Festival of Books at USC, Andrew Scott and your ultimate culture guide to the weekend and beyond

Apparently some lady named Taylor has a new album — or two. We’re still trying to make sense of “Tortured Poets Department,” and the staff here has been noting the growing debate on the topic of T. Swift overexposure. If you’d like to share an amusing haiku on the subject, send it our way! And then dive into our rundown of the brightest spots on L.A.’s cultural landscape this week …

Best bets: What’s on our radar

1. Festival of Books
How soul-satisfying to start off with an event dedicated to the art of the written word? The Los Angeles Times’ annual Festival of Books is back for another weekend jampacked with readings, panel discussions and signings. All things literary will be celebrated by more than 550 guests including Maggie Nelson, Jonathan Lethem, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Octavia Spencer, RuPaul, David Mamet and Ariana Madix. If cookbooks are your thing, the chef’s stage is back featuring Nancy Silverton and others.
Through Sunday. USC. events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/
— Jessica Gelt

2. TCM Classic Film Festival
Movie lovers who thrill to the gentle salt-and-pepper authority of TV host Ben Mankiewicz may have already paid a visit to this festival, perhaps to see the world premiere of the Imax version of David Fincher’s “Seven.” (“What’s in the box?” Those people know.) The fest rolls on through the weekend and the Hollywood essentials keep coming. Our Saturday picks include a gargantuan presentation of Alfred Hitchcock’s immortal thriller “North by Northwest” at the TCL Chinese; those free on Sunday should dive into John Ford’s peak 1956 Western “The Searchers” at the Egyptian.
Through Sunday. Various theaters. filmfestival.tcm.com
— Joshua Rothkopf

3. “Prelude to a Kiss”
After adapting his beloved, body-swapping play into an Alec Baldwin-Meg Ryan movie, Craig Lucas is transforming the piece into a stage musical, with sweeping, emotional songs by Daniel Messé and Sean Hartley. Hannah Corneau and Chris McCarrell star in the bittersweet romantic comedy as the newlywed couple, with Jonathan Gillard Daly as the mysterious older man who asks the bride for that magical peck. Directed by David Ivers, this new take is making its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, the same theater where the Tony-nominated play originally debuted in 1988.
Through May 4, South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org
— Ashley Lee

4. “Vanya”
Andrew Scott may forever be remembered as the Hot Priest from “Fleabag.” As Tim Ripley in the Netflix series “Ripley,” Scott proves that villainy comes as naturally as vulnerability. And his lead performance in Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” was the best film acting I saw last year. But I will always think of him first as a stage virtuoso, someone whose Hamlet was perhaps the most psychologically exact I’ve experienced. Undaunted by the toughest of challenges, he single-handedly takes on Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece of middle-aged malaise, “Uncle Vanya.” L.A theater lovers will get the chance to see his acclaimed London solo performance in Simon Stephens’ radical adaptation at one of the National Theatre Live screenings courtesy of L.A. Theatre Works.
3 p.m. April 28. UCLA James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, 235 Charles E. Young Drive East, Westwood. latw.org/hd-screenings
— Charles McNulty

5. Hear Now Music Festival
The annual new-music fest has its most ambitious program yet with dozens of pieces by composers of string quartets, chamber music, orchestral works, even experimental electronic music. The venues are just as broad, ranging from funky 2020 Arts + Archives in the Westlake district to Frankie in Boyle Heights to UCLA. Among the performers are the Lyris Quartet, Brightwork Ensemble and, boldly stretching geography, the International Contemporary Ensemble from New York.
Wednesday through April 28. Various locations. hearnowmusicfestival.com
— Mark Swed

The week ahead: A curated calendar

WEDNESDAY

“Abundance” at L.A. Dance Project LACE Gallery is holding a performance art show featuring interdisciplinary work about the lived experiences of people in plentiful bodies.
7-10 p.m. nightly through Friday. L.A. Dance Project, 2245 E. Washington Blvd., L.A. welcometolace.org

THURSDAY

“The Hope Theory” Frank Marshall directs playwright-performer Helder Guimarães in this magical immigration tale.
Through June 9. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth The Pacific Symphony performs the Russian composer’s final completed symphony, commonly known as “Pathétique,” which he debuted just before his death in 1893.
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

FRIDAY

Bartók and Mozart Inon Barnatan performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 and Karina Canellakis leads the L.A. Phil in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

“Challengers” Zendaya plays a former tennis prodigy turned coach working both sides of the net amid the heated rivalry between her husband and her ex (Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor ) in director Luca Guadagnino’s steamy sports drama.
Starts Friday with Thursday previews. mgm.com/movies/challengers-2023

SATURDAY, APRIL 27

Adam Ant The English Beat opens for the “Goody Two Shoes” singer in a pairing of ’80s British new wave favorites.
7:30 p.m. Saturday. 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. lagreektheatre.com

