Because, in 2024, you’d be hard pressed to find a more timely, socially aware entertainment. “Hedwig” is a raucous Joker for the non-binary identification age, a sharp and ironic card now well played at Chance Theater in Anaheim.

It’s an impressive trick seeing how often and well Chance finds and develops lesser-known talent. This time, with young actor/performer Tom Avery, the house deals audiences a natural ace in the key title role.

Hedwig (christened Hansel) — bitterly and caustically self-described as ”a slip of a girly boy (who) becomes the internationally ignored song stylist” — guides us for 100, intermission-free and self-obsessive moments.

Playwright John Cameron Mitchell — he played the original Hedwig and starred in the 2001 movie — has shaped a soul-searing/sneering confessional about how a botched sexual reassignment operation led the character from Communist East Berlin to mind-numbing boredom and mobile-home poverty in Junction City, Kansas.

After a wrenching encounter with a would-be rocker, events culminate at Hedwig’s opening night on stage in Anaheim’s fictional La Palma Club. The character’s failed love interest Tommy Gnosis (Greek for “knowledge”) is starring within maddening earshot of a big, stadium rock concert at Angel Stadium.

An assured and confident presence, Avery delivers an autobiographical lament-meets-rant, while fronting a band and doing vocal justice to Stephen Trask’s compelling music and lyrics in varied pop music styles. (If you know new-wave rock, there’s a good chance you’ve heard “Wig in a Box” over the decades.)

Avery’s acting characterization has the pouts, flounces and self-indulgent mood swings — always gravitating downwards — required. With nearly every other line in the first half a sly, bitter double entendre, with faux German accent, Avery smoothly and ably transitions into vacuous, American rock star-speak when assuming the — merged? — identity with resented love interest Tommy.

Meantime, Avery proves a sure and evocative front for the backing four-piece band The Angry Inch, the name itself the rueful description of the disastrous surgery result.

The group is co-led (meaning, extra verbal abuse from Hedwig) by Yitzhak, a resentful, self-sacrificing cipher played by diminutive actress Laura Herskov. Yitzak, we come to understand, is a Croatian-Jewish drag queen who previously performed under the stage name — sorry ’bout this — Krystal Nacht.

Veteran regional director Matthew McCray is back at Chance — he was the landlord overseeing last summer’s “Rent” — and he delivers all the thematic chaos with an assured hand.

Chance has outfitted the production’s club stage ambience (anybody reading recall Costa Mesa’s long-gone punk dive Cuckoo’s Nest?) with a grit that scenic designer Bradley Kaye enhances in the first third of the story with a graffiti-covered Berlin Wall circa 1989 behind the bandstand.

Costume designer Bradley Allen Lock and hair and makeup designer Kate Galleran have gone to town on the band members’ looks; Hedwig’s greasepaint likely took 25% of the production budget.

As for the show’s conclusion, well, it’s anyone’s guess just knowing what has happened (at least for this befuddled critic… maybe the title end credits should read “Hedwig and the Baffled Ink-Stained Wretch”?).

But two definite leave-no-doubts:

1) “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Chance’s season opening show, shouts “game-on” anew.

2) Tom Avery should be on everybody’s radar.

‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’

Rating: 3 ½ stars (out of a possible 4)

When: Through Feb. 25. Regular performances: 7:30 p.m., Thursdays; 8 p.m., Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.

Where: Chance Theater, Cripe Stage, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

Tickets: $51-54.

Information: 888-455-4212; chancetheater.com

The first line of dialogue in “The Lion King,” spoken by that most cowardly lion Scar, is how pretty much every other Broadway producer over the past quarter century plus has likely felt about Disney’s monolith, which still firmly rules the financial jungle of live theater.

The 1997 musical, which Tuesday opened anew at Segerstrom Hall for most of February, had taken in a reported $8.2 billion worldwide as of mid-January (“Phantom of the Opera” remains a laggard second, a mere $6 billion). Tour productions of “The Lion King” have appeared on every continent except Antarctica.

The original New York production itself is closing in on $2 billion. It continues to draw at an unprecedented rate: during the week between the recent Christmas and New Years’ weekends, 9 performances brought in $4.3 million, the highest single grossing week in Broadway history.

As one astute theater-goer noted long ago as the show opened, “they’re going to have to rename it ‘the Lion Ca-ching.’”

As seen Thursday evening in Costa Mesa — before a sold-out house, naturally — the bedrock appeal of this unconquerable entertainment feels undiminished by time.

But it’s also now accompanied by the realization that in 2024 this is a production that wouldn’t likely get proposed, much less developed, in the age of digital flashiness where computer-generated effects rule.

Director Julie Taymor’s breakthrough originality in puppeteering designs, where life-sized animal puppets magically merge with the humans manipulating them, are throwbacks.

But Thursday evening, the physical craft on display continued to stagger and delight. It’s also the key component for making the first 10 minutes of “The Lion King” the most magical sustained opening to any live musical.

