The 44 best things to do in L.A. this weekend (2024)

Raise a glass: The touring production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’simmeasurably popular musical is back. Awesome. Wow.

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More than 50 works on display at the Autry showcase how indigenous artists have crafted visions of alternative futures in the face of enduring colonial trauma, with surreal spacescapes from Wendy Red Star, pop culture commentaries by Andy Everson and a site-specific space odyssey created by Virgil Ortiz.

Everyone’s favorite murder mystery parody of true crime podcasts makes the jump from TV to IRL with thisOnly Murders in the Building escape room. Part of the Westfield Century City will flip into a faux movie set, where you’ll be tasked with tracking down a missing film reel.

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Ready or not, spooky season is slowly stalking its way ever closer. The clearest sign? Haunted houses have started to inhabit Universal Studios. The Hollywood-adjacent theme park’s Halloween Horror Nights includes experiences inspired by A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious and The Purge, plus a maze by the Weeknd.

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Since releasing her debut single “Do U Wanna Fall in Love” in 2014, this bedroom pop darling has had many of her songs—including the massive lo-fi hit “Pretty Girl”—go viral all over the internet. Now, she’s coming over toL.A. for afive-night residency at the Fonda.

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See theBob Baker Marionette Theater’s Halloween performances duringthis two-month lineup of spooky festivities. The puppet theater will be performing “Bob Baker’s Halloween Spooktacular!”—a refurbished production of its long-running “boo-sical revue.”

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It’s not quite the beachfront party of Twilight on the Pier, but Santa Monica’s newest free concert series again sees the city teaming up with the much-loved McCabe’s Guitar Shopfor some outdoor shows. This September, you can catch Sunday afternoon concerts atGandara Park (right next to Bergamot Station and the E Line) that explore the roots of Americana.

The DMV-like waiting room into the afterlife, the casino-esque bulb-lit signs andlots of black-and-white stripes and checkerboards: All of the familiarBeetlejuice motifs are here at this Hollywood pop-up, one of the rare “immersive” events that’s actually worth your while.

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Well, well, well, what have we here? The Nightmare Before Christmas’s bug-stuffed sackis once again takingover the Halloween duties at Disneyland for Oogie Boogie Bash, anafter-hours, specially ticketed seasonal eventat Disney California Adventure Park.

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Before the corner of Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue gets frosty for Ice, you’ll now find a roller rink set up. From August 10 to October 14,Roll @ Santa Monica will let you lace up a pair of rental skates for a two-hour session.

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Everyone’s favorite NPR member station has a hand in aslew of summer concert slates atpublic plazas and beloved museums, and this summer’s schedule is particularly packed. Familiar KCRW DJs and local buzz bands will be providing free, open-air tunes on select nights through September at CAAM,Descanso Gardens, Century Park, the AutryandKCRW’s Santa Monica headquarters.

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Every Sunday you can find dozens of food vendors at this market at ROW DTLA, with a mix of much-loved pop-ups and future foodie stars.

Initially adreadful 1930s propaganda film about the absolutehorrors of the devil’s lettuce,Reefer Madness has since morphed into an ironically pro-marijuana piece of pop culture—most notably with the 1998 L.A. premiere of this acclaimed musical satire by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, as well as its 2005 film adaptation. Now some fuzzy number of years later, the production has been reignited in L.A. at the former King King space on Hollywood Boulevard.

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See a free salsa concert every second Friday of the summer during this series at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. This year’s lineup includes Rumbankete,Gabrielito y La Verdad, Son Mayor,Son Miron andClub Mambi—all featuring Super DJ Robby.

It isn’t summer in L.A. until the first cemetery screening brings hoards of movie-lovers to Hollywood Forever, toting folding chairs, picnic blankets, snack spreads and lots of booze. Each year, Cinespia brings classic cult favorites to the hallowed resting place of such Hollywood greats as Rudolph Valentino and Bugsy Siegel.

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Best known for her rhinestone-studded paintings of Black women, collages of old Jet Magazine spreads and revisions of historic paintings, Thomas’s large-scale works (80 of them from the past two decades)are on display at theBroadin this transportive exhibition.

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This major Ed Ruscha retrospective includes his meticulous photos of L.A. streets and a reconstruction of his Chocolate Room (which, yes, is a room made out sheets upon sheets of chocolate).

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It’s more than just the low clearance: This exhibition at the Petersen explores the custom paint, engraving, upholstery and, of course, thegravity-defying suspension of the lowrider scene. In addition to iconic cars, the exhibit spotlights influentialartists inthe Chicano lowrider art scene.

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See large ceramic and bronzesculptures atLACMAplus a few more sculptural pieces and collaborative video works atCAAMduring thiscrosstown exhibition of Black feminist artist Simone Leigh.

Move through a suite of sci-fi installations that depict a world overcome by rising seas and unchecked capitalism in this exhibition from Josh Kline. The MOCA Grand Avenue show includes a mix of sculpture, photography, moving images and ephemeral materials.

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Two documentarians of Chicano culture—iconic black-and-white photographer Estevan Oriol and the formerTeen Angels magazine—put the spotlight on L.A.’s art, lowrider and tattoo culturein this Beyond the Streetsexhibition.

See exploratory pencil-drawn line illustrations from the famous French fashion designer’s archive at this OCMA exhibition.

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This interactive Grammy Museumexhibition is put on in collaboration withHYBE (the South Korean entertainment company behind some of the biggest K-pop bands in the world) and will explore the power and history of the genre, with outfits and items from the likes ofBTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN and LE SSERAFIM. Just note that tickets to the exhibition—which require a timed reservation—cost an additional $20 on top of regular museum admission.

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Hollywood’s Japan House has tapped artistSebastian Masuda to dive into the roots of all things cute and colorful with this exhibition on Japanese kawaii culture. The free show includes multiple pieces and installations from Masuda.

See 1930s-to-50s concept carsplus artworkfrom Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol and David Hockney at this Petersen exhibition.

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Tim Burton re-looses the juice in a weird and woolly sequel lit up by Michael Keaton.

Take an acid-blood trip through space with this stripped-back but searing Alien reboot.

The #BookTok smash becomes a cathartic and nuanced abuse drama starring a bang-on-form Blake Lively.

Minari’s Lee Isaac Chung goes from indie to windy with this helter-skelter tornado movie.

Nicolas Cage is a living nightmare in the most chilling supernatural horror since Hereditary.

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