Roger Bart--you'll probably recognize him from Desperate Housewives or The Stepford Wives--leads the cast as Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced "Fronkensteen"), a New York brain surgeon and professor, who inherits a castle and laboratory in Transylvania from his mad-scientist grandfather, Victor Von Frankenstein. He goes to Transylvania to close out the estate, but madcap hijinks ensure, and soon enough, he finds himself experimenting in the lab with the monster and with assistant Inge (Anne Horak). Bart proves himself to be an able song-and-dance man, but he played the role a tad too straightlaced for our tastes. more ›

It is with great sadness that LAist notes the passing of comedy legend Harvey Korman who died today at the UCLA Medical Center. He was 81 years old. Korman died of complications from an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ruptured four months ago. more ›

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Author and USC professor Gina Nahai and actress Bahar Soomekh (Crash) read from Nahai’s latest book Caspian Rain – about a family falling apart just before the Islamic revolution in Iran. Immediately following, there’s a discussion of the changing lives of women of the Middle East, and relationships between Iran’s Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as how these communities interact in Los Angeles, “home to the largest population of Iranians outside Tehran.” more ›

How do you make world wars funny? During World War II, one of the more somber moments in world history, it took some time to find comedy in what was an absurd era that fomented the rise of Existentialism and made geniuses out of Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Paul Sartre, none of whom made their mark in comedy. more ›

There's only one network that would dare give you the raspberry: and that's G4TV, who will be premiering episodes of an animated "Spaceballs" this fall - you know, that Star Wars Mel Brooks parody you watched about seventy-six times in the 80's? Variety says: Encompassing a one-hour pilot and 13 half-hour episodes, project represents the first scripted series greenlit by the new TV division at MGM, led by Jim Packer, president of the worldwide... more ›

Book people are the luckiest people in the world because they get to read what they love while on the job. So we envy Robyn Kamimura, the assistant Promotional Director at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. She organizes book signings for authors and gets to meet and greet the celebrated and the strange everyday. Robyn contributes to the books column in the Arroyo Monthly magazine. She also writes a kick-ass email newsletter for the store. You can sign up for her weekly dispatches here more ›

Alfred Hitchcock fans are in seventh heaven this month, thanks to the Egyptian Theatre’s series, “Hitchcockian: The Master & His Disciples.” For the next three weeks, the Egyptian will screen some of Hitch’s most lauded – and some lesser known – films, which will then be paired with other movies that paid homage to, stole from or mocked the master of suspense. more ›