Philly’s Arts Scene Is Heating Up. Here’s What to See, Read, and Hear This Winter

Whether you want to catch the latest Broadway show to visit Philly or simply dig into your next great read, ’tis the season for embracing the arts. Applause, please!

The Nutcracker

The Classics
The word: “A triumphant performance, in which the dancers seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
The details: Through December 31st, Academy of Music
The gist: Set to Tchaikovsky’s earworm score, George Balanchine’s recurring fever dream about toy soldiers locked in an epic dance battle against rodents of unusual size has been delighting and confusing audiences since the ’50s — and nobody does it better than Philadelphia Ballet.

The Crossing

The Classics
The word: “We sing a lot of pieces about the world we live in, and the problems that we face, and we try to pre­sent them almost journalistically. Art does help us understand our world a little better.” — Donald Nally 
The details: December 19th and 21st at multiple venues
The gist: “I’d say we’re the middle of the Venn diagram of choral music and contemporary music ensemble,” says Donald Nally, conductor and co-founder of the Crossing. Philly’s quadruple Grammy–winning chamber choir, he says, is just as likely to earn fans from the avant-garde Bowerbird scene as the classically trained Mendelssohn Club. During its two decades of experience, the Crossing’s daywalker status has led to performances at churches and concert halls, yes, but also NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and wildflower preserves. The Crossing has dozens of singers, plus a conductor and other key roles; they never commission sacred music, choosing instead to focus on modern stories from contemporary composers. The Crossing’s 2025-26 season continues with the world premieres of resident composer Sarah Rimkus’s Nativity and Ukrainian composer Natalia Tsupryk’s Kyiv.

Suffs

Broadway Ticket
The word: “[Suffs] has memorable music, star-making performances, and an inspiring message with moments that tug at the heartstrings.” — New York Theatre Guide
The details: January 6th to 18th, Academy of Music
The gist: Critics agree that whatever Shaina Taub’s musical about the women’s suffrage movement may lack in historical accuracy it makes up for with clever jokes and rousing songs. The Hamilton comparisons were ubiquitous, and not entirely unfounded. Suffs was nominated for six Tonys in 2024 and took home statues for Best Book and Best Score.

Poor Judge

Revival
The word: “It was the best version of that difficult-to-capture feeling when you see a show you don’t fully understand, but you get its brilliance all the same.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
The details: January 13th to 25th, the Wilma
The gist: Pig Iron Theatre Company’s 2024 Fringe dance-theater cabaret hit, dreamed up by South Philly legend Dito van Reigersberg and based on the lyrics and adventures of Aimee Mann, returns to the Wilma stage for two more weeks of wigs, music, and mayhem.

Clue

Broadway Ticket
The word: “A very fun, very silly 1950s-set whodunit that strikes some contemporary parallels on the way to its grand reveal.” — New York Times
The details: January 20th to 25th, Forrest Theatre
The gist: In this golden age of blockbuster musicals, Sandy Rustin’s adaptation of the 1985 movie adaptation of the WWII-era murder mystery board game succeeds with no notes. Clue keeps score with fraught pacing, frantic physicality, and a rising body count.

Good Bones

Revival
The word: “[A] plot that feels so much of the moment it could have gone viral on a news site rather than live to the stage.” — Washington Post
The details: January 22nd to March 8th, the Arden
The gist: It’s a no-brainer for the Arden to give Good Bones its Philly premiere. Pulitzer Prize–winning South Philly playwright James Ijames’s comedy about gentrification, community, and plans to plop a sports stadium onto an established neighborhood should ring a bell here in his adopted hometown. Directed by Akeem Davis.

Complications in Sue

World Premiere
The word: “Justin Vivian Bond is a cabaret singer who commands the stage with a mix of glamor, menace — and gender.” — Wall Street Journal on a previous Bond show
The details: February 4th to 8th, Academy of Music
The gist: Opera Philadelphia debuts this daring opera-in-vignettes written by Michael R. Jackson (who won a Pulitzer and a Tony for A Strange Loop), with music by no fewer than 10 composers. Stars trans cabaret luminary and MacArthur genius Justin Vivian Bond.

Gemini

Revival
The word: “Innaurato has written a picnic table scene that is an hilarious and indelible statement on the manners and mores of low-class society.” — Boston Globe
The details: February 4th to 15th, Theatre Exile
The gist: Cultures and generations mingle and clash in a South Philly back yard in this once-controversial 1976 drama by Albert Innaurato (who grew up at 19th and Wolf). Gemini still ranks as one of the longest-running non-musicals in Broadway history, and should make a splash when the famously risk-taking EgoPo Classic Theater revives it.

Caesar

World Premiere
The word: “In this moment, it feels especially urgent to wrestle with the play’s central themes: the tension between democratic and autocratic rule, and how far someone will go to do what they believe is right for their country.” — Tyler Dobrowsky
The details: February 6th to 22nd, Suzanne Roberts Theatre
The gist: Philadelphia Theatre Company stages this brand-new version of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar adapted by the company’s own co-artistic director Tyler Dobrowsky. Directed by Morgan Green, who headed up HILMA at the Wilma in 2024 and Five Models in Ruins, 1981 at the Lincoln Center last spring.

Beauty and the Beast

Broadway Ticket
The word: “[Kyra Belle Johnson’s] bibliophilic Belle is strong-willed, saucy and smart, key ingredients for a successful ingénue.” — Chicago Sun-Times
The details: February 11th to 22nd, Academy of Music
The gist: Disney’s tale as old as time is on tour for the first time in 30 years, bolstered by new sets and costumes plus the return of original choreographer Matt West. Stars Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Philippe are getting raves for their performances and chemistry.

