7:30pmDanceBallet Pacifica stages its annual “Nutcracker” as...

7:30pm

Dance

Ballet Pacifica stages its annual “Nutcracker” as choreographed by artistic director Molly Lynch in 1993. The Irvine-based company’s dancers and more than 150 children from Southern California participate in the staging of Tchaikovsky’s beloved score concerning a Nutcracker who comes to life, defeats a wicked, nine-headed Mouse King and his army and takes the child heroine, Clara, to a magical land filled with dancing candy, sweets and flowers.

Ballet Pacifica, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. 7:30 p.m. Also Saturday-Dec. 23, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 24, 2:30 p.m. Dark Monday. Ends Dec. 24. Adults, $25; seniors $23; children, $21. (949) 854-4646.

8:30pm

Pop Music

Better late than never for John Hiatt’s return to Orange County. His show at the Grove of Anaheim (formerly the Sun Theatre) was delayed a few weeks because of an appendectomy he underwent in October. He’ll be drawing from the latest of his fine albums, “The Tiki Bar Is Open,” for which he reunited with hard-rocking Louisiana backing band the Goners.

John Hiatt & the Goners, the Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave. 8:30 p.m. $31 to $37.50. (714) 712-2750.

8pm

Theater

Sweeping and sudden technological change is reshaping the country; a gifted but unsung and unsurpassingly eccentric artist has to decide where he and his high ideals fit amid the turmoil. One faction wants him to radicalize his art to fight for the masses against the profiteers; meanwhile, the establishment has tempted him with lucre and the prominent platform that always has eluded him. A story set in contemporary Hollywood? No, “Prophets, Profit and William Blake” is set in London in 1812. Blake, the great visionary poet, painter and printer, is being courted by the Luddites, who hate the machinery of the budding Industrial Revolution, and by businessmen who think Blake is just the man to do a primo printing job on their illustrated, mass-produced Bible. In this loosely historical play by Orange County writer Joel Beers, Blake embodies the pure creative spirit under corrupting pressure from political radicals and business conservatives alike.

“Prophets, Profit and William Blake,” Stages Theatre Company, 400 E. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Ends Dec. 29. $12 to $15, $8 student rush Sunday. (714) 525-4484.