So Cal Arts & Entertainment

David Edward Reyes and Talia Goodman in Karen Fix Curry’s “Celtic Knot” at OC-centric. Photo by Kirk Huff Schenck. Theresa Rebeck's “The Understudy” (at Modjeska Playhouse in Lake Forest through Sept. 3) is an example of what can happen when a playwright makes a name...

The cover features funny lady Alice Howell. Carol Burnett may be a pioneer of sorts, but women were taking pratfalls decades before she was born. As Steve Massa sees it, the Boy’s Club “myth” of silent film comedy started with James Agee’s seminal Life magazine cover...

Ryan Imhoff and Grace Morrison in New Swan’s “Taming of the Shrew.” August. Time to swelter in the city. And brush up your Shakespeare. Those who love the Bard’s comedies—as well as those who tend to avert their eyes and ears for fear they won’t understand it—are in...

Nicoletta Manni and Claudio Coviello in Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company’s Giselle. Photo by Marco Brescia & Rudy Amisano. If you hurry you can catch Teatro alla Scala Ballet’s “Giselle” at Segerstrom Center for the Arts today before they leave town. This is a rare...

Lou Sabini’s “Sex in the Cinema: The ‘Pre-Code’ Years (1929-1934)” is a solid, well-researched introduction to the films of that brief period between the end of silent movies and the enforcement of Hollywood’s prudish Production Code. Leading ladies with loose morals,...

Eifman Ballet in “Red Giselle.” Photo by Evgeny Matveev. The Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company’s “Giselle” at Segerstrom Center for the Arts July 28-30 is certain to be a must-see event—especially with Misty Copeland in the title role on opening night. But Eifman...

Danny Scheie and Annie Abrams in “The Monster Builder.” Photo by Debora Robinson/SCR. A two-act play with a gangbuster first act has a built-in problem—proceeding with a worthy follow-up which meets the heightened expectations of the audience. That’s the problem in a...

“Get Your Man” (1927) with Clara Bow and Buddy Rogers. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival gets under way June 1 at the city’s treasured silent-era movie palace, The Castro. Harold Lloyd’s popular “The Freshman” (1925), featuring a climactic football game filmed at...

“The Killer Angels” at Maverick Theater. The best way to comprehend the Battle of Gettysburg—the turning point in the Civil War—is to tour the battlefield with an historian. At present, your best bet on the Left Coast would be to check out “The Killer Angels” at...

Brad Zimmerman in “My Son the Waiter.” Will Eno’s “Middletown” (in its SoCal premiere at Anaheim’s Chance Theater through May 21) reminds you of Thornton Wilder’s celebrated “Our Town” from the get-go. This may or may not have been a conscious decision on Eno’s part...