If you caught the news about the Wallis Annenberg Center's new season back in June, you got half the story. The center opened its 2026-27 lineup on September 25 with the Joshua Redman Quartet, then spent the summer adding to it. By mid-August there was a second press release with a world premiere, three comedy nights, and a full slate of London stage broadcasts that weren't in the original announcement at all.
Venues don't usually do that. A season gets unveiled once, ticket packages go on sale, and everyone moves on. The Wallis reopened the file in August and kept building. That's the detail worth sitting with if you live in Beverly Hills and have spent the last few years treating the center as a place you visit once a year for the one show your neighbor mentioned. This fall it stopped being an occasional destination and started looking like something closer to a weekly habit, especially once you add the mansion up the hill that's been running its own $15 movie nights the whole time without much fanfare.
Two Press Releases, Not One
The season that opened on September 25 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater started with jazz: the Joshua Redman Quartet, featuring pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris, and drummer Nazir Ebo, joined by trumpeter Skylar Tang. Two days later, on September 27, the LA Chamber Orchestra opened its own season at the Wallis with a program called MOVEMENT(S)!, led by conductor Lina González-Granados and featuring countertenor John Holiday.
From there the June announcement carried through October and November:
- Laura Benanti's "Nobody Cares" (Oct. 1-4), a one-woman comedy show fresh off Edinburgh Fringe and two Off-Broadway runs
- Sasha Velour's "Travesty" (Oct. 29-30), a solo work on queer history from the RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9 winner
- "Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster" (Nov. 20-21), a family production based on the Mo Willems books
Then came the August expansion, which is the part most residents haven't seen yet. It added the world premiere of "Radio Galaxy," a new play starring Joey McIntyre about a teenager from a working-class New Jersey town who dreams of becoming an astronomer, running November 6 through 22 in the Lovelace Studio Theater. It added comedian Preacher Lawson on November 13 and Rita Rudner on January 8. And it brought back the National Theatre Live series, screening London stage productions on the big screen, starting with "The Importance of Being Earnest" on November 14, featuring Sharon D. Clarke and "Doctor Who" star Ncuti Gatwa, followed by "The Audience," starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, on January 11.
Executive Director and CEO Jean Davidson framed the expanded lineup as part of a bigger ambition, saying the season reflects the Wallis's commitment to being a leading multidisciplinary performing arts center on the West Coast, connected to the national and international arts community. Whatever the internal reasoning, the practical effect for anyone who lives within walking distance of Santa Monica Boulevard is that the calendar filled in around the edges. What used to be three or four marquee nights a season is now closer to something every couple of weeks from September through the holidays.
A Mile Away, a Cheaper Habit
While the Wallis was building out its 2026-27 press cycle, the city was quietly running its own series a mile up the hill at Greystone Mansion. Greystone in the Movies shows one film a month in the estate's historic theater, restored in 2020, and pairs each screening with a walk through the actual filming locations on the property. Tickets run $15 for Beverly Hills residents and $20 for everyone else. Check-in typically opens around 6:10 p.m., with the tour and film starting at 6:30.
This year's lineup has run the gamut from "S1MONE" in January to "X-Men" in April to "There Will Be Blood" on August 13. Compare that to a full-price ticket at most repertory houses and the math is obvious: for less than the cost of a movie theater combo, you get a guided walk through the rooms where a film was shot and then watch it in a 1920s theater built for the estate's original owners. It's the kind of program that a lot of residents drive past on Loma Vista Drive without knowing it exists, mostly because it doesn't get a press release. It just runs.
What Was Already Running, Just Wrapped
None of this happens in a vacuum. Beverly Canon Gardens closed out its Thursday night concert series in late August, which means the free outdoor programming that carried the neighborhood through summer just handed the baton to two indoor venues that don't take a season off. If your Thursday nights have been open since the Canon Gardens series ended, the Wallis and Greystone are the two obvious places that filled the gap without anyone announcing it as a handoff.
The Actual Fall Calendar
Here's what that looks like laid out by date, for anyone trying to plan an actual month instead of scrolling three different calendars.
| Event | Date | Access | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joshua Redman Quartet | Sept. 25 | Ticketed, Bram Goldsmith Theater | The Wallis |
| LACO: MOVEMENT(S)! | Sept. 27 | Ticketed, Bram Goldsmith Theater | The Wallis |
| Laura Benanti, "Nobody Cares" | Oct. 1-4 | Ticketed | The Wallis |
| Sasha Velour, "Travesty" | Oct. 29-30 | Ticketed | The Wallis |
| "Radio Galaxy" world premiere | Nov. 6-22 | Ticketed, Lovelace Studio Theater | The Wallis |
| National Theatre Live: "The Importance of Being Earnest" | Nov. 14 | Ticketed, screening | The Wallis |
| Greystone in the Movies (monthly) | Roughly monthly | $15 residents / $20 non-residents | Greystone Mansion & Gardens |
| Día de los Muertos Family Fest | Nov. 1 | Free | The Wallis |
What This Means for a Beverly Hills Week
The old version of a Beverly Hills fall arts calendar was mostly white space punctuated by one big night at the Wallis. That's not what September through November 2026 looks like anymore. Between a season that got announced twice, a monthly $15 series that most people have never heard of, and free Family Fest days built in specifically so a ticket price never has to be the reason you skip a night out, the neighborhood now has enough programming that skipping a month feels like a choice rather than a default.
None of this requires planning a trip over the hill or driving out to downtown for culture. It's sitting inside two buildings that most residents already pass on a normal week, one at 9390 N. Santa Monica Boulevard and one at 905 Loma Vista Drive. The only real adjustment is treating them like a rotation instead of a once-a-year outing.
That's the kind of texture that makes a neighborhood feel lived-in rather than just owned. If you're weighing what a home in Beverly Hills actually gets you beyond square footage and school boundaries, this is part of the answer: a walkable arts calendar that keeps adding to itself mid-season, whether or not anyone sends a second press release about it.
If you're thinking about where in Beverly Hills or the Westside would put you closest to nights like these, or you're weighing a move and want someone who actually tracks this stuff, reach out to Danny Hizami. Start Your Home Search whenever you're ready.
