As we close out 2024, we look forward to another year of art in the Holy City. And turns out, 2025 already has some dynamic and diverse offerings in store. Theater lovers can look forward to a JAWS-inspired show at PURE Theatre, see traveling Broadway hits such as Les Miserables in North Charleston and secure seats for a star-studded lineup during January’s Charleston Comedy Week.
Fashion lovers have two big experiences to look forward to in 2025 and, for the culturati, there are world-class dance performances and arts festivals aplenty on the horizon. Check out the list we’ve rounded up here for a jump start on your new year’s events calendar.
Broadway, JAWS and Comedy Week
The Best of Broadway series at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center features the best in national touring Broadway shows. Shows for 2025 include: Mamma Mia! (Jan. 2 through Jan. 5), Beetlejuice (March) and Les Miserables (May). The season also features two special bonus shows, Riverdance 30, The New Generation (February), a fusion of Irish and international dance and music, and Alton Brown Live: Last Bite (March), in which the famed culinary alchemist reflects on his decades in food media and offers a culinary variety show.
Meanwhile, from Jan. 16 through Feb. 2 at PURE Theatre, take in the Southeast regional premiere showing of The Shark Is Broken, a play by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. After a critically acclaimed Broadway run in 2023, the show is set to arrive on stage just in time for the 50th anniversary release of JAWS. The show follows the actors of JAWS as they shoot the final shark-fighting scenes on a too-small boat, performing “entirely at the mercy of foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Alcohol flows, egos collide and tempers flare on a chaotic voyage that just might lead to cinematic magic — if it doesn’t sink them all,” reads the press release. The show will feature core ensemble cast members, including members Rodney Lee Rogers, R.W. Smith and David Mandel.
And the annual Charleston Comedy Festival is back this month — this time in collaboration with the Charleston Music Hall, Music Farm, Theatre 99, Wit’s End Comedy Lounge and Nameless Numberhead (Maari Suorsa and Henry Riggs). From Jan. 23 through Jan. 26, you’ll find nationally touring comics like Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dave Attell and Todd Barry, as well as amazing local improv, stand up and sketch comedy greats in attendance Plus, LoFi Brewing will host free-to-attend, late night after-parties on Friday and Saturday night. Find tickets, info and more at charlestonmusichall.com/charleston-comedy-week.
Fashion reimagined
Opening May 3 at The Charleston Museum is an exhibition two years in the making: Fashion Reimagined: Creations of the Future Past. The Museum, in collaboration with fashion stylist Andrea Serrano, invited twelve local designers to use objects and historic garments from the museum’s collection as inspiration for new fashion designs.
The Gibbes Museum of Art is also celebrating the artistry of fashion design in 2025 with its coming exhibition, Statement Pieces: Contemporary Fashion Design and the Gibbes Collection, on view Jan. 31 until Apr. 27.
The show is produced in conjunction with Barrett Barrera Projects and juxtaposes dynamic works of fine art from the Gibbes permanent collection with contemporary fashion objects. Expect extraordinary garments by Alexander McQueen, Dapper Dan, Gucci and more, in conversation with fashion-forward figures illustrated in paintings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as abstract works of the mid-twentieth century, contemporary sculpture and mixed media works.
Also, coming up at the Gibbes from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 15, is the first installment of Thresholds: A 3-Part Performance Experiment, with Charleston’s first Poet Laureate, Marcus Amaker, and performing artist and scholar Dr. Kate March. The performance brings together live electronic music and dance for an unforgettable experience, as Amaker creates spontaneous electronic soundscapes, and March moves through each note with intuitive, expressive movement.
World-class dance performances, festival season
The Charleston Gaillard Center has become known as the best place in town to see world-class dance performances, and this year is no exception. On Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, the Gaillard will host the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Also as a part of the Center’s Dance Initiative, March 25 will see a show called OPUS, in which ten acrobats and a string quartet celebrate the music of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in a work of stunning power, virtuosity and physical poetry.
Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto will again take over town with arts and performing arts programming for 17 days from May 23 through June 8 (look for the unveiling of the full lineup sometime this month). Meanwhile, the existing schedule is now live for April’s nine-day Charleston Jazz Festival. Plus, save the date for the 42nd Annual North Charleston Arts Fest, to be held Apr. 30 through May 4. Apply now to be a part of its juried art competition.
What art events are you looking forward to in 2025? Let us know by emailing
arts@charlestoncitypaper.com.
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