Center

Last Tuesday, Philip Glass withdrew the delayed premiere in June of his latest symphony, No. 15. Originally meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, it is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but the composer decided the values of the current Kennedy Center were “in direct conflict to the message of the symphony,” which is inspired by Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address.

In rebuke to Glass, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi’s quick response was: “We have no place for politics in the arts.”

Two nights later, the chairman of the Kennedy Center board (who also happens to be president of the United States) hosted at the “no place for politics” center a bevy of Republican politicians and donors for the gala premiere of “Melania,” a documentary about and produced by his wife, the first lady.

Three days after that, the president, with no warning to Congress (which administers the Kennedy Center), center staff or the public, announced on his social media platform that he would close the facility July 4 for two years to undertake a major renovation. This may get the center off the hook for putting together a new season, what with all its departures (voluntary and not) of competent artistic directors, but it also means the center’s one remaining major institution, and its crown jewel, the National Symphony, is suddenly homeless.

The fact is, the Kennedy Center has always been political. The same goes for orchestras. And Lincoln’s seeming role as a symphonic football is nothing new, either.

But political doesn’t — or, at least, once didn’t — necessarily imply partisan. In March 1981, two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan turned up at the Kennedy Center for the premiere of a new production of Lillian Hellman‘s “The Little Foxes,” and was photographed happily congratulating a smiling Elizabeth Taylor backstage. Also present was the gruff playwright.

Hellman, who had been a member of the Communist Party and was called up in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, and Reagan, an avid anti-Communist, couldn’t have had much use for each other politically. But there they were, soaking up art and glamour (if maybe not in that order) together. It was also in 1952 and thanks to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts that the first inklings of a national performing arts center in Washington, D.C. developed.

Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” for speaker and orchestra, written in 1942 in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, had been slated for a performance at Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1952. Complaints about Copland’s leftist leanings pressured Eisenhower to cancel the performance, but left inklings in Ike’s mind that the nation needed a performing arts center in Washington, D.C. In 1955, he instituted a District of Columbia Auditorium Commission and that led to the National Cultural Center Act of 1958.

Bipartisan support became a no-brainer. Kennedy was an enthusiast and, in his presidency, both First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower worked together to support the cultural center. In 1963, just days before his assassination, JFK hosted a White House fundraiser for the center. A year later, President Lyndon B. Johnson broke ground for what was to become “a living memorial to John F. Kennedy” with the gold-plated spade that President Taft had used for the Lincoln Memorial.

President Lyndon B. Johnson lifts a shovel full of dirt during ground-breaking ceremonies for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964 while members of the Kennedy family look on.

(Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)

The Kennedy Center proved political from Day 1. Leonard Bernstein was commissioned to write a theatrical piece for the center’s opening in 1971, which turned out to be an irreverent “Mass” — musically, liturgically, culturally and, most assuredly, politically. Most of all it was an unmistakably protest against the Vietnam War. In his own protest, President Nixon stayed home.

“Mass” was ridiculed by critics and sophisticates. And so was the Kennedy Center in its monstrosity. But the composition ultimately came to be seen as a precursor of musical Postmodernism and possibly Bernstein’s greatest work, a monument in its own right. The Brutalist monumentalism of the Kennedy Center also grew over time to be loved, increasingly bringing cachet to a diverse nation’s artistic needs.

All of that has, however, been called into question by a new administration noisily remaking the center as partisan and politicizing even renovation and Lincoln.

You don’t take on renovation of a single concert hall overnight, let alone an entire performance center with several theaters, including a major concert hall and opera house. This requires architects and acousticians deeply schooled in theaters, and each has its own acoustical needs. You touch anything, and it will affect the sound. Both the opera house and concert hall could use acoustical work, but that is a very big deal. If this sudden renovation comes as a surprise to staff, that means there have been no consultations, no proposals, no models, no feedback. Best to add to the budget some hundreds of millions of dollars to fix mistakes.

