So Cal Arts & Entertainment

No bald sopranos or rhinoceroses in sight, but “As You Like It” is evidence the Bard indulged in theatre of the absurd long before Ionesco. This just might be the most convoluted, improbable rom-com ever written, but New Swan Shakespeare Festival makes sense of the...

It should come as no surprise that the guy who wrote The Great American Novel, “The Grapes of Wrath” (at least in my opinion), also wrote a play that ranks alongside Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in its merit and timelessness. The guy is John Steinbeck, of...

Shakespeare/Summerfest Orange County’s “The Tragedy of Hamlet” (through Jul. 23 in Garden Grove) has its strengths and weaknesses, not unlike the play itself. David Denman anchors the play with a strong performance in the lead, though he seems physically wrong for the...

The surprise highlight of a busy theatre weekend was courtesy of a choreographer who’s not afraid to break with convention and do the unpredictable—namely Mats Ek of the Royal Swedish Ballet. His “Juliet & Romeo” (at Segerstrom Center for the Arts) delivered the...

Samuel Beckett’s best friend in So Cal continues to be the Center Theatre Group. Their latest coup: reteaming Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern—who displayed such great chemistry together in CTG’s “Waiting for Godot” at the Mark Taper Forum in 2012—in Beckett’s...

More than 350 films from 50 countries are slated for the 16th annual Newport Beach Film Festival, Apr. 21-Apr. 28. Special events, red carpet galas, conversations with filmmakers, international spotlight events and seminars are all part of the mix. The popular...

What do Jews do on Purim? This one went to see “Book of Mormon,” natch (at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts, where it runs through Apr. 3). This Trey Parker-Robert Lopez-Matt Stone musical appears to be an amusing but innocuous satire at first, opening with...

LA Opera’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (through Mar. 6 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) is surprisingly cartoony. It makes extensive use of animation; at its best it’s as wild and surreal as the work of Tex Avery. At other times it’s downright silly, too...