Race, religion and terrorism: In the prescient 2015 drama "Bars and Measures" at the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, playwright Idris Goodwin hits the trifecta of incendiary headline topics, overlaid with rich musical inflections. In the captivating opener, music takes center stage as two men seated across a table launch into an intricate skat and bebop routine. Through the efficiently crafted dialogue that follows, we learn they are brothers who hold opposing faiths. And the reason this performance is a cappella: Inmates are not permitted musical instruments. Loosely based on a 2005 domestic anti-terrorism case, the play has classically-trained pianist Eric (Donathan Walters), a Christian, visiting his imprisoned brother Bilal (Matt Orduña), a stellar jazz upright bassist and converted Muslim who's been arrested in a sting operation.

Walt Disney Studios is returning to its storied vault yet again to adapt one of its popular animated titles into a live-action movie. On Tuesday, the studio announced that it would release a new version of "Mulan," a musical about a young woman who disguises herself as a man so she can enlist in the army. The original film, which was released in 1998, grossed 304 million worldwide. Disney has begun to transform a number of its beloved cartoons into live-action films over the past few years. Both the princess tales "Maleficent" and "Cinderella" clicked with audiences, and a remake of musical "The Jungle Book" was a massive hit, collecting nearly a billion dollars worldwide earlier this year.

In what may be one of the year's easiest renewal decisions, FX announced Tuesday that "American Horror Story" would return for a seventh season in 2017. The horror anthology series from co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk has won 15 Emmy Awards, and its latest iteration -- "American Horror Story: Roanoke" -- has seen a 25% leap in audience over Season 5 -- "American Horror Story: Hotel" -- growing to 6.89 million viewers from 5.52 million. "Ryan, Brad and their team of remarkable writers have done an amazing job of keeping'American Horror Story' endlessly inventive, shocking and entertaining and we are honored to move ahead with them on the seventh installment," said John Landgraf, chief executive of FX Networks and Productions, in a statement Tuesday. "'AHS' confronts our deepest fears with unmatched suspense and style. Each new installment is a cultural event, hotly anticipated for its theme, imagery, cast and twists," Landgraf continued.

Though best known for his ability to make audiences laugh, actor, writer and director Ben Stiller is hoping his latest effort will make people stop and think. Stiller published an essay Tuesday morning revealing that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2014. He was declared cancer-free in September of the same year. "The three months in between were a crazy roller coaster ride with which about 180,000 men a year in America can identify," Stiller wrote of the time. The publication of the essay was released in connection with Stiller's appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" where he first spoke of his diagnosis.

The race for evening news viewers is getting tighter. "ABC World News Tonight With David Muir" has topped the usual leader, "NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt," in overall viewers in the first two weeks of the 2016-17 TV season. It's the first time that "ABC World News" has started the season with two straight weekly wins in overall viewers in 17 years, when Peter Jennings was anchor of the broadcast. Muir averaged 8.27 million viewers during the week of Sept. 26-30, giving him an edge over Holt (7.89 million viewers), according to Nielsen data. "CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley" finished third for the week with 6.54 million viewers.

Kanye West has postponed a pair of upcoming concerts this week after his wife, Kim Kardashian, was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. West, who had to abruptly leave a performance on Sunday as part of the Meadows Music & Arts Festival in New York when he learned of the robbery, will scrap stops on his Saint Pablo tour in Philadelphia on Tuesday and Detroit on Thursday before reconvening at Chicago's United Center on Friday. Promoter Live Nation said in a statement Monday night, "Due to family concerns, this week's Philadelphia and Detroit dates on the Saint Pablo tour have been rescheduled." Kardashian was ambushed early Monday morning local time by masked bandits dressed as policemen while in a penthouse apartment. According to the French Interior Ministry, robbers restrained an employee and gained information on Kardashian's location.

No one did more to put Los Angeles theater on the map than Gordon Davidson. The founder of the Mark Taper Forum, he was one of the city's cultural founding fathers, a mild-mannered but determined revolutionary who built Center Theatre Group into the prodigious theatrical institution it is today and, even more important, built an audience with an appreciation for serious drama in this town. It is impossible to do justice to the dimensions of such a legacy. Davidson's influence on Los Angeles is twinned in my mind with the architectural landmark just down the street from his old Music Center headquarters -- Walt Disney Concert Hall. The reason is that I believe Davidson, who died Sunday at age 83, has done as much to transform the city's conception of itself as a cultural capital as Frank Gehry's magnificent building.

The three top 10 debut albums on this week's Billboard Top 200 album chart involve a trio of dudes who've earned their success three different ways. Social media star Shawn Mendes roared to No. 1 with "Illuminate," his second straight record to hit the top. The singer, who built the foundations of his fanbase through quickie posts on Vine, has jumped platforms to become the rare artist with back-to-back No. 1 albums. Mendes accomplished the feat through an impressive volume of streams. "Illuminate" accrued more than 24 million spins, which, combined with 120,000 downloads and physical sales, resulted in a total of 145,000 album equivalent units, according to Nielsen Music.

Offering further evidence that the thirst for reviving vintage TV continues, ABC announced that it is bringing back "The Gong Show" with executive producer Will Arnett. Scheduled for a 10-episode run, the game show/talent competition will "celebrate un-traditionally talented, unique performers plucked from the Internet and put on a primetime stage," according to a statement from ABC. During the peak of its late-'70s run, "The Gong Show" was hosted with a sort of anarchic glee by Chuck Barris (whose bizarre autobiography "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" became a 2002 film directed by George Clooney). An outlet for the quasi-talented and otherwise fringe performers on NBC's daytime schedule and later nighttime syndication, the show was a competition to see who could last the longest onstage before one of the celebrity panelists struck a large gong, which ended the performance. "The comedy culture we are living in has finally caught up to'The Gong Show,' " said Holly Jacobs, executive vice president, reality and syndication programming for Sony Pictures Television.

A lifetime in comedy continues to pay off for Eddie Murphy, who will be honored with the Hollywood Career Achievement Award at the 2016 Hollywood Film Awards in November. Murphy, who was honored in 2015 with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, earns his latest accolades for a career that includes years on "Saturday Night Live," blockbuster hits "Shrek," "Coming to America" and "Beverly Hills Cop," as well as an Academy Award-nominated turn as James "Thunder" Early in the 2006 musical "Dreamgirls." "Eddie Murphy has had a spectacular career as a comedian, actor, writer, producer and director, spanning more than 35 years," said Allen Shapiro, CEO of Dick Clark Productions, in a statement released Monday. "We look forward to honoring his extraordinary body of work." Actor and comedian James Corden ("The Late Late Show With James Corden") will host the ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Nov. 6.