schindler house

Center Theatre Group temporarily canceled “Hamlet” at Mark Taper Forum; the Los Angeles Philharmonic scuttled the final night of its Seoul Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ Geffen Contemporary and the Broad museum are both closed through the weekend; and the Japanese American National Museum fenced off its pavilion to prevent further vandalism — these are just some of the immediate effects felt by downtown Los Angeles’ many arts organizations as ICE protests, an ongoing curfew and the arrival of thousands of federal troops upend daily life in the city’s civic core.

(On Thursday, Los Angeles city officials carved out a curfew exemption for ticket holders of indoor events and performing arts venues downtown including the Music Center, paving the way for evening performances of Center Theatre Group’s “Hamlet” and Los Angeles Opera’s “Rigoletto.”)

The Trump administration says it will deploy 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to L.A. to protect immigration agents and federal buildings at a reported cost of $134 million. On Tuesday, the state of California requested a temporary restraining order blocking the deployments, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how this will ultimately unfold.

The uncertainty, including how long Mayor Karen Bass’ 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in effect, has added to the pall over downtown L.A., where businesses and restaurants are also struggling with security issues and the many unknowns of the swiftly evolving crisis.

On Wednesday, I reached out to many of downtown’s arts leaders, and they all issued statements in support of Los Angeles and all of its inhabitants.

“As Los Angeles’ largest theatre company, located in Downtown LA, we are heartbroken by the events unfolding around us and affecting so many in our beautiful and diverse city,” CTG said. “Our mission is to be a home for everyone who calls themselves an Angeleno.”

This is a sentiment that abounds throughout this proud city of immigrants, where many with friends or neighbors who are undocumented feel sorrow to see the violence and destruction.

As losses mount for the arts in downtown L.A., it is worth noting that if you add the cost of President Trump’s Saturday military parade in Washington, D.C. — estimated to be about $45 million — to the aforementioned price tag for sending troops to Southern California , the total is about $179 million. The National Endowment for the Arts, which Trump has proposed eliminating entirely, requested a $210.1 million budget for 2025, and millions in grants for arts groups have been clawed back this year under Elon Musk’s DOGE.

I’m arts and culture reporter Jessica Gelt, standing with my community in support of all its members. Here’s this week’s arts news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Huntley Ritter, from left, Kirsten Dunst, Nathan West and Eliza Dushku in the 2000 movie “Bring It On.”

(Getty / Universal Studios)

Academy screenings
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents two very different films this weekend. On Friday, the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of 1975 best picture winner, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” starring Jack Nicholson, screens with supervising film editor Richard Chew and editor Lynzee Klingman joining screenwriter Larry Karaszewski to discuss the film. Then, the academy’s Teen Movie Madness! series continues Saturday with a 25th anniversary screening of cheerleading cult fave “Bring It On” in 35mm, preceded by a conversation with actor and artist Brandi Williams, who played Lafred in the film.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 7:30 p.m. Friday; “Bring It On,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Academy Museum, David Geffen Theater, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org

Cinderella
Los Angeles Ballet closes out its 2024-25 season with this fairy tale classic featuring choreography by Edwaard Liang set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. This reimagined version adds a modern sensibility, new twists, fantasy and humor to the story of a young woman, mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, who is transformed for a date with a prince by a fairy godmother.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood. losangelesballet.org

Soprano Renée Fleming will headline the performance “Renée Fleming & Friends” on June 14.

(Andrew Eccles / Decca)

Renée Fleming & Friends
Broadway and opera come together as vocalists Tituss Burgess, Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller join the legendary soprano for a one-night-only concert presented by L.A. Opera. When Fleming appeared in the musical “Light in the Piazza” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2019, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote that the singer “delivers the goods in the show’s climax … Sound and sense are at last joined, making the distinction between Broadway and opera irrelevant.” (The performance is still planned as originally scheduled. Please check with L.A. Opera for updates.)
7:30 p.m. Friday. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org

Poster for the movie “The Bull-Dogger” starring actor Bill Pickett,1925. Lithograph on paper.

(Autry Museum)

Black Cowboys: An American Story
Beyoncé earned accolades (including her first best album Grammy) for “Cowboy Carter,” bringing the iconography of the Black West to the mainstream. For those whose appetites have been whetted for more, this exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, conceived and organized by the Witte Museum in San Antonio, delivers a deep dive into that underreported slice of history. Tales of how Black men and women deployed their equestrian skills to great effect as they tamed and trained horses, tended livestock and embarked on cattle drives across the country come to life through historical and contemporary objects, photographs and personal recollections. The Autry’s presentation also highlights Hollywood’s influence on the Black cowboy image with movie memorabilia, including vintage film posters and the costumes used in the 2021 Netflix film “The Harder They Fall.”
Saturday through Jan. 4. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org

Culture news

Denzel Washington, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the “Othello” Broadway production media day at Tavern on the Green on Feb. 10 in New York.

