Emotions

We are weathering a truly apocalyptic heat wave in L.A., but that hasn’t stopped Halloween from sneaking up on us. For those who like to give themselves the creeps, the city has its fair share of spook shows, including Griffith Park’s Haunted Hayride and the Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor. These mainstays offer hardworking actors seasonal jobs, but usually don’t allow for any real narrative besides jump scares and chainsaws. Which is why I’m so jazzed about a new entry to the immersive Halloween show scene: “Hospital of Emotions After Dark,” with its specially ticketed basement creep-fest, “Below.”

For readers who haven’t been inundated with a million ads for “Hospital of Emotions” on your Instagram feeds, it’s an immersive art show that unspools in 80 discrete rooms over four floors of the shuttered St. Vincent’s Medical Center near downtown L.A. The 45,000-square-foot exhibition opened in late May and was supposed to close in late July, but has extended its run due to popular demand. This month that run includes an after-dark option, which features the regular show — only after-hours — with ambient lighting and roving actors who show up in the most unexpected places (I won’t spoil it, but I got one of the most serious jump scares of my life in one of the exhibit rooms).

A separate ticket (which can be purchased in a bundle with the main exhibition) gets you a ride in an elevator to the hospital’s long-abandoned basement where you are treated to an immersive theater show with a nun for a tour guide. My nun was played by Penny Wiggins, and I’m not sure I have ever witnessed such true commitment in a spook show. Wiggins sold her character — at one point with genuine tears.

I won’t give away the plot, but it’s harrowing, especially if you are someone familiar with the hospital, which opened in the late 1800s and was the first hospital in the city. I had my daughter there in 2016, so it was extra chilling to know that this basement of horrors was there even then. The show uses the building’s actual abandoned infrastructure as its framework, so guests are led through dank subterranean corridors, old examination rooms and specimen labs, as well as an autopsy room.

“Below” isn’t as viscerally gory as “Dark Harbor” or “Haunted Hayride,” but it’s more artistic. There is dancing and an actual script that features a “gotcha” twist — as well as an upsetting demon who appears out of nowhere. I applaud the commitment by the actors who, I imagine, must find it kind of scary just waiting down there for the next round of guests. Plus, it’s good fun to be in the “Hospital of Emotions” at night when everyone is a little wild and there’s a sense that something out of the ordinary might pop out at you at any minute.

I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt begrudgingly wearing a tank top and shorts in early October. This is your arts and culture news for the week.

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Felipe Dulzaides / Bradley Baboc
Cuban-born artist Dulzaides uses photography, drawing, video, performance, sculpture and sound to capture the sublime nature of Havana knife sharpeners in the exhibition “Balance in Place.” L.A. painter Boboc drew on the Toy District as inspiration for a new series of paintings, “Shadoobie (Shattered).”
Opening, 6-9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, through Nov. 8. Arcane Space, 324 Sunset Ave., Unit G, Venice. arcanespacela.com

Ludovico Einaudi
The popular Italian pianist and composer returns to Disney Hall for the first time since 2019 on this solo tour.
8 p.m. Friday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Mälkki Conducts Bartók
Susanna Mälkki leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Béla Bartók’s “Concerto for Orchestra.”
11 a.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Takács Quartet with Jeremy Denk
The Grammy winning ensemble teams up with the MacArthur Grant-winning pianist for a program of chamber music featuring works by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Franck.
7:30 p.m. Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica. broadstage.org

SATURDAY

Laura Andreson, 1979, Forrest L Merrill Collection, Photo by M. Lee Fatherree

(Photo by M. Lee Fatherree)

The Eternal Quality of Aesthetic Joy: Laura Andreson and Her Legacy
The artist bristled at “superfluous” decoration, favoring distilled jar, box, bowl and vase forms influenced by her love for Scandinavian and Bauhaus design. She became a wizard with glazes, conjuring lustrous surfaces resonant with elements of the Southern California landscape. This show offers a rare opportunity to savor the gorgeous purity of her work, alongside that of several of her mentors and peers, such as Gertrud and Otto Natzler and Glen Lukens, as well as some of her students, including JB Blunk and Bernard Kester. (Leah Ollman)
Noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Oct. 10-Jan. 9, 2027. Craft in America Center, 8415 W 3rd St. craftinamerica.org

