The Brief

Until a few nights ago, the only thing I knew about Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters show was the hilarious spoof the cult sitcom Arrested Development had done that made the 91-year-old tradition look absolutely ridiculous.

Arrested Development is by far my favorite and, imo, most accurate picture of Orange County in popular media – so I went into attending my very first Pageant this week with a bit of a bias. But now that I've seen the real deal, I can say it is indeed one of the most bizarre, but also, most incredible and intricate spectacles I've ever witnessed.

I'm only half an hour away from Laguna Beach, but for the last eight years I've lived in O.C., I just couldn't get excited about the idea of watching volunteer actors hold their breath, and their pose, for more than a minute while trying to recreate old famous paintings. That was, I thought, the essence of the Pageant of the Masters.

But this year, the theme intrigued me: fashion trends through the ages. (A friend later pointed out that the show is kinda always about fashion. It's not like they're going to choose boring, ugly paintings to recreate.)

I recruited a few friends, found some cheap tickets, and pitched a story to my editors.

Actors recreate Jean-Honoré Fragonard's painting The Swing (1767) at Pageant of the Masters in 2024.

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Courtesy of Pageant of the Masters

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Is that a real person?

It took about two seconds after the show started for me to realize it's much more than a tableau vivant, or living picture where actors pose to recreate a static scene. Pageant of the Masters is a full-on multimedia extravaganza, with projections, skits, and a live orchestra.

There is narration throughout, which gives history and context to the scenes, along with occasional corny quips.

When life-sized portraits appeared onstage of long-dead British monarchs, I couldn't tell whether I was looking at actual people or not. But then, they must be real people, I thought, because that's the whole point of this thing!

I spent the next 15 minutes or so obsessed with trying to catch one of the actors blinking, or moving a muscle. I never did.

I started to realize I was missing the whole show when producers 'pulled back the curtain,' so to speak, to demonstrate what they do to make the paintings on stage look so real.

Actors walk up into a three-dimensional background, which is surrounded by a frame that makes it look like the picture is floating above the stage floor. Curtains allow the stagehands to adjust the size of the frame to fit whatever painting they're recreating. The backdrops are intricate replicas of the original works, with missing spaces where real people and props stand in.

An actor in Pageant of the Masters poses as a jeweled brooch from 1900 by Gaston Lafitte.

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Courtesy of Pageant of the Masters

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And the actors — nearly 500 volunteers help put on the show — were amazingly still, even in the most uncomfortable looking positions. I later read in the program that they have props that help them hold a pose, like a seat belt for the pink-gowned woman soaring through the air in the recreation of Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing.
The humans posing as famous statues were similarly impeccable — if I didn't know, I would've thought they were just well-painted paper mache replicas, positioned there to enhance the overall theme of the show.

Pay up or bring your binoculars

It's possible those sitting closer to the stage can spot the difference between actor and prop or painted backdrop. I was in the cheap seats. And when I realized people around me had binoculars, I felt like a total noob.

So at intermission, I rented some. But honestly, I still couldn't identify the living, breathing humans on stage! After the show, I mused with a couple of women sitting near me that maybe you need to see the Pageant several times for your eyes to adjust to the surrealness of it all.

Applying makeup backstage at Pageant of the Masters in 2024.

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Courtesy of Ron Azevedo/Pageant of the Masters

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After looking at photos of the backstage prep and rehearsals, I realized that a major trick is in the makeup. The soft lines, unnatural colors and painted-on shadows turn the actors into doppelgängers of their brush-stroked models.

The weird fake hair — which, in closeups, looks like plastic Lego hair — is also key for certain recreations.

Actors recreate the illuminated manuscript entitled Royal Parisian Wedding, author unknown, at Pageant of the Masters in 2024.

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Courtesy of Pageant of the Masters

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It's all magic

I started to really enjoy the show, rather than just gawk, when I gave up on scrutinizing the details and declared the whole thing magic.

The show’s tribute to Edith Head, the eight-time Academy Award-winning costume designer, confirmed my conclusion. As we watched life-sized replicas of Alfred Hitchcock movie posters, and actors recreating a scene from The Birds, the narrator invoked this quote from Head:

(inline quote) "What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not."

If for nothing else, I'd go see the Pageant again because of the gorgeous setting. The amphitheater where it takes place, on the grounds of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, is like a smaller, more intimate Hollywood Bowl — without the light pollution.

When my eyes needed a break from staring at a scene, I looked up at the stars. Later, the waning moon peaked up above Laguna Canyon, just late enough not to upstage the show.

I hope you had luck in securing the first round of LA28 Olympics tickets — and that you’re not still waiting for page refreshes this morning! We’ve got all the info on how to get your tickets and why you shouldn’t fret if it doesn’t work out on this first try.

