In August, as the McCallum Theatre prepares for its just-announced 2024-2025 season, the venerable Palm Desert performing arts center will come to the end an era: Mitch Gershenfeld, the theater’s longtime president, CEO and artistic director, will retire.
“I think it’s time,” Gershenfeld said.
Tickets for the 2024-2025 season will go sale at 8 a.m., Friday, April 12, at the box office and the McCallum’s brand-new website. The season will serve as Gershenfeld’s swan song—although he points out that he’ll continue booking shows, including some for the following 2025-2026 season, until his August departure.
He said he’s leaving the theater in a good place.
“Attendance has been terrific,” he said. “In fact, all of our Broadway shows were sold out, which is, I think, probably the first time that’s ever happened.”
Next season’s Broadway slate includes six shows, including two returning tours: Come From Away (Nov. 25-Dec. 1) and Book of Mormon (Jan. 30-Feb. 1).
“They were both shows that sold out here, and they both were shows that people left saying, ‘I really enjoyed this experience,’” Gershenfeld said. “With Come From Away, this was a cathartic experience: ‘It was an amazing story, and I cried; I laughed.’ With Book of Mormon, it’s more, ‘I laughed, and then I laughed some more.’ But people want to see these shows again.”
Dear Evan Hansen, which won six Tony Awards—including Best Musical—in 2017, will make its McCallum debut Feb. 21-23.
“Evan Hansen is such an interesting show,” Gershenfeld said. “It deals with some very, very serious topics, and it’s a very well-crafted show. It’s a terrific score, and I think this one is going to be sort of like Come From Away the first time we did it. … It’s a very compelling story.”
Ain’t Too Proud, which tells the story of The Temptations’ journey to stardom, will be at the McCallum March 7-9. Later that same month, SIX: The Musical, will come to town for five days, March 25-30.
“SIX is just a phenomenon. This is one of the biggest party shows,” Gershenfeld said. “It is 90 minutes long, no intermission, and it’s a rock concert, basically, but it is very, very clever. It’s (about) the six wives of Henry VIII—and Henry doesn’t come off very well in the telling of the story.”
The 2024-2025 season, as announced (newly booked shows will be added, as always), will conclude May 9-11 with Tina—The Tina Turner Musical. In years past, the McCallum’s season would usually conclude in April, but this year, the season was extended into June, with shows by Wanda Sykes and Samara Joy as late additions. Gershenfeld confirmed this indeed signals a shift away from the McCallum’s previous October-through-April-only seasons.
“I don’t think a few years ago, I ever would’ve considered going into June, but now, I think we can start in September and October, and I think we can go into May and June,” he said. “Next season, we had an opportunity to get Tina, which is a very, very hot property, and the dates that it was available to us were in May, and so we thought we’d give that a shot. Are we going to have 5,000 people (indicating five nearly sold-out shows)? Let’s hope so.”
While the season-announcement press release touts “nearly two dozen McCallum debuts,” the 2024-2025 season doesn’t offer a lot of surprises. It starts off with two shows by musical political spoofer Randy Rainbow on Oct. 11 and 12, and it has a particularly robust holiday-show slate, including favorites like ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro (Dec. 11), Voctave (Dec. 17) and Dave Koz (Dec. 22).
The National Geographic LIVE lecture-show series is back with three shows, as is Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations classical-music series, with four shows.
“I think the Choreography Festival gets too little publicity nationally, because it is one of the very few competitions that are for choreographers—it’s not about the dancers; it’s about choreographers and the work that they do.”
McCallum Theatre artistic director mitch Gershenfeld
“(Keyboard Conversations) is a series that’s going to be going into its 25th season (at the McCallum), and I think this is one of the most important things that we do at the McCallum Theatre,” Gershenfeld said. “… Jeffrey will play a program, and … he’ll talk about the music, but not in any sort of pedantic way. He makes the music very, very relatable, and he talks about the composers; he talks about them as people and what they were going through. … We had music appreciation classes in school. You don’t have that anymore, so this music is going to be lost. I think it’s important for people to recognize what they can get out of Jeffrey Siegel’s programs. We try to keep the ticket prices very reasonable.”
Gershenfeld mentioned the season’s particularly strong dance offerings—including the return of Twyla Tharp Dance (Feb. 18) to the McCallum for the first time since 1999, and the first appearance by Ballet Hispanico (March 17) since 2003. However, Gershenfeld singled out the McCallum’s own annual Palm Desert Choreography Festival (Nov. 9 and 10), calling it an “amazing thing.”
“I think the Choreography Festival gets too little publicity nationally, because it is one of the very few competitions that are for choreographers—it’s not about the dancers; it’s about choreographers and the work that they do,” he said. “There’s fairly significant prize money, a $10,000 first prize, which is why people want to come here and do this. Kajsa (Thuresson-Frary, the McCallum’s vice president of education), who produces this, brings in top-notch people to be judges. It is a very serious program and competition, and I’m just thrilled that we have it.”
Gershenfeld has been a part of the McCallum for so long that it’s hard to imagine the theater without him. He joined the McCallum in 2000 as the director of presentations and theater operations, becoming the president and CEO in 2012. He’s retired as the president and CEO twice, in 2019 and 2020, before returning when his replacements didn’t work out—although he always remained on staff and continued booking shows as the McCallum’s artistic director.
Before the 2023-2024 season, the theater announced Gershenfeld would remain as president and CEO through the 2025-2026 season, and as artistic director through 2027-2028. Since the announcement, however, a lot has changed at the McCallum, including the departure of longtime McCallum board chair Harold Matzner; he was replaced by Garry Kief.
Gershenfeld is no longer listed as the McCallum’s president and CEO; he currently has the title of artistic director. Robert McConnaughey, the McCallum’s chief financial officer, is now the organization’s interim president.
What changed?
“I think that with new leadership on our board and a really great staff in place, it’s time for somebody else to make the artistic decisions,” he said. “I’m sure that our audience of people who come year after year after year, and buy lots and lots of tickets, they’re going to be very happy with the way the programming will go. I think clearly you’ll see a change, but it’ll be a very, very positive change. I think it’ll be more reflective of the community and more reflective of the demographic, and I think that’s very positive.”
Gershenfeld said he did not know who would take over booking duties after August.
“I’m sure it will be great,” he said. “I think it’ll be a good thing for the McCallum. I’ve been doing this for 24 years, and I think it’s time for somebody new to take the reins. I think our chairman, Garry Kief, definitely wants to see the McCallum expand its programming in terms of opening to the entire community, being more inclusive, having some more diversity, and going further into the calendar. I think that’s going to be a very, very positive thing for the McCallum. I think the McCallum is going to be in fantastic shape.
“I loved this theater from the day that I started here. This has been half my career, maybe more than half my career. I love this place, and I certainly want to see it thrive and continue, and I know it will, because this community is fantastic and supportive. The philanthropy that helps support this theater is unbelievable—the envy of all my colleagues. I wanted to make sure before I left was that we had really great people in place … so I feel very comfortable about that.”
Tickets for the McCallum Theatre’s new season go on sale at 8 a.m., Friday, April 12. For more information, visit the box office at the McCallum, at 73000 Fred Waring Drive, in Palm Desert, or visit www.mccallumtheatre.com.