(C.J. Rivera / Invision / Associated Press)

“Broadway finally got its groove back. The 2024-25 season was the highest-grossing season on record and the second-highest in terms of attendance,” Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes in a column about last Sunday’s Tony Awards. That resurgence could be attributed to the many high-powered film and television stars on New York stages including George Clooney, Kieran Culkin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington, Bob Odenkirk and Sarah Snook — but the real reason audiences flocked to live theater this season, McNulty concludes, was “unadulterated theatrical fearlessness.”

The Smithsonian Institution’s standoff with President Trump took a new turn Monday evening when the Smithsonian issued a statement that could be read as a rejection of Trump’s late-May firing of National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. The Smithsonian said the organization’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch, “has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian,” after a lengthy meeting by the board. This seems to imply that, for now, Sajet isn’t going anywhere.

An installation view of “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

(Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)

On Wednesday, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., announced a major gift of modern and contemporary drawings from longtime museum supporters Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. The collection of more than 60 works of art includes pieces by Vija Celmins, Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Shahzia Sikander and Cy Twombly.

“Adrien Brody’s art is horrendous. Why are some people pretending it isn’t?” senior ARTnews editor Alex Greenberger argues in a pointed, sometimes hilarious takedown of the Oscar-winning star’s paintings. “Adrien Brody has received due attention for his acting abilities: his Oscar-winning performance in last year’s film The Brutalist is the kind of work most actors would be lucky to pull off once in their lifetime. Last week, however, he started receiving undue attention for the hideous art he debuted in New York at Eden Gallery, which — based on its press coverage, anyway — is one of the most talked-about exhibitions of the summer,” the column begins. If you need a chuckle, it’s worth reading in its entirety.

The SoCal scene

Patrick Ball, from left, Ramiz Monsef and Gina Torres in “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum.

(Jeff Lorch)

Unlike his assessment of Broadway’s season, Charles McNulty wasn’t so positive about a recent L.A. theater offering. He did not enjoy director Robert O’Hara’s world-premiere adaptation of “Hamlet,” starring Patrick Ball from MAX’s hit show “The Pitt.” The new material places the story in a noir landscape in modern-day L.A. and features a second-act twist when a detective comes to investigate the play’s bloodbath a la “CSI.” “O’Hara’s audacious antics are stimulating at first, but there’s not enough dramatic interest to sustain such a grueling journey,” McNulty writes.

A massive Barbara Kruger mural titled “Questions” on the side of MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary began appearing in news broadcasts and social media posts across the country as ICE protests unfolded over the weekend. This proved prophetic, since the 1990 artwork is composed of a series of pointed questions that interrogate the very nature of power and control. Read all about it here.

Pasadena Playhouse has announced its 2025-26 season, its first since buying back its historic 1925 building. Theater lovers can gear up for the shiny new Tony Award-winning best revival of a play, “Eureka Day,” as well as Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” a world-premiere adaptation of “Brigadoon” and the novel two-person hip-hop musical, “Mexodus.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

There is nothing more delectable — or truer to the diverse fabric of Los Angeles — than a good street taco. The Food team has pulled together a delicious list of 19 street vendors to support from the 101 Best Tacos guide.

The Getty announced a $420,000 grant to the L.A. Conservancy for a cultural asset mapping project that will help track, chronicle and maintain Altadena’s cultural, historic and architectural heritage in the wake of January’s devastating Eaton fire.

Community participation will be crucial to the effort as the conservancy works to document buildings and sites, as well as more ephemeral heritage such as local traditions, oral histories and cultural practices. There is also interest in cataloging longtime businesses that contributed to the social fabric of Altadena’s various neighborhoods. The results of this work will be used in collaboration with the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning to ensure that policy discussions and decisions take Altadena heritage into account when it comes to building back what was lost.

Rebuilding efforts in Altadena — an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County — have been complicated by the lack of concrete cultural mapping, including sites of historic interest. By contrast, Pacific Palisades, another area that was brutalized by fire, had already established an official record of its cultural heritage via SurveyLA, a historic resources survey conducted by the city.

