Conducts Mahler 2: Resurrection

After a gala opener that showcases the superstar violinist Joshua Bell more than himself, Alexander Shelley gets down to business as the new music director of the Pacific Symphony, succeeding Carl St.Clair, with three subscription performances of Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.” Shelley has already shown himself to be a master technician of the orchestra, so it will be interesting to hear him take on this sprawling, heaven-storming challenge. The Pacific Chorale is on hand for the big ending.

Orff’s Carmina Burana

The Grammy-winning Pacific Chorale is one of the finest choirs in the nation. As testament, its guest appearances this season include performances not only with the Pacific Symphony, but the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic as well. For its own 59th season opener, conductor and artistic director Robert Istad has put together a thoughtful program that incudes a world premiere commission by Starr Parodi, the North American premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s “Critical Mass,” and a new chamber orchestra version of Orff’s ever popular and uproarious “Carmina Burana,” a piece this choir has in its bones.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Isata Kanneh-Mason

If you ever wondered what, exactly, a conductor does, perhaps you’d be curious to hear the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which plays without one. The group’s performances are fashioned by the musicians themselves, democratically, and kept in tight control by subtle signals between the players and careful listening. The ensemble’s latest appearance, presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, features a suite from Handel’s “Water Music,” Mozart’s final piano concerto (No. 27), with British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason as soloist, a newly commissioned by Katie Jenkins, and Haydn’s seldom heard Symphony No. 91.

Jazz & World Music

The undisputed king of Orange County’s  jazz/world music season is Latin jazz master Arturo O’Farrill, the Segerstrom Center’s first-ever artist in residence, who launches his residency with a concert on Sept. 19. But there are plenty of other worthwhile dates to mark on your calendar, and too many great artists to list in this roundup. Worth noting: the Irvine Barclay Theatre’s four-concert season of Hawaiian music featuring some of the islands’ best talent; the Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s eclectic mix of world music and local jazz artists; and Soka University’s busy season of jazz and world music, which includes the return of the popular Celtic Christmas. – Paul Hodgins

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2026–27 Jazz Series opens with a major event. Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra are a juggernaut. The son of legendary arranger Chico O’Farrill, Arturo founded his group at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and they’re regulars at New York City’s famous Birdland. As Segerstrom Center’s inaugural artist in residence, O’Farrill anchors the season’s exploration of “Now,” exploring how jazz continues to absorb, respond and reinvent. O’Farrill’s residency will culminate with the world premiere of his Lowrider Symphony, to be performed with the Pacific Symphony on July 9, 2027.

David Benoit

The acclaimed, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and Orange County resident will present his eternally popular blend of contemporary and smooth jazz to Soka University’s Performing Arts Center, where he opens the 2026-27 concert season. Benoit cites San Francisco jazz artist Vince Guaraldi, best known for his contributions to the “Peanuts” series, as one of his biggest influences, and his 1985 recording of Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” became a massive radio hit and helped launch the smooth jazz genre. Benoit’s “Freedom at Midnight” (1987) and “Waiting for Spring” (1989), which hit No. 1 on the Billboard jazz charts, helped establish him as one of the giants of his genre.

Roopa Mahadevan 

This Indian classical vocalist and crossover artist has been praised as “a stunning voice“ by the New York Times. Known for her powerful stage presence and dramatic delivery, Mahadevan is a master of Carnatic music, a classical tradition from South India. She was raised in Northern California, where she received Carnatic training under Asha Ramesh, and she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in India under Carnatic guru Suguna Varadachari. Roopa’s collaborative artistic projects have immersed her in multicultural soundscapes and taken her to many corners of the world, from Chennai’s Music Academy to New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl. Mahadevan was a featured soloist on Christopher Tin’s “Calling All Dawns,” which won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album.

Popular Music

Whether you’re stepping out for date night, meeting up with friends or adventuring solo, fall is the perfect time to explore the Orange County concert scene. The heat waves have started to dissipate and nights are trending cooler, but you can still find comfort in listening to live music – whether it’s outdoors by the beach or in an intimate, dimly lit venue. When filling your schedule this season, consider these fall music highlights, ranging from nationwide tour runs to shows centered around comedy or country music. – Ashley Ryan

OHANA FESTIVAL

Spread out over a weekend and set next to the ocean in Dana Point, this prominent O.C. festival offers an ambiance that is nearly as enticing as its musical roster. Soak up the sunshine and sea breezes while listening to an eclectic blend of artists, curated by founder Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame. Vedder has made performing a tradition, returning each year either on his own with a few longtime collaborators, with the band or occasionally both. This year, as the event celebrates its 10th anniversary, he takes the stage solo on Friday before reuniting with Pearl Jam on Sunday. On Saturday, country storyteller Tyler Childers rounds out the headliners, but the eclectic lineup also features Maná, Billy Idol, Bad Religion, Alabama Shakes, Jon Batiste, Fontaines D.C., Pixies and more. Beyond the music, Ohana Festival hosts panel discussions with environmentalists, surfers and other inspiring individuals.

SOMBR

Sombr has taken the music scene by storm since the first single from his debut album, “I Barely Know Her,” was released at the end of 2024. With his tunes steadily climbing and the album holding its place on the charts for a full year – plus a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist back in February, his first Coachella appearance in April and a tribute performance for Taylor Swift during her induction to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June – he has solidified himself as one of 2026’s breakout stars. Sombr brings his You Are the Reason Tour to Orange County for one night only this fall, when he will perform hits like “Undressed” and latest single “My Body Isn’t Ready.” The North American fall leg of the tour starts in Canada in late September before making its way to California and wraps at Madison Square Garden in New York City in November; support in Anaheim comes from singer-songwriter Tom Odell and electronic duo The Hellp.

FRED ARMISEN: ‘Comedy for Musicians (but Everyone is Welcome)’

Music and comedy collide during “Comedy for Musicians (but Everyone is Welcome),” a concert to be performed by Fred Armisen. Best known for his work on skit shows “Saturday Night Live” and “Portlandia,” the comedian and actor will combine his stand-up skills with his ability to play multiple instruments, including guitar, drums and keyboards, during this October/November tour run. Expect the show to include musical vignettes infused with laughs, international sounds and quirky props that align with Armisen’s style of comedy. Before the concert, the venue will host a happy hour experience on the Biergarten Brewery X patio where attendees can arrive early and grab a drink or a bite to eat.

ASHLEY MCBRYDE

Songwriter Ashley McBryde returns to Orange County in late fall to showcase her powerful style of storytelling and unpolished country grit in the House of Blues’ Music Hall. This main stage performance is the second to last of the Into the Wild Tour, which launches this month in Kentucky, and marks her first Southern California appearance since the desert’s Stagecoach Festival in the spring. Some of her most popular songs include “One Night Standards” and her “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” duet with Carly Pearce, as well as current radio anthem “What If We Don’t,” all staples in her live sets. Her traditional approach to playing combines stripped-down moments with honky-tonk energy that lets her soulful voice shine through. Up-and-comer Trey Pendley will open the show with tunes from his debut album, “Signs of Life,” released at the end of August.

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