Comedy Countdown: This New Year’s Eve laugh fest features Emo Philips, Greg Fitzsimmons, Beth Stelling, Nick Youssef, Phil Hanley, Conor Kellicutt and host Gary Cannon. Details: 7 and 10 p.m; Cobb’s Comedy Club, San Francisco’; $40-$55; www.livenation.com. Dead Dreams: The legendary Fillmore is hosting a Grateful Dead dance party featuring DJ Rob Bleetstein (from Sirius/XM), rare video from past Dead New Year’s Eve performances and, of course, a cool light show. The event celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s first New Year’s Eve gig at the venue.

It’s a ludicrously tangled story with a ton of characters, subplots and schemes, and it’s to Actors Ensemble’s credit that it’s relatively easy to keep track of most of it in director Susannah Wood’s entertaining staging, Figaro is the very model of a wily servant, but David Andres Mejia’s Figaro is more cocky than clever, It’s his bride-to-be, Susanna, who’s really got the smarts t-shirt mockup - flat lay t shirt - womans t shirt mockup - wood background, white tshirt, pink ballet skirt and shoes, black le in the household, in a wonderfully assured performance by Crystal Brown, Patrick Glenn is a comically sleazy and violently jealous Count, with a sympathetic Lisa Wang as his neglected Countess..

A monthly New York newspaper, The WestView News, uses an objectionable headline (“The N—-r In The White House”) on a piece in its July edition, which argues that much of the shrill hatred toward President Obama is rooted in racism. Not surprisingly, the headline gets more attention than the argument. Then on Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder again blames “racial animus” for some of the more strident opposition to the president. “Not true,” says Rush Limbaugh. “Not constructive,” says Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Because apparently they believe that when a president’s mere election or re-election stirs the opposition to demand impeachment, secession and revolution, or to scream, “I want my country back!” or to call that president a boy, an ape or a subhuman mongrel, or to refuse to accept an ordinary birth certificate as proof of citizenship, that has absolutely nothing to do with race. Happened to Ronald Reagan all the time, right?.

James Franco was picked as best actor for the survival story “127 hours,” t-shirt mockup - flat lay t shirt - womans t shirt mockup - wood background, white tshirt, pink ballet skirt and shoes, black le while the Ozarks crime story “Winter’s Bone” earned both supporting-acting prizes, for John Hawkes and Dale Dickey, All three films are up for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, where Portman is considered the favorite to win the best-actress Oscar and Franco is a co-host alongside actress Anne Hathaway, With plenty of overlap among nominees at the Oscars, the Spirit Awards are a warm-up for Hollywood’s biggest party..

As played by Ali Lane, Aunt Eller has never been cuter, spunkier or more unflappable. Though her vocal in “The Farmer and the Cowman” is thin, what she lacks in voice is more than made up for in pluck. Danila Burshteyn is also terrific as fresh-faced Will Parker. His renditions of “Kansas City” and “All Er Nuthin'” — and his high-stepping dancing — make him a likeable, homespun (and incredibly naïve) character. Cute-as-a-button Erin Yvette is winsome and flirty as the “I Cain’t Say No” girl, Ado Annie. It’s delightful to watch her pledge everlasting love to Will, only to be swayed by the shrewd peddler Ali Hakim (a charmingly crafty Mohamed Ismail).