During The Times’ Actors Roundtable, Adrien Brody gorgeously shared how his mother has “guided me in my understanding of art and the yearning to leave behind something that is meaningful and brings more light than darkness to this world.” I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, here with my colleague Jessica Gelt to celebrate that yearning far and wide with another edition of the Essential Arts newsletter, complete with top picks for how to spend your weekend and some sad news on the culture front.
Best bets: On our radar this week
Newsletter
You’re reading Essential Arts
Our critics and reporters guide you through events and happenings of L.A.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
‘Firelei Báez. The fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it.’
“The work of Dominican-born, New York-based painter Firelei Báez … is a captivating fusion of lightness and heft, agility and brawn,” wrote Holly Myers for The Times in 2012. Hauser & Wirth is showing the artist’s new large-scale canvases and drawings, as well as her first bronze sculpture, on view through Jan. 5 at the gallery’s downtown location. Stop by Saturday at 2 p.m. for Báez in conversation with Made in L.A. biennial co-curator Essence Harden (free, RSVP encouraged). Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 901 E. 3rd St., downtown. hauserwirth.com
‘Earth Ears: A Sonic Ritual’
“There are a million ways to perform these pieces,” wrote Times classical music critic Mark Swed of Pauline Oliveros’ compositions in 2020. “They need to be fashioned for the specific players, the physical site, the occasion. For Oliveros, how you listen was intricately tied to where you listen, when you listen, with whom you listen, why you listen and what you can then do with what you listen to.” Long Beach Opera is doing just that to launch its season-long showcase of the pioneering composer and sound artist — through an intimate, daytime, one-performance-only production of interactive meditation. As of last check, the in-demand event was wait-listing prospective audience members. Sunday, 3 p.m. Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. longbeachopera.org
Kristin Chenoweth is performing this weekend with the L.A. Opera Orchestra.
(Amy Sussman / Getty Images)
Kristin Chenoweth
It’s good to see her, isn’t it? Especially during the holidays. The Tony and Emmy winner brings her Christmas spirit to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a one-night-only concert. She’ll perform seasonal favorites — plus a few “Popular” Broadway songs — with the L.A. Opera Orchestra, conducted by Mary-Mitchell Campbell. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., laopera.org (Want more festive to-do’s around town? Let The Times’ roundup of picks be our holiday gift to you.)
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Solomon Northup’s Odyssey The world premiere of a 4K restoration of Gordon Parks’ 1984 film based on the same material as Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave,” with filmmakers Warrington Hudlin and Mario Van Peebles and director of photography Hiro Narita in conversation with Jon-Sesrie Goff.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. academymuseum.org
Gurrelieder Zubin Mehta conducts Arnold Schoenberg’s gigantic, glorious post-Wagnerian masterwork to cap the L.A. Phil’s Schoenberg at 150 festival.
8 p.m Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen From the Museo Nacional del Prado The life-size canvas “Queen Mariana of Austria” (1652–53), a portrait of the 18-year-old monarch by 17th century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, has never before been exhibited on the West Coast and will be on display with a selection of the artist’s other works.
Through March 24. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. nortonsimon.org
Metallica Helping Hands Concert & Auction The group’s biannual acoustic/electric benefit show, which aims to raise money to fight hunger and to support technical education, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel with special guests.
6 p.m. YouTube Theater, 1011 Stadium Drive, Inglewood. youtubetheater.com
SATURDAY
Holland Andrews The vocalist, clarinetist and composer performs an improvised, multilayered score inspired by the intersection of mental health and transcendent experience in “Where the Apple Fell.”
8:30 p.m. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
Glenn Miller Orchestra The renowned big band is “In the Holiday Mood.”
3 p.m. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas The Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, 311, Sublime, Jimmy Eat World, Franz Ferdinand, Royel Otis, AWOLNATION, the Linda Lindas and bby headline the alternative music radio station’s annual event.
5:30 p.m. Kia Forum, 3900 .W Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
Long Beach Nutcracker Tchaikovsky’s classic is accompanied live by the Long Beach Ballet Orchestra.
Through Dec. 22. Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. longbeachnutcracker.com
Sugar Plum Fairies The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles’ holiday show features choral traditions, popular hits and a tribute to the music of the “Wonka” films.
8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. gmcla.org
Stevie Wonder The multi-instrumentalist and music legend wants you to “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.”
8 p.m. Crypto.com Arena, 1111 S. Figueroa St. cryptoarena.com
Holiday Family Faire A daylong winter wonderland featuring performances, food and drink and a marketplace; followed by “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” by Joe Landry, and starring Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jim Beaver.
11 a.m. Family Faire; 5 p.m. “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Topanga. theatricum.com
Passings: David Schweizer and Ted Weiant
David Schweizer, photographed in 2014 in New York City.
(Mireya Acierto / WireImage via Getty Images)
David Schweizer, a lifelong director who helmed hundreds of productions all over the world, died Dec. 5 in New York City. He was 74.
A Baltimore native and Yale graduate, Schweizer began his illustrious career at 24 years old by opening the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center with his bold take on Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida,” starring Christopher Walken. He went on to launch plays by Sam Shepard, Austin Pendleton, Albert Innaurato, Maria Irene Fornes, Thomas Babe, Beth Henley, Han Ong and many, many others. He became a driving force in the development of the Los Angeles theater community, helming some of the first productions of the Actors Gang in the 1980s with Tim Robbins and collaborating with John Fleck, Sandra Tsing Loh and Taylor Negron.
