Things to do in Los Angeles on Saturday

Each ahistorical turn ratchets up the absurdity in Cole Escola’s irreverent and deservedly buzzy stage comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln’s booze-soaked misery in the weeks before her husband’s assassination. Oh, Mary! is absolutely hysterical; this is not clapter-inducing humor, but 80 brisk minutes of the sort of quick comedy beats you’d expect from a stellar sitcom (Escola has a number of superb TV writing credits) or crass cartoon—or, the artform that Mary is singularly focused on achieving stardom in, cabaret. For this national tour, a fiercely kinetic Alaska Thunderfuck channels a mix of shut up mom moodiness and dead-inside sarcasm; the RuPaul’s Drag Race star adds a snappiness to Mary’s retorts that makes each comeback that much colder. The production at Downtown L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre only runs into early December, but it’s already proved so popular that it’ll return in 2028 (until then, you can check out our full five-star review of its Broadway run). Tickets for the sought-after run can be pretty pricey, but you can try your luck at same-day rush tickets for $49 or $79; they’re available online each morning at 9am (use code MARYRUSH) or at the box office one hour before curtain.

Co-organized with Warner Bros. Archives, this immersive exhibition explores the world-building of Ryan Coogler’s record-breaking and Oscar-winning film Sinners. Centered around the film’s iconic Club Juke sequence, it uses music as an ancestral thread to trace Black cultural memory and the Great Migration from the Mississippi Delta to California. Featured artifacts include original film costumes for Michael B. Jordan’s Smoke and Stack, the Club Juke sign and Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore’s guitar. On your way out, stop by the interactive installation “Sounds That Carry Us,” where visitors can reflect on their own musical memories.

It’s not Santa Monica Boulevard, but Sheryl Crow will be having lots of fun playing for fans on the Sunset Strip, where the singer played some formative shows at the start of her career. Now she’s returning for Live on Sunset—a massive, free, one-day outdoor music festival taking place on Saturday, November 14, along Sunset between Doheny Drive and San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood. The nine-time Grammy winner will be joined by a multi-generational lineup including Local Natives, Empress Of, Grace Bowers, Doug Locke and Mia Moretti. In addition to main-stage performances, attendees can explore outdoor activations, fan experiences, and local food and beverage vendors. While admission is free, mandatory registration opens on Wednesday, October 14, at liveonsunsetweho.com.

You might have seen ads on Instagram over the past couple of months for Hospital of Emotions—a colorful, cartoony flyer that heralds a site-specific art pop-up located in a real hospital with the tagline “a place to heal your heART.” The conceit intrigued me off the bat: 70 artists (both local and international) given hospital rooms as a canvas to transform as they wished. Hospital of Emotions ads are also referring to it as “the experience of the year.” We’re only in May so that’s still TBD, but I do think the exhibition—which is inhabiting the former St. Vincent Medical Center in Westlake and is officially open to the public as of May 27—is well worth your time. While the entire experience is hospital-themed—you walk through a waiting room and are given an intake form and hospital wristband, employees are in doctors’ coats—it’s not the cheesy type of immersive exhibition (read: selfie factory) that you might expect. Instead you’ll find 80 rooms filled with thought-provoking, visually dazzling and, yes, eminently photogenic installations. But there’s both style and substance here. And though the tickets are definitely on the pricey side, there’s so much to see—I spent nearly two hours there during my visit—that it (almost) makes up for it. The rooms are organized by theme; you start at the top of the building in the “Resilience Department” and make your way through clusters of rooms inspired by feelings like joy, sadness, anger, grief, fear and hope. The emphasis on...

Artist Cj Hendry’s faux-floral pop-ups in New York regularly attract blocks-long lines, and now Angelenos can take home the soft, sculptural blooms: Flower Shop is setting up at 6 Rose Avenue in Venice (barely a block from the boardwalk) daily from 10am to 6pm from November 8 to 21. Each fabric flower costs $10, though if you’re interested in assembling an entire bouquet, the tenth is free. The flowers are available on a first-come, first-served basis with no ticket or RSVP required, and new inventory will be added throughout the duration of the pop-up.

Right in time for Halloween season, the Academy Museum seeks to answer the question “Why do horror films matter so deeply to so many?” in this immersive look at the genre whose cultural cachet is always increasing. Knowingly employing horror tropes and exploring the lasting appeal of scary movies, the show is divided into six subcategories of horror—gothic, psychological, science, slasher, religion and ghosts. Expect re-creations of iconic settings where visitors will encounter creatures, monsters and objects from their favorite horror flicks and, in typical Academy fashion, a behind-the-scenes look at the storytelling and production processes of films from the original Frankenstein to The Shining to Get Out. After revisiting nearly every horror title (and slasher mask) you can think of, there’s only one way out of the exhibition—and it drops you into the middle of your own scary movie. At the end of a long hallway, you’ll find the Blood Room, a disconcertingly realistic re-creation of a slasher’s crime scene, with fake blood covering the walls and pooling onto the floor. The show is sure to be a huge hit with horror aficionados. And if you’re a horror hater? Well, according to Academy Museum President Amy Homma, you just haven’t found your horror yet. By splitting the genre into six wide-ranging categories, the exhibition shows that what qualifies as a horror movie isn’t one-size-fits-all. So if you, say, can’t handle anything with a ghost (guilty), you might be drawn...

Bathe in the neon glow of bygone bowling alley signage as Glendale’s Museum of Neon Art tells the story of the postwar rise of bowling alleys in Southern California. In addition to pieces of neon, “Wonder Lanes: The Signs and Style of Mid Century Bowling” includes a documentary and bowling memorabilia, with a specific focus on five midcentury local lanes: Covina Bowl, Long Beach’s Java Lanes, South Gate’s Arena Bowl, Crenshaw’s Holiday Bowl, Anaheim’s Wonder Bowl and Glendale’s Grand Central Bowl.

Admire suspended sheets of textiles—including the metallic ones that would be incorporated into the curtains at the new David Geffen Galleries—along with colorful sketches and a recreation of Tokyo store NUNO at LACMA’s showcase of pioneering textile designer Reiko Sudō.

Head to the mountains for the annual Oktoberfest at Big Bear Lake, where you’ll be able to clink steins every weekend from September to early November. Beer will be flowing, knockwursts will be cooked up, and dirndls will be worn. The entertainment lineup includes numerous bands—many straight from Germany—and other performances, and one lucky damsel will be named the Oktoberfest Queen when she wins the stein-carrying contest. Others can test their skills with free log-sawing, stein-holding and chugging competitions.

The Natural History Museum stays up late this holiday season with the debut of this illuminated experience. NightTales will place projections and glowing installations, feauturing works from local artist Maggie West, across some of the museum’s indoor and outdoor areas.