Before even considering anything else, a space has to be found for the National Symphony. It is possible to create temporary structures or renovate existing buildings into acoustical wonders, as architect Frank Gehry and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota have proved. In Munich, the temporary Isarphilharmonie, which has Toyota acoustics, is so successful that some are saying the city doesn’t need a new concert hall after all.

So, given the timing of this precipitous announcement, it is hard to believe that something isn’t also going on with attitudes toward Lincoln and Glass’ displeasure with the Kennedy Center administration. For what it’s worth, Presidents Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama have all narrated Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.”

Lincoln has been central to Glass’ work for more than four decades. The composer first used Lincoln in Act V (known as “The Rome Section”) of Robert Wilson’s 12-hour opera, “the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down” (a prescient title for current Kennedy Center thinking), which had been intended for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in L.A. but was never produced here for lack of funds.

Lincoln shows up in Glass’ 2007 opera, “Appomattox,” commissioned by San Francisco Opera and later revised and expanded for Washington National Opera in 2015. The opera offers a look at how the Civil War ended with high-minded statesmanship. The first act of Glass’ 2013 opera, “The Perfect American,” about the last days of Walt Disney, ends with a flashback of Walt, who idolized Lincoln, visiting Disneyland and getting into an argument about slavery with the animatronic Lincoln, which gets so worked up it attacks Walt.

Politics are rarely far away from orchestral or operatic life. At a recent appearance of the Chicago Symphony at the Soraya, Italian conductor Riccardo Muti followed an impressively grand performance of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony by telling the audience how the arts keep us honest and played as an encore the overture to Verdi’s “Nabucco,” as an example of how an opera could motivate public support for Garibaldi’s nationalist movement. Garibaldi also makes an appearance with Lincoln in the Glass/Wilson “Rome Section.”

A few days later at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, the thrilling Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería from Mexico City revealed an inspiring model of Latin American cooperation. On the program was Cuban composer Paquito D’Rivera’s “Concerto Venezolano,” featuring the fearless improvising Venezuelan trumpet soloist Pacho Flores. The concerto also featured solos on the Venezuelan cuatro by Héctor Molina, but his name was only announced last minute, due to current travel uncertainty.

One of the greatest recordings of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, his grab-you-by-the-gut answer to Stalin and celebration of Russia, is by the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, recorded in 1994 at the Kennedy Center. Stalin saw the symphony as his deification. Rostropovich exuded, in the Kennedy Center aura, the expression of an overwhelmingly triumphant celebration of the end of the Soviet repression. You can take the symphony and the opera out of the Kennedy Center, but you can’t take the essence of the Kennedy Center, the living memorial to the ideal of something larger than political ego, out of the symphony and opera.

IF you love wandering through woodland, spotting wildlife round every corner and then heading back to base to cosy up in a log cabin – this staycay is for you.

There is a hidden network of locations across the country that give Center Parcs vibes but without the price tag.

It’s easy to overlook the amazing forestry centres we have across the UK as only good for a woodland walk and to while away a few hours beneath the trees.

But some offer accommodation options as well, so you can enjoy the forest fun for even longer. 

I was wowed by how much there was to do when I went to visit Rosliston Forestry Centre in the heart of the National Forest on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

Within moments of setting off down the tree-lined path, I had spotted six different species of birds and a huge cheeky squirrel hanging upside down from a feeder right in front of a hide where you can get up close to nature without the animals being scared off by your presence. 

SIGHT SEA

£9.50 holidaymakers’ favourite Skegness activities… away from the beach

FALL FOR IT

Why Sun readers love Wales – their favourite waterfalls & TV-famous castles

On site, there are loads of facilities that wouldn’t be out of place on an upmarket holiday park, like bike hire, a small soft play for under sevens opposite the cafe and lots of fun play equipment, including a striking sparrowhawk play frame installed last year to replace a much-loved earlier version that was known to all as the Owl.

You’ll also find the real thing here as there’s a birds of prey centre on site which is often open to the public. Over Easter, visitors will be able to hold a bird for £5.

You can visit for the day or for a stay, as lodges for up to 12 guests are tucked away down a little lane, so it’s perfect for a secluded staycation.

