Image courtesy of TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy Birdman Live Jan. 19 When Birdman  premiered a decade ago on its way to winning the 2015 best picture Oscar, The New York Times  hailed it as “funny, frenetic, buoyant and rambunctiously showboating entertainment.” Artfully stitched together as if shot in a single take, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s heart-pounding, stream-of-consciousness masterpiece tracks an aging action star portrayed by Michael Keaton as he attempts to stage a vaingloriously “serious” Broadway production—to an increasingly furious inner drumbeat. Much of that energy derives from the music: a thundering, continuous drum solo by Mexican composer and jazz percussionist Antonio Sánchez. For Birdman’s 10th anniversary, the five-time Grammy winner will be appearing at the Crest Theatre, performing his dynamic score live while the film plays on the downtown landmark’s 42-foot screen. crestsacramento.com Photo by Carter B. Smith, Courtesy of Hard Rock Live Sting Jan. 26 This winter will see an Englishman in Yuba County. More than 15 years since last taking the stage as part of a trio act, Sting is giving it a new go with his “3.0” tour, which includes a stop at Wheatland’s Hard Rock Live. “I’ve worked with these big seven, eight-piece bands, and it’s a bit like driving a Bentley. It kind of drives itself, and it’s comfortable,” Sting told Billboard. “So I decided I would put myself out of my comfort zone in order to get something on the back end that wasn’t guaranteed—a risk, if you like.” With drummer Chris Maas and longtime guitarist Dominic Miller in tow, the former frontman of The Police will perform stripped-down versions of many of the greatest hits from throughout his nearly five-decade career, like “Every Breath You Take,” “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” “Message in a Bottle,” “All This Time” and “Roxanne”—which, fun fact, became The Police’s breakout song, thanks in part to prescient airplay by UC Davis’ radio station KDVS. hardrockhotelsacramento.com Untitled (Not ugly enough) by Barbara Kruger (Courtesy of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the Manetti Shrem Museum) Through Their Eyes Jan. 26–June 22 How better to celebrate and investigate the impact of feminist art than through the eyes of one of the world’s fiercest female art patrons? Through Their Eyes—which draws from the holdings of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, dubbed “Italy’s Peggy Guggenheim” by style bible W  magazine—presents 60 contemporary pieces by 30 renowned women artists, from self-portraits by Cindy Sherman (aka the original selfie queen) to Zoe Leonard’s photographs Chastity Belt  and Gynecological Instruments  that evoke the medicalization of feminine desire. Other highlights include works by Paulina Olowska, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Danielle McKinney and Barbara Kruger, whose 1997 photographic silkscreen Untitled (Not ugly enough)  is shown above. This Manetti Shrem exhibit, the first show at the Davis museum to focus solely on female artists, marks the U.S. debut of Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s extensive collection. manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu Portrait courtesy of Thunder Valley Casino Resort Sebastian Maniscalco Jan. 31 Martin Scorsese has a knack for slipping comedians into dramatic roles in a way that totally energizes a scene—think Albert Brooks in Taxi Driver  and Jerry Lewis in The King of Comedy. But when the maestro cast Sebastian Maniscalco as real-life mobster “Crazy” Joe Gallo in The Irishman, he caught a tiger by the tail. Going toe-to-toe with Robert De Niro, the Italian American funnyman perfectly captured the gangster’s unhinged, menacing vibe. De Niro was so impressed that he teamed up with Maniscalco again, playing his dad in the comedian’s 2023 autobiographical film, About My Father. Maniscalco has always worn his Sicilian roots on his tuxedo sleeve, whether that’s in a half-dozen comedy specials, his HBO Max sitcom Bookie  (season two premiered in December) or five sold-out gigs at Madison Square Garden this past fall—smashing the arena’s record for comedy shows. On stage, Maniscalco’s outsized style of physical comedy echoes Buster Keaton, with a hint of Andrew Dice Clay swagger thrown in for good measure. Skip his “It Ain’t Right” tour at Thunder Valley? Fuhgeddaboudit. thundervalleyresort.com   For even more reasons to hit the town all year long, pick up our January-February issue, with the full list of 25 Can’t-Miss Events to Check Out in 2025