From the stirring first call in Zulu of “Nants ingonyama”  kicking off the soaring chanted song “Circle of Life,” the elegant, naturalistic movements of the costumed puppetry animal kingdom — a plodding elephant, a graceful giraffe, swift gazelles — parading through the audience and up onto the stage remain unique pageantry.

It continues to be revelatory and has magnetic luster.

This is especially impressive because at its core “The Lion King” is basically just the original 88-minute 1994 Disney animated movie, with original songs from Elton John and Tim Rice. The highly visual staging, with the song total doubled, totals 2 ½ hours of theater.

Disney’s decades-old elixir of entertainingly telling coming-of-age tales simple enough to capture kids and yet essential enough — with deft humor and other touches — to sustain adults, is universally appealing.

This current touring production has other enduring qualities worth noting.

Supplementing the artistry, Disney has continued to spend the loot keeping the show’s look as crisp and buoyant as always, with the scenic, lighting and costuming designs still impactful over the years.

Positive notes are struck by the current performances in this tour version, too.

The show begins with the mystical Rafiki, the spirit shaman who is outside the story, but will interject herself at a crucial period when a confused Simba — in his befuddled, wandering phase — is finding his way.

Mukelisiwe Goba engagingly plays the charmingly offbeat character — even late in the show the wisecracking meerkat Timon is puzzled at who/what Rafiki actually is — as well as satisfyingly delivering the clarion “Circle of Life” call.

The pride’s initial patriarch Mufasa is nicely inhabited by Gerald Ramsey, who resignedly displays an apt weight-of-the-world quality — he conveys the instructive “They Live in You” with appropriate gravitas.

His brother, the scheming Scar, is well served by an alternatingly suave and sinister Peter Hargrave. When his turn to rule comes, Hargrave’s Scar is more like The Lion CEO — foolishly generating the ill-fated merger of Lions & Hyenas, Inc. — and he deftly serves up the character’s arch and droll comedic asides.

Darian Sanders makes for an involving adult Simba. At this juncture, Simba is stumbling about the jungle in self-exile and ridden with self-guilt, a young adult unsure of a way forward. Sanders not only personifies this, but his lovely tenor is ideal singing the plaintive, yearning solo lead of the self-examination number, “Endless Night.”

Khalifa White, Simba’s grown-up compatriot/ultimate love interest Nala, delivers the stately “Shadowland” with measured, emotional resonance.

There are also the two comic relief characters Timon and Pumbaa. A meerkat and wart hog, respectively, this is a stock comedy pairing that stretches back in time past Abbott and Costello into early burlesque routines of a century ago.

As Simba’s cohorts, the duo is introduced via the musical’s second biggest hit, “Hakuna Matata,” the show’s Act 1 finale. (An odd side note echoing during the intermission: a nearby mom in the audience kept singing the title refrain with improved lyrics of “french-fried patata” and “egg-white frittata.” Resonance in the theater is wherever one finds it).

Anyway, actors Nick Cordileone and John E. Brady schtick up their roles as much as possible; as many of Pumbaa’s fart jokes as anyone could want remain firmly in place.

While Scar felt life isn’t fair, it’s fair to report that life continues to be fine when experiencing “The Lion King.”

‘The Lion King’

Rating: 3 ½ stars (out of a possible four).

When: Through Feb. 25; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Tickets: $39-$179

Information: 949-556-2787; scfta.org

NEW YORK — Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died Tuesday. She was 91.

Rivera’s death was announced by her daughter, Lisa Mordente, who said she died in New York after a brief illness.

Rivera first gained wide notice in 1957 as Anita in the original production of “West Side Story” and was still dancing on Broadway with her trademark energy a half-century later in 2015’s “The Visit.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song,” she told The Associated Press then. “That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m really so lucky to be able to do what I love, even at this time in my life.”

In August 2009, Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. can give a civilian. Rivera put her hand over her heart and shook her head in wonderment as President Barack Obama presented the medal. In 2013, she was the marshal at the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.

“She was a true Broadway legend,” playwright Paul Rudnick said on X, formerly Twitter. “She always delivered and audiences adored her. The moment she stepped onstage, the world became more exciting and glorious.”

Rivera rose from chorus girl to star, collaborating along the way with many of Broadway’s greatest talents, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, Harold Prince, Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro and John Kander and Fred Ebb.

She rebounded from a car accident in 1988 that crushed her right leg and became an indefatigable star on the road. She was on Broadway in a raucous production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” in 2012 and the chilly “The Visit” in 2014, earning another best actress Tony nomination.

“She can’t rehearse except for full-out,” said playwright Terrence McNally in 2005. “She can’t perform except for full-out, no matter what the size of the house. She’s going to be there 101% for that audience.”

She won Tonys for “The Rink” in 1984 and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” in 1993. When accepting a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theater for anything, because theater is life.”