And a half-term break for a family of four is only £479 for the week, compared to £2500 for the same seven nights at the nearest Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest.

Every school holidays, there are themed trails and extra activities on offer, so for February half-term, kids can take on a space trail to find all the planets hidden in the trees for £3.

One thing you won’t find here is a subtropical swimming dome, but if you want to recreate that element of a Center Parcs break, you’re spoilt for choice in this part of the world as you’ve got four of the UK’s best waterparks less than an hour’s drive away.

The closest and cheapest is Moorways Sports Village in Derby, where 90 minutes in the waterpark costs £10.25 per person or just £2.10 for three to five-year-olds.

As well as flumes, slides and a wave pool, there’s often an aqua inflatable obstacle course at no extra cost in the school holidays and it’s only half an hour from Rosliston.

Further afield, entry to the waterpark at Alton Towers starts at £18 a person, the Wave in Coventry costs £56 for two adults and two children during school holidays or a family ticket for four at Waterworld in Stoke is £92. They are all about an hour away.

Even if you splash out on a waterpark trip or two, you’ll still be quids in if you choose this Center Parcs alternative for your half-term break. 

And Rosliston isn’t the only Forestry England site where you can stay overnight as well as visit for the day. 

Forest Holidays offer hot tub lodges on 13 sites leased from Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales.

You can get a midweek stay for a family of four from £860 over February half-term.

Some sites are near the coast and others have outdoor adventures like archery or zipwires. 

Don’t forget to check cashback sites and membership schemes before you book as you may get an upfront discount code or money back after your stay.

Blue Light Card members can get up to £70 off Forest Holidays.

So why not head to the forest this February and be wowed by the wonders of the woodland all around us?

Plus, check out the 9 most popular Hols From £9.50 holiday parks of last year – as booking opens for 2026.

And travel expert reveal best cheap UK holiday parks with lazy rivers & fairgrounds from £13 a night – and a Center Parcs dupe.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Sunday that he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in July for construction, his latest proposal to upend the storied venue since returning to the White House.

Trump’s announcement on social media follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.

His proposal, announced days after the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary about the first lady, was shown at the center, is subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his handpicked allies. Trump chairs the center’s board of trustees.

“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post.

Neither Trump nor Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, a Trump ally, have provided evidence to back up their claims about the building being in disrepair, and in October, Trump had pledged the center would remain open during renovations. In Sunday’s announcement, he said the center will close July 4, when he said the construction would begin.

“Our goal has always been to not only save and permanently preserve the Center, but to make it the finest Arts Institution in the world,” Grenell said in a post, citing funds Congress approved for repairs.

“This will be a brief closure,” Grenell said. “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense — it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. It also means we will be finished faster.”

The sudden decision to close and reconstruct the Kennedy Center is certain to spark blowback as Trump revamps the popular venue. The building began as a national cultural center and Congress renamed it as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy — a champion of the arts during his administration — in 1964, in the aftermath of his assassination.

Opened in 1971, it serves as a public showcase year-round for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.

Since Trump returned to the White House, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term. He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400-million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.

Leading performing arts groups have pulled out of appearances at the Kennedy Center, most recently composer Philip Glass, who announced his decision to withdraw his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” because he said the values of the center today are in “direct conflict” with the message of the piece.

Last month, the Washington National Opera announced that it will move performances away from the Kennedy Center in another high-profile departure after Trump’s takeover of the U.S. capital’s leading performing arts venue.

The head of artistic programming for the center abruptly left his post last week, less than two weeks after being named to the job.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center could not immediately be reached and did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Late last year, as Trump announced his plan to rename the building — adding his name to the building’s main front ahead of that of Kennedy — he drew sharp opposition from members of Congress, and some Kennedy family members.

Kerry Kennedy, a niece of John F. Kennedy, said in a social post on X at the time that she will remove Trump’s name herself with a pickax when his term ends.

Another family member, Maria Shriver, said at the time that it is “beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy,” her uncle. “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.”

Late Sunday evening, Shriver posted a new comment mimicking Trump’s own voice and style, and suggesting the closure of the venue was meant to deflect from the cancellations.