LAist’s Mariana Dale went to Hollywood High School this week to see how students and teachers felt about Mitski bringing a concert to the historic space. Seems like no one was missing class since perfect attendance meant a shot at tickets.

No matter your music taste, there’s a show for you this weekend. It may not be the height of summer yet, but things will be heating up at the Hollywood Bowl as Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler reunite for their concert performance of Broadway hit The Last Five Years. Plus, Licorice Pizza recommends Mercury Prize-winning London rapper Dave at the Palladium, St. Paul & the Broken Bones are at the Belasco, Calum Scott plays the Wiltern, and there’s a really cool First Fridays night at the Natural History Museum with dub legend Adrian Sherwood. Saturday has pop trio LANY at the Intuit Dome, Lamb of God slaughtering the YouTube Theater, SoundCloud rapper Rich Amiri at the Fonda, post-hardcore band Hail the Sun at the Wiltern, pop sensation Nessa Barrett at the Masonic Lodge, and another rising pop star, Alexander Stewart, at Chinatown’s cool new venue, Pacific Electric.

Explore more from LAist: Check out the latest L.A. chefs who are nominated for a James Beard award, or follow the space trail if you were inspired by the new Ryan Gosling film, Project Hail Mary.

Events

O.C. Japan Fair

April 3-5
O.C. Fair & Event Center
88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa
COST: FROM $16.78; MORE INFO

Experience sakura season without leaving the area at the O.C. Japan Fair, featuring 250 vendors, craftspeople, food booths, art activities and more, all celebrating Japanese culture. From sake tastings to sushi-making workshops to musical performances and kimono try-ons, the annual event is one of the largest Japanese cultural fairs in California.

Play L.A. New Works Festival 

April 3-4
Greenway Court Theatre
544 North Fairfax Ave., Mid-City
COST: FREE, MORE INFO

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PLAY LA Festival

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Check out readings of five new plays — all for free! — at the Play L.A. New Works Festival, put on by Stage Raw and the Greenway Arts Alliance, along with a number of L.A. indie theater powerhouses. This year’s plays are Stonewall’s Bouncer by Louisa Hill, produced by The Victory Theatre; At Olduvai Gorge by India Kotis, produced by The Odyssey Theatre Company; Ghost Play by Mathew Scott Montgomery, produced by InHouse Theatre; The Incident by Rachel Borders, produced by The Road Theatre Ensemble; and Three Dates by Erica Wachs, produced by IAMA Theatre Company. Go see one, or go see them all!

SoCal Corgi Beach Day 

Saturday, April 4, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
21351 California 1, Huntington Beach 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Vlad D

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Unsplash

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Head to Huntington Beach for the cutest event of the year, the annual SoCal Corgi Beach Day. This year’s theme is "Tiki Beach Pawty," because of course it is. Honor Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite pets and spend the day at the beach with these short, stout, snuggly friends while they frolic and compete in events like — I am not making this up – Corgi Limbo.

Plaza Mexico Celebrates Easter 

Sunday, April 5, 12:00 p.m. to 4 p.m.
3100 E. Imperial Highway, Lynwood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Plaza México

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You have your pick of Easter Bunny photo ops and egg hunts around town, and Plaza Mexico would be a great one with the family. Meet and take a picture with the Easter bunny, enjoy kids' arts & crafts, family activities, vendors and sweet treats.

Writers Bloc: Cory Booker

Friday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.
John Adams Middle School (JAMS) Performing Arts Center
2425 16th St., Santa Monica
COST: $33; MORE INFO

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 05: Senator Cory Booker attends PBS' "Black & Jewish America: An Interwoven History" Screening With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Conversation With Sen. Cory Booker at 92NY on February 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

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Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

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Getty Images North America

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Spend Friday night with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, whose new book, Stand, tells stories from his political life that aim to share "actionable insights" to help preserve democracy in these challenging times. The conversation with Writers Bloc will be hosted by Sean Bailey, the former head of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production for 14 years and the current CEO of the new multi-platform production company B5 Studios. The event is sold out, but there is a waitlist available.

Behind the Canvas — An Exclusive Art Talk with the Jurors of A Woman's Place: Framing the Future

Saturday, April 4, 11 a.m. 
Ebell of Los Angeles 
741 S. Lucerne Blvd., Mid-Wilshire
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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The Ebell

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Have coffee and doughnuts with the curators of the Ebell’s Women’s History Month exhibit, "A Woman’s Place: Framing the Future." You can catch the show before it closes and see work from women artists exploring new interpretations of womanhood, feminism and art.

Grunion Run 

Saturday, April 4, starting at 10:30 p.m.
Venice Breakwater
Ocean Front Walk, Venice
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

Thousands of grunions on the shore.

