Britney Coleman as Bobbie, center, and the North American tour of “Company.”
(Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
Welcome to this week’s edition of Essential Arts. Though we’re down to the last full month of summer, it only means the weekend culture offerings get hotter as we bring you up to speed on the best of what is going on in the world museums, live music, art, theater and more. Here’s a look at what’s percolating this week.
Best bets: What’s on our radar this week
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1. ‘Lumen: Helen Pashgian’
Helen Pashgian was 79 when the pioneer of Southern California’s Light and Space art movement of the ’60s and ’70s finally received her first solo show at a major museum a decade ago. Now she’s back in the limelight with what’s described as a meditative sculpture and light installation reminiscent of medieval sacred spaces that transport you “beyond the outside world.”
Tuesday through Jan. 26. Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. getty.edu
2. ‘Company’ at Pantages
I have been looking forward to this national tour’s L.A. stop since April 2023, when I had the pleasure of interviewing Britney Coleman and four other actors about leading their respective Stephen Sondheim revivals. After understudying the role on Broadway, Coleman stars in the gender-flipped production as perennially single Bobbie who, upon turning 35 years old, contemplates her approach to relationships and collects priceless insights from her closest friends. I’m very ready to go on this “Company” journey with a female protagonist for the first time, and experience her version of the show’s climactic ballad “Being Alive” (and probably shed a few tears while doing so).
Through Aug. 18. 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. broadwayinhollywood.com
— Ashley Lee
“Bluey’s Big Play.”
(Darren Thomas)
3. ‘Bluey’s Big Play’
As desperate parents wait for new episodes of “Bluey” to drop (and we mean real episodes, not “minisodes”!), this live stage show comes to Costa Mesa with an original story by the TV series creator Joe Brumm and new music by “Bluey” composer Joff Bush. What’s it about? Does it matter? It’s Bluey, and that’s all that matters to the kids.
11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org/events
4. Luke Bryan
The country music star makes an L.A. stop on his “Mind of a Country Boy” album tour at the Kia Forum with support from George Birge, Meghan Patrick and Josh Ross.
Aug. 9. Kia Forum, Broad Stage, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
5. ‘Profokiev and Shostakovich’
All eyes will be on Ryan Bancroft’s return to the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night. The young conductor, who grew up in Lakewood and studied trumpet along with drumming and Ghanaian dance at CalArts, has thus far made his career mainly in Great Britain. Last year he became music director of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, a well-traveled stepping stone for conductors (Alan Gilbert rose from Stockholm to the New York Philharmonic). Music director openings loom at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in San Francisco (where Bancroft was born). His all-Russian L.A. Phil program is substantial: Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto (Denis Kozhukhin, soloist) and Shostakovich’s monumental 10th Symphony.
Tuesday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com
The week ahead: A curated calendar
The Hollywood Bowl with fireworks.
(Adam Latham / Los Angeles Philharmonic)
FRIDAY
‘The Blur or How to Marry a Billionaire’ The Mesopotamian Opera Company presents a new production from composer Peter Wing Healey.
8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Wednesday and Aug. 10. Highland Park Ebell Club, 131 S. Ave. 57, Los Angeles. mesopotamianopera.org
‘If I Needed Someone’ Playwright Neil LaBute’s new comedy focuses on contemporary gender politics.
Preview, 8 p.m. Friday; opening night gala, 8 p.m. Saturday; through Sept. 8. City Garage Theatre, Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. citygarage.org
‘Summer in the City: Los Angeles, Block by Block’ It’s a big weekend for Omar Epps fans as the deep-dive series offers Takeshi Kitano’s Little Tokyo-set crime film “Brother” (7:30 p.m. Friday) and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2000 romance “Love & Basketball” (2 p.m. Saturday).
Series continues through Aug. 31. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org
‘Tchaikovsky Spectacular With Fireworks’ Otto Tausk conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic, pianist Behzod Abduraimov and the USC Trojan Marching Band in selections from “Eugene Onegin,” Piano Concerto No. 1, “The Sleeping Beauty” and the “1812 Overture.”
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com
SATURDAY
Hard Summer Don’t miss this weekendlong event featuring dozens of the biggest names in electronic dance music, along with emerging talent, at Hollywood Park festival grounds. Headliners include Disclosure, Rezzmau5, Major Lazer, Subtronics and many more.
Saturday and Sunday. Hollywood Park, 3883 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood. hardsummer.com
SUNDAY
Reggae Night XXII Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Stephen Marley bring the spirit of Jamaica to Hollywood’s historic, outdoor venue, presented by KCRW.
Sunday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 Highland Ave., Los Angeles. hollywoodbowl.com
WEDNESDAY
‘Rachnaminoff and the Tsar’ Hershey Felder stars in the world premiere of a musical play that dramatizes pianist-composer Sergei V. Rachmaninoff’s encounter with Russian Tsar Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Through Aug. 25. Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. rachandthetsar.com
Quitting Comedy This monthly comedy series wrangled by keyboard-wielding comic Avery Pearson brings together stars and up and comers of the Improv for some musical punchlines and impromptu riffs. This week’s show includes Bobby Lee, Beth Stelling Andrew Santino, Trevor Wallace and Arden Myrin.
Wednesday. Hollywood Improv, 8162 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. improv.com/hollywood
L.A.’s biggest culture news
Japanese dancers perform “Bagaku: Treasures From the Kasuga Shrine” on July 20, 1984, as part of the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles.
(Liu Heung Shing / Associated Press)
As planning for a Cultural Olympiad begins, Classical Music Critic Mark Swed takes a look back at how the massive 1984 Olympic Arts Festival 40 years ago revolutionized the L.A. arts scene.
Artist Betsabée Romero at her Mexico City studio on July 12, 2024.
(Brigitte Diez / For The Times)
Writer Gordon Cole-Schmidt writes a richly layered profile about unique artist Betsabeé Romero, who turns car parts from California junkyards into potent art on immigration.
Ann Noble, left, and Leo Marks in “Crevasse” at Victory Theatre Center.
(Matt Kamimura)
Theater Critic Charles McNulty says Tom Jacobson‘s new plays “The Bauhaus Project” and “Crevasse” are thrilling in the scope of their ambition. They are also unsettling as America faces its own fascist peril, McNulty writes.
More culture news, briefly …
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The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation announced a $1-million gift to the Museum of Contemporary Art to expand MOCA’s Contemporary Art Start program, which provides local teachers with training and curriculums and brings classes to the museum. The foundation’s namesake is the creator of TV series such as “The Kominsky Method,” “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men.”
And last but not least
In case you forgot, summer affects the rest of the animal kingdom just as much as it does us. Hopefully the zoos across the world follow Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society’s lead by giving animals frozen cow bones and large blocks of ice to beat the heat. Here’s something we don’t often say without an ounce of sarcasm: Good job, Florida!