She said that “entertainers are canceling left and right” and the president has determined that “since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer.”

Trump has decided, she said, it’s best “to close this center down and rebuild a new center” that will bear his name. She asked, “Right?”

One lawmaker, Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex-officio trustee of the center’s board, sued in December, arguing that “only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.”

Price and Mascaro write for the Associated Press. AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to close the John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts for two years for renovations starting in July.

Trump’s announcement on Sunday follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building.

Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.

“I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur, is to cease Entertainment Operations for an approximately two year period of time,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”

The closure will start on July 4, to coincide with the 250th Independence Day celebration.

The decision, Trump said, will be subject to approval of the board, which he handpicked upon taking over as chairman.

The president added that the facility’s various entertainment events – concerts, operas, musicals, ballet performances, and interactive arts – would impede and slow the construction and renovation operations, and that a full temporary closure would be necessary.

“The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” he said.

“America will be very proud of its new and beautiful Landmark for many generations to come.”

There was no immediate comment from the Kennedy Center.

The complex began as a national cultural centre, but was renamed by Congress as a “living memorial” to former President John F Kennedy in 1964, in the aftermath of his assassination.

Opened in 1971, it operates year-round as a public showcase for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.

After Trump took over as chairman of the centre’s board, several entertainers and performers withdrew their performances in protest of the president’s policies.

Among them were the producers of the award-winning musical Hamilton, and international operatic soprano Renee Fleming.

The Washington National Opera recently announced that it would leave the Kennedy Center, its home since the centre’s opening.

Renowned composer Philip Glass also announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of a symphony orchestra performance for Abraham Lincoln, saying that “the values” of the centre “today” are in “direct conflict” with the message of his piece.

Trump had criticised some of the programmes of the once non-partisan centre as too “woke”.

In recent days, the Kennedy Center hosted the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary, which saw a record weekend at the box office, but drew mostly negative reviews from film critics.

The extent of the “complete rebuilding” mentioned by Trump is unclear, but he has described the structure as dilapidated and needing a facelift.

In a post on X, Maria Kennedy Shriver, a niece of the slain former president, criticised Trump’s decision without naming him. She suggested that the closure and renovation were made to distract Americans, as “no one wants to perform there any longer”.

Trump’s rebuilding plans for the centre follow a series of measures to reshape US historical and cultural institutions.

He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400m ballroom project, is actively pursuing the building of a triumphal arch on the other side Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for the Washington Dulles international airport.

If 31-year-old Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny wins the Grammy for album of the year Sunday, it will be the first time the award goes to a Spanish-language LP. A week later the singer, known as “the King of Latin Trap,” will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.

These twin feats by one of the world’s most famous performers — a proud Latino and a vocal critic of President Trump’s stance on immigration — plays out against the heartbreaking and chaotic backdrop of the federal government’s aggressive tactics on the streets of American cities, including Minneapolis, where two citizens were shot dead by federal agents.

This is likely why a painting by an L.A.-based Puerto Rican artist named Ektor Rivera, a reimagining of Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1852 painting, ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware,” is attracting a wave of attention online. An Instagram post about the painting by Rivera — which features Bad Bunny alongside a host of other Puerto Rican cultural heroes, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sonia Sotomayor and Tito Puente — has more than 170,000 likes and 2.3 million views, spurred in part by the fact that Ricky Martin, who is also featured in the tableau, shared it.

Titled “The Discovery of Americans,” the 5’ x 8’ acrylic-on-canvas painting was commissioned by Seth Goldberg, a talent agent who spent his career working with Latin celebrities from his homebase in Miami. In a phone interview, Golberg said he felt disappointed by the controversy that erupted after the announcement that Bad Bunny would play at the Super Bowl — particularly when people didn’t seem to realize that as a Puerto Rican the singer is an American.

A detail of “The Discovery of Americans,” Ektor Rivera, acrylic on canvas, 2025.

(Ektor Rivera)

“And I thought that maybe if we reframe that Leutze painting with these cultural icons, maybe it changes who we see and celebrate as American, or at least makes a few people think about it a little more,” Goldberg said.