He also directed works across the theatrical landscape, including solo performance and experimental theater; his extensive opera staging work features Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg’s “Hydrogen Jukebox” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” both at Long Beach Opera, the world premiere of Jeremy Howard Beck and Stephanie Fleischmann’s “The Long Walk” at Opera Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Richard Rodney Bennett’s “The Mines of Sulphur” at the New York City Opera.
“I don’t think of the theater — even after making theater for 20 years — as a job, or myself as a director for hire. Although I’m perfectly capable, there’s a level on which I don’t place myself in that competition,” Schweizer told The Times in 1992. “In this way I’m spoiled. I will do something because I get intrigued about doing it. And I’ve never starved. I’ve stayed afloat with that kind of modus operandi for many years.”
At the time of his death, Schweizer had just directed a revival of Pendleton’s play “Orson’s Shadow” at the Theater for the New City, as well as having just completed principle photography on “Sugar Daddy,” his queer take on “Sunset Boulevard” with Alan Mandell and John Cameron Mitchell.
“David was an unforgettable maker of theatre, and he was theatre himself,” wrote playwright Luis Alfaro on Facebook. “A visionary director, both in theatre and opera, with an amazing eye for the possibilities on a stage, he filled them with beautiful striking images, surprise and feeling. He was an event.”
“David Schweizer was a true original — a director who transformed every project he touched into something unexpected and unforgettable,” wrote fellow director Ralph B. Peña on social media. “His fearless creativity and deep humanity inspired everyone who worked with him. To collaborate with David was to be challenged, uplifted, and forever changed. His impact will live on in the countless artists and audiences he touched.”
“He was the embodiment of inspiration and already when I experience a majestic moment watching live performance, I want David to see it too,” wrote comedian and solo performance artist Marga Gomez, who collaborated with Schweizer. “I want to ask him what he thinks. I want to work harder.”
Schweizer is survived by his partner, Caleb Wertenbaker, and his brother, Tim Schweizer.
* * *
Edward “Ted” Weiant, Los Angelees theater director, died Nov. 29 of a heart attack at his home in Ceaucé, France. He was 77.
The Connecticut native and University of Connecticut graduate taught and directed at the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts before moving to Los Angeles with his wife, Joan Stein, whom he met in 1974. Together, they managed the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, where Weiant directed a remarkable 16-month run of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” with pairings like Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, Delta Burke and real-life husband Gerald McRaney, and Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman playing the piece’s lifelong friends.
A total of 128 actors were part of the production, including Tom Skerritt, Lee Remick, Charlton Heston, Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt. The final four shows, featuring Timothy Dalton and Whoopi Goldberg, sold out immediately and had a waitlist spanning 12 pages.
“We’re overjoyed because when we first started, we thought we’d get six to eight weeks out of it,” Weiant told The Times in 1991. “So it’s a gift.”
Beyond helming productions onstage, Weiant helped develop the work of new playwrights as a producing director at Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble. Nature was his second act: The theater director also worked in landscape design, his signature creations being tree trunks painted in bold, bright colors and post-and-rail fences fashioned out of fruit trees.
Following Stein’s sudden death in 2012, Weiant moved to France and met his husband, Pantelis Karras. They split their time between the French countryside, Paris, Greece and Bali.
Weiant is survived by Karras and his daughter, Kimberly.
— Ashley Lee
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Lauren Samuels as Elphaba, left, and Austen Danielle Bohmer as Glinda in the national tour of “Wicked.”
(Joan Marcus)
“Wicked” is everywhere right now — including onstage. Times Theater Critic Charles McNulty attended opening night at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre and came away feeling conflicted. The movie informed his viewing of the musical this time around, enabling him to see what worked onstage and what worked better on film. Either way, he had to ask: Is “Wicked” actually a good musical? Or is it just driven by its own commercial success? His answer, with lots of good historical perspective about the show, can be found here.
The Times’ best-of lists have rolled out, fast and furious. Art critic Christopher Knight weighed in with his list of “10 artworks that stole the show at L.A. museums in 2024.” “Sensational individual paintings, sculptures, installations and other works have a way of standing out from the crowd,” Knight writes in his intro.
McNulty placed his highlights of Southern California theater in alphabetical order after a short essay on how theater proved to be the silver lining of 2024 — the year that many folks, and theater itself, seemed to finally shake off a post-pandemic malaise. Spoiler alert: The Geffen Playhouse, under the leadership of Tarell Alvin McCraney, holds three of the 11 spots.
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber.
The nave of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the restored interior.
(Stephane de Sakutin / Associated Press)
Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris reopened this week — more than five years after a devastating fire gutted the 861-year-old Gothic medieval cathedral. The Associated Press caught up with Philippe Villeneuve, the devoted architect who made its resurrection happen.
Kids 17 and under will get free admission to the Grammy Museum beginning on Jan. 25, the organization announced. Funding for the initiative, which is expected to more than double the number of young people who come to the museum, was made possible by the Stengaard Gross Family Education Initiative through a donation made to the Campaign for Music Education. The Grammy Museum opened in 2008 and features three floors of collections that highlight some of the most history-making moments and artists in music.
Tennessee Williams is coming for your headphones as L.A. Theatre Works gets ready to release four audio productions of his classic plays with its Tennessee Williams Collection. First up, and out this week: “The Glass Menagerie,” starring Julie Harris, Calista Flockhart, Kevin Kilner and Zeljko Ivanek, featuring John Goodman as the narrator. Three more titles will follow next year. The recordings can be found online at latw.org, as well as in stores and libraries across the country.
And last but not least
Jonathan Groff, who is portraying Bobby Darin in a new Broadway musical this spring, has released covers of the crooner’s hits “Beyond the Sea,” “Dream Lover” and “Just in Time.”