She was nominated for the award seven other times, for “Bye Bye Birdie,” which opened in 1960; “Chicago,” 1975; “Bring Back Birdie,” 1981; “Merlin,” 1983; “Jerry’s Girls,” 1985; “Nine,” 2003; and “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life,” 2005.

“I don’t think we have enough original musicals,” she told The Associated Press in 2012. “I know I’m being old fashioned, but the theater is the place where music, lyrics, words, scenery and stories come together. And I’ve been blessed enough to have done several shows when they really did. They take you places and they’re daring. That’s what we need.”

Her albums include 16 tracks pulled from her original cast recordings and put out as part of Sony’s Legends of Broadway series and two solo CDs — “And Now I Sing” for a tiny record label in the 1960s and “And Now I Swing” in 2009 for Yellow Sound Label.

“I looked up to you and always will admire you as a talent and mostly as a person!” wrote Kristin Chenoweth on X. “A kick butt woman you were. All the rest of us just wanna be you.”

In the 1993 musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Rivera played the title role, a glamorous movie star at the center of the fantasy life of an inmate in a South American prison. The story, from a novel by Manuel Puig, had already been made into an Oscar-winning 1985 movie.

In his review, then-Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara wrote that Rivera “is more than a musical theater star. She’s a force of nature — which is exactly what is needed for the role of the Spider Woman. With her Louise Brooks haircut, brassy voice and lithe dancer’s body, Rivera dominates the stage whenever she appears.”

In 1975, she originated the role of Velma Kelly (to Gwen Verdon’s Roxie Hart) in the original Broadway production of “Chicago.” Rivera had a small role in the 2002 film version, while Catherine Zeta-Jones won the best supporting actress Oscar as Velma — just as Rita Moreno had picked up an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story.”

The songwriters for “Chicago,” Kander and Ebb, also wrote Rivera’s first Tony-winning performance, for “The Rink.” In winning the Tony for best actress in a musical, Rivera topped the show’s top star, Liza Minnelli, who also had been nominated. The two played a mother and daughter who struggle to rebuild their relationship after a long estrangement; the setting is an old-fashioned roller rink that has seen better days.

“Spider Woman” had been her first Broadway show since 1986, when she suffered a broken leg in the traffic accident while she was appearing in “Jerry’s Girls,” a Broadway tribute to the songs of Jerry Herman.

At the Tony awards a few weeks later, she flashed her cast and belted out “Put on a Happy Face” from the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie.”

It took months of physical therapy to bring back her dancing skills. She told The Associated Press: “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t dance again. Never. I can’t explain to you why. It’s hard work getting back but that’s what I’m doing.”

“My spirit is still there.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway songwriter and performer, featured Rivera in a scene in his 2021 film adaptation of “Tick, Tick… Boom,” and in a statement said having her included “remains one of the all-time joys of my life.”

Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero was born Jan. 23, 1933, in Washington, D.C. Her Puerto Rican father, Pedro del Rivero, was a musician who played in the United States Navy Band, who died when she was 7. Her mother was Scottish and Italian descent.

She took dance classes and then entered the prestigious School of American Ballet in New York. Her first theater gig, at age 17, was in the touring company of “Call Me Madam.” That led to chorus stints in such shows as “Guys and Dolls” and “Can-Can.”

In her 2023 memoir, “Chita: A Memoir,” another woman steals scene after scene: her self-proclaimed alter ego, Dolores. Unapologetic and fiery, Dolores was the unfiltered version of Chita and served as motivation in times of self-doubt. In one chapter, Rivera writes that she doesn’t read reviews “or Dolores just might invest in a dozen voodoo dolls.”

“I consist of — and I think we all do — I consist of two people: Dolores and Conchita,” Rivera sain in an interview with the AP that year. “Conchita, she’s the one that has been taking all the glory, you know. She’s been doing all the shows, but Dolores is the one that’s pushed her into it. And she’s been keeping me on track, so I listen to Dolores. I listen to her. She’s growing in my head now as we speak.”

“I can’t believe that I’ve been given the gift to look back and relive my life,” she told The Associated Press shortly before “The Dancer’s Life” opened on Broadway in late 2005. “It’s about how anybody can do it — if you really believe it, you have the good fortune, you do all the right things and you really work hard.”

Rivera, who had a relationship with the now-deceased Davis, married fellow “West Side Story” performer Tony Mordente in 1957. The marriage ended in divorce. Their daughter, Lisa Mordente, also became a performer who occasionally appeared on Broadway, garnering a Tony nomination in 1982 for “Marlowe.”

“Our hearts go out to everyone who loved her,” GLAAD said in a statement. “Rivera spent much of her long career advocating for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV and AIDS.”

There is no plot. The narrative consists of maybe 30 or 40 spoken words. And performances of its 30-odd catchy songs — the newest of them 80 years young, the oldest closing in on a century ago — are far away from a concert, richer than a mere revue.

