Alan Titchmarsh’s comments came to light as he described a typical Saturday, which might include a shopping trip using something a BBC star has reportedly said they don’t like
Alan’s remarks came as he described a typical Saturday with his wife, Alison(Image: Getty)
Alan Titchmarsh has taken a swipe at a BBC Radio 2 star who “lives in London” over alleged comments about a vehicle he owns. Alan’s remarks came as he described a typical Saturday with his wife, Alison, following the couple’s recent move to a new home in Surrey after “living in Hampshire around farmland for 40 years”.
By 7am, the Ground Force legend is brewing up a cuppa for Alison and is “up and at ’em”, tackling a crossword to keep his mind sharp before heading outside to check his beloved garden.
Come 11am, the pair might venture out for a spot of shopping, and for that, it appears they rely on their trusty four-by-fours. However, Alan claims one BBC star is far from impressed by the vehicles.
The radio host in question apparently “slags them off”, yet Alan and Alison need them, particularly when navigating their local potholes — pointing out that the host is based in the capital.
He told The Telegraph: “Ali and I might head out and do a bit of [homeware] shopping. We’ve lived in Hampshire around farmland for 40 years, so both of us have four-by-fours. It’s all right when Jeremy Vine slags them off, but he lives in London.
“Out here, we need them! If you saw our potholes! When the two of us are driving, we’re almost always locked in conversation but I play music when I’m alone – either Classic FM, Radio 3 or Radio 4.
“The car picks up my iPhone music and I often listen to the score for the latest series of All Creatures Great and Small by Alexandra Harwood. It’s lovely.”
Keen cyclist Jeremy previously documented drivers breaking traffic laws and shared these on social media in an effort to spotlight the dangers faced by cyclists.
However, he abandoned this practice after suffering online “trolling”. He revealed on X: “I’m stopping my cycling videos. The trolling just got too bad. They have had well over 100 million views, but in the end the anger they generate has genuinely upset me.”
Indeed, it reportedly got so bad that he received death threats for posting videos of drivers, with some cruelly dubbing him “England’s biggest ***hole”.
He said: “Some of the biggest videos were actually about the smallest incidents, like someone turning left in front of me.
“People are happy to discuss it and I actually think that we’d all be safer if we all understood each other. People are going to drive 4x4s in Kensington and whatnot, but they need to have a bit of care for me on a bicycle.
“You might be in total control when you pass close by, but the person on a bicycle doesn’t know that. I just hope I was part of a dialogue about it.”
The White House’s newly released strategy for tackling the nation’s drug and addiction crisis calls for a number of ambitious public health approaches that some experts say are laudable but will be hampered by the administration’s own actions.
The sweeping 195-page National Drug Control Strategy, published May 4, advocates for making access to treatment easier than getting drugs, preventing young people from developing addictions in the first place, increasing support for people in recovery, and reducing overdose deaths.
Those broad goals are widely supported by public health researchers, addiction treatment clinicians, and recovery advocates.
Many components of the National Drug Control Strategy are “things that we would agree with and that we fully support,” said Libby Jones, who leads overdose prevention efforts at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, a public health advocacy group.
But there are “disconnects in what the strategy says is important and then what they’re actually going to fund,” she said of the Trump administration. “Those inconsistencies feel particularly loud in this strategy.”
The White House’s National Drug Control Strategy, released every two years, is a touchstone document meant to lay out the federal government’s coordinated approach to what in recent decades has been one of the country’s defining problems.
Since 2000, more than 1.1 million people have died of drug overdoses. Although deaths have decreased recently, the numbers remain elevated compared with earlier decades, and research suggests overdose death rates among Black Americans and Native Americans are disproportionately high.
The strategy document published this week is the first of President Trump’s current term. In keeping with the administration’s approach to addiction issues, it places heavy emphasis on law enforcement efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs. The document repeatedly refers to the ongoing “war” against “foreign terrorist organizations” — the Trump administration’s term for drug cartels — and touts increased enforcement at U.S. borders.
It also outlines plans to implement artificial intelligence technologies to screen for illicit drugs brought into the country and wastewater testing to detect illegal drug use nationwide.
The second half of the strategy focuses on reducing the demand for drugs through public health prevention efforts, addiction treatment, and support for people in recovery. It promotes the role of religion in recovery and calls for the widespread use of overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone.
