Old graveyards are eerie enough in the daylight, but this Halloween season, Altadena's Mountain View Mortuary & Cemetery is ratcheting up the fear factor with a vengeful premature burial, a spectral beast from the edge of time and a nest of ghostly goblins.

The historic 128-year-old boneyard will embrace its innate spookiness by transforming key locations such as a mausoleum, a chapel and the burial grounds into unorthodox stages for live theater. Wicked Literature: A Halloween Theatre Festival features live-from-the-graveyard dramatizations of three classic terror tales: Edgar Allan Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado,” H.P. Lovecraft's “The Unnamable” and Charles Dickens' “The Chimes.”

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No, not just another midnight showing of the RHPS; this is a live performance, in honor of the movie's 35th anniversary, and it's got a star-studded cast. Rousing himself from his court-side coma, Jack Nicholson will be performing, along with Danny DeVito, Billy Idol, Jason Segel and Lea Michele (“Glee”). The show combines scenes from the movie with the live performances and will culminate in an epic costume ball. Proceeds from the evening benefit Lou Adler's Painted Turtle camp for seriously ill children.

The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; 8 p.m.; www.rockyhorror.com/; $68-$121.50

-- Daniel Siegal

Photo: Tim Curry, center, with Patricia Quinn and Little Nell in a scene from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Credit: John Jay

Who's up for a little seaside tragedy? Head to the coast for the opening night of the Getty Villa's production of "Elektra." Sophocles' tale involves kings, murder, concubines, revenge and one woman with serious, serious daddy issues. Broadway actress Annie Purcell steps into the role of Elektra, while Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis takes over the duties of the chorus.

Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy., Pacific Palisades; 8 p.m.; $42

-- Alie Ward

Photo: Irene Theorin as Elektra (front) and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Chrysothemis performing during the photo rehearsals of the opera "Elektra" at the Salzburg Festival, Austria, in August 2010.

Exploring the ever-intriguing world of psychological dichotomies, John Paul Karliak wrote and performs “Donna/Madonna,” a one-man show about his two moms. While his adoptive mother fits the archetype of happy homemaker Donna Reed, his biological mom's behavior is a little closer to the pop-singing icon of debauchery, Madonna. Thankfully, Karliak's being pulled in two different maternal directions resulted in just the right amount of angst to create musical theatrical productions instead of stabbing people or crying in a dark room alone.

Celebration Theatre, 7051 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles; 8 p.m.; $15

-- Alie Ward

Photo: The real-life Madonna, pictured on August 1, 2010. Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

 

We're halfway through summer. Have you completed your quota of one outdoor Shakespeare experience? We didn't think so. The Annenberg Community Beach house serves up some Bard on the beach with a staging of “The Merchant of Venice” which won't cost you a dime, let alone a pound of flesh. Sophomore English recap: “The Merchant of Venice” is Shakespeare's (kind of) rom-com about suitors, wealth, fake beards and searing anti-Semitism. It is not about shady vendors on Venice Beach who sell incense and hemp necklaces.

Annenberg Community Beach House, 415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica; 4:30 p.m.; free with RSVP at www.beachhouse.smgov.net

--Alie Ward

Photo: Al Pacino plays Shylock in the 2004 film version of "The Merchant of Venice." Credit Steve Braun for Sony Pictures Classics.

Because no one should have to spend time in the Arizona desert, vaudevillian-inspired host Jim Cherry moved his act from Phoenix to L.A. and debuts his eponymous Rock 'n Roll Cirkus at El Cid. He pledges to deliver 10 acts in 60 minutes, and among them are a conversation with the world's smallest man, a fashion show, beat poetry, violins, smoke machines, aliens, theremin swooning and “snappy banter that ends tragically.” Picture all of pop culture stuffed into a blender, whirled violently and poured onstage.

El Cid, 4212 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake; 8:30 p.m.; $12

--Alie Ward

Image by Fwak! Animation, used by permission.

 

Scottish actor, dancer, singer and provocateur Alan Cumming alights on the Broad Stage for a one-night, one-man show, “Uncut” — which is probably a reference to the unabridged content of the production and not something sexually provocative. Right? Sure. Steady yourself for an evening of comedic rants and musical numbers including those composed by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Bacharach. As you leave, dazzled and winded from hooting your ardent praise, you'll wonder what they possibly could have considered cutting from such a rich and erotically charged performance.

The Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica; 7:30 p.m.; $60-$75

--Alie Ward

Photo: Alan Cumming performs during the Cinema Against AIDS amfAR gala 2010 at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, May 20, 2010. Photo by Ian Langsdon for EPA.

--Alie Ward

Photo: Fringe Freak's Dave McKeever, red, and Nick Hill, orange, have fun with a construction cone as they walk the streets of Hollywood June 10, 2010, in their costumes to promote the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Credit Bret Hartman / For The Times.

 

Chef, television host and endearingly irascible foodie Anthony Bourdain stops at Royce Hall to discuss his latest salty memoir, “Medium Raw.” As a follow-up to his wildly popular book “Kitchen Confidential,” the “No Reservations” star discusses how his life — and the culture of eating — has changed since he got his start as a cook at age 17. He'll also dish up hot gossip about his contemporaries, meditate on fatherhood and probably curse a lot.

Royce Hall, UCLA campus, 340 Royce Drive, Westwood; 8 p.m.; $35-$175

--Alie Ward

Photo: Brendan Corr / Getty Images.

 

“It’s incredible. It’s like we’re building our own country,” O-Lan Jones giggles into the phone from a rehearsal space in Culver City.

The actress, choreographer and writer is at work on her opera “Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands,” set to premiere in July. With twenty performers, a nine-piece orchestra, dozens of crew members and scores of community volunteers, the production’s scale has reached theatrical proportions.

“It’s like Jack in the Beanstalk, where you drop the beans outside and this huge plant grows,” she says. “And every person that comes into it brings another amazing branch.”

Jones is best recognized from roles such as an eerie, organ-pounding religious zealot in Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands,” but her offbeat onscreen personas belie an affable, light-hearted nature. The 50-year old stage and screen veteran — and onetime spouse of playwright Sam Shepard — helped found what’s become the nonprofit arts collective Overtone Industries in the late seventies. The latest production, “Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands” has been seven years in the making.

“I was musing with some friends about indigenous dances of imaginary lands,” she explains. “And we sent this seed of an idea out to twenty one writers, and then organized them into the lands of childhood and adolescence and adulthood and old age.” To accommodate each “land,” the production involves twenty one unique sets.