\u201cAudition Sides\u201d is also very much about that role-seeking process that theater artists go through.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this very heightened space where we\u2019re supposed to act like we\u2019re calm and in control for an audition that lasts 45 seconds,\u201d said LeClair, who\u2019s not only an actor but a teacher of acting and singing, primarily for audition coaching. \u201cThere\u2019s so much performative mask-wearing and underneath it all is this boiling stress as you\u2019re preparing to try to bring this authentic performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of absurdity about the audition room for us as actors.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sut-l-stage-spamilton-new.jpg\")
The touring company of \u201cSpamilton: An American Parody,\u201d which plays Sunday at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego. (Ron Elkman)
\nMusical parody<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for somebody to spoof the monster Broadway hit \u201cHamilton\u201d and make money doing so. Almost exactly a year after Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s hip-hop-infused show opened on Broadway in 2015, writer-director Gerard Alessandrini (\u201cForbidden Broadway\u201d) brought his parody \u201cSpamilton\u201d to New York\u2019s Upper West Side. Its music and lyrics skewer not only \u201cHamilton\u201d but other smashes like \u201cThe Book of Mormon\u201d and \u201cSweeney Todd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The skewering will happen here, at the Balboa Theatre downtown, on Sunday. https:\/\/www.sandiegotheatres.org\/events\/detail\/spamilton-2026 \u201cSpamilton: An American Parody\u201d features spoofy tunes written by Alessandrini such as \u201cAaron Burr, Sir, Nervous-er\u201d and \u201cDaveed Diggs \u2013 The Fresh Prince of Big Hair.\u201d (\u201cHamilton\u201d fans remember Diggs as both the original Thomas Jefferson and Lafayette on Broadway.)<\/p>\n
![\"Detail](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sut-l-visual-sdma-facade.jpg\")
Detail from Wagner Humphreys\u2019 \u201cTimeless,\u201d a color pencil and color marker on paper art piece celebrating San Diego Museum of Art\u2019s 100-year history. It\u2019s part of the museum\u2019s \u201cLocal Visions: Reimagining the Facade\u201d exhibit opening Saturday. (Wagner Humphreys)
\nVisual art<\/p>\n
Balboa Park \u2013 and this is not going to be about the pay-for-parking fracas \u2013 boasts many iconic buildings, and among them is the San Diego Museum of Art with its Spanish Colonial Revival fa\u00e7ade. Not surprisingly artists admire it as much as park patrons do.<\/p>\n
From this admiration came an exhibition titled \u201cLocal Visions Reimagining the Fa\u00e7ade,\u201d which opens on Saturday in the museum\u2019s first-floor Gallery 6.<\/p>\n
Local artists were invited through a local call to, as the title suggests, reimagine the museum\u2019s exterior utilizing their own contemporary perspectives. Ten artists are featured in the exhibition, which runs through July 26.<\/p>\n
![\"Moderator](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPE-L-CUSACK-0310.jpg\")
Moderator and Wisconsin morning TV show host Tiffany Ogle chats with John Cusack at a screening of his 1989 romantic comedy \u201cSay Anything.\u201d (Daniel Ojeda, courtesy of The Backlog Project)
\nCelebrity screening<\/p>\n
Just a couple of months after hosting an appearance by music writer\/filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the Magnolia Theater in El Cajon is bringing to its stage on Friday John Cusack, the star of the first film Crowe directed, 1989\u2019s \u201cSay Anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cusack, who\u2019s on a tour that features screenings of not only \u201cSay Anything\u201d but of \u201cHigh Fidelity,\u201d<\/a> the 2000 movie directed by Stephen Frears, will be on hand at 7 p.m. Friday for a Q&A that accompanies a showing of Crowe\u2019s film, which co-starred Ione Skye and prominently featured Peter Gabriel\u2019s \u201cIn Your Eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder if Mel Brooks had any notion way back in the \u201850s when he and Carl Reiner created a sketch titled \u201cThe 99 Year Old Man\u201d that he\u2019d still be around \u2013 at age 99. Well, Brooks is still around, and his life and career are celebrated in a two-part documentary, \u201cMel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man,\u201d<\/a> premiering now on HBO Max.<\/p>\n The documentary is co-directed by filmmaker Judd Apatow, who wrote in The Atlantic a couple of years ago that Brooks is the reason he went into comedy. Reminiscences from Brooks include those about Reiner and about actress Anne Bancroft, who was Brooks\u2019 spouse for 41 years.<\/p>\n UCTV<\/p>\n University of California Television<\/a> invites you\u00a0to enjoy this special selection of programs from throughout the University of California. Descriptions courtesy of and text written by UCTV staff:<\/p>\n \u201cHarnessing Nature\u2019s Innovations from the Sea\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n How do most organisms communicate in the natural world? Through chemistry. Marine biologists Bradley Moore and Natalie Grayson of Scripps Institution of Oceanography explore how ocean life uses molecules as a kind of language. From the pigment that lets squid and octopuses shift color for camouflage to the chemical compounds produced by corals and their microbial partners, these molecular signals help organisms survive and adapt. Some of these natural compounds are even making their way into human medicine \u2014 like a molecule now in phase three clinical trials for treating glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. Their research has broad applications in biotechnology, from developing new materials to improving the global food supply and advancing human health.<\/p>\n![\"Mel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sut-l-movies-melbrooks.jpeg\")
Mel Brooks, seen here at Grauman\u2019s Chinese Theatre in 2014, is the subject of a new HBO documentary. (AP)
\nTelevision<\/p>\n