Melissa Heckscher

2 days ago | dailybreeze.com | Melissa Heckscher

I was halfway through the live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon” when I started feeling a teeny bit nauseous. It was my fault. I was the one who wholeheartedly dragged my kids to see the aforementioned movie at the new 4DX movie theater inside El Segundo’s recently opened CinemaWest Beach Cities. In case you’re not familiar, seeing a movie in 4DX means that — among other things — all the seats in the theater move with the movie. And, oh, do they move.

1 week ago | dailybreeze.com | Melissa Heckscher

It’s easy to watch the nightly news and see the world as a scary place. Easy to believe that certain countries are “off-limits” — too politically unstable, too dangerous, too unpredictable. But Rachael Liebregt doesn’t see it that way. Last month, the 47-year-old San Pedro resident stepped off a plane in Madagascar and became one of an estimated 425 people worldwide to have traveled to all 193 of the United Nations-recognized countries in the world.

2 weeks ago | dailybreeze.com | Melissa Heckscher

Not everything is as it seems inside contemporary artist Keith Magruder’s newest exhibition, “Let Me Fix You a Plate,” currently on display at the Manhattan Beach Art Center through June 29. That colorful feast on the table that greets you as you enter — bowls of collard greens and green beans filled to the brim, trays of chicken drumsticks slathered with barbecue sauce, deviled eggs with dollops of mustard-mayo centers — is made entirely out of paper.

2 weeks ago | broadwayworld.com | Melissa Heckscher

After starting his professional career in the ballet world at age 15, the Brazilian-born dancer got a lucky break on Broadway, landing an ensemble part in the 2018 revival of Carousel and then a part as a dancer in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story. Now back in the ballet world, Chagas is performing with the Miami City Ballet for his final season in Swan Lake, playing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts June 20-22 and then at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion June 26-29.

3 weeks ago | broadwayworld.com | Melissa Heckscher

Just a week after he wraps up his final performance in the titular role of FLOYD COLLINS on Broadway—a role that earned him a 2025 Tony Award nomination—musical theater icon Jeremy Jordan will head to Los Angeles to perform his long-running and (as of now) nearly sold-out one-man show at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, June 28–29.