Rivera, who met Goldberg at a dinner with his manager five years ago, ran with the idea, placing a cast of Puerto Rican luminaries in the famous rowboat alongside Bad Bunny — who is draped in the Puerto Rican flag and standing in Washington’s place.

“As a Puerto Rican, I have U.S. citizenship, but I’m still asked if I have my green card,” Rivera said in a recent phone interview. “The people who voluntarily don’t want to learn about the great aportación [contributions] Latinos are giving to this country, and in my case, Puerto Ricans, is really frustrating, and how ICE is dealing with our people is something that is very sad.”

It is notable in the painting that the boat is literally breaking the ice on the river as it moves across the water, Rivera said.

Rivera — a graduate of the School of Plastic Arts and Design of Puerto Rico — is also an actor. He starred in a Puerto Rican production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s early musical, “In the Heights,” during which time he met the famous actor and composer. Miranda and his father, Luis Miranda, later commissioned Rivera to paint a portrait of Rita Moreno, which now hangs in Centro de Bellas Artes de Santurce in San Juan.

The joy Moreno showed when the painting was unveiled has stayed with Rivera, who now lives and works in Santa Clarita. He is raising his children to know and love their Latin heritage — during a trying time when Latinos are often denigrated by the current administration.

Trump recently told the New York Post that he won’t be going to the Super Bowl this year, noting of Bad Bunny and the band Green Day, which will open the telecast, that he is “anti-them.”

“I think it’s a terrible choice,” Trump said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

In Rivera’s painting, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — where the Super Bowl will take place this year — can be seen on the horizon. Those in the boat are smiling. They are looking forward to being part of the mix. It’s a loving representation, filled with hope and possibility.

“We’re celebrating that we are putting our identity as Latinos on one of the major stages in the world,” said Rivera. “And that’s huge. That’s going to educate people, and make them interested.”

America, Rivera said, is not just for certain people.

“America is everybody. America is the world.”

I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt and I’ll be rooting for Bad Bunny at the Grammys this weekend. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.

On our radar

“Creation” by Harmonia Rosales, 2025. Oil, gold leaf, gold paint and iron oxide on panel. 121.9 × 91.4 cm (48 × 36 in.).

(© Harmonia Rosales/ Elon Schoenholz Photography)

Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages
The Getty exhibition explores how people in the Middle Ages imagined the creation of the world through manuscripts, alongside works by LA-based artist Harmonia Rosales, who utilizes West African Yoruba mythology and Black resilience and identity.

Through April 19. J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu

Tiffany Townsend performs Saturday and Sunday in Long Beach.

(Mia McNeal)

Crash Out Queens: A Tiffany Townsend Recital
The soprano officially kicks off the Long Beach Opera’s season with an exploration of women in opera that expands into a multidisciplinary collaboration with pianist Lucy Yates, dancer Jasmine Albuquerque, scenic designer Prairie T. Trivuth and more.
7:30 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. Altar Society, 230 Pine Ave. in Long Beach. longbeachopera.org

Midori Francis and Noah Keyishian rehearsing for “Sylvia Sylvia Syvia” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia
A woman struggling with writer’s block and her own husband’s literary success takes refuge in the Boston apartment once occupied by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in the world premiere of this tragicomic thriller from playwright Beth Hyland. Directed by Jo Bonney.
Wednesday through March 8. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha appears with the L.A. Phil Friday and Saturday.

(LA Phil)

Mahler, Bartók & Ravel
Dudamel Fellow Elim Chan conducts the L.A. Phil in a program culminating with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony featuring South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha.
11 a.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Miles Davis Centennial Concert
The Miles Electric Band, led by Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning producer/drummer Vince Wilburn Jr., features a fusion of Miles Davis alumni and next-generation talents, including Darryl Jones, Robert Irving III, Munyungo Jackson, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Antoine Roney, Keyon Harrold and DJ Logic, plus special guests.
8 p.m. Friday. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org

