Stage It: A ‘Million’ Openings

Rubicon Theatre launches its 2025-26 “Crossroads” season with the hit musical Million Dollar Quartet, a somewhat fictionalized dramatization of the night when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins came together at Sun Records for an impromptu jam session. A step up from a jukebox musical, the Tony-nominated show, which was a smash at the Ensemble just 10 months ago, features such chart-topping hits as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Walk the Line” and “Hound Dog,” and includes a final concert that serves as the encore. Extended previews run October 15-24, with the official run October 25-November 9.

Visit www.rubicontheatre.org. 

Over at the Ensemble, the company kicks off its new partnership with the National Theatre of Great Britain, a compact  that brings National Theatre Live productions to Santa Barbara audiences via digital screenings at The New Vic. Launching in the middle of ETC’s run of War of The Worlds: The Panic Broadcast, NT Live will screen Inter Alia, a new play by Suzie Miller starring Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) in a searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity.

Visit https://etcsb.org/national-theatre-live. 

The Jents, one of Santa Barbara Improv’s longform companies, presents Murder on Train 226, an improv murder mystery inspired by facts from our local tracks on Friday, October 17, at the Unitarian Society’s Jefferson Hall (1535 Santa Barbara Street in SB). Travel back to the year 1887 with politicians, railroad execs, starlets, and mediums as The Jents create the caper on the spot based on Train 226’s maiden journey from Carpintería to Santa Barbara. Once the mystery is solved, the shenanigans continue with a Jamboree Jubilee, the fancy name for an improv jam that’s open for audience members to join. More info at www.sbimprov.com/shows.

Also having a one-night run on October 19 is the return of Popovich Comedy Pet Theater at the Marjorie Luke, which blends physical comedy and juggling by Gregory Popovich. The America’s Got Talent finalist takes the stage with an unlikely gang of assistants – a coterie of pets that includes more than 30 rescue animals including cats, dogs, geese, ponies, goats and parrots. The critters do tricks via positive reinforcement training that enhances their natural abilities

Visit https://luketheatre.org/event/popovich.