So Cal Arts & Entertainment

Is the pandemic the death of theatre as we know it? It’s a question being asked ‘round the world. Few are willing to dip their toes in the waters of online theatre while the conundrum is being debated. Yes, the medium is problematic in myriad ways. And no, it’s not...

Two entertainers, a struggling ingénue and a veteran thespian, bump into each other on their way out of auditions. Both rejected, they sing to each other about their hopes and dreams. After calling the seasoned Viktor (Hermann Thimig) on his grandiose fibs, Susanne...

While Santa Ana’s Frida Cinema is offering special pop-up drive-in showings around Orange County and other theaters are doing virtual screenings, Hollywood’s independent arthouse staple, Arena Cinelounge, is the first bricks-and-mortar movie theater to reopen to the...

If you’ve always wanted to attend the Pordenone Silent Film Festival—Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, where I had a blast in 2017—now’s your big chance. The 39th edition of the festival will be an online event this year. In collaboration with movie...

Ealing is more than a suburb on the edge of London. Before the BBC moved into its hallowed soundstages, it was a “defiantly small” film studio, as Peter Ustinov once recalled, that “glorified the small at the expense of the big, the conventional, the pompous.” The...

Extra time on your hands? Now’s your chance to catch up on movies and books. Sunday afternoons in quarantine are a lot more fun now that I can look forward to my friends Ben Model and Steve Massa host the Silent Comedy Watch Party on YouTube (streamed live at 3pm...

The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano calls itself Orange County's Premiere Concert Venue. To me they fail the acid test of a venue worthy of that label—good acoustics. The Irvine Barclay Theatre, that modest little auditorium on the UC Irvine campus, isn’t perfect...

How do you make art from Awkward with a capital A, an unusually difficult and sometimes tragic adolescence? See the groundbreaking Lisa Kron-Jeanine Tesori musical “Fun Home” (playing through Mar. 1 at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills) and find out. This...

  South Coast Repertory can never be accused of staging plays primarily for white audiences. They do an exemplary job of offering works by and about ethnic minorities, of which they can justly be proud. In the case of plays focused on African Americans however shows...

“The Ed Sullivan Show” was “a really big show” in its day, as its host often boasted, a television program that could propel little known talents to the forefront. Talents such as Borscht Belt ventriloquist Rickie Layne and his Yiddish-accented dummy Velvel, and a...