The all-volunteer orchestra, Redwood Symphony, will celebrate 40 years of making music, while also honoring the 100th birthday of their friend, Kirke Mechem, by performing his “The Jayhawk, Magic Bird Overture!” a piece Music Director Eric Kujawsky describes as “If Stravinsky’s Firebird and Woody Woodpecker had a son, it would be the Jayhawk. This is one wacky piece of music!” In addition, the orchestra will showcase superstar soloist, pianist Daniel Glover, as they perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, and they’ll close the festive evening out with Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s much-loved Concerto for Orchestra.

Virtuosi!

Sat, Sept 27, 7:30pm, $35

Cañada College Main Theater, Redwood City

Raised by farm working Mexican immigrant parents in Salinas, the members of Clave Especial, including founding cousins vocalist Alejandro Ahumada and guitarist Leonardo Lomeli, took the Mexican regional subgenres they grew up with (corridos, norteño, and banda), added a modern feel, including introspective personal lyrics, and have scored big, streaming in the billions, with this updated take on Mexican and Mexican American music. Last June, they got increased exposure and earned new fans when they played their hit song “Kalashnikov” while escorting interim world champion boxer David Benavidez to the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Clave Especial

Thu, Sept 25, 8pm, $68

San Jose Civic, San Jose

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar was once described in the pages of American Theatre magazine as “the most produced playwright in the country.” His work is known for covering heavy themes, including racism, religion, economics, immigration and identity. Akhtar’s new stage play, McNeal, looks at the stories we tell, and how we tell them in this age of artificial intelligence. This exciting new work will be presented by The Stage as part of their 2025/2026 season, with director Randall King at the helm and beloved Bay Area actor Johnny Moreno in the titular role. Runs through Oct. 19.

McNeal

Wed, Sept 24, 7pm, $38-$52

The Stage, San Jose

Lisa Loeb does her Lisa Loeb thing and it’s wonderful to watch such a unique career arc. With her song “Stay (I missed you)” featured on the Reality Bites soundtrack, she became the first artist to grab the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 without a recording contract. Since then, she’s continued to chart a unique course as a recording artist while also publishing children’s books, guesting on sitcoms, and now she’s touring with the delightful Texas Swing/country folk act Lisa Loeb and The Hollow Trees, in town this week to headline Kids Day in the Park at Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

Lisa Loeb and The Hollow Trees

Sat, Sept 20, 11am, $18-$25

Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose

Improv comedy is like the violin. Sure, it can be painful to listen to someone new, just learning to play, but in the hands of an experienced, talented player, it’s a thing of rare beauty. The five members of Flash Forward Improv have years under their collective belts and a unique approach, talking to audience members about events coming up in their lives, and then spinning the information they’ve gleaned into a play that predicts the future hilariously if not accurately, and they rarely if ever try to play the violin.

Flash Forward Improv

Wed, Sept 17, 8pm, $20

Roosters Comedy Club, Sunnyvale

1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a low budget film—ridiculously low. They used buckets for helmets, the same couple of castles were used over and over again, and the horses—they didn’t have any horses. They made do with coconut shells being knocked together while they mimed equestrian travel. Using their lack of budget to show off their resourcefulness as well as their absurdity to the point of surrealism, they created a comedy masterpiece that 50 years later kids will still happily watch with their nerdy grandfathers. A chance to see it with the French taunter himself, John Cleese, in conversation and Q&A, is an opportunity that no Python fan should miss.

John Cleese

Sun, Sept 14, 7:30pm, $81-$118

San Jose Civic, San Jose

Comedian, actor, activist, and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Dante is coming to Rooster’s this week. Dante is the white guy who holds the record for winning the most BET Comedy Awards. He also had a sitcom on BET, The Blackberry Inn. He’s performed all over the world entertaining the troops, he’s written for Joan Rivers, and is just overall a comic’s comic, spending 40 weeks a year hitting stages and making audiences laugh. Bay Area favorite Jesse Fernandez and Florida’s Ed Niemi will be on hand to kick things off.

Dante

Wed, Sept 10, 8pm, $25

Rooster T. Feathers, Sunnyvale

Fresno-based Haunt play metal. Just metal. Not doom, black, speed, death, glam, or any of the other countless subgenres that have sprouted up. This is metal for fans of Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Tesla, and other traditional metal bands. Trevor William Church already had his band, the excellent Beastmaster to meet his doom needs, a genre that showcases his Ozzy-esque vocals. He started Haunt to get back to basics.

Haunt

Sun, Sept 7, 8pm, $15-$18

The Ritz, San Jose

With over two and a half million monthly listeners on Spotify, singer and rapper Snow Tha Product’s bilingual, confrontational style is finding an audience. The emcee is just as comfortable and capable delivering her flow in Spanish or English, battling to hard beats with lines like “Beat you’ass, make yo’ bitch a pinata, Shoulda known better I’m a michoacana” or rapping over more traditional Mexican guitar on her latest track, ”Sabado,” which name checks Trump en español, and not because she’s MAGA. This is the protest music for our moment, tough, scrappy and unapologetic.

Snow Tha Product

Sat, Aug 30, 7pm, $45

Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose

Cyndi Lauper burst forth in the ’80s and conquered everything. She was immediately queen of the nascent MTV. She was a driving force in bringing professional wrestling into the mainstream. Parents saw her as a more wholesome alternative to Madonna as they joyfully sang along to “She Bop.” She even palled around with The Goonies. In a decade crowded with bigger-than-life figures like Mr. T and Pee-wee Herman, Lauper managed to make space for herself and leave a mark. And she has a voice suited to that giant personality, capable of the sneer and attitude of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and the sweet longing of “True Colors.”

Cyndi Lauper

Sun, Aug 24, 7:30pm, $46-$143

Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View