Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Dec. 19-30

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the goodbye-2024 B9:

➤ It was his final appearance on the weekly KZSC radio show where listeners had grown accustomed to his sometimes grumpy but always passionated views on the latest movies. At 90, Bruce Bratton would be dead less than a week later. But when asked about his all-time favorite movies, the man who saw probably several thousand movies over the course of his lifetime immediately piped up with “The Wizard of Oz.” The most totemic movie in the English-speaking world will be presented on the big screen at the Del Mar Theatre on Saturday for free. After you’ve checked all the boxes on seeing holiday-themed entertainment, here’s a great family-friendly way to connect to a still-potent American tradition. Enjoy it for you and your loved ones, but at least in the opening credits, give a nod to old Bruce.
➤ It’s been 20 years since a restless group of talented Santa Cruz musicians decided to perform the Beatles’ White Album in its entirety, and through various lineup changes, the White Album Ensemble endures, with its deeply considered and true-to-the-original versions of the songs we all know and love. The band will “Come Together” (well, that’s “Abbey Road”) with back-to-back shows Dec. 29 and 30 at the Rio. Don’t pass it by.
➤ The tent is up in the otherwise drab parking lot of the Capitola Mall, which means the Flynn Creek Circus is in town with its dazzling new show of acrobatics and theatrics, this one built around the themes of film noir. It’s an end-of-year tradition in these parts. It all starts this weekend.
➤ Yes, it’s Chanukah season approaching (beginning next Wednesday evening, Dec. 25) and the folks at Temple Beth El are lighting up the Festival of Lights. The Aptos temple is hosting a big, boffo extravaganza on Friday, complete with latke dinner and a Chanukah service featuring the Rock Shabbat band.
➤ Bay Area guitarist Eric Lindell has devoted his life to pursuing his muse through the swamps and fields of delta blues, Memphis soul, Texas outlaw country and New Orleans funk. He comes to Moe’s in a special show featuring the fine vocalist Shannon McNally. It all goes down Sunday.
➤ The Seattle-based rapper known as Grieves is admired both for his emotionally resonant songs and his big, arresting grooves. The Macklemore comparisons are going to come, but this guy deserves a fresh ear for his wit and his energy. He drops into The Catalyst on Dec. 30.

➤ Have you seen Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s new production of “A Christmas Carol” yet? The company wants to make it an annual tradition, and that might depend on what kind of attention it gets in this, its initial year. Of course, you don’t need me to sell you on Scrooge, Marley, Christmas joy and the area’s premier theater company.
➤ For most of us, we’re likely to see only one ballet a year, and that ballet is “The Nutcracker,” the enchanting holiday pageant with music by Tchaikovsky that lightens up the stage at the Santa Cruz Civic for four performances Saturday and Sunday. This one is brought to you by the local performers at Santa Cruz Dance Theater. Or …
➤ You can opt for the other “Nutcracker,” this one titled “Nutcracker: Experience the Magic,” with an entirely different cast of young performers, courtesy of the Santa Cruz City Ballet at the International Academy of Dance at the Crocker Theater on the campus of Cabrillo College. That’s what’s known as an embarrassment of riches.
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