Haunted Soiree: True Crime
An immersive theater experience inspired by the 1928 Hex Hollow murder with cocktails and curious encounters.
Selected nights through Oct. 31. Nocturne Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale. hauntedsoiree.com

Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s Benefit Concert
Songwriter and producer David Foster, singers Katharine McPhee, Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, Veronica Swift, Adam “AeJaye” Jackson, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Emmet Cohen are the headliners for a celebration of founding Artistic Director Chris Walden’s 60th birthday, which also includes a buffet reception and dancing under the stars.
7 p.m. Private estate in Toluca Lake, address to be provided upon confirmation of attendance. pacificjazz.org

Saint Megan
Playwright Joy Gregory, inspired by the journey of the granddaughter of the founder of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, examines the long history of American Christian zealotry.
Opening, 8 p.m. Saturday, 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 22 (no performance Oct. 12 or Oct. 31. Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave. roguemachinetheatre.org

SUNDAY

Akram Khan Company
In the London-based dance troupe’s final touring production, “Thikra: Night of Remembering,” an international cast of women perform contemporary and Bharatanatyam dances.
8 p.m. UCLA, Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Westwood, cap.ucla.edu

Camerata Pacifica
The chamber ensemble opens its 37th Season with Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22” and Schubert’s “B-Flat Major Trio.”
5 p.m. Sunday. Bank of America Performing Arts Center, Janet & Ray Scherr Forum Theatre, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Huntington, Rothenberg Hall, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino; 8 p.m. Wednesday. The Colburn School, Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; and 7 p.m. Thursday. Music Academy of the West, Hahn Hall, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara. cameratapacifica.org

Heartbreak House
The Antaeus Theatre Company launches its 35th season with George Bernard Shaw’s dark comedy. Directed by ATC Artistic Director Nike Doukas. The cast includes Elinor Gunn, Harry Groener, Arye Gross and Bernard Addison,
Previews, 2 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Tuesday-Oct. 16; opening, Oct. 17-Nov. 16. Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale. antaeus.org

Musical Theater Guild members Valerie Larsen and Gabriel Navarro during a reading of “The Light in the Piazza” in 2024.

(Stan Chandler)

Here’s to Us!
The Musical Theatre Guild marks its 30th anniversary with a benefit concert featuring show tunes from “Titanic,” “Fanny, “The Pajama Game” and “Sunday in the Park with George.”
7 p.m. Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica. musicaltheatreguild.com

Untitled, n.d. Mavis Pusey

(Neil Lane Collection / Estate of Mavis Pusey)

Mavis Pusey
Two exhibitions this fall will help familiarize audiences with this remarkable woman. “Mobile Images” at the Hammer is a full-scale survey co-organized by the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and is accompanied by a rich and thorough catalog. “Restless” also adds a Pusey publication to the shelf. The Benton show focuses mostly on Pusey’s prints, drawing exclusively from the collection of Ian White, artist, educator and son of esteemed artist Charles White. (Leah Ollman)
“Mobile Images,” through Feb. 28, 2027. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu “Restless,” through Jan. 3, 2027. Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College, 120 W. Bonita Ave., Claremont. pomona.edu

MONDAY

Art Of Elan: In The Desert
Inspired by a trip to Bryce Canyon, Olivier Messiaen wrote his percussion-rich chamber music masterpiece “From the Canyons to the Stars” as a 1976 U.S. Bicentennial commission from Alice Tully Hall in New York. Replete with Messiaen’s characteristic bird calls, it’s been done out of doors before, and memorably at the Ojai Music Festival. But the San Diego imaginative new music series Art of Elan is now taking it to the desert for a special performance led by percussionist Steven Schick at an outdoor theater in Borrego Springs. (Mark Swed)
6:30 p.m. Stargazing Theater, La Casa del Zorro Desert Resort & Spa, 3845 Yaqui Pass Road, Borrego Springs. artofelan.org

TUESDAY

Angela Hewitt
The pianist performs an all-Mozart recital accompanied by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Margaret Batjer for the first installment in LACO’s inaugural recital series.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Colburn School, Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laco.org

WEDNESDAY

Lisa Batiashvili/Gautier Capuçon/Jean-Yves Thibaudet
The superstar violinist, cellist and pianist team up for an evening of Shostakovich, Debussy, and Dvořák.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Joey Soloway.