In a news release, the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy called the document a “roadmap” that will “continue dismantling the drug supply and defeating the scourge of illicit drugs in our country.”
The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment about how the strategy aligns with its other actions.
In December, Trump signed a reauthorization of the SUPPORT Act, which continues several grants related to treatment and recovery and the requirement for Medicaid to cover all FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder. In January, he announced the Great American Recovery Initiative, including a $100-million investment to address homelessness, opioid addiction, and public safety.
However, few details have been provided about the initiative, and in January, about a month after the SUPPORT Act passed, billions of dollars in addiction-related grants were abruptly terminated and reinstated within a frantic 24-hour period.
That “whiplash” left “a sense of instability and uncertainty in the field,” said Yngvild Olsen, a national adviser with the Manatt Health consultancy. She led substance use treatment policy at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, under the Biden administration and left about six months into Trump’s second term.
That insecurity was exacerbated by the president’s 2027 budget request, which proposes cuts to several addiction and mental health programs and the consolidation of key federal agencies working on those matters. Jones’ group and nearly 100 others in the field have signed a letter asking Congress to reject the proposals, as it did with similar requests last year.
The national drug strategy adds new, potentially contradictory information to this confusing landscape.
Increasing Access to Treatment
One of the most significant public health goals in the strategy, mentioned at least half a dozen times, is to make it easier to get treatment than it is to buy illegal drugs.
National data underscores the necessity: More than 80% of Americans who need substance use treatment don’t receive it.
The administration’s actions on health insurance may make it difficult to improve that statistic.
Medicaid is the main source of healthcare coverage for adults with opioid use disorder. When implemented, the Medicaid work requirements in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are projected to strip that coverage from about 1.6 million people with substance use disorders.
The last time Medicaid rolls were purged — after COVID-era protections expired — many people who had been receiving medication treatment for opioid addiction stopped it and fewer people started treatment, according to a study published last year.
Olsen, who is also an addiction medicine doctor, said she loves the strategy’s emphasis on making treatment readily available to anyone who wants it. But she said that’s “hard to really imagine when now people may have to pay for it themselves because they may be losing their Medicaid insurance coverage.”
One analysis estimated the upcoming Medicaid changes could lead 156,000 people to lose access to medications for opioid use disorder and result in more than 1,000 additional fatal overdoses per year.
People with private insurance may be affected too.
The Trump administration has refused to enforce Biden-era regulations aimed at bolstering mental health parity, the idea that insurers must cover mental illness and addiction treatment comparably to physical treatments. And recently, the administration said it would redo those regulations altogether, raising fears that addiction treatment could become increasingly unaffordable.
The administration did not respond to specific questions about how it reconciles its actions on Medicaid and parity with the goal of increasing treatment.
Prioritizing Prevention
The strategy highlights preventing addictions before they begin as one of the keys to reducing demand for drugs. It calls for “promoting a drug-free America as the social norm” and implementing school and community-based programs that are backed by science.
“Investing in primary prevention, before drug use starts, saves lives and resources,” it says, citing several studies about the cost-effectiveness of such programs.
Yet, the president’s budget proposes cuts to these types of programs, and federal layoffs have decimated the agencies that would implement such work.
“It’s not clear to me that they’re really going to be able to have the funds or the people to be able to carry that out,” Olsen said of the strategy’s prevention goals.
Another wrinkle appears in the strategy’s discussion of marijuana. The document points to marijuana use as one of the drivers of increasing drug use disorders and reports that “convergent evidence from multiple sources” suggests cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis. It calls for developing new tools to treat marijuana withdrawal and addiction.
However, just two weeks ago, the White House moved to reclassify medical marijuana to a lower tier of scheduled substances and is moving to hold a hearing to do the same for marijuana broadly.
“The administration, on the one hand, is moving in a direction of liberalizing access to cannabis,” Jones said, “but at the same time, in the strategy, it talks about the dangers of doing so.”
“There’s a disconnect there that just makes you question: Which one do you believe?” she added.
The administration did not respond to specific questions about its marijuana policies.
Stopping Overdose Deaths
One of the more surprising elements of the National Drug Control Strategy comes in the last paragraph of the final chapter. It focuses on public drug-checking programs, which often involve using test strips to help people who use drugs determine whether there are more-dangerous substances, such as fentanyl or xylazine, in the batch they bought. That helps them determine whether or how to safely use those drugs.