Delightfully, the Tony-winning version now on marvelous display at the Laguna Playhouse, captivates as fresh, vibrant theater.

The is achieved through expressive performance, sharp-eyed direction and deft choreography. The two-hour (with an intermission) evening is like experiencing a couple dozen mini-playlets, three-four-minute bursts brimming with storytelling.

The source material is a roundup of songs largely from the canon of Thomas “Fats” Waller, though there are also tunes he popularized as an appealing performer. This innovative jazz-age pianist, songwriter and Harlem bon vivant had skills as oversized as the 300-pound personage that stamped him with the nickname he is remembered by.

Waller’s talent resides at the intersection of style and substance. Mostly gleeful — though he was capable of mood and depth — these effervescent numbers are also character sketches about Black sensibilities and preoccupations in the ever-evolving eras of the roaring ‘20s, Great Depression ‘30s and early ‘40s war years (Waller died in 1943 of pneumonia at the far too young age of 39).

While individual, elegiac Waller titles like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “‘t Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do” and “The Joint is Jumpin’” remain somewhat familiar pleasures to experience live, it’s the astonishing intelligence and energy running throughout the irresistible score and lyrics that provide the show’s key building blocks.

The collection of these gems that were assembled as the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” was conceived and created in 1978. Among those involved in performing it in its earliest incarnations on Broadway and in national tours was Yvette Freeman Hartley.

Decades on sees Hartley assuredly directing the Laguna Playhouse production in the intimate venue with an eye to staging detail that showcases the considerable talents of her five-member cast and a six-member band.

This two-man, three-woman cast (alphabetically, Dedrick Bonner, Summer Nicole Greer, Jenelle Lynn Randall, James Tolbert and Amber Diane Wright) are each engaged and engaging during their engrossing solos, duets and trios.

Doubling-down is their presence and singing in the many ensemble numbers, the harmonizing quintet of strong voices something to hear.

In the finale reprise of “Honeysuckle Rose,” each singer replicates a musical instrument in a startling replication of the band in full wail.

This is quite an emotional distance to the staggering quietude in the lament about racism, “Black and Blue.” Here the otherwise highly energized quintet focuses rapt attention by singing on stools, sitting without movement or expression. It’s a meaningful approximation of a cappella grief.

Ably fronted by music director Abdul Hamid Royal on the piano, channeling Waller’s “stride” style of playing, the band cooks through the arrangements. Act 2 begins by spotlighting each band member during a satisfying instrumental medley of the show’s score, offering the bass, drums, reeds and brass players a chance to stretch out and solo.

You can’t speak too highly, either, of the choreography in this production. It’s unclear what tracks back to Arthur Faria’s work for 1978’s original mounting, but here Roxane Carrasco’s constructions are invariably dazzling in their economy and focused movement.

Perhaps the most notable dance among all the jitterbugging and other up-tempo physical riffing is the oh-so-sinuous and seductive slither in Tobert’s delivery of the “Viper’s Drag” (who knew maybe the best ode to getting stoned smoking “reefers five feet long” was written waaaay before the ‘60s?)

The physical production well suits the ambience. Scenic designer Edward E. Haynes, Jr. surrounds a fixed set of a couple tables, the upright piano and a cramped bandstand, with impressionistic music motif imagery. Jared Sayeg’s atmospheric lighting suits the musical’s pacing and moods.

The evening in Laguna begins with a recorded version of Waller pitching a sly bit of woo in the 1933 tune called “Do Me a Favor.”

Do Fats, this deep, deserving talent pool and, especially, yourself this favor: experience Laguna’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” while you can.

‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’

Rating: 4 stars (out of a possible 4)

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: Through Feb. 11. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Fridays, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sundays. Added performances on Thursday, at 2 p.m. Feb. 1 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6. There will be no 5:30 p.m. performance on Feb. 11.

Tickets: $55-94

Information: 949-497-2787; lagunaplayhouse.com

“The programs were curated with our audiences in mind while showcasing our commitment to presenting renowned artists and ensembles from the U.S. and around the globe,” Tommy Phillips, the organization’s president and artistic director said in a statement.

Among the klieg-light appearances:

The vaunted Vienna Philharmonic returns to The Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for its first Orange County appearance in a decade. Led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Austrian orchestra will perform March 9 and 11, 2025. The program will include symphonies by Dvorak and Schubert; on March 9, pianist Yefim Bronfman will play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Other international orchestras appearing throughout the season include the London Philharmonic (opening night, Oct. 11), London Symphony and Israel Philharmonic orchestras, as well as two major U.S. ensembles, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Spread across the season, these groups will survey a wide range of work including music from Vivaldi, Mahler, R. Strauss, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.

