Look for a “Thriller in Rhyme” to kick-off the 2024-2025 season at San Jose Stage.
The West Coast premiere of The Smuggler is just one of five productions making up the iconic theater company’s 42nd season.
Also featured in the up coming line-up is a holiday comedy A Sherlock Carol, Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, Steve Martin’s The Underpants, and closing out with the Tony Award-Winning musical Sweet Charity.
“As we embark on our 42nd season, we build upon a legacy of bold, innovative, and uncompromising work that has defined The Stage for over four decades. This season, each production stands as a catalyst for our unwavering commitment to fueling exploration, sparking revelation, and driving transformation. We are once again dedicated to pushing the boundaries of storytelling, challenging both artists and audiences, and ensuring our theater remains a transformative space for all,” said artistic director Randall King.
Look below for all the details of the intriguing and diverse line-up of plays.
SAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY
2024-2025
SEASON 42
THE SMUGGLER
By Ronán Noone
Directed by Johnny Moreno
September 25 – October 13, 2024 | Press Opening: September 28, 2024The Smuggler is a Thriller in Rhyme. It’s 2023. Tim Finnegan is an Irish immigrant trying to make it as a writer on Amity, an affluent summer colony in Massachusetts, where tensions flare between the migrant and local communities after a fatal car crash. When he loses his job as a bartender, Tim gets drawn into the dark underbelly of the island. The Smuggler examines how far one man will go to restore his self-respect and asks the question, “What does it mean to be an American citizen today?”
A SHERLOCK CAROL
By Mark Shanahan
Directed by Kenneth Kelleher
November 20 – December 15, 2024 | Press Opening: November 23, 2024Moriarty is dead, to begin with. And Sherlock Holmes is a haunted man. But, when a grown-up Tiny Tim asks Holmes to investigate the death of Ebenezer Scrooge, the Great Detective must use his gifts to solve a Dickens of a Christmas mystery! Six actors take on the beloved characters of Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens in this heartwarming and highly theatrical holiday treat for all ages!
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
Adaptation by Thomas Ostermeier & Florian Borchmeyer
Directed by Kenneth Kelleher
February 5 – March 2, 2025 | Press Opening: February 8, 2025Dr. Thomas Stockmann discovers that the water in his town’s therapeutic spa is contaminated. The polluted spa has created prosperity for the town but is also making people sick. The play examines how a scientific expert becomes “an enemy of the people” when he threatens to expose an ecological human disaster. Will he be silenced by those who seek to protect their personal financial gains? Thomas Ostermeier’s scorching adaptation successfully pulls Ibsen’s play out of a small Norwegian town in 1882 and into a modern day global theatrical debate about corruption, climate emergency, and inequality.
THE UNDERPANTS
By Steve Martin
Adapted from Carl Sternheim
Directed by Kimberly Mohne Hill
April 2 – 27, 2025 | Press Opening: April 5, 2025The renowned comic actor and author of Picasso at the Lapine Agile provides a wild satire adapted from the classic German play about Louise and Theo Markes, a couple whose conservative existence is shattered when Louise’s bloomers fall down in public. Though she pulls them up quickly, he thinks the incident will cost him his job as a government clerk. Louise’s momentary display does not result in the feared scandal but it does attract two infatuated men, each of whom wants to rent the spare room in the Markes’ home. Oblivious of their amorous objectives, Theo splits the room between them, happy to collect rent from both the foppish poet and the whiny hypochondriac.
SWEET CHARITY
Directed by Allison F. Rich
Choreography by Leslie Waggoner
Book by Neil Simon
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
June 4 – 29, 2025 | Press Opening: June 7, 2025Inspired by Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity explores the turbulent love life of Charity Hope Valentine, a hopelessly romantic but comically unfortunate dance hall hostess in New York City. With a tuneful, groovy, mid-1960s score by Cy Coleman, sparkling lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and a hilarious book by Neil Simon, Sweet Charity captures all the energy, humor, and heartbreak of Life in the Big City for an unfortunate but irrepressible optimist.
Located in San Jose’s SOFA Arts and Cultural District, San Jose Stage Company is an off-Broadway theater that has earned a decades-long reputation for producing imaginative and edgy theatrical experiences. Indeed, Stark Insider has been privileged to attend several over the years. Those looking for an alternative to movie night, and are interested in supporting local arts and non-profits should consider checking out a show.
We are once again dedicated to pushing the boundaries of storytelling, challenging both artists and audiences, and ensuring our theater remains a transformative space for all.
Per the press announcement, San Jose Stage Company is ranked as the second largest professional theater and eighth largest performing acts organization in Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley Business Journal), and attracts some 20,000 patrons to downtown. The Stage employs approximately 150 local artists.
San Jose Stage’s 42nd season is scheduled to run from September 25, 2024 through to June 29, 2025.
Single tickets can be purchased directly from San Jose Stage Company. Season packages range from $125 – $270.