“Rapid test strips and similar technologies that detect fentanyl and other drugs are an important tool that should be legal,” the strategy document says.
However, SAMHSA announced in a recent letter that it would no longer pay for test strips, as part of the Trump administration’s “clear shift away from harm reduction and practices that facilitate illicit drug use.”
The administration has similarly attacked harm reduction programs in an executive order and its budgetrequests. It did not respond to specific questions about how this position interacts with the drug control strategy.
Regina LaBelle, a Georgetown University professor who served as acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Biden administration, wrote about the contradiction in a blog post: “It is the height of rhetoric over reality to champion a tool while simultaneously cutting off the funding used to acquire it.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
“The best head coach in the league, the best quarterback in the league, the best … franchise in the league — it’s a perfect situation,” Simpson said during a news conference at the Rams’ draft headquarters in Inglewood.
How the situation plays out — short and long term — remains to be seen.
Stafford, 38, will enter his 18th NFL season as the reigning NFL most valuable player.
With free agent Jimmy Garoppolo mulling retirement, McVay said Thursday night that Simpson would compete with Stetson Bennett to be Stafford’s backup.
The Rams used the 13th pick to select Simpson, 23, who started 15 games for Alabama.
McVay said that he had informed Stafford that the Rams would select Simpson.
“He was great,” McVay said of Stafford’s reaction. “He’s a stud. He’s always first class in every sense of the word.”
But McVay and general manager Les Snead were not their typically ebullient selves when discussing Simpson during their Thursday night news conference. Some observers perceived that as a break in what is regarded as one of the NFL’s best coach-general manager partnerships.
On Friday, Snead said in an interview with ESPN radio that he and McVay work “in lockstep.”
So their muted reactions Thursday might have been out of sensitivity, warranted or not, to not upset Stafford after drafting his heir apparent in the first round. McVay took pains to remind that the Rams are Stafford’s team, seemingly to not offend the Rams’ most important player.
After last year’s draft-day trade with the Atlanta Falcons, the Rams went into the offseason with two first-round picks — their own at No. 29 and the one acquired from the Falcons at 13.
Ty Simpson poses for a photo with his family during a news conference in Inglewood on Friday.
(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)
In March, the Rams used the 29th pick in a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, so perhaps the 13th pick was regarded as a luxury.
They spent it on a player who was at Alabama for four seasons, but started only one.
Snead acknowledged that as Simpson pondered whether to remain at Alabama or make himself available for the draft, Snead spoke with Simpson’s father, Jason, who like Snead played college football in the Southeastern Conference and is now the coach at Tennessee Martin. Snead said it was in the role similar to the NFL’s College Advisory Committee, which evaluates prospects and lets them know in what round, if any, that they might be selected. Snead reportedly told Jason Simpson his son was first-round caliber.
“You try to get across it’s not about where you get drafted,” Snead said Thursday night. “It’s more about where you go and what situation you go and what you do with that opportunity after.”
A few months later, the Rams drafted Simpson, who was upbeat as he met with reporters, while his parents and his brother and sister sat nearby.
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The Rams drafted Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft in Pittsburgh.
Simpson, who passed for 28 touchdowns, with five interceptions last season, was in Southern California last January when Alabama lost to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. The Crimson Tide did a walkthrough at SoFi Stadium.
Now he will begin his NFL career there.
“I’m, I guess, like a redneck in Southern California,” he joked. “So we’ll see how that goes. But I’m super excited to be here. This is a great place, with great people and I can’t wait to get started.”
Simpson said that Rams safety Quentin Lake had texted him. He also received a social media message from Stafford’s wife, Kelly, inviting him and his family to reach out if they need anything.
“Can’t wait to talk to Matthew,” said Simpson, who characterized the veteran as “an assassin” on the field. “I’m super excited because I just want to pick his brain about everything.”
Simpson met with McVay on Friday.
“He’s got the juice, man,” Simpson said, “like that dude … he’s a fireball.”
Simpson said he benefited from the years he spent at Alabama before he got his opportunity to play last season.
“The years that I sat were … probably more important,” he said, “because I had to learn how to practice. I had to learn how to study when I wasn’t playing because I didn’t know when that time was going to come.