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” Aesop’s fable comes to life in this production written by playwright Mike Kenny and created by U.K.-based Tutti Frutti, in which a lonely shepherd longs for a place in his community.
10 a.m. and 1 p.m., Saturday; 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., April 28. Samueli Theater, Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Deadmau5 The Canadian EDM producer and DJ marks a quarter-century of spins.
7 p.m. Saturday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com

“H*tler’s Tasters” Rogue Machine presents this dark comedy, inspired by a 2014 interview with 94-year-old Margot Wölk, one of 15 young German women tasked with sampling der Führer’s meals at the Wolf’s Lair.
Saturday-June 3. Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. roguemachinetheatre.org

SUNDAY, APRIL 28

“Reverberations” Robert Rauschenberg and Mark Rothko headline this presentation of highlights from MOCA’s collection that features galleries devoted to abstraction, Pop and conceptual work from the 1950s and ’60s as well as recent acquisitions.
Sunday, April 28, through Nov. 29. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org

The biggest L.A. culture news

Copper thieves have been at it again, and this time the target hits close to home: The bronze statue of a newsboy accompanying Harrison Gray Otis, owner of a newspaper that would become the Los Angeles Times, was stolen from MacArthur Park. Staff writer Thomas Curwen reports that the bronze was most likely melted down for its valuable copper content and is part of a wave of attacks on public art that one official said was unprecedented in her 27 years with the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Staff writer Kaitlyn Huamani looks at how one organization is trying to commemorate history in a different way: a walking audio tour. California Migration Museum, a program sponsored by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Independent Arts & Media, has produced an interactive tour of the Olvera Street area, exploring the history of the La Placita raid that ultimately led to the deportation of as many as 1.8 million Mexican Americans across the country in the 1930s.

In happier art news, critic Christopher Knight lays out why the Camille Claudel exhibition at the Getty is so magnificent. Check out the review, which tells you everything you didn’t know you should know about one sculpture’s chopped knee.

Classical music critic Mark Swed looks at two phenomena in his world. He reflects on the appointment of 28-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — and the hopes and hazards of the classical world’s quest to anoint its next phenom in the footsteps of Gustavo Dudamel.

Swed also looks at Los Angeles Opera‘s attempts to make opera more accessible, including taking opera our of the opera house. He asks: If Lakers tickets cost more, why does opera still get slapped with the “elitist” label?

Ahead of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival next month, contributor Rachel Brodsky profiled Leslie Liao, who is successfully making the leap from working in the streamer’s HR department to performing stand-up in its L.A. comedy extravaganza.

Other stage news: Director Jon M. Chu will helm a Broadway musical based on Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” trilogy. Staff writer Alexandria Del Rosario has the deets. Meanwhile, the musical “Sunset Boulevard” was the big winner in London at the Olivier Awards.

The Christian St. Croix play “Monsters of the American Cinema” had its Los Angeles premiere at the Matrix Theatre in a Rogue Machine production. Critic Charles McNulty offers his review of work with intriguing horror movie dimensions.

That’s a good segue to note some news on the film front: Staff writer Mark Olsen notes that the Sundance Film Festival took another step toward leaving its longtime home in Park City, Utah.

In the meantime, Hollywood will keep on Hollywooding, and “The Fall Guy” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt already has folks buzzing a couple of weeks before its opening in theaters. Staff writer Josh Rottenberg has an exclusive on the movie’s amazing practical stunts, which are quite possibly the best argument to add an Oscar category for stunt performers.

And we may have joked about Swift’s new albums, but you can read critic Mikael Wood‘s take on what sounds like seriously compelling music. And staff writer August Brown has the obituary for Dickey Betts, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, who died Thursday at 80.

More culture news, briefly …

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced the 2024 season at the Ford, running at the outdoor stage from July 14 through Oct. 31. Highlights include local rock ‘n’ rollers Airborne Toxic Event, Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, a 25th anniversary celebration of the Magnetic Fields’ seminal “69 Love Songs” featuring singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt, a three-concert residency curated by Jazz Is Dead record label and the second annual Noche de Cumbia featuring Reyna Tropical and Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto.

The Hollywood Pantages Theatre has announced that the Tony Award-winning musical “Come From Away” is heading to its stage for a limited engagement May 7-12. This is the show’s second trip to L.A. and its first time stopping at the Pantages.

The American Theatre Guild has announced its 2024-25 Broadway season at Bank of America Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks. Shows include “The Book of Mormon,” “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” “Clue,” “Mean Girls” and “The Addams Family.”

Los Angeles Opera announced the recipients of its fourth-annual Stern Artist Awards, which go to individuals deemed to have made important contributions to the company’s artistry. The $75,000 award will be split between three honorees: conductor Louis Lohraseb, director Kaneza Schaal and administrator Patricia McLeod.

Last but not least

Sure, Coachella is cool. But man, Times photographers — they’re the ones who can really rock. Just check out the work of Christina House and Dania Maxwell in our best moments of Coachella photo gallery.