Itzhak Perlman appears Jan. 24, 2025 with a celebration of his own musical past, hosting an evening of traditional klezmer in the program “In the Fiddler’s House.” The program, which will include klezmer specialty players, is a touchstone return to Perlman’s fundamental roots, introduced on an album that became a PBS special more than a quarter of a century ago, earning Perlman his third Emmy award.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the Society has an interesting celebration, headed by acclaimed pianist Conrad Tao and choreographer/dancer Caleb Teicher. On Nov. 23, Tao will perform multiple versions of the Rhapsody, including arrangements for solo piano, chamber ensemble, and tap dance, featuring Teicher.

The Laguna Beach Music Festival will be headed up this year by musical world luminary Caroline Shaw. The 23rd annual festival, in partnership with Laguna Beach Live!, sees Shaw acting as this season’s artistic director. The series of events Feb. 10-16, 2025 will end with three Shaw-curated concerts at Laguna Playhouse.

A notable chamber concert event takes place on May 4, 2025 when violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Pablo Ferrandez and pianist Bronfman will feature Beethoven and Tchaikovsky trios at Segerstrom.

Also at Segerstrom, on April 6, 2025 celebrated young violinist Randall Goosby pairs with pianist Zhu Wang for a four-piece program featuring works by Faure and Chausson.

The entire schedule can be viewed at philharmonicsociety.org.

Subscription packages go on sale today. Single tickets will go on sale in late August. To purchase season tickets, contact patron services at 949- 553-2422, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays-Fridays, or purchase online at philharmonicsociety.org.

Adapting its source material from the 1988 movie that launched Julia Roberts’ career and interspersed with a dozen or more added pop hits primarily from the ‘80s, it makes for agreeable, if not groundbreaking, live entertainment.

With saucy characters and a storyline that’s thankfully neither cheesy nor gooey, “Mystic Pizza” serves up slices of life. Three young women’s lives, to be exact. Two sisters and a friend, high school behind them, work at a small-town pizzeria while struggling with newly arriving adult complications.

While overtly shaped by the search for love in a couple of wrong places, the story is about young adults wrestling with emotional confusion; their friendship helps them figure out what kind of lives their choices may lead to.

Not that these romances are particularly surprising or unpredictable. One is not a “will they,” but a “when will they.” The second is the predictable first-love train wreck. The third is the time immemorial attraction of opposites.

What the mild storylines have underwriting, but not undercutting, them is a hook-heavy soundtrack paving the way of every plot turn. No theater credits in the program were listed for “licensing agreements,” but a sizable chunk of the creative accomplishment here is how writer Sandy Rustin’s facile tale has been knitted seamlessly through the acquisition of recognizable and spot-on tunes.

Events take place during fall in the tiny coastal seaport of Mystic, Conn. Cue the onstage live band and cast to break into John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” a song that will be reprised throughout the show to function as scenes transition and props slide seamlessly on and off (La Mirada’s reliable staging and tech prowess are well in place).

The show is a weave of episodic scenes punctuated by upbeat, nostalgic numbers, which include “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Addicted to Love,” “The Power of Love” and “Manic Monday.” Quieter, more intense moments, one-on-one interactions or solos, include “When I See You Smile,” “Hold On” and “True Colors.”

It even goes back to 1970 to channel perhaps the most inevitable title choice of all, Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” (You know the show’s creators checked this and a quick search online just now confirmed there’s never been a top hit with “pizza” in the title).

For theatergoers of a certain age who listened to the radio growing up, this is quite pleasant. It does, however, tend to flatten out explorations of character depth and acting at times, since the pacing – and our quality of anticipation in the audience — becomes as much if not more about what the next song is going to be.

It is certainly a well-cast show.

The actresses in the three leads — Krystina Alabado as rough-and-tumble Daisy (the Roberts role), Kyra Kennedy as Daisy’s Yale-bound sister Kat and Gianna Yanelli as their effervescent friend Jojo — are  naturally appealing for their respective roles and all three have strong singing chops.

A key adult role is Leona, the pizzeria proprietress. Beyond riding herd, in the most gently supportive way, on her occasionally erratic employees, Leona has the one tangential plotline, about the financial fate of her business. Actress Rayanne Gonzales has winning ways that elevates the confines of only being a cheerful supportive presence and she is a surprising vocal firebrand, leading the ensemble in the show’s showstopper “All I Need Is a Miracle/You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”

The resolution of the pizza store’s fate marvelously uses this number as its one breakout showpiece of what has been capable direction from Casey Hushion and evocative choreography from Connor Gallagher.

The show has moved along so seamlessly to this point that this unexpected fantasia of singing and dance movement, accentuated by tremendous visual dapples from lighting designer Ryan J. O’Gara, is a welcome departure of unbridled exuberance.

Unexpectedly enough, the scene’s dynamite use of that song combo is about the region’s snooty/nerdy TV restaurant critic trying the pizza and rendering a verdict.

This in-passing role, along with a couple other ensemble parts — notably as a suitably intimidating priest officiating the Catholic wedding at the show’s start — is played by a stellar Southern California stage resource, character-actor par excellence, Jeff Skowron.

