I remember the first time I saw Love Actually in 2003. I knew this feel good movie was destined to become a true holiday classic so I was thrilled to discover a multimedia musical celebration of the film being presented all month long at The Wallis.

This full-scale holiday spectacular transforms the theater into a giant, modern day three-dimensional world where scenery and video screens intertwine so actors actually bring the movie’s many unforgettable scenes to life. The film, along with original custom-video content that puts the audience into the London setting, is displayed on screens that move throughout the stage so the actors and musicians are immersed in the spectacle.  An all-star cast accompanied by a 15-piece orchestra perform the film’s most popular songs including “Christmas is All Around,” “All Alone on Christmas,” “The Trouble with Love Is,” and “Both Sides Now.”

If you haven’t discovered The Sorting Room, an intimate venue at The Wallis, and its eclectic playbill, this month is the perfect time. Sandra Bernhard brings her one-woman laugh fest December 13-15th; then Joely Fisher’s Growing Up Fisher arrives on December 16th.  There’s a salute to the music of Hal David on December 19th; a cabaret of New Musical Theater Songs on December 20th and then Corky Hale takes over with her new musical show, The Two Mrs. Stollers on the 21st.

“Love, Actually Live,” co-produced by The Wallis and For the Record, runs December 4-31st. 

The Norton Simon Museum is presenting In Search of New Markets: Craft traditions in Nineteenth-Century India, this is an interesting and intimate exhibition that examines the connection, and tension between Indian artists and their historical practices and the commercial ambitions of colonial administrators in the 1800s.

When artisans in late 19th-century India were faced with a new a commercial market for their work, some re-imagined their designs, fusing familiar styles with new shapes and sizes of vessels and furniture that appealed to European buyers. During the 1880s and 1890s, under the auspices of colonial schools of art and independent commercial ventures, Indian artisans produced these vessels, as well as richly carved wooden furniture that incorporated designs from the pierced stone screens, brackets and other architectural features of extant Indian monuments. These designs circulated in pattern books, which were meant to standardize production. Unfortunately, the amount of time and careful labor that even one such piece of furniture required made the cost prohibitive to all but the wealthiest consumers. While the objects featured in this exhibition represent forms of artistic production that proved economically unsustainable in the long run, they remain compelling examples of the ways in which artists and colonial administrators tried to imagine a role for Indian craftsmanship in the everyday lives of buyers worldwide.

For more details and all things happening at the Norton Simon Museum, click here.

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is presenting an exhibition featuring a selection of images by photographer Mark Seliger drawn from his spectacularly vibrant and enduring career.

Born and educated in Texas, Seliger moved to NYC in 1984 to pursue his career in photography. He began working for Rolling Stone in 1987 serving as chief photographer from 1992 to 2001. During his time at Rolling Stone, Seliger was responsible for the creation of over 100 magazine covers capturing some of the most iconic images of the most famous and influential faces of our time. For decades people world-wide have been viewing photographs of leading personalities in music, fashion, politics, business, and entertainment through Seliger’s lens. His disincentive body of work includes a wide range unforgettably notable portraits that include Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain, Barrack Obama, Cindy Sherman, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Laurie Anderson, Muhammad Ali, Amy Schumer, and The Dalai Lama.

Employed by Conde Nast since 2001, Seliger continues to create iconic photographs that can be seen regularly in Vanity Fair, GQ, Elle, and German and Italian Vogue.

On view through January 19th at Fahey/Klein Gallery. More details, click here.

Break out that Christmas sweater, and head to Fa La Land at ROW DTLA!  This inaugural pop-up museum will get even the bah humbug people grinning and singing Christmas Carols as they wander around a scenic North Pole Village which includes Mrs. Claus hair salon, Christmas is in the Hair, and Fa La Post where guests can write a letter to Santa.

Fa La Land is Christmas re-imagined by Santa and his elves encompassing all the enchantment of the season in a captivating exhibit that breaks the bounds of the imagination, and evokes the wonder, laughter and delight of the most wonderful time of the year. Guests can visit Jingle Bell Toys, a real life working toy factory with thousands of ornaments on the walls, crank a conveyor belt like one of Sant’s elves, raid Santa’s toy chest and get an “elfie selfie.”

Fa La Forest is an unprecedented and amazing fluorescent display with trees as far as the eyes can see suspended from the air. Music and Reindeers are the VIP’s at Fa La Fest where you can mark the occasion with a photo at the mistletoe kissing booth. Santa will be checking his list at Fa La Floral Land and you can hop on his flower bombed sled for one more Instagram moment.

For more details, click here.