After a nearly two-year hiatus during the pandemic, the McCallum Theatre returned last season to thundering applause. This year, they’re pulling out all the stops.

“What we do know is that coming out of the pandemic, people were so eager for the live performance experience,” says the McCallum Theatre’s president and longtime artistic director, Mitch Gershenfeld. “They wanted to be in the theater. They wanted to be around people. They wanted to see live performance. So, it turned out there was a pent-up demand for what we do.”

And what the McCallum does better than anyone else is put on a good show. Though the 2021-22 season was somewhat truncated (Hairspray opened on Dec. 3, 2021), the new year saw very few dark nights. And very few empty seats. 

“The biggest issue was people feeling comfortable in the environment,” says Gershenfeld. “We have 1,127 seats and people are packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Obviously, we’re taking precautions (and) that’s what’s giving people the level of comfort that says, ‘Yes, I’ll go back to the theater.’”

While it’s unclear yet whether proof of vaccination and mandatory masking will be required for the coming season, what is clear is that the McCallum appears hellbent on making up for lost time. The 2022-23 season begins in October with comedian Lewis Black and then doesn’t let its world-class tech crew take a bathroom break until April. Over two dozen shows and artists who have never trod up the McCallum stage will be making their debuts, including The Book of Mormon, Lucy Loves Desi, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour, The Simon and Garfunkel Story, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, the American Ballet Theater’s Studio Company, and The Kingdom Choir (the group whose performance of “Stand by Me” at Harry and Meaghan’s wedding went viral).

One of the many great McCallum traditions continues with “Mitch’s Picks,” in which the artistic director checks off a half dozen or so acts (usually unknown to valley audiences) that knocked him out prior to booking. “The Mitch’s Picks this year … are some really extraordinary musicians,” he says. “I’m really excited about Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks (appearing with Loudon Wainwright III). This is a band that never comes to the West Coast. They play the music of the ‘20s and ‘30s, this great style that was sort of pre-swing. I’m very excited about Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band … these are absolutely the cream of the crop of the Los Angeles studio players. And you have people like Wayne Bergeron. If you saw West Side Story, he was that screaming trumpet at the dance in the gym.”

In his more than twenty years of scouting talent for the theater, Gershenfeld has traveled the world to find new and interesting shows and performers. For every My Fair Lady (this season’s production is from the Lincoln Center) that is sure to be a slam dunk, there are countless also rans that just don’t make the cut.  “There is a national organization called the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. It’s a trade show, essentially. I’m going to one in Calgary at the end of the month. All the agents will have information about all their artists and they’ll be pitching all the stuff they want me to buy. I can tell you that of the thousands and thousands of artists, 95% of them are not of the quality I would want to see at the McCallum. So, I’m looking at that 5% and the only reason I know what the right ones are is because I have been (booking acts) for forty years.”

Not surprisingly, Gershenfeld says that a lot of good tips come from his longtime relationships with other performers (Gershenfeld is not just an artistic director. An accomplished musician in his own right, he has shared the stage with the likes of Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta). Several years ago, Barry Humphries, the actor who plays Dame Edna, was the artistic director of a cabaret festival in Adelaide, Australia. He told Gershenfeld that there were a couple acts he really had to see. “One was Meow Meow, who I was enchanted with and we brought her over. The other was Michael Griffiths, who did a wonderful theatrical on Cole Porter. And we’ve brought Michael over a couple times.”

While Gershenfeld’s personal relationships with world-renown artists such as Itzhak Perlman (returning to the desert Jan. 24, 2023) and Yo-Yo Ma have helped in their repeated performances at the McCallum, he also says that artists return because the “McCallum has a reputation of treating artists very well. Artists talk to each other. They know we’re a good place to play. We have an amazing technical department and all the equipment that is needed to do any of (our) shows. We have a reputation of having the best catering in the world. It’s really a matter of making the artists feel at home.”

Yet, for all the steam going into this coming season, there is one McCallum tradition coming to an end. Mitch’s Grand Finale has long ended seasons with the artistic director taking up the baton to lead the McCallum Theatre Concert Band. March 26, 2023, Gershenfeld will lead them one last time with Jeffrey Siegal at the piano. “It’s definitely the grand finale for the band,” he says. “We’re going to do some fun things. There’s a great arrangement of symphonic dances from West Side Story (and) we’re going to do Gershwin “I Got Rhythm” variations. So, I’m going to have a great time and I think that’ll be a great way to bow out.”