Attending a Play or Concert on Shabbat

The Aish Rabbi Replies

I’m afraid it wouldn’t be appropriate. Even if attending it involves no forbidden activity – not even handling a ticket (which is muktzeh), we may not do activities which significantly contradict the spirit of the day. Apart from the specific forms of labor we must not do on Shabbat, God, through the prophet Isaiah (58:13), exhorts us further: “If you restrain your foot because it is the Sabbath; refrain from accomplishing your own needs on My holy day; if you proclaim the Sabbath ‘a delight,’ and the holy [day] of God ‘honored,’ and you honor it by not engaging in your own affairs, from seeking your own needs or discussing the forbidden….” The Sages derive many important laws from this seminal verse, but its underlying message is that it’s not sufficient to observe Shabbat by refraining from labor. We must not involve ourselves, neither in our speech nor our actions, in the same types of activities we do during the week. (Note in particular the phrase "restrain your foot" - implying we do not go the same places on Shabbat we go during the week.) Rather, we must dedicate this day to spirituality.

Note that if the production is done by Jews or for Jews, then there is a further issue of supporting such an event (even non-financially), since we should not be involved in activities, especially public ones, which do not honor Shabbat.

(Source: Shemirat Shabbat K’Hilchata I 16:9.)