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The Santa Barbara Chamber Players will be performing on Sunday, October 12th at 3pm at Trinity Lutheran Church, 909 N LaCumbre Road. It is a fundraising chamber concert featuring local musicians performing the Bliss Quintet for Oboe and Strings, Woodwind quintets by Debussy and Agay, a duet between horn and double bass by Deterling, and a brass quartet for two trumpet, horn and alphorn! Tickets are $20 and are available at https://sbchamberplayers.org/. Don’t miss it!

The Santa Barbara Chamber Players will be performing on Saturday, October 25th at 7:30pm at First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu. It will feature the Beethoven Coriolan Overture, Kodály Summer Evening, and Prokofiev Classical Symphony. They will be joined by the Westmont College Choir for Mendelssohn Verleih uns Frieden and Haydn’s Te Deum. Tickets are $20 and are available at https://sbchamberplayers.org/. Don’t miss it!

Marnina Schon and Micah O’Konis had a pitch-perfect wedding, minus the venue burning down. Oh, and the bed bugs. And the judgmental couples therapist. Now they’re on their honeymoon, in Edinburgh Fringe chasing off existential dread with catchy songs and Muppet-y energy.

They seem to narrowly escape calamity at every turn, guitar and fiddle in hand. Are they cursed? Are they blessed? Can one wedding change the world?? With catchy songs and Muppet-y energy, “there’s nothing they can’t sing and laugh their way through” (New York Times). Think Flight of the Conchords… if they had sex.

A Jewish, genderqueer couple — whose folk-pop anthem “People Think We’re Straight” will, well, set people straight — sing smartly stupid songs that are full of heart and packed with jokes in this gloriously positive, funny, and original hour of musical comedy.

Directed by another actual married couple, Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe veterans Chris Grace and Eric Michaud.

This exhibition showcases historic Broadway posters from collector Richard C. Norton, a comprehensive selection of musical theater posters 1972 to the present ranging from the famous to the obscure, from the celebrated to the damned. These posters offer insight into the evolution of American musical theater, graphic design, marketing, image branding and audience engagement. Far more than advertisements, they reflect the artistic, social and commercial contexts of their time—revealing how productions were first introduced, how stars were celebrated, and how visual trends paralleled theatrical innovation. As ephemeral objects, their preservation provides rare evidence of the material culture surrounding performance. By examining these posters through an academic lens, we can better understand Broadway’s influence on American theater, music and popular culture. The exhibition invites viewers to explore how theater has been represented and remembered, and how visual media contributes to the construction of cultural memory.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a lecture featuring Nicholas van Hoogstraten, author of Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 (Schiffer Publishing, 2024).

About the Richard C. Norton Musical Theater History Collection:
The Richard C. Norton Musical Theater History Collection consists of materials documenting musical theater including 25,000 playbills, 800 typescripts, and 1,500 published libretti, as well as sheet music and 78rpm records. Norton is the author of A Chronology of American Musical Theater (Oxford UP, 2002) a landmark work with details on thousands of Broadway productions. The collection was assembled to support the research for his book.

A new happy hour featuring Twenty-Four Blackbirds chocolates and beverages by WineCult!

Have "Dessert First" during our first ever Happy Hour event!
As the aroma of chocolate surrounds you, relax and unwind in the Twenty-Four Blackbirds shop while enjoying truffles and chocolate covered treats. WineCult will be pouring delectable drinks, which pair perfectly with all chocolate delights. Savor the day with a glass (or bottle) of wine and welcome in the weekend. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be available.

Join us on a beautifully paired wine and chocolate experience! This guided tour walks you through the chocolate making process, from bean to bar. Taste cacao every step of the way and finish with a chocolate and beverage tasting that excitingly pairs three truffles with three sustainably-made, small production wines, selected and poured by our local wine partner, WINECULT.
A non-alcoholic pairing option is available, but this event is for those over the age of 21.

Join us on a beautifully paired wine and chocolate experience! This guided tour walks you through the chocolate making process, from bean to bar. Taste cacao every step of the way and finish with a chocolate and beverage tasting that excitingly pairs three truffles with three sustainably-made, small production wines, selected and poured by our local wine partner, WINECULT.
A non-alcoholic pairing option is available, but this event is for those over the age of 21.

Join Sol Aromatics at Final Girl Wines’ tasting room, nestled in Solvang, for a potion perfume experience like no other. The space is steeped in a haunting yet playful atmosphere, with cinematic touches and a Halloween spirit that sets the perfect stage for this potion-making adventure. In this hands-on experience, you’ll blend rare botanicals, whisper your intention, and craft an all-natural fragrance to embody your desire. Each participant leaves with a hand-blown glass genie pendant holding their potion of intention — a wearable keepsake of fragrance, intention, and allure.

It’s 1895: a new generation of Americans is coming of age and looking for trouble! In the barrooms and bordellos of St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlantic City – “loafing places”, as some disgruntled townie may have called them – something new and uniquely American is cooking up. Young piano players are melding southern country dances with lowdown blues with European classical, and the result is called: Ragtime, an infectious syncopation which will shape the sound of American music to come.

Award-winning pianist Eve Elliot is your raucous guide into this colorful world, with its infuriating injustices and thrilling triumphs. You’ll meet some of our story’s heroes – and villains – and get a glimpse into their lives and music. Expect plenty of hilarity and vaudevillian antics as we delve into questions like: Who kidnapped Fats Waller? Why did Jelly Roll Morton own so many suits? How did Scott Joplin uphold his artistic vision amid a slew of rejection? What does “funky butt” mean?

Embrace the duality of this elevated art form birthed by the underworld of vice. Surrender to the “weird and intoxicating effects” of delicious live ragtime and stride piano. Celebrate the lives of these debonair and debaucherous pioneers – from the national fame and fistfuls of hundred dollar bills, to the alcoholism and fatal venereal disease. And experience their music, which traveled from the 10-cent whorehouses to Carnegie Hall.

“A winning blend of vaudeville, English pantomime and music hall.” Drama-logue

One special added twilight performance – have the kids dress up and go out for an early evening of theatre perfect for the whole family. Join Alice as she accepts an invitation from the Queen of Hearts to return to the Wonderland of her youth. Will Alice prevail, or are the Cards stacked against her? Will the Queen suffer a heart attack? Lovely audience participation throughout the production helps Alice set a topsy-turvy Wonderland aright in this zany musical comedy.

“STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!” L.A. PARENT

The internationally acclaimed Family Theatre musical comedy, performed on three continents over the past 45 years, is presented by renowned Actors’ Repertory Theatre, and features Holly Gibson, Amanda Hornberger, Isabel Lindley, J.T. Melaragno, Michala Peltz, Megan Wright with Cydne Moore, Joseph Perez and Graham Silbert.

“Wonderful! This is genuine Lewis Carroll, updated with witty alliterations and puns. Skillful direction and humorous extractions from the original Alice gives everyone something to enjoy.” PONY RIDE

Gorgeous costumes by award-winning designer Ashley Hayes, lilting musical numbers and a charmingly bedecked rose garden enhance the "clever clowning and buoyant silliness" (L.A. Times) of this audience favorite crowd-pleaser. Written and directed by Evelyn Rudie and Chris DeCarlo.

“BEST parties in L.A.” CBS.com

Birthday parties, hosted by colorful fairytale characters, are available with every performance.

Santa Monica Playhouse programs are supported in part by generous grants from the We Are Santa Monica Fund, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the Ahmanson Foundation, and Playhouse PALS.