Universal Theme Parks: The Exhibition

World Premiere
The word: “Guests will play, create, and explore the artistry behind Universal’s most iconic attractions.” — Abby Bysshe, chief experience and strategy officer of the Franklin Institute
The details: February 14th to September 7th, Franklin Institute
The gist: It’s time to debut the Franklin Institute’s next big interactive edu-tisement exhibit your kids will beg to see. Kidding. I’m sure there’s lots of cool STEM stuff to think about on your way to Florida.

Philadelphia Flower Show

The Classics
The word: “The Philadelphia Flower Show has always been more dreamscape than landscape.” — New York Times
The details: February 28th to March 8th, Pennsylvania Convention Center
The gist: While those pandemic years in FDR Park were a breath of fresh air for some, most petalheads agree that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s marquee event is resplendent in the comfortable confines of the Convention Center. The theme is Rooted: Origins of American Gardening, which seems appropriate for an event in its 197th year.

Ministry of Awe

World Premiere
The word: “We want to immerse our visitors in the sublime, to discover new pockets of their own consciousness, and to feel alive with the joys of human connection.” — Meg Saligman
The details: Opening March 14th, 27 North 3rd Street
The gist: After creating intricate, oversized works of art on walls around the city (and beyond), esteemed Philly muralist Meg Saligman has announced plans to go big in the third dimension. She and her arts supergroup (including Best of Philly–winning Eric the Puzzler) have converted an Old City bank into a six-story, 40-room art funhouse she plans to pack with performers, installations, soundscapes, and other interactive surprises.

Losing My Religion

World Premiere
The word: “For decades, Harris has been swerving away from stereotypes and expectations of hip-hop dance, all while staying true to its roots.” — New York Times, on a previous Harris show
The details: March 19th to 21st, Annenberg Center
The gist: Rennie Harris Puremovement does not miss. The famed Philly choreographer — and artist-in-residence for Penn Live Arts’ ongoing America Unfinished season — debuts a provocative work that uses street hip-hop and dance to examine social and political issues.

BalletX

This season, the dance company celebrates 20 years of modern interpretations of a centuries-old art form.

Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan were still dancing with one of the country’s top ballet companies when they embarked on a bold side quest: to found a company of their own.

Where their home base Philadelphia Ballet (then called Pennsylvania Ballet) had built a reputation for the classics — Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker — their upstart BalletX could focus on the new and the different.

“We were really interested in looking forward, and seeing how the technique, the classical ballet technique, could be articulated with choreographers from today,” recalls Cox. “It was really a chance to be adventurous with ballet.”

Twenty years later, the company has expanded from eight dancers to 16 and built a rep that’s earned them accolades, grants, and the opportunity to take the show on the road in the U.S. and abroad, all with Cox at the helm as artistic and executive director. Nee­nan, meanwhile, has become an award-winning choreographer; his name remains a fixture on the BalletX performance calendar.

“We’ve commissioned over 150 world-premiere ballets by 80 different choreographers from around the world,” Cox says. “When you bring a beautiful artist into a studio with dancers who have refined classical ballet technique, magic can happen.”

BalletX’s 20th anniversary season continues with debuts by Christian Denice, Itzkan Barbosa, and Lanie Jackson as well as an audience favorite by Noelle Kayser, set for December 12th to 14th at Goodhart Hall in Bryn Mawr. Further ahead, BalletX returns to the Suzanne Roberts Theatre March 18th to 22nd for a trio of works by Neenan.

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Reads

Cozy up by the fire with one of these new books with Philly connections.

If you’re looking to stuff some stockings, several top titles with Philly ties are already on the shelves. The coolest is surely The Philadelphia Music Book: Sounds of a City — a coffee-table slab edited by Larry Magid, the legendary show booker behind Live Aid, the Tower Theater, and the Electric Factory. The Pasta Book: Recipes, Techniques, Inspiration, by James Beard Award–winning chef Marc Vetri, is another colorful tome to sink your teeth into. Turning to the sports section, check out new memoirs by Sixers icon Allen Iverson (Misunderstood) and record-setting Flyers enforcer Dave “The Hammer” Schultz (Hammered: The Fight of My Life). Prefer straight-up literature? Try It’s Me They Follow, the semi-autobiographical first novel by Jeannine A. Cook (proprietor of Fishtown’s Harriett’s Bookshop), or Spring Garden–based author Eshani Surya’s Ravishing, in which two Indian American siblings face off against a dystopian beauty-tech biz. And ward off post-holiday doldrums with Better Than a Touchdown, a children’s book by Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (March 10th).

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Film

With winter closing in, the city’s movie clubs are ready for their close-up.

New, niche, and often nomadic film clubs are popping up all over town, offering a chance for screen enthusiasts to find one another. When it comes to retro and repertory fare, the Philadelphia Film Society is the king, but there are lots of smaller screens and series for fans with above-average tastes. In addition to music and comedy, the Eraserhood’s PhilaMOCA has established itself as a hub for indie, straight-to-VHS, and other unstreamable gems. Jesse Pires’s reborn-again Lightbox Film Center series can be found in the Bok Auditorium, usually showing restorations of arthouse flicks. Exhumed Films is known for their marathon horror screenings (and for keeping the titles a secret till the lights go down). Secret Cinema offers only the rarest stuff, from cringey old etiquette specials to forgotten concert footage. And lots of clubs have built a social scene around their screenings, including Girls Like Horror, Be Reel Black Cinema Club, VHS Club, Not So Silent Cinema (live music accompaniment), Space Melt Cinema (“movies that ooze”), Reel Nomadic (kung fu, among other things), and Heavy Cycle Cinema (East Asian action). Keep an eye on their social media channels for the next flick fest.

Published as “Arts and Letters” in the December 2025/January 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.