“And so whenever that time did come — it was this year — I made the most of it.”
Now he is ready for the next phase of his career.
He said his faith was his foundation, and that he aspires to be “not only be the best football player I can be,” but also a better teammate and person.
“I want people to come into the locker room and smile, knowing that ‘Hey, Ty’s here,’” he said. “I want to lead, influence people and I think at the quarterback position that’s what you need to do.”
His immediate goal is modest.
“My plan is just to get better each and every day,” he said, “so, eventually, I have a long career like Matthew.”
Bombs are in and art is out as the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget requests $1.5 trillion in defense spending (up 44% from last year), while again attempting to snuff out the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The budget proposal released earlier this month calls for just enough money to permanently wind down the operations of each agency: $29 million for the NEA (down from $207 million); $38 million for the NEH (down from $207 million); and $6 million for the IMLS (down from $291.8 million).
Congress has the final say about whether or not these cuts actually get made, and Sept. 30 is the deadline to pass next year’s budget. (Failure to do so could result in yet another government shutdown.) It’s worth remembering that Trump tried to defund these organizations last year and was thwarted by Congress. But the administration did successfully choke off funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which ceased operations in January.
It’s hard to know how this renewed threat to agencies that collectively support thousands of arts programs and initiatives across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., will play out, especially because the only constant in this administration is its mercurial temperament. Plus, Congress doesn’t have a great track record of keeping Trump in check (see Venezuela, Iran, the White House East Wing, the Kennedy Center, etc.). The ongoing war in Iran, which pundits warn could last until the midterms, may also impact how Congress decides to vote.
In times of conflict and chaos, we need the arts — a sentiment so obvious it normally goes without saying. But this moment somehow feels different. There were many alarming moves that Trump wanted to make during his first term that the so-called adults in the room allegedly kept him from achieving. Those adults are gone and he is now surrounded with enablers. This means the unthinkable is now possible — as we have seen time and again over the past 15 months.
In a country without the NEA, NEH and IMLS, hundreds of small local arts groups would likely cease to exist entirely — and with them, the community, education and enlightenment that underpin our increasingly fragile, fractured society. We can close our eyes until it happens, or we can start urgently ringing the alarm bells. I vote for the latter. Here’s a link to get you started.
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt banging a gong. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
Dispatch: mots take on AI at Flux Festival
A participant experiences “The Pledge,” part of artist duo mots’ acclaimed “AI & Me” series, on view April 25 at Blum Gallery, Culver City, as part of Flux Festival.
(mots / Daniela Nedovescu and Octavian Mot)
Artist duo mots is staging one of its exploratory AI-centered exhibits — “The Pledge” — at the upcoming Flux Festival at Bloom Gallery in Culver City (April 24 and 25). Last year, mots received quite a bit of attention for its U.S. premiere of “AI & Me,” part of Tribeca Festival’s Immersive Program. That piece, according to mots website, “dives into the weird dynamics between humans and artificial intelligence,” by placing people in a confessional style booth while AI tells them exactly what it thinks of them.
“The Pledge” takes that concept further by inviting participants to stand on a stage while AI-generates a statement about them— one that is solely based on appearance. The person then must decide whether to read the AI feedback aloud into a microphone or leave. If you decide to share, you become part of the permanent video installation.
In this moment of deep AI anxiety, the mots’ work is tapping into more than just a playful back and forth between man and machine.
“On one hand, we’re thrilled to see people lining up to interact with the pieces we build; on the other, we’re trying to gather the courage to destroy them and stop this madness before it’s too late,” the mots write on their website.
— Jessica Gelt
Dispatch: Monster Party
The adult-centric interactive melodrama “Monster Party,” at Rita House through April 25.
(Clint Keller)
“Monster Party” starts with a moment of ecstasy. Then the adult-centric interactive play gets demented — a bit demonic, even. We meet characters shrouded in mystery. Guests at a cocktail party, there’s a writer working on a book about supernatural creatures, a vacuum salesman with a closely guarded secret, a repressed religious fanatic and more. None of them can remember how or why they ended up at this soiree, hosted by the confidently cryptic Baroness, a character who clearly delights in creating sin and madness. We’ll soon find out this isn’t an event for the lucky.