Building on a legit Broadway career, Skowron has been a notable focal point in La Mirada and other regional theaters: if a small acting turn made you smile and giggle in one of these halls there’s a very good chance that it was the very talented Skowron pushing your buttons.

As for the show,  this one isn’t a life-changer or maybe something you remember much about a month from now, but it’s a well-made good time. If stories set in the near past as upbeat musicals are to your taste, take a bite.

‘Mystic Pizza’

Rating: 3 stars out of four possible.

When: Through Feb. 11: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays,  8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays.

Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada

Tickets: $19-90

Information: 714-994-6310; 562-944-9801; lamiradatheatre.com

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  Sawyer Lelliott, 7, tries out a violin courtesy of the Philharmonic Society before the start of a concert by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is doing a weeklong residency with the Philharmonic Society in Orange County. They are also performing on Jan. 18, 19 and 20 at the Segerstrom Center. Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are dressed in costumes during their Heroes and Villains concert at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is doing a weeklong residency with the Philharmonic Society in Orange County. They are also performing on Jan. 18, 19 and 20 at the Segerstrom Center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are dressed in costumes during their Heroes and Villains concert at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is doing a weeklong residency with the Philharmonic Society in Orange County. They are also performing on Jan. 18, 19 and 20 at the Segerstrom Center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are dressed in costumes during their Heroes and Villains concert at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is doing a weeklong residency with the Philharmonic Society in Orange County. They are also performing on Jan. 18, 19 and 20 at the Segerstrom Center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Audience member point and say, “I am your father” while Star Wars music is played during an interactive part of the Heroes and Villains concert by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are dressed in costumes during their Heroes and Villains concert at Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is doing a weeklong residency with the Philharmonic Society in Orange County. They are also performing on Jan. 18, 19 and 20 at the Segerstrom Center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra started a weeklong residency  in Orange County with a family concert at Santa Ana High School on Monday.

Dressed in costumes to fit the theme, “Heroes and Villains,” members of the international ensemble performed an interactive concert with audience participation.

Before the concert, members of the Orange County Philharmonic Society gave kids some hands-on experience with instruments from their Music Mobile van.

The residency, which includes school visits and a professional development workshop, will end with performances at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on January 18, 19, and 20.

NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.

Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”

Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song “Send in the Clowns” to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor.

“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the AP in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.”

Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of “Yellowjackets” in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood.

Back when it was being conceived, “A Little Night Music” had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas.

“Hal said ‘Why don’t you just say what you feel,”’ she recalled to the AP. “When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, ‘I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.”’

Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth.

Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy “Miranda.”

“I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise,” she told Newsday in 1998. In 1960’s “The Sundowners,” with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in “Elmer Gantry.”)

Other highlights include playing the mother in “Mary Poppins,” the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune “Sister Suffragette.” She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of “The Circle,” W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.

“I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else,” she told the AP.

In a 1991 revival of “A Little Night Music” in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom “Glynis.”

Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.

Audiences can consume from a range of offerings. On one stage a Shakespearean ghost visits a Black backyard barbecue. Elsewhere, there are not one but two jukebox variations of Julia Roberts’ most famous movies. Plus, there’s a much-awaited musical kiss.

From the menus of the 13 most prominent live theaters across four Southern California counties, here are some of the tempting offerings.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Ahmanson Theater: ‘Funny Girl’

If you have finally finished Barbra Streisand’s 966-printed-page tome of self, or just skipped through the highlights, this could be an ideal time to revisit  “Funny Girl,” the show that made her the way she were — er, was. Off the recent Broadway revival, the show’s national touring version follows the (love) life and (comedic) times of famed vaudevillian comedienne Fanny Brice. In New York, the musical triumphantly starred Lea Michelle. This tour will reveal if young Katerina McCrimmon — a lead in her first national production — earns show-stopping status or at least a “Hello Gorgeous.”

When: April 2-28

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand, Los Angeles

Information: CenterTheatreGroup.org

Geffen Playhouse: ‘Fat Ham’

“Fat Ham”… a mash-up of “Hamlet” at a Black backyard BBQ wedding reception? Well, here’s the rub: James Ijames, 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, leans more on tickling rib bones than mulling over Yorick’s skull. Its raucous tone is set when the main character’s dead father’s ghost makes an appearance demanding a side salad of vengeance. Boisterous doings result. This is a transfer of the Broadway production, which earned a critic’s pick from The New York Times.

When: March 27-April 28

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles

Information: Geffenplayhouse.org

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts: ‘Mystic Pizza’

The West Coast premiere of the musicalized version of a rendering of Julia Roberts’ movie debut, “Mystic Pizza” serves up a two-topping combo pie: the storyline of the original film’s coming-of-age  jukeboxed with 20-some ’80s and ’90s pop hits including “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” The Power of Love” and “Manic Monday.” If it’s a tasty slice will be determined out of the oven, but La Mirada has a track record of delivering premium ingredients when it comes to staging and casting accessible, upbeat musicals.

