The Fox Tucson Theatre will mark the holiday season with live concerts, a free talk on Tucson’s mariachi history and an eight-film series of holiday classics in December.
The Holiday Film Series includes “Home Alone,” “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” according to the theater. The live lineup includes swing group Phat Cat Swinger, a cappella country group Home Free, Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean, R&B act the Wooten Brothers, the Allman Betts Band, vocal group Voctave and Mariachi Sol de México.
Phat Cat Swinger opens the month Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. with “A Not So Silent Night.” The show features arrangements from the group’s Christmas album, “From All of Us, To: All of You,” along with unreleased songs the group plays only in concert. The group also performs at Disney California Adventure’s “Festival of Holidays” during the season.
Home Free brings “Coming Home for the Holidays” to the Fox Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. The all-vocal country group won the fourth season of NBC’s “The Sing-Off” and has since released seven top-three albums in the U.S., according to the release. Those include “So Long Dixie,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Current Country Albums chart in 2022. The group’s most recent album, “Challenge the Sea,” came out in 2025, and its YouTube channel has more than 1.87 million subscribers.
On Dec. 3 at 1 p.m., the theater will host a free talk, “Mariachi Music with Dan Buckley: A Curious Conversation Inspired by Mariachi at the Fox.” Buckley, a journalist, historian and filmmaker, was inducted into the Mariachi Hall of Fame in 2013. He will share accounts from decades of documenting mariachi culture and discuss how Tucson helped launch the youth mariachi movement in the United States.
Buckley wrote for the Tucson Weekly before joining the Tucson Citizen in 1987, where he covered mariachi music, the Tucson International Mariachi Conference and the city’s Latino cultural scene. His film and book project, “The Mariachi Miracle,” documents the impact of youth mariachi and folklórico dance programs in Tucson.
AJ McLean takes the stage Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. with “Alexander James: The Better Man Tour,” a solo show under his given name. McLean has been a member of the Backstreet Boys since the group formed in 1992. The group has sold more than 180 million records worldwide, according to the release, making it the best-selling boy band in history. McLean released his first solo album, “Have It All,” in 2010, followed by the country-influenced “Long Road.”
