The 2025-2026 season at the McCallum Theatre was a time of change.
It was the first full season on the job for chief executive officer Yvonne Bell, who was promoted from her senior vice president of development position in May 2025. The theater’s traditional November-through-April season was lengthened, and the theater started experimenting with dynamic pricing (meaning ticket prices can change depending on various market factors). For the first time, touring Broadway productions ran at the McCallum for full, eight-show weeks. The theater, at Bell’s urging, increased its dance programming.
How did it all go?
“It went really, really well,” Bell said during a recent interview—while conceding that she and her team learned a lot of lessons.
Those changes and lessons are being carried forward into the 2026-2027 season, which as of now will begin with three shows in September—leading off with Ozomatli on Saturday, Sept. 12—and go into June, with a week of Mamma Mia! (June 1-6, 2027) and a McCallum Cabaret performance by Hugh Panaro on June 8.
Bell said she viewed the expanded 2025-2026 season as a success, even though some of the “shoulder season” shows didn’t sell as well as she’d hoped they would.
“I don’t think you can try something once and say, ‘We tried it; it didn’t work,’” Bell said. “I think it’s an investment. When Mitch (Gershenfeld, the former CEO) first started booking the (National Geographic Live speaker) series, it wasn’t that well-attended, and now it’s one of our best-selling series. We did three Nat Geos last year; we’re going to do four this year. So building that audience, it’s a period of three to five years. I get so many compliments from people, about, ‘Thank you for lengthening the season.’ People are here, and they’re looking for things to do—and it’s cool inside a theater.”
The longer season and the expansion of the theater’s new dynamic-pricing structure for some shows go hand in hand, Bell said.
“My mantra is, ‘Just do it, and then fiddle with it—but get it done,’” she said. “That’s what we did with dynamic pricing. One of the things I learned (last) season is that there’s price sensitivity in those shoulder months. I want to see a full audience. It doesn’t matter how much they pay. I want to make sure they experience the show. I would say we’re going to be leaning more heavily into dynamic pricing moving forward.”
Bell also spent the 2025-2026 season beefing up her staff.
“This season also allowed me to get some key executives on board,” she said. “I hired Michelle Yeager, and she is the vice president of finance. She came from the Old Globe Theater (in San Diego), where she was for 10 years. It’s important that people who come here are theater people. I don’t want to hire somebody who’s an accountant but doesn’t know the performing arts world.”
She also is adding a new chief programming and operating officer, Eric Sims.
“We worked (at Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group) for about 15 years together,” Bell said. “I ran into him at the Broadway League spring road conference in New York … and I’m like, ‘So, I have an open position; you know anyone?’ And Eric said, ‘Well, what about me?’ … He is excited to be moving to the desert with his wife. He starts on Aug. 10.”
As for the 2026-2027 season’s offerings: One of Bell’s personal passions is dance performances, and she said she’s happy that two of the dance shows last season sold out—a sign that the McCallum’s dance audience is growing.
“People are really responding,” she said. “My hope is that when people take a chance on something (like dance), their mind is blown. … When you go to see, for example, Pink Martini, you know what you’re going to get. I find great joy in surprising people.
“There are so many dance schools in the desert. For such a small area, everywhere you turn, there’s another dance school—and I think it’s also something that attracts young people. A lot of young people are enrolled in dance. Now, the dance that I like to present is visual, very athletic, has a narrative arc and combines genres. … You’re going to see something that kind of pushes the art form of dance.”
Bell pointed to a dance show about which she’s particularly excited: Ballet Jazz Montreal, on Saturday, Sept. 26.
“They are doing a program called Dance Me: The Music of Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen, before he passed, was involved in this project,” Bell said. “… I have been really talking it up, because I think it’s going to be spectacular, and everybody loves that music.”
Beyond dance, Bell touted a new partnership between the McCallum and LA Opera, which kicks off with a performance on Friday, Nov. 6.
“We’re doing a program they developed and called Hercules vs. Vampires,” Bell said. “It is nine LA Opera singers, 26 LA Opera orchestra members, and the libretto … is to a 1961 Italian horror classic. There’s a movie playing that is campy as anything. When the actors in the movie open their mouths, you are actually hearing the LA Opera singers.”
Of course, when many people think of the McCallum, they think of touring Broadway shows. This year’s slate includes & Juliet (Oct. 27-Nov. 1) and a variety of reimagined favorites, such as The Bodyguard (Feb. 16-21), the theater’s fast-selling Broadway show of the upcoming season thus far. The McCallum will also host The Sound of Music on May 5-9, and Bell said the McCallum bought out a whole performance for local students to attend.
“We’ve never done that before,” she said. “They’ll see a full Broadway show.”
The 2026-2027 season will include six shows in the McCallum Cabaret series, starting with Chris Ruggiero on Tuesday, Oct. 20. While some online commenters gripe about the pricing for these shows—tickets for the Ruggiero show start at $189—Bell pointed out that these are not typical concerts.
“We don’t break even on them even at this rate, because we only have 200 seats to sell. It’s a totally different stage setup,” she said. “We have cabaret four-tops (on the stage). We have a riser for watching the artist—against the backdrop of an empty theater that is beautifully lit. … You’re able to interact with fellow audience members. If you’re a couple coming, you’re going to be seated with another couple, and it’s so great to see the artist with their hair down, and it’s very intimate. … Furthermore, it’s fully catered, with complimentary beverages.”
Bell said she’s looking forward to a “full holiday season” in December, including returning favorites like Charo (Friday, Dec. 18) and Dave Koz and Friends (Sunday, Dec. 20), and new-to-the-McCallum performers like country star Mickey Guyton (Tuesday, Dec. 22).
“The other thing that we’ve not done: We’re doing a New Year’s Eve show—Michael Feinstein, and it’ll be over by 9:15,” she said with a laugh.
In an era when many organizations are steering away from anything involving diversity, equity and inclusion, the McCallum is leaning into DEI, including a special weekend of shows coinciding with Greater Palm Springs Pride.
“On the Saturday night (Nov. 7), we have Indigo Girls. On that Sunday morning (Nov. 8), Cheyenne Jackson is representing us in the Pride Parade, and then he’s performing that evening,” Bell said.
The McCallum’s 2026-2027 slate, of course, includes a lot of familiar names, including Neil Berg, Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations, Lucie Arnaz, Paul Anka, Patti LuPone and, of course, the Open Call Talent Project (Friday, April 30, and Saturday, May 1). Bell said that while she’s trying to expand the theater’s offerings, she wants to make sure the McCallum’s longtime patrons remain happy.
“We have a very loyal audience that will say, ‘I want to go to the McCallum tonight,’ as opposed to, ‘I want to go see Megan Hilty tonight,’” Bell said. “A lot of people are making the choice based upon, ‘I like to see the shows at that theater, and I trust that theater.’”
Tickets for the 2026-2027 season at the McCallum Theatre, located at 7300 Fred Waring Drive, in Palm Desert, are on sale now. For tickets or more information, call 760-340-2787, or visit www.mccallumtheatre.org.
