SUMMER SPECIAL: A guide to Arts and Entertainment in Southern California : July’s Coming Attractions

The month kicks off with a boom tonight at the Hollywood Bowl with fireworks and music. And over the next five weeks, the arts and entertainment scene keeps on booming.

Summer in Southern California offers much to choose from in arts and entertainment. To help readers through this month’s many possiblities--from San Diego to Ventura, from pop to art to fireworks spectaculars to theater to movies to music and dance--

Calendar presents a guide to events of special interest.

Like the fireworks, there’ll be some big sparks this month. Big names like Smokey Robinson and Natalie Cole, hot acts like Depeche Mode (two nights in Dodger Stadium), big openings like the Hollywood Bowl music season and jazz series.

And if you want big controversy, there are 2 Live Crew shows scheduled for July 25 and 27. For theater lovers, fare goes from the more classical, Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck,” to the contemporary, Neil Simon’s jaunty “Rumors.” And art lovers can catch the ocean breezes at the Newport Harbor Art Museum while taking in “Committed to Print,” a show of prints conveying ideas about real issues. And of course the big draw could be the dark air-conditioned comfort of a hot movie such as “Die Hard 2,” “Presumed Innocent” or “Arachnophobia.”

Seem like a circus of arts and entertainment? Wait till the real circus--Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey--comes to town.

Sort through it all with this Summer Special Calendar guide of highlights opening over the next five weeks. And remember, there’s always more to come in August.