When: Jan. 19-Feb. 11

Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada

Information: lamiradatheatre.com

Musical Theatre West: ’42nd Street’

It’s still a bit surprising to realize that the meta-Broadway show “42nd Street” actually began its life long ago as a movie. But it is the perfect framework for a musical, right from the initial visual opening of the curtain rising a foot or so revealing a stage-wide dance line of tapping feet. The plot sounds cliché, tracking as it does the birth pangs of an imaginary musical and the rise of an unknown who becomes a young star. But “42nd Street” turns out to be the predominant origin myth about talent and ambition along the Great White Way.

When: Feb. 9-25

Where: Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St, Long Beach

Information: Musical.org

Pantages Theatre: ‘The Wiz’

In a Broadway-bound reimagined production, “The Wiz,” a seven-time Tony winner back in 1975 — best musical and best score were among its trophies — sees a modernized Black pride version of the famed Oz tale featuring a familiar R&B/funk score. This new mounting is already a road warrior, making several touring stops already, so Hollywood should host a well-polished run. Boogieing down the Yellow Brick Road, however, is limited to a three-week run here and with Wayne Brady in the role of The Wiz here, hurrying along that road to the box office might be more advisable than easing on down there.

When: Feb. 13-March 3

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles

Information: BroadwayinHollywood.com

Pasadena Playhouse: ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’

A rarely revived gem — the casting call alone could try director and choreographers’ souls — “Jelly’s Last Jam” is a tap-dance driven telling of the rough-and-tumble life of jazz pianist and songwriter Jelly Roll Morton. Navigating the back alley New Orleans to New York stardom bio of the self-proclaimed “inventor of jazz,” this is high risk/high reward musical theater. The late, fabled tap master Gregory Hines won a Tony in 1992 for portraying Morton; at this writing there is no announcement about who will be filling these big shoes in Pasadena.

When: May 29-June 23.

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena

Information: Pasadenaplayhouse.org

ORANGE COUNTY

Chance Theater: ‘Tiny, Beautiful Things’

Chance’s first half of 2024 finds two musicals bookending two plays focusing on women’s voices. Perhaps most promising is the Orange County premiere of “Tiny, Beautiful Things.” Taken from writer Cheryl Strayed’s best seller, actress Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) adapted the experiences of an online, modern-day advice columnist into an 80-minute reflective play that finds the writer visited by people who have sought advice and leaving the central character internalizing the emotional challenges and reckonings she has wrestled with publicly.

When: April 5-April 28.

Where: Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

Information: chancetheater.com

The Laguna Playhouse: ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”

First staged in 1978 as a cabaret performance, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” is an irresistible sung-through show that is somehow more than a revue even though it’s without a narrative. Running on the energy of Fats Waller’s jitterbugging quick and engaging tunes, it puts the vocalized energies of its five animated performers front and center. In the 1930s Harlem scene, Waller was both a songwriter/pianist and an impresario who wrote songs intended to entertain. Beyond the titled number, some of the indelible titles in the 31-song score include “I’m Going To Sit Write Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Honeysuckle Rose” and “‘Taint Nobody’s Bizness if I Do.”

When: Jan. 24-Feb. 11.

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Information: LagunaPlayhouse.com

South Coast Repertory: ‘Prelude to a Kiss The Musical’

One of South Coast Repertory’s most storied commissioned plays, Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss,” will — finally — see the world premiere of the musicalized version of the same title with Lucas again writing the book. This new work was originally aimed at a 2020 mounting, receiving a very promising reading the year previously, and now the awaited kiss will be bestowed. This world premiere production is being directed by SCR’s artistic director, David Ivers.

When: April 21-May 11.

Where: South Coast Repertory Theater, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Information: SCR.org

Segerstrom Center for the Arts: “‘MJ The Musical’

The Michael Jackson bio-drama “MJ The Musical” is on the road and if even half the riveting, adrenaline rush of this dance-driven Broadway show transfers, this will land incredibly well. Though organized around a plot that ends in the early 1990s — avoiding the scandals that marred the  King of Pop’s later years — this time-fluid story covers the singer’s earliest, and then most successful, years with maximum dazzle. Much of the success is owed to director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, whose background in the world of ballet brings a focus and discipline to both Jackson’s dancing and the dances formed around his music. And, if you had to ask, yes, even that famous white glove dotted with Swarovski crystal will likely get its own round of cheers.

When: March 19-31.

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Information: scfta.org

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

Fox Performing Arts Center and McCallum Theatre: ‘Pretty Woman’

The most successful movie of the late director Garry Marshall’s prodigious career — and Julia Roberts’ biggest box office hit — this live musical version of “Pretty Woman” features songs from rocker Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. While far from a critical favorite, it had a reasonably successful run for a year on Broadway in 2018-2019. The plot resembles the movie with its modern spin on a Cinderella-esque notion: a business mogul hires a prostitute to be his formal companion at events and a relationship emerges.