But that’s not just what makes “Monster Party” special. Remounted after a short theatrical run in 2024, the work from immersive creator Matt Dorado intermixes the personal and political. Lurid, humorous and sexy, “Monster Party” is also a scathing critique of how political systems can drive one mad.
Set during the Lavender Scare, the anti-communist purge of LGBTQ+ people from the U.S. government in the 1950s, “Monster Party” opens with camp and then descends into very real horrors of life in the United States. You’ll drink, play parlor games and gradually uncover one dark skeleton after another.
The intimate production is limited to 50 guests per showing, and cocktails are included in the $159.45 ticket. Come ready to socialize.
8 p.m. Thursdays and Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, through April 26. Rita House, 5971 W. 3rd Street monsterpartyshow.com
— Todd Martens
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY Chaya Czernowin Monday Evening Concerts presents the U.S. premiere of the Harvard-based Israeli composer’s “Poetica,” which she describes as “a journey of one into themselves,” performed by percussionist Steven Schick and the percussion ensemble Red Fish Blue Fish. 8 p.m. Zipper Hall at the Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. mondayeveningconcerts.org
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot O.C. theater companies the Wayward Artist and Larking House team up for Stephen Adly Guirgis’ bold, darkly comedic courtroom drama set in Purgatory. Directed by Lizzy McCabe. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and April 23-35. Irvine United Congregational Church, 4915 Alton Pkwy., Irvine. thewaywardartist.org
Harry Fonseca “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Coyote,” an exhibition of more than 30 paintings, prints and works on paper, follows the path of the late Native artist’s alter-ego, the Trickster Coyote, an exploration of his own identity and a means of challenging existing narratives. Also being exhibited is “Sedej Tuulémisé (Blood Relations),” featuring paintings by emerging artist Deerstine Suehead. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through July 3. PDC Design Galleries, 750 N San Vicente, West Hollywood. pacificdesigncenter.com
Ryan Bancroft will conduct the L.A. Phil this weekend at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)
Shostakovich & Sibelius Ryan Bancroft conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic with cellist Alisa Weilerstein playing one of her specialties, Shostakovich’s “Second Cello Concerto.” 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Liu Xiaodong For the work presented in the exhibition “Host,” the figurative painter trained his eye on a Detroit tattoo artist with a penchant for medieval battle recreations. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturday, through June 13. Lisson, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave., L.A. lissongallery.com
SATURDAY Back to Oz MUSE/IQUE salutes a truly American fairy tale through music with pieces from “The Wonderful Wizard,” “The Wiz,” and “Wicked,” performed by Carmen Cusack, LaVance Colley, Nathan Granner, DC6 Singers Collective and the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra. 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday and April 24; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. April 25; and 2:30 p.m. April 26. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. muse-ique.com
Colored People’s Time: A History Play From Civil War to civil rights, Leslie Lee’s drama, directed by Ben Guillory, examines the lives of Black Americans through a century of struggle. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays, through May 17. Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre Four, 514 S. Spring St., downtown L.A. therobeytheatrecompany.org
The Expanding Field: MOCA’s Collection from the 1940s to 1970s Works by Mark Rothko, Luchita Hurtado, Piet Mondrian, On Kawara, Robert Rauschenberg, Betye Saar, Anne Truitt and others illustrate the breadth of the museum’s holdings. Saturday through Sept. 20. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org
Falstaff Craig Colclough stars in LA Opera’s production of the energetic Verdi comedy about two wives turning the tables on an unwanted suitor in merry olde England. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. April 26; 7:30 p.m. April 30, May 2 and 6; 2 p.m. May 10. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org
Steven Culp and Joey Stromberg in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
For Want of a Horse Olivia Dufault’s comedy about an unusual love triangle involving a horse opens Echo Theater Company’s 2026 season. Directed by Elana Luo. Opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays; 8 p.m. Mondays, through May 25. Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. echotheatercompany.com
Hear Now Music Festival A chamber concert doubleheader (separate admissions): The matinee features Lyris Quartet, Brightwork Ensemble and HEX performing Hugh Levick’s “No Pasaran” for brass quintet; Ania Vu’s “Small Tenderness” for vocal ensemble and string quartet; Liviu Marinescu’s “String Quartet No. 1”; Bryan Chiu’s “Anthology” for piano and horn; and Tom Flaherty’s, “Recess” for string quartet. Lyris Quartet and Brightwork Ensemble return for the evening show with mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell, and the music of Peter Knell, “Canciones de Agua” for mezzo-soprano and violin; Sean Heim, “there is no such thing as time” for mixed ensemble; Vera Ivanova’s “The Firebird’s Feather,” for flute solo; and Jordan Nelson’s “Join” for string quartet. Chamber Concert 1, 3 p.m. (2 p.m. preview); Chamber Concert 2, 8 p.m. (7 p.m. preview). First Lutheran Church of Venice, 815 Venice Blvd. hearnowmusicfestival.com
