Staying Fit
After more than a year of pandemic-related closures, the culture world is bursting back to life in a big way this fall. We’ve already compiled a list of the best Broadway shows to see this season, but you don’t have to be in New York City to experience fantastic theater, dance, opera, classical music and art. Here, our list of the top 21 cultural events worth traveling for this fall, from a Liza Minnelli–inspired Ancient Greek comedy to a surprisingly timely Beethoven opera to a new Cirque du Soleil show inspired by Disney animators.
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THEATER
ATLANTA: Darlin’ Cory at the Alliance Theatre (Sept. 8–Oct. 3)
This world premiere musical, set in a tiny mountain hamlet in 1920s Appalachia, is by playwright and novelist Phillip DePoy (71) with a folk-country score by Kristian Bush (51), one half of the Grammy-winning country duo Sugarland. Haunting and suspenseful, the plot tracks an ambitious young woman’s clash with a conservative pastor.
Buy tickets: alliancetheatre.org
CHICAGO: Bug at the Steppenwolf Theatre (Nov. 11–Dec. 12)
More than a decade before he won a Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County, playwright Tracy Letts (56) debuted this unsettling black comedy, set in a seedy motel room in Oklahoma. In this acclaimed revival — which was shut down by the pandemic — Letts’ wife, Carrie Coon (from The Leftovers and Fargo), stars as Agnes, a lonely cocktail waitress who begins an affair with a young drifter (Namir Smallwood) before the two descend into paranoia, conspiracy theories, and madness.
Buy tickets: steppenwolf.org
SAN DIEGO: The Gardens of Anuncia at the Old Globe (Sept. 10–Oct. 17)
Composer Michael John LaChiusa (59) earned five Tony nominations for his lush musicals, and his latest work is inspired by the life of Broadway legend Graciela Daniele (81), who directs and choreographs this show. The tango-infused work takes audiences back to her childhood in Juan Perón’s Argentina and shines a light on the women who sacrificed to help Daniele become an artist.
Buy tickets: theoldglobe.org
FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: Designing Women at TheatreSquared (Sept. 22–Oct. 24)
If you were a fan of the late ’80s and early ’90s sitcom about an Atlanta-based interior design firm, you’ll love this raucous new play by Linda Bloodworth Thomason, 74 — who just happens to be the TV show’s creator. The timely comedy imagines what the quartet would be up to in 2020, complete with discussions of the election and the pandemic, and the cast includes Broadway’s Carmen Cusack (50) as Julia and Amy Pietz (52) as Suzanne.
Buy tickets: theatre2.org
LOS ANGELES: Lizastrata at the Getty Villa (Sept. 9–Oct. 2)
Each fall, the Getty Villa presents a work of classical theater in its Roman- and Greek-inspired amphitheater. This year’s offering is a musical retelling of the nearly 2,500-year-old Aristophanes comedy Lysistrata, about a woman’s mission to stop the Peloponnesian War by organizing a sex strike, but it comes with an unexpected twist: a mashup of Liza Minnelli (75) hits!
Buy tickets: getty.edu