The Newport Beach Film Festival is continually seeking ways to create innovative programming. The Newport Beach TV Festival, which presented its second annual festival last June, is one prime example of expanding into another visual medium. Now, in association with PBS SoCal, the Newport Beach Film Festival has launched “The...

Breathe in. Breathe out. Now experience “Wild Child,” created by The Breathe Project. As noted in the Laguna Playhouse program for “Wild Child,” which runs through October 4, The Breathe Project is an independent creative studio developing original stories and intellectual properties across theatre, music, visual narrative and other forms...

There are two astounding milestones associated with South Coast Repertory’s staging of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical “Into the Woods,” which opened September 18 and runs through October 18. First, “Into the Woods” launches SCR’s 63rd season—has it really been that long since SCR founders Martin Benson and David...

Mats Steen lived with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle disease that increasingly limited his mobility and eventually required him to use a wheelchair. To those around him, his physical world may have seemed increasingly small. But online, Mats built a rich virtual life that gave him opportunities to...

Prepare to “Be Our Guest” when the hit Broadway musical, Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” comes to Segerstrom Center September 22 through October 11. It’s the first North American touring production of the musical presented by Disney in over 25 years. The musical is based on the popular 1991 Disney...

It’s not often that a local theater, especially one as acclaimed as Laguna Playhouse, presents the world premiere of a musical, but that is exactly what the playhouse is doing when “Wild Child” launches the Laguna Playhouse’s 2026-2027 season on September 12. According to information from Laguna Playhouse, “Wild Child”...

Pacific. That word can mean many things. For Alexander Shelley, who begins his inaugural season as Pacific Symphony’s new Artistic and Music Director this September, just the name Pacific Symphony is evocative. “It doesn't immediately evoke a specific location, but the word pacific, for me, serves as such a beautiful metaphor...

Prepare to laugh when The Second City improvisational comedy troupe returns to VEA Newport Beach with “The Second City Goes Coastal.” Hosted on the Sunset Lawn against sweeping Pacific Ocean views, this exclusive two-act, 90-minute show features short-form improv sketches, interactive moments with the audience, and classic Second City favorites brought to life...

Hollywood Producer Joseph “McG” Nichol and Jordan Otterbein of River Jetty Restaurant Group took over operations of The Lido Theater in 2024, and they have been ramping up programming to include not just classic movies but concerts and comedians as well as offering The Lido Theater as a special...