Lifeline
Written by Robert Axelrod and directed by Ken Sawyer, this drama finds a mother volunteering at a suicide hotline following a life-altering event.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through March 1. The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. roadtheatre.org

101 Dalmatians
The 65th anniversary release of the Disney animated classic gets a one-week run in movie palace splendor. Tickets are $10 and include a complimentary small popcorn.
10 a.m., 1, 4 and 7 p.m. daily, through Thursday. El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. elcapitantheatre.com

“metal mettle metal mettle” by Steve Roden, 2020. Acrylic with paper collage

(Robert Wedemeyer/Courtesy Vielmetter Los Angeles)

Steve Roden/Sophie Calle
A pair of new exhibitions open today in Orange County: ‘Wandering” focuses on the late Los Angeles–based artist Steve Roden’s works on paper, presenting drawings and collages as forms of travel without a set destination; and “Overshare” is a survey of French conceptual artist Sophie Calle’s photography, text, video and installation work that mines intimate relationships and chance encounters.
Through May 24. UC Irvine Langson/Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art

Sweeney Todd
Jason Alexander directs Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical thriller about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and has assembled a topflight cast led by Tony nominee Will Swenson and Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita.
Through Feb. 22. La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. lamiradatheatre.com

SATURDAY
Garrick Ohlsson and Richard O’Neill
Pianist Ohlsson and violist O’Neill team up for an evening of Schubert and Rachmaninoff.
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org

SUNDAY
Common Ground
The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs the world premiere of “The Beatitudes” by five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal, who will play the piano and flugelhorn, and Henryk Górecki’s “Miserere,” inspired by the 1980s Polish Solidarity movement.
7 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org

TUESDAY

Jacob Aune, left, and Sam McLellan in the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

The Book of Mormon
The latest national tour of the Broadway smash comes to town. When the show had its L.A. debut at the Pantages in 2012, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote, “Just know that this exceedingly naughty, though in the end disarmingly nice, show is devised by the minds behind ‘South Park’ and that risqué ‘Sesame Street’ for theater-loving adults, ‘Avenue Q.’ In other words, leave the kids at home with a baby-sitter”
Through Feb. 15. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Feb 24-25. The Granada Theatre, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. thebookofmormontour.com

Adams, Cheung & Lanao
John Adams curates the third installment of the LA Phil Etudes, highlighting the orchestra’s principal musicians in solo pieces by contemporary composers Francisco Coll, Samuel Adams, Nico Muhly, Sílvia Lanao and Anthony Cheung.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Dr. Strangelove
Steve Coogan plays four roles in this screening of the National Theatre stage adaptation of the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film recorded live in London.
7 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

THURSDAY

Cheyenne Jackson plays the Wallis Thursday night.

(Vince Truspin)

Cheyenne Jackson
The Broadway heartthrob performs a “musical memoir” with tunes made famous by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Sam Smith and Chappell Roan, plus his own song “Ok,” detailing his father’s unconditional love for his gay son.
7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

— Kevin Crust

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Eddie Izzard brings Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Los Angeles in a new solo staging, adapted by Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell.

(Carol Rosegg)

Eddie channels tragedy
Times theater critic Charles McNulty weighed in on the gender-fluid British comedian Eddie Izzard’s solo performance of “Hamlet,” running through Sunday at the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. McNulty calls the show “a daredevil feat of memory, theatrical bravado and cardio fitness,” noting that, “As a spectacle, it’s as exhilarating as it is exhausting. The thrill of seeing a fearless, indefatigable performer single-handedly populate the stage with the myriad figures of this masterwork never lets up. But fatigue can’t help setting in once it becomes clear that this marathon drama will be delivered in the broadest of strokes.”

Father and son
McNulty also headed to Matrix Theatre’s Henry Murray Stage to catch a Rogue Machine world premiere of L.A. writer Justin Tanner’s solo show, “My Son the Playwright.” McNulty calls Tanner “one of the signal voices of L.A.’s wild and free intimate theater scene.” The show is divided into two acts, one that presents the father’s side of the relationship, and the other, the son’s. “Tanner plunges into these ostentatiously autobiographical roles, heedlessly, hectically and without a psychiatric net,” McNulty writes.

