Culture Monster will occasionally visit museum exhibits dealing with history, anthropology, science or sociology.

The show: "Visions of Empire: The Quest for a Railroad Across America, 1840-1880" at theHuntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

The goods: The Huntington archives supply 98% of the exhibits, from the resolutions of eight Eastern states to build it, to a railway worker's letter home to his mother and the ledgers workers signed (one with Chinese characters) for their $30 a month pay. Striking photos of tunnels being carved out of the Rocky Mountains, many of them by...

LA JOLLA — From Florenz Ziegfeld's synchronized showgirls toAndrew Lloyd Webber's roller-skating actors to aSpider-Man who flies, musical theater has often encouraged dance and movement extravaganzas.

So imagine the anxiety of the team putting together the new musical, "Hands on a Hardbody," which has its premiere Saturday at the La Jolla Playhouse.

The story's 10 characters are tied — figuratively — to a Nissan pickup truck. How do you take that reality and turn it into a show-stopping number?

"Hands on a Hardbody," written by Pulitzer- and Tony-award winning author Doug Wright...

NEW YORK -- The characters played by Christian Borle and other cast members of  NBC's"Smash," which wrapped up its first season Monday night, have been struggling to gain a foothold on Broadway.

 The real-life Borle? He's a few steps ahead. He's been starring in "Peter and the Starcatcher," an antic play-with-music about Peter Pan, since last month and has earned his second Tony nomination for his performance as the comically deluded pirate villain Black Stache, even as his public following from  'Smash' grows.

For the 38-year-old, the two roles have brought a burst of attention after years of...

Now entering its 16th year, the Skirball Cultural Center's Sunset Concert series has been a reliable source for intriguing sounds from around the globe (and a pretty great way to wait out the Thursday evening 405 commute).

The series opens July 26 with a concert from Congolese singer Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga, a summer-ready ensemble centered around upbeat vocal harmonies and bright guitar that appeared at last year's WOMAD Festival in Britain.

With roots closer to home, the six-piece, L.A.–based band La Santa Cecilia will also perform on Aug.  23, bringing a mix of Brazilian...

"End of the Rainbow," the Broadway play about Judy Garland currently running at the Belasco Theatre, will make its Los Angeles debut in 2013 at the Ahmanson Theatre, with the Tony-nominated Tracie Bennett reprising her role as the troubled actress and singer.

The Los Angeles engagement is scheduled to run March 12 through April 21, though the exact opening hasn't been announced. The Ahmanson engagement will be the first stop of a national tour of the play.

Bennett, who is British, has received rave reviews for her performance as Garland. The play, written by Peter Quilter, takes place in 1968...

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Garden in San Marino announced Tuesday that it has acquired a 16th century sculpture titled "St. Georgeand the Dragon" that it is attributing to the Renaissance artist Giovan Angelo del Maino.

The sculpture was acquired earlier this month from a dealer in Paris, according to Catherine Hess, the Huntington's chief curator of European art. The Huntington declined to say how much it paid for the work. Hess said that the piece was once part of the collection of American financier J.P. Morgan.

"St. George" depicts the armored Christian hero...

Shepard Fairey has a prominent new canvas — or 11.

The street artist has teamed up with Neil Young to create the artwork for the rocker's new album with Crazy Horse, "Americana," the band's first release in nine years.

Fairey isn't just tagging the cover — he's creating an original painting for each track on the album. The artwork will be for sale at a one-day private exhibition at Santa Monica's Perry Rubenstein Gallery on June 1 and is expected to be on display for the masses in upcoming music videos and the staging of Young's "Americana" tour.

Images include the Queen of England...

Bret Michaels and organizers of the Tonys have settled a lawsuit that the Poison frontman had filed after he was hit by a piece of scenery during the 2009 award show.

After performing "Nothin' But a Good Time" with the cast of "Rock of Ages," the rocker/reality-TV star was knocked to the ground by an enormous descending set piece as he was exiting the stage.

Michaels sustained several injuries -- including a busted lip and a fractured nose -- and 10 months later he was almost killed by a brain hemorrhage he said was related to the accident, according to the suit.

An agreement came last week after...

"Hands on a Hardbody," the new musical based on S.R. Bindler's 1997 documentary film about a nutty endurance contest at a Texas auto dealership, pulls off something most pundits would have considered impossible today: This is a Red State musical that Blue State audiences won't hate themselves for enjoying.

Yes, even a coastal denizen such as myself, who frets about the melting ice caps and all those polar bears floating forlornly out to sea, got worked up about which of the economically strapped characters was going to win the midnight blue pickup truck that would be a godsend even with gas...