Claudia Keep In the exhibition “Water, Water, Everywhere,” the painter finds fascinating details in the life-giving liquid and all its forms, including rivers, ocean waves, clouds and afternoon coffee. Opening reception, 4-6 p.m. Saturday; the exhibition runs through May 30. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave., L.A. parkergallery.com
Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive The exhibition, a collaboration between Art + Practice and the California African American Museum, shares the work of Black photographers who documented life in the urban neighborhoods and rural villages of eastern Texas from 1944 to 1984. Saturday evening, exhibition curator and NYU professor Nicole R. Fleetwood and Getty Research Institute curator LeRonn P. Brooks will discuss the exhibition and the volatile time of great change that it captures. The exhibition opening is 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and runs through Sept. 5. Art + Practice exhibitions space, 3401 W. 43rd Pl. L.A. Conversation, 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday. Art + Practice programs space, 4334 Degnan Blvd., L.A. artandpractice.org
Majestic Tango Directed and produced by Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo, this program features 13 dancers and six musicians using music, movement and storytelling to convey the passionate energy of Buenos Aires. 8 p.m. Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Dr. thebarclay.org
Richard Mayhew, “West Bay,” 2004 Oil on canvas 36” x 48’.
Richard Mayhew “Understory” surveys the artist’s work created between 1960 and 2023, when he saw his expressive landscapes as “an artistic reclamation of the land stolen from his Black, Shinnecock, and Cherokee-Lumbee ancestors.” Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Saturday; exhibition runs through May 30. Karma, 7351 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. karmakarma.org
Natural HERstory Drag performance meets real science in this 30-minute STEAM musical, developed by Drag Arts Lab and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and designed to engage elementary-aged learners. 11 a.m. Annenberg Community Beachhouse, 415 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica. eventbrite.com
Parsons Dance David Parsons’ New York City-based troupe marks its 40th anniversary with a program set to the music of Milton Nascimento; Giancarlo De Trizio; Champion, Four Set & Skrillex (featuring Naisha); Miles Davis; Sheila Chandra; and Yusuf/Cat Stevens 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. BroadStage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org
The Storyteller of East LA The Latino Theater Co. has the world premiere of Evelina Fernández’s magical realist drama about a 90-year-old woman with dementia and the challenges faced by her family and caregivers. Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through May 17. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S Spring St., downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
Verdi in España The Verdi Chorus performs sequences from the composer’s operas “Don Carlo,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata” and “Ernani,” alongside Bizet’s “Carmen” and selections from Spanish composers Catán, Granados, Giménez, Torroba and De Falla. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. First Presbyterian Church, 1220 2nd St., Santa Monica. verdichorus.org
SUNDAY Mozart’s Requiem Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Mozart’s final masterpiece, plus the West Coast premiere of Fanny Mendelssohn’s “Oratorio on Scenes from the Bible.” 7 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
TUESDAY Yuja Wang and Mahler Chamber Orchestra The celebrated pianist continues her long-standing collaboration with MCO for a program featuring works by Segei Prokofiev and Alexander Tzfasman. 8 p.m. Tuesday. McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Dr., Palm Desert; 8 p.m. Wednesday. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa; 7 p.m. Thursday. Granada Theatre, 1214 State St, Santa Barbara; 8 p.m. April 25. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge. mahlerchamber.com
WEDNESDAY Khorus Harmonia Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter are producing ten performances of this choral concert to benefit the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and The Wounded Warrior Project. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays, through May 2. Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. onstage411.com
This Ends Badly The theater collective Frank’s presents an evening of short plays by Frank Demma, Marlane Meyer, John Pellech, John Pollono, Benjamin Weissman and Sharon Yablon. 8 p.m. Wednesdays, through May 13. Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. echotheatercompany.ludus.com
Arts anywhere
New and recent releases of arts-related media.