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Courtesy of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium

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I have lived in Venice for more than 20 years and never actually seen a grunion, despite efforts, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to see all your neighbors scouring the beach by moonlight on a Saturday night. The Venice Oceanarium folks always organize an educational tent with lessons on how these unique fish show up on our shores to reproduce, and maybe you’ll luck out and time it right this year.

She’s Auspicious

Saturday, April 4, 7 p.m.
Broad Stage
1310 11th St., Santa Monica
COST: FROM $40; MORE INFO 

L.A. native Mythili Prakash takes the Tamil dance form Bharatanatyam to new heights as a choreographer and performer. Her short dance film Mollika, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage in London, was nominated for a 2025 National Dance Award for Best Short Dance Film. She’s Auspicious, her latest production, "blurs the line between goddess and woman, exploring the dichotomy between celebration of the goddess versus the treatment of women in society." It was nominated for an Olivier Award in the category Best New Dance Performance in the U.K., and lucky for us, is on for one performance only at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

The cool weather continues for one more day in Southern California. Later this evening, strong winds will kick in for some mountains and highway corridors ahead of a Santa Ana wind event slated for Friday.

Temperatures at the beaches are going to stick around the mid to upper 60s, and around 70 degrees more inland.

Coachella Valley, San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains will continue to see gusty winds until tonight.

At noon, the Antelope Valley will be under a wind advisory, with winds expected to reach 20 to 30 mph, and some gusts up to 50 mph. Wind advisories will also kick in for the 5 Freeway corridor, Ventura County mountains and the Santa Susana mountains, where gusts could reach 45 mph.

CalMatters and a national consortium of news organizations Wednesday filed a motion in Riverside County court seeking public access to the warrants a judge approved allowing Sheriff Chad Bianco to seize hundreds of thousands of ballots for an unprecedented investigation into the outcome of the November 2025 special election.

The groups are also filing a separate petition with the California Supreme Court that also seeks to have the records unsealed.

A Riverside County judge had ordered the warrants sealed, along with the sworn statements Bianco’s deputies made to a judge justifying their request to seize more than 1,400 boxes of Proposition 50 election materials from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

Lawyers representing CalMatters along with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Riverside Record, other newspapers and local television network affiliates filed a motion to unseal the warrants and the sworn statements.

The coalition argues that it’s vitally important for the records to be made public, since they’re central to a bitter dispute over election integrity between two powerful state officials: Bianco, who is running for governor as a Republican, and Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who is running for re-election.

“The public should not be forced to navigate these competing allegations without the facts on which the investigation is based,” Jean-Paul Jassy, attorney for the news outlets, wrote in the motion. “Nor does the law require them to.”

Bianco obtained three warrants in February and March from Riverside County Judge Jay Kiel authorizing the sheriff’s office to begin seizing ballots and other election materials from Riverside County elections officials. Kiel, whom Bianco endorsed when he ran for the bench in 2022, sealed the warrants at the request of the sheriff’s office.

Bianco intended for his deputies to recount the more than 600,000 ballots cast in the county last year as part of an investigation over what a local activist group called discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and number tallied. The county’s top elections official, Art Tinoco, has rejected those claims and explained in February to the county’s Board of Supervisors that they were the result of the activist group using flawed and incomplete data.

The investigation and recount are on hold, Bianco said earlier this week, after Bonta and the UCLA Voting Rights Project filed several legal challenges seeking to halt them. Bonta had ordered Bianco to turn over the warrants and supporting statements. He said in his lawsuits that the sheriff had failed to allege a crime or provide enough cause to justify seizing the ballots, and accused Bianco of using the investigation as a campaign stunt.

Bonta’s office has refused to release those documents, citing the judge’s order sealing them.

Keeping them under seal has prevented the public from being able to scrutinize both politicians’ statements, in a hyper-partisan dispute ahead of a contentious election.

Bianco, in an interview last week, also refused CalMatters’ request for copies of the warrants.
“No, you’re not going to,” he said. “When (the investigation’s) over, like every other case that’s sealed, when it’s unsealed, you’ll get to see it. … Don’t you act like this is something out of the ordinary, because it is not.”

Under state law, police must execute warrants within 10 days of obtaining them, after which the documents and the police’s supporting statements must be made public. But it is common for law enforcement to ask for them to remain sealed during active criminal investigations.

In the ballot case, attorneys for the media outlets argue Bianco himself publicized the investigation during a press conference on March 20. They wrote that even if Bianco’s department had confidential information to protect, that does not justify Kiel’s sealing of all the records.

“It is hard to imagine a stronger public interest,” Jassy wrote, than “access to a proceeding purporting to resolve allegations relating to election integrity — allegations at the heart of our democracy.”

The case reached the state Supreme Court after Bonta filed an emergency petition seeking to halt Bianco’s ballot-seizure investigation. A lower court ruled Bianco’s investigation could proceed.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.