Runyon Canyon, hike
Photograph: Benny Haddad
Photograph: Benny Haddad

Things to do in Los Angeles on Saturday

Let the brunching commence with our guide to the best things to do this Saturday

Michael Juliano
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Who has a hangover-fueled appetite and loves brunch? We do. But we also love greeting the morning with a hike or shopping the afternoon away at a sample sale. As far as events, Saturdays in L.A. tend to be the most packed day of the week, with screenings, festivals and all sorts of one-off affairs worth your time. However you choose to spend your Saturday, you’ll find plenty of things to do in L.A.

Things to do in L.A. this Saturday

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • USC/Exposition Park
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.
  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Westlake
  • price 3 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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...
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  • Comedy
  • Downtown
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Cole Escola’s gleefully irreverent comedy—a hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque about Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to her husband’s assassination—is the funniest play in years. The touring production hits Downtown L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre this fall, with Alaska Thunderfuck in the title role. Check out our full five-star review of its Broadway run. Tickets for the 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.
  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • West Hollywood
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.
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  • Museums
  • Movies and TV
  • Miracle Mile
  • price 2 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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...
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  • Shopping
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.
  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Glendale
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.
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  • Musicals
  • Hollywood
  • price 3 of 4
You’ve heard “Pinball Wizard” approximately a million times. But now see it all play out onstage when The Who’s Tommy comes to the Pantages. A dazzling new production of Pete Townshend’s groundbreaking 1969 rock opera will be performed in L.A. October 27 to November 15, introducing a whole new generation to the deaf, blind and mute boy who nonetheless “sure plays a mean pinball.” Expect powerhouse vocals, explosive choreography and enough rock ’n’ roll bombast to shake the chandeliers. Sadly, the baked beans choreo is strictly in the movie adaptation.
  • Museums
  • Movies and TV
  • Miracle Mile
  • price 2 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Ponyo loves Sosuke! And we love this exhibition at the Academy Museum dedicated to the wholesome Hayao Miyazaki film. Studio Ghibli donated more than 100 objects to the Academy Collection, and you’ll find everything from an animation desk to colorful art boards to dozens of frame-by-frame pencil drawings of the scene when Sosuke first finds Ponyo. Though you may recognize a couple of items from the museum’s debut Hayao Miyazaki retrospective, the vast majority of Ponyo pieces are new—and some have never been displayed in North America before. It’s also a colorful and super kid-friendly exhibition; you can watch clips of the gorgeously hand-drawn movie, recreate the wave-running scene and even make your own stop-motion animation. You’ll find it on the museum’s second floor, inside the first few galleries of the “Stories of Cinema’ space.
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