Weekend Picks for Jan. 19-21: Segerstrom’s Off Center Festival and more

This week: The return of Segerstrom’s annual Off Center Festival, a salute to a legendary Austrian composer at the Wallis and an evening of flamenco dance at the Soraya.

‘The Car Plays’ returns to Costa Mesa

Segerstrom Center’s annual Off Center Festival gets rolling with “The Car Plays.” An all-new edition of this returning site-specific favorite features 15 short plays staged in automobiles. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Julianne and George Argyros Plaza, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 5, 7:30 and 9 p.m. Friday; 3:30, 5:30, 7:30 and 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; ends Jan. 28. $25. www.SCFTA.org

Schubert saluted at the Wallis

Featuring text by the inimitable Hershey Felder, “Last Thoughts: Schubert’s Final Works” has pianist Ory Shihor exploring music that the über-prolific 19th-century Austrian composer wrote in the remaining months of his all-too-short life. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Bram Goldsmith Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $25-$75. www.TheWallis.org

Dancer Broukhim graces the stage at the Soraya

Passion will pour off the stage as international flamenco star Leilah Broukhim takes a deep dive into her Persian and Sephardic Jewish roots in the L.A. premiere of her 2011 show “Dejando Huellas (Traces).” The Soraya Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $33-$78. www.ValleyPerformingArtsCenter.org

Going for Baroque in Pacific Palisades

Get thee back to the 17th century with “Awake Sweet Love: Songs and Sonatas of Olde England.” Period-instrument trio Chatham Baroque is joined by soprano Pascale Beaudin for an evening of theater music by Henry Purcell and lute songs by John Dowland in this St. Matthew’s Music Guild presentation. St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave., Pacific Palisades. 8 p.m. Friday. $35. www.MusicGuildOnline.org

Men in tights at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach

Always en pointe and often in drag, the all-male troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returns to SoCal to put its trademark comical, cross-dressing twist on classical ballet. Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach. 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $50. www.carpenterarts.org

Life is a ‘Cabaret’ at La Mirada Theatre

Willkommen! Sally Bowles, the Emcee and the other denizens of a seedy nightclub in pre-World War II Berlin are back on the boards in a new staging of the classic Kander & Ebb musical “Cabaret.” La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada. 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; ends Feb. 11. $20-$70. www.lamiradatheatre.com