The British Museum in London.
(Kin Cheung / Associated Press)
British Museum As excitement builds for the opening of the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA on Sunday (for priority members; May 4 for the general public), one’s appetite may be whetted to visit other museums. Why not start in London with the British Museum? The sprightly 273-year-old institution boasts a collection of eight million works and draws more than six million visitors each year. But there’s no need for a plane ticket or a Tardis to see it. Google Arts & Culture offers virtual tours that allow you to wander the halls and grounds for free (and it won’t rain!). artsandculture.google.com
Philip Glass
Two opportunities to see the work of one of the finest American composers will soon be available with the click of a button or a tap of a screen. First up is “The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes featuring 10 Pianists” (which was performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2024) streaming live from the 3,500-seat Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 4:30 p.m. Saturday and on demand through April 28. youtube.com
Six days later, the Paris Opera offers its current, sold-out production of “Satyagraha,” Glass’ revelatory, triptych portrait of Gandhi. Directed by choreographers Bobbi Jean Smith and Or Schraiber, with a cast including Anthony Roth Costanzo and Davóne Tines — all four members of AMOC*, American Modern Opera Company — the show will be presented live on the Paris Opera Play streaming platform (for $14) at 10:30 a.m. April 24. POP’s live broadcasts are typically available on demand for 30 days following transmission. play.operadeparis.fr
— Kevin Crust
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Pooya Mohseni, from left, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat in “English” by Sanaz Toossi at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
(Joan Marcus)
With the U.S. at war with Iran, “This is an important moment to experience ‘English,’ Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, set in an English-language classroom outside of Tehran in 2008,” writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. “The play, now having its L.A. premiere at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, reminds us of the lives — the hopes, the dreams, the sorrows — on the other side of the headlines.”
It’s been an anxious journey for Bob Baker Marionette Theater since 2019 when it was forced out of its downtown home of 55 years. After a lengthy search, the nonprofit signed a 10-year lease for a former cinema-turned-Korean Church in Highland Park. With that, however, came the accompanying stress of being renters in L.A. But good news has arrived: the beloved theater “has entered into an agreement to purchase its [current] home at the corner of York Boulevard and North Avenue 50,” reports Times features columnist Todd Martens.
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is a major expansion of the California Science Center.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
California Science Center has completed construction on its new $450-million Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center, which houses the Endeavor shuttle. Staff writer Malia Mendez headed onsite to get the scoop on the, “sleek 20-story, 200,000-square-foot new building rising over Exposition Park,” nearly doubling the museum’s exhibition space.
Architecture writer Sam Lubell put together a fascinating Q&A with Peter Zumthor in which the Geffen Galleries’ architect addresses a number of ongoing criticisms about his creation, including its loss of square-footage.
In case you missed it: Pop singer Pink has will host the 79th Tony Awards. “The award ceremony returns to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on June 7, with nominations announced May 5,” writes Times reporting fellow Iris Kwok.
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It’s been a decade since the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts began awarding Infinite Expansion Grants to local contemporary arts organizations. The money has always mattered, but means even more during a time of great uncertainly about federal support for the arts (as I wrote in my newsletter intro). This year’s round of grantees was just announced, with nine L.A. contemporary arts groups sharing $400,000 in support. These groups, a news release says, “exemplify risk-taking, critical inquiry, and community engagement,” and include Art in the Park Community Cultural Programs; Color Compton; Cal State University, Northridge Foundation on behalf of CSUN Art Galleries; Barnsdall Art Park Foundation on behalf of Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG); Los Angeles Performance Practice; Monday Evening Concerts; Clockshop; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA); and the Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation.
Big change is coming to the Soraya and California State University, Northridge. Artistic and Executive Director Thor Steingraber, is leaving his position after 12 years to become president and chief executive at Vivo Performing Arts in Boston. The Soraya has also announced Steingraber‘s replacement: Chad Hilligus. Hilligus arrives at CSUN from the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto where he served as chief executive and curated more than 100 multidisciplinary live performances.
And another leadership shakeup has come to the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which announced that its current president and chief executive, Scott Altman, will step down on June 5 to become executive director of Miami City Ballet. Master Chorale board member William Tully will serve as interim president while the group launches a national search for a replacement.
