So Cal Arts & Entertainment

The city’s in turmoil, crowds are rioting in the streets, people are starving, and the stock market’s on the brink of collapse. Sound familiar? Instead of one political party or another being blamed, however, “the Jews are responsible for our misery.” If this sounds...

Oh goody, an alternate timeline, hip-hop fantasy riff on “Peter Pan.” I think I’ll pass on Dance with Films this year. Instead, I recommend a subscription to Film Movement Plus, a streaming service that virtually promises never a dull moment. The site is particularly...

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...