So Cal Arts & Entertainment

Those of us who revere Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy sometimes wish they had made feature films during the silent era. While they didn’t do one until sound came in (with their voices perfectly suiting their characters), unlike the comedy superstars of the day, they...

What better time to have a play by the daughter of an immigrant—coincidental though the timing may be—on one of So Cal’s top stages, especially when it’s a compelling, heartfelt drama about lives of five women? When taken as a subtle protest against the misogynistic,...

There’s a tendency to tinker with the warhorses of musical theater and reinvent them for new audiences. But wiser heads prevailed with the revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, which opened last weekend and continues through...

Joan Rivers comes back to vibrant life in Daniel Goldstein’s “Joan” at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa (continuing in its world premiere through Nov 24.) Unlike “Funny Girl,” the focus of this non-musical drama is a woman’s lifelong aspiration to make audiences...

What kind of father sends his teenage daughter into the cellar of a spooky old house, late at night in the dead of winter, for a bottle of booze? The da in the first Irish-language horror film, naturally. “An Taibhse” (“The Ghost”) is set in post-famine Ireland,...

You have to wonder about the Newport Beach Film Festival when you’re asked to be a moderator for a Q&A session following a TV show you’ve never heard of, and don’t know anyone involved. Fearing the first question would be, “Who the heck is he and why is he here?,” I...

It’s always an event when the Pacific Symphony returns to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for a new season. Thursday, September 26, marks not only the cyclical beginning for the hall’s resident orchestra but Music Director Carl St. Clair’s 35th anniversary...

A man walks into a bar… trust me, you haven’t heard this one before. The plot of the offbeat new movie comedy “The Falling Star”— released here by Kino Lorber—is so bizarre and the characters so quirky it could’ve been written by Eugene Ionesco.  For openers, there’s...

If timing is everything, what more relevant time for not one but two plays about the rise of fascism and antisemitism in pre-war Germany? The title isn’t likely to pull you in, but anyone who loves compelling drama is urged to head over to the Victory Theatre Center...

What do women want? It’s a question old as time. In David Harrower’s “Blackbird” at the Chance in Anaheim Hills (through June 23), a young woman’s motives remain unclear even after she identifies a middle-aged man as a former partner in an illegal relationship and...