(Loshara Vova)

A 1 They/Them Show
The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning creator of “Transparent” steps out from behind the camera to try out their stand-up routine in L.A. before hitting the road with a deeply personal solo comedy performance exploring family, Hollywood, gender, sex, Judaism, ambition and reinvention. A tour is expected to include a November stop in Chicago.
8 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 28, doors open at 7 p.m.. The Virgil, 4519 Santa Monica Blvd. dice.fm

THURSDAY

Houston Ballet

(Quinn B. Wharton/Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

Houston Ballet
The Texas dance troupe brings celebrated young pianist George Li for an ode to Frédéric Chopin. Making its West Coast debut, and created by Stanton Welch AM, artistic director of the Houston Ballet, the piece, “Sons de L’âme” (Sounds of the Soul), merges choreography with a live performance of Chopin’s famed piano pieces, showcasing the talents of the nation’s fourth-largest ballet company and a rising star of classical music. (Eloise Rollins-Fife)
7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org

Speaking In Tongues
The world premiere of a Luis Alfaro play is always a welcome event. And his latest work, commissioned by Latino Theater Co. and developed at the theater’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group, resonates thematically with Alfaro’s 2023 play “The Travelers,” which LTC produced in 2023 and made my list of that year’s best theater productions. The new play, infused with Alfaro’s trademark Chicano humor, returns us to the world of California’s Central Valley and the stories of migrant farmworkers and their spiritual quests in a societal landscape transforming faster than anyone can keep up. (Charles McNulty)
Previews, 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov.. 15. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org

The SoCal scene

Cuban-born artist Enrique Martinez Celaya paints the new curtain for the L.A. Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

ICYMI, the best of this week’s L.A. Times arts coverage:

L.A. artist Enrique Martínez Celaya hand-painted a brand new 70-foot curtain for L.A. Opera’s new season.

A documentary about Asco, the revolutionary arts group founded in the 1970s, is streaming for the first time on PBS.

Angelina Jolie and Octavia Spencer have teamed up to make sure kids have access to live theater.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty reviewed Laura Benanti’s autobiographical show, “Nobody Cares,” at the Wallis, and found it a bit too breezy.

McNulty, however, really liked the “spectacular” staging of “The Outsiders” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

Read about how that staging unfolds during the epic rumble scene near the end of the show.

Love it or hate it, Erewhon is now a permanent fixture at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

“Home of the Future” at LACMA explores the dark side of the American dream.

Culture news

As 24th Street Theatre prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary, it has announced that it raised $3 million to officially buy the converted 1928 carriage house it’s called home for the past 29 years. It also purchased properties next door and across the street in order to expand its mission and community programming, including plans for an outdoor garden and a black box theater, which is, according to a news release, “officially named the 24th Street Black Box Theatre in honor of longtime supporter Jack Black, who is also the new venue’s first donor.” Black is set to host the theater’s gala on Oct. 18.

Tesserae — Andrew McIntosh, left, Ian Pritchard and Joshua Rubin — perform “Bowling, Animals and the Ocean” at the Sierra Madre Playhouse.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

The 99-seat Sierra Madre Playhouse announced it has received $2.5 million from the State of California for a slew of exciting upgrades to its 100-year-old building — marking the largest gift in the organization’s history. The funds were secured by Pasadena Assemblymember John Harabedian, and will be used toward making the historic venue ADA-compliant, as well as to renovate lobbies and other areas open to the public. It will also help with new programming and building infrastructure.

The LA Phil and Orchestre de Paris have announced the launch of a new opportunity: the Salonen International Conducting Fellowship, which is, according to a news release, “designed to nurture and accelerate the careers of the next generation of orchestral conductors … the fellowship will offer early-career conductors unparalleled access to artistic mentorship, practical podium experience, and professional development opportunities at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Philharmonie de Paris.” The first yearlong program will start in the 2027-28 season, and will feature two to four fellows, who will spend about six weeks working with each orchestra.

The Hammer Museum at UCLA announced this week that Eric Esrailian is succeeding Marcy Carsey as the new chair of the museum’s board (after previously serving as vice chair). Karen Hillenburg will now serve as vice chair. The Hammer also named three new members to its board: philanthropist Leslie McMorrow, attorney Alicia Miñana de Lovelace and Joan Weinstein, vice president of program planning at the Getty.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Nobody will buy the Stahl House!