Ironically enough, the key to making “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!” was in finding a movie star who wasn’t a movie star. “It had to be a nobody or a big somebody,” Josh Duhamel said of the actor who could play the title character. Read more...

Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo & Juliet” brought Shakespeare to young people and convinced them it was cool. Now, Luhrmann attempts to turn them on to Italian opera. Read more...

When remembering the classic musical “West Side Story,” the image that pops into most people’s heads is probably the dance-fighting sequence between the Jets and the Sharks, who finger-snapped their way into theater lore. Read more...

UCLA theater student Heather Leimberg trained her whole life to perform on Broadway. This past summer, sweating in ballet class and nailing those notes in singing lessons paid off when she shared the stage of New York’s Neil Simon Theatre with Tony Award winners as part of the ensemble cast in the musical “Hairspray.” Based on the 1988 John Waters film of the same name, “Hairspray” is set in the 1960s, following Tracy Turnblad’s transformation into a teen celebrity after winning a spot on a local television dance program. Read more...

One seldom finds a comedy show more concerned with making the audience talk than making them listen. But that’s what Standup For Peace is all about ““ talking. Read more...

Submerged in a sea of bling-bling rap and garage rock is a growing pool of talented singer-songwriters. Along with musicians like Iron & Wine and Ryan Adams, Mark Kozelek is at the forefront of this movement. Read more...

Rock ‘n’ roll is bad for your health, or so local garage rock band Kennedy wanted us to believe at their Spaceland show last Thursday night. Read more...