Do It. "The Merry Wives of Windsor" at the Broad Stage.

As far as Shakespeare goes, you can't do much better than seeing a show at the recreated Globe Theatre in London. But if you can't quite make it over to the Old Country any time soon, Santa Monica's Broad Stage is offering the next best thing: a run of "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

The production is put on by the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre group, which means that you'll basically be getting the same performers and show as London. It's the first time the group has done an international tour like this, and the Broad Stage is its first stop. And being at the Broad Stage has a major plus -- besides being a pretty nice venue -- you also don't have to worry about being a groundling.

"The Merry Wives of Windsor" runs starting tonight until Oct. 24 at the Broad Stage, located at 1310 11th St. in Santa Monica. Buy your tickets here.

-- Chau Tu

Photo credit: Broad Stage

Do It. A free night of theater in L.A.

For being such an entertainment-heavy city, Los Angeles, it seems, sometimes forgets about its theater. So here's a good chance to catch up, BEATs, and see some great theater in our great venues all over the city, all for free.

Yep, free. Here's the deal: the non-profit organization LA Stage Alliance is teaming up with the Theater Communications Group to provide free tickets for performances at 45 different theatres from Oct. 14-31, all in honor of Free Night LA. To see a free show, you have to enter to win. Pick up to five shows (from a pool of 146!) you'd like to see, and if you're chosen, you get a free ticket! Easy as that. You have to get in your entries by tomorrow at 6 p.m., though, so get on to picking! And over 15,000 tickets are supposedly being given out, so you have a pretty good chance. What have you got to lose, right? Time to get out and enjoy the theater.

-- Chau Tu

Photo credit: The Broad Stage, ©Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center