Best Things To Do This Week in Los Angeles and Southern California: April 22 - 25

The Moreton Bay Fig Tree outside the Fairmont Miramar is estimated to be over 130 years old and more than 80 feet tall – it’s also Britney Spears’s favorite tree – and maybe it’s yours, too. Embrace your true Californian self and join the Earth Day celebration with songs, poems, speakers and a “group tree hug.”

Pulitzer Prize finalist and L.A. Times reporter Rosanna Xia knows more than most people about the threats that climate change and erosion pose to California’s coastline. She literally wrote the book on it: California Against the Sea. Hear her in conversation with L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chair Lindsay Horvath on Earth Day, delving into the state's most pressing environmental issues.

In the new play Kairos, showing through next week at East West Players, two people fall in love during precarious times. The sci-fi twist comes in the form of a procedure – Prometheus – that grants a select few immortality. This calls into question commitment, meaning, and a linear timeline. Theater blog Stage and Cinema called the show’s cast “stellar” and added that “Kairos unleashes a myriad of colors and shapes that the love between two people can take.”

Country music is having a real moment in Los Angeles. There are Stud Country’s queer line dancing events and country nights weekly at Nameless and Winston House, not to mention all the buzz Queen Bey has lent to the genre with the release of Cowboy Carter. But I’m not quite sure what one wears to something called Coastal Cowgirl… Cowboy boots and a crop top? Sunglasses and spurs? Nonetheless, this country-fied two-night event curated by Spotify features Mickey Guyton, Avery Anna, Laci Kaye Booth, Grace Tyler, and more.

In what may be the first group show by Costa Rican artists in California, curator Hannah Sloan has brought together 13 artists well-known in Costa Rica but rarely exhibited here for a group show at Bergamot Station. Adrián Arguedas Ruano, Alina González, Allegra Pacheco, Christian Wedel, Isaac Loría, Javier Calvo, La Cholla Jackson, Lucía Howell, Luciano Goizueta, Matias Sauter Morera, Mimian Hsu Chen, Priscilla Romero-Cubero, and Valiente Pastel make up the artists featured. Their work includes a range of media including installations, video, photography, painting, prints and sculpture – all bound by a focus on the topics of body, identity and place.

British Muslim comedian Guz Khan went YouTube viral back in 2015 and never looked back. His show Man Like Mobeen, based on the reformed-drug-dealer-turned-good character he created in his YouTube clips, has given him a following in the U.S., as did his role in the Taika Waititi series Our Flag Means Death on HBO. He's performing at The Regent Theater this week.

The year 2026 will mark America’s semiquincentennial — that’s 250 years and a new spelling bee word for you — but the Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro is getting the years-long party started now. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will host JROTC from local schools, Sea Cadets from programs in the South Bay, as well as local Navy and Marine Veterans. Participants can “meet” George Washington and a Navy Rear Admiral and hear the Los Angeles Fife & Drums, listen to a brass band, check out a water display from the LAFD and see the Tiger Squadron’s fly-by salute.

Greystone Mansion has played host to so many films over the years, it’s only fitting they show movies in their historic home and garden that highlight the space. Next up at Greystone In The Movies is The Big Lebowski, which used Greystone for the home of Jeffrey Lebowski (the wealthy businessman, not The Dude). Your ticket includes a pre-screening tour of the areas used in the film, followed by the screening.

Enjoy a three-course chef’s dinner with pairings from Justin Winery in Paso Robles, plus conversations with the vintners and a special take-home souvenir are on offer at this event. Not to mention the lovely Marina sunset views!

Fans of the Netflix show Bake Squad will recognize French pastry chef Christophe Rull. You’ll learn how to decorate one showpiece cake from the master baker himself, and there will be prizes for the best in the class. The ticket includes a glass of champagne, a chef’s hat and apron, and your decorated cake to enjoy at home, of course.

It seems like everyone is going to Portugal these days, but you don’t have to hop on a plane for amazing Portuguese food. Barra Santos in Cypress Park was just named a James Beard Foundation semifinalist only a year after opening. To celebrate, the Lisbon-inspired restaurant is sharing a Portugal Restaurant Week menu from April 22 to April 28 with a special pre-fixe $45 three-course selection.