Academy cuts
Arts and entertainment writer Malia Mendez got the scoop that the Academy Foundation laid off all five staffers with its Oral History Projects team, “effectively dissolving the department responsible for conducting and preserving interviews with notable members of the film industry.” In a statement posted on social media, the Academy Foundation Workers Union, AFSCME Local 126, called the cuts “a sad and reckless choice.” (Also, two of the laid-off staffers were placed in other roles in the organization.)

Breaking Glass
I jumped on the news that composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.

The hits keep coming
Speaking of the Kennedy Center: As the artistic losses continue to mount at the beleaguered performing arts center in the wake of President Trump’s takeover — and renaming — of the venue, the Washington Post reported that Kevin Couch, who was recently announced as the new senior vice president of artistic programming for the venue, resigned less than two weeks later. No reason was given, and Couch declined a Post request for comment.

50 is nifty
In happier local news, San Diego’s Opera Neo — a summer opera festival and young artist training program — celebrating its 50th anniversary season, and has announced its upcoming lineup. Highlights include Antonio Vivaldi’s, “Arsilda,” Louise Bertin’s “Fausto” and Gioachino Rossini’s “Il turco in Italia.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

I am resurfacing this handy 2023 guide to the best Italian sub sandwiches in L.A. It is not a coincidence that I am hungry and planning what to eat for lunch.

World-renowned composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration.

“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.

“We have no place for politics in the arts, and those calling for boycotts based on politics are making the wrong decision,” Roma Daravi, vice president of media relations at the Kennedy Center, said in response.

President Trump has served as board chair since early last year when he fired the existing board and appointed former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as president. The newly installed board promptly installed Trump in his current position. The president’s pursuit of a deeply conservative agenda for the arts unleashed unprecedented chaos at the nation’s premiere performing arts center, resulting in massive upheaval and wave after wave of prominent artist cancellations.

The news that Glass was calling off his appearance also caught off guard the National Symphony Orchestra. The NSO commissioned the symphony in 2022 for the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary, and Glass was late to deliver. The symphony was scheduled to be performed with the NSO on June 12 and 13.

“We have great admiration for Philip Glass and were surprised to learn about his decision at the same time as the press,” Jean Davidson, the orchestra’s executive director, said in an email.

The news comes amid a growing chorus of high-profile cancellations that have occurred since the center’s board voted last month to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, and quickly added the president’s name above that of Kennedy’s on the exterior of the building.

Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of a Christmas Eve show and the jazz group the Cookers canceled two New Year’s Eve performances. Banjo player Béla Fleck also stepped away from concerts with the NSO and “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz said he no longer plans to host a May 15 gala at the center.

The arts world was rocked by the news earlier this month that the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971. Kennedy Center leadership, including Grenell, quickly shot back that it was the board that asked the WNO to depart.

“We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole — and getting worse,” Grenell wrote on social media.

Most recently, the center’s website announced that soprano Renée Fleming would no longer perform in two scheduled shows. “A scheduling conflict” was the reason cited, but speculation about the opera star’s departure swirled as the center’s artistic losses mounted amid widely reported plummeting ticket sales.

During the recent upheaval, arts watchers have begun wondering about the future of the NSO, which, along with the recently departed WNO, represents the twin pillars of artistic programming at the center.

According to Daravi, the NSO isn’t pulling out of the venue.

“The relationship is strong, and we have a wonderful season here with Maestro [Gianandrea Noseda] in his 10th year leading the NSO,” Daravi wrote in an email last week, noting the “record-breaking success at the recent Gala benefiting the NSO which launched the new season. The event raised $3.45 million, marking an all-time fundraising record for the organization.”

On Monday Trump sought to boost his financial management of the venue in a Truth Social post that read, “People don’t realize that the Trump Kennedy Center suffered massive deficits for many years and, like everything else, I merely came in to save it, and, if possible, make it far better that ever before!”

The center’s calendar is looking increasingly sclerotic as big names continue to defect, with the NSO providing much-needed padding as it moves on in the face of unending change.