When: Jan. 16-17 (Riverside); Jan. 19-21 (Palm Desert)

Where: Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside; McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert

Information: tour.prettywomanthemusical.com

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

The California Theatre for the Performing Arts: ‘In The Heights’

A locally sourced production of “In The Heights” presents Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “other” musical, the one not about anyone found on any denomination of U.S. currency. Of course, labeling this show as the earlier and lesser Miranda musical doesn’t do it justice since it won four Tonys, including best musical in 2008. It’s an agreeable, high-spirited entertainment with a substantive display of characters of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican descent.

When: May 19-21.

Where: The California Theatre for the Performing Arts. 562 W. 4th St., San Bernardino

Information: CaliforniaTheatre.net

Scrooge is the literary king, of course. Mr. Potter of “It’s a Wonderful Life” surely makes the cut. A hundred or so other forgettable Christmas movies needed at least one semi-baddie to fund plot conflicts.

But for worst of the worst, is it the Grinch who takes the cake? (Actually, in Dr. Seuss’ Grinch myth-origin book, he snatched more than cake: “He took the Who’s feast, he took the Who pudding, in fact he took the roast beast.”)

So, the Grinch is as beastly as it gets. And given he steals not just dinner, but all Whoville’s toys, fireplace stockings and even decorated trees it makes for a legitimate argument for his worst-ness.

But in the touring theater version “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas! The Musical,” which arrived in timely fashion at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a matinee-packed, one-week run, we encounter a many-tones-of green oversize mop of the Grinch (Joshua Woodie) who is fairly harmless and periodically charming.

That’s also a reasonably accurate summary of the 85-minute, intermission free musical itself.

The show is narrated by the Grinch’s dog Max. Actually, there are two generations of Max, with older/scruffier Max (W. Scott Stewart) as our reminiscing narrator, telling the tale in flashback.

The younger/friskier-tailed Max (Brian Cedric Jones) gives the Grinch someone to scheme aloud to in real time.  Plus, this Max briefly morphs into a canine version of Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve as Grinch flies away from his mountain aerie as a turncoat changeling Santa, off to creep down Whoville chimneys and steal toys, not give them out.

This show’s Grinch is a bit different than the source material. His intent here is less about greed and swiping stuff than generating tidings of no comfort and misery. His stated goal is to halt the joy of Christmas Day itself from dawning in Whoville.

As in the book, his redeemer is young Cindy-Lou Who (Aerina DeBoer) who likes the Grinch from the get-go, somehow aware that underneath his greenie-meanie exterior are loneliness and self-image issues that her hugs and friendliness can salve.

Given Seuss wrote his 1957 book for the age 3-8 demographic, you don’t go in expecting Sondheim. But the many un-catchy original songs in this show — with a couple exceptions — are serviceable at best and irritatingly chirpy when it comes to the Whos prattling on en masse about how besotted they are with Christmas.

This is squeamishly underscored because even while singing “It’s the Thought That Counts,” make no mistake, for these furry roly-polies — clad in decidedly Target bold red to marshmallow-y pinks – it’s ALL about the swag.

The show perks up whenever the Grinch takes center stage. Without question the top musical number is his one-man “One of a Kind.” Performed in front of a curtain of shimmering green tinsel it’s about as Broadway razzamatazz-y of a production number as this show has.

The other notable number is from the original 1966 animated half-hour made-for-TV telling. “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” has lyrics written by Seuss himself. In this production, a reprise of that tune found the Grinch shining (green, of course) footlights into the audience to help generate a sing-along from a very willing audience.

Woodie’s take on the Grinch is quite appealing. He somehow conveys slyness and being perplexed underneath all the facial pancake makeup. At one point, in disguise and wearing a cowboy hat to trick the Whos, when asked where he is from, the actor took a beat, then Texas-drawled out the reply “Who-ston”.

As one of the production’s two rotating Cindy-Lous, DeBoer’s crystalline vocals were on impeccable display Tuesday night during her duet with the Grinch in “Santa for a Day.”

In a decidedly non-scientific poll after the curtain drop, I surveyed 5-year-old Nico Cespedes of Ontario who was with his mom and had been sitting next to me.

Cespedes had just seen his first-ever live theater show, and despite being a bit unsure about being in the dark when the house lights were first turned off, the number of dimples he flashed afterwards confirmed he had a very good time.

And, in search of a final verdict on the question of relative moral turpitude, did he think the Grinch was really bad?

“No. He was awesome,” Cespedes ruled. Then, rendering an unasked-for costuming opinion, he approvingly added, “He was really green!”

‘Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas! The Musical’

Rating: 3 stars (out of a possible four).

When: Through Dec. 24; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Tickets: $59-$149

Information: 949-556-2787; scfta.org