Slip-slidin’ away: The Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland launches a “Season of Winter Wonder” this weekend with a whole host of fun events starting Friday and running all the way through Jan. 5. At the top of the list for the sheer glee of it is the Sock Skate that takes place every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on two different rinks located indoors on the top level adjacent to the Observatory. The surfaces are made of synthetic ice tile (not cold!) developed by scientists so hockey players could train in the off season but now growing popular with the general skating public. With the price of admission to the Center ($24 adults, $19 ages 2 to 12 and 65 and up, but free for members), skaters are invited to don their own comfy socks or buy a special pair on site and bladelessly glide all around the 34-by-23-foot rink reserved for ages 6 and up, or the 18-by-15-foot one for families with children 5 and under. The area is decorated like an icy planet with projections and lighting designed to simulate snow and large-scale photo backdrops and glowing planets suspended from the ceiling. There will be recorded music to help get you moving. (We recommend Paul Simon!) Sign up in advance for 30-minute time slots as you purchase your admission. Find the links at https://chabotspace.org/calendar/sock-skate/.
Serving up ‘Waitress’: The 2007 film “Waitress” is often described in terms like “charming” and “delightful,” like it was a Hallmark Channel rom-com that somehow escaped to the big screen. Yet, there is some serious stuff going on in Adrienne Shelly’s story about a waitress who hopes a pie contest can lift her out of an unsatisfying life defined by a loveless, abusive marriage and unplanned pregnancy. Things change, as they are wont to do, when she meets a new obstetrician in town and falls in love. In all, it is actually a charming story, partly because it’s grounded in just enough reality and because of Shelly’s clever and insightful writing. Tragically, she was murdered in her New York City home three months before the film’s premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. About a decade later, the film gave rise to “Waitress: The Musical,” a stage show penned by the talented songstress Sara Bareilles and producer/director/actor/screenwriter Jessie Nelson. The show debuted on Broadway in 2016 and had a successful London run and national tour before returning to Broadway in 2021 with Bareilles in the lead role. The second Broadway run also produced a movie of the musical. Now San Francisco Playhouse is taking on the musical in a production running through Jan. 18 at its theater at 450 Post St. and yes, of course, there’s a pie angle — the Playhouse will offer pies for sale from Three Babes Bakeshop in San Francisco. Tickets for the production are $35-$135; www.sfplayhouse.org.
‘Carols’ getting a new song: What the Dickens is going on with “A Christmas Carol” in the Bay Area? For years, there have been two reliably excellent local productions of the play based on Charles Dickens’ classic novel about a bitter, miserly old man getting a ghostly lesson on the joys of income redistribution. One of those two productions, at American Conservatory Theater, is gone, replaced by a “Carol”-themed comedy “A Whynot Christmas Carol,” penned by Obie-winning playwright Craig Lucas. It follows a small-town theater company staging “A Christmas Carol” and encountering frequent setbacks. Company artistic director Pam MacKinnon is helming the new production, which runs through Dec. 24 at Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$130 at www.act-sf.org. Meanwhile, Center Repertory Company in Walnut Creek has announced that this is the final year for its long-running and widely acclaimed “A Christmas Carol.” Next year will bring a different holiday production, although the company has not yet said what it will be. Center Rep’s “Carol” runs Dec. 12-22 at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $22-$79 at www.centerrep.org. And what are we Scrooge fans supposed to do next year? Don’t worry, someone will likely be staging the show somewhere; and there is always the excellent animated version starring Mr. Magoo that’s available on several streaming platforms.
Let the festivities begin: The San Francisco Symphony launches a full three weeks of holiday events in Davies Hall Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. by bringing back the wildly popular Mariachi Sol de Mexico® de José Hernández to perform the tongue-in-cheekily titled program “A Merry-Achi Christmas.” Joyful sounds from South of the Border will ring out from the band founded in 1981 by Hernández, who traces his roots to five generations of mariachi musicians from Jalisco’s La Sierra del Tigre region. In the years since, the group has garnered 10 Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, entertained for five American presidents and collaborated with artists such as Jose Feliciano, Willie Nelson and the Beach Boys. Tickets for their performance, with musical numbers to be announced, range from $99 to $275 and are available at sfsymphony.org or at 415-864-6000.
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