“Tackling this incomplete record of Altadena’s cultural resources, both built and intangible, is critical for the community as it contemplates rebuilding,” Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation, said in a news release. “L.A. Conservancy is an excellent partner to lead an alliance of community-based organizations and preservation professionals who are working to ensure that Altadena’s vibrant cultural history is not lost in redevelopment efforts.”

L.A. Conservancy has a special interest in historic preservation and the grant will allow for a complete inventory of Altadena’s heritage sites — to be made available in an online map.

Related to this effort is the news that Artists at Work, which provides artists with employment, benefits and a steady salary for 18 month terms, has released its list of 2025-26 participants. Four Los Angeles artists are among them, including Altadena resident Alma Cielo, who is set to collaborate with L.A. Conservancy during her term. Cielo, a ceramicist, lost her home in the Eaton fire and plans to focus on post-fire recovery.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt marveling at the resilience of Altadena residents in the face of their losses, and firmly invested in supporting them as they rebuild. Here’s this week’s arts and culture news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

“Self-Portrait as a Female Martyr,” about 1613-14, by Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593-1654). Oil on panel. 12 1/2 by 9 3/4 inches. Private collection, United States.

(Bridgeman Images)

Artemisia’s Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece
Five years ago, a massive explosion ripped through the port of Beirut, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands more. The aftermath of the tragedy revealed a previously unknown painting by the great 17th century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi amid the rubble. “Hercules and Omphale,” an oil-on-canvas work that manifests Gentileschi’s penchant for classical subjects, was severely damaged and sent to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for restoration. That painstaking conservation process is now at the center of an installation featuring four other paintings by the artist, who has become a modern feminist icon. In 2022, when the Getty acquired another painting, “Lucretia,” that is part of the new exhibition, Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote of Gentileschi, “Happily, in the last two decades, the study of her paintings has been widening in productive and exciting ways, giving us a fuller understanding of her challenging involvement with social, political, literary and intellectual currents of her day. There’s a long way to go, and more discoveries are inevitable.”
Through Sept. 14 . J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu

Mumford & Sons performing at a Kamala Harris rally in October 2024.

(Morry Gash / Associated Press)

Mumford & Sons
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 17 years since Mumford & Sons made their local debut at the Hotel Cafe. Since then, the British folk-rock band — Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane and Ben Lovett — have toured the world several times over, crafted hit songs such as “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave” and “I Will Wait,” and won a best album Grammy for 2012’s “Babel.” This week, the group is back in L.A. (minus longtime member Winston Marshall, who left in 2021 following controversial social media posts) and playing the Hollywood Bowl in support of their latest album, “RUSHMERE.” The English indie rock duo Good Neighbours — Oli Fox and Scott Verrill — will open the show.
7:30 p.m. Thursdays. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com

Culture news

“Purpose” actor Glenn Davis, left, who commissioned the play for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins accept the award for best play during the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

(Charles Sykes / Charles Sykes/invision/ap)

The 2025 Tony Awards honored Broadway’s best and brightest last night at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The surprise hit “Maybe Happy Ending” won best musical and led all productions with six wins, while the musical “Buena Vista Social Club,” inspired by the legendary Cuban ensemble, earned four. Earlier in the week, Times theater critic Charles McNulty made a prescient arument for why Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Purpose” deserved to win the Tony for best play over Cole Escola’s, “Oh, Mary!” The campy melodrama had a wave of giddy popularity at its back, but “Purpose” is the more complex piece of writing and could more readily benefit from the prestige of a Tony win when it comes to rallying support for future productions, wrote McNulty. “There was a time not so long ago when the future of the Broadway play was in serious doubt. The threat hasn’t gone away, and Tony voters shouldn’t pass up an opportunity to honor true playwriting excellence.” Escola did not go home empty-handed, however, winning the Tony for best lead actor in a play and drawing what may have been the largest applause of the night.

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

The business outlook is not good for the Kennedy Center in the wake of President Trump’s takeover. The Washington Post recently reported that subscriptions were down by about $1.6 million, or 36%, from the previous year — with the hardest hit coming in theater subscriptions, which are down 82%. “At this time in last year’s subscription campaign, the center had generated $1,226,344 in revenue from selling 1,771 subscriptions. This year it has sold 371 subscriptions, totaling $224,059, a difference of more than $1 million,” the Post reported. The numbers were leaked to the paper by former Kennedy Center employees and confirmed by a current staff member, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution.

Journalist Stephanie Elizondo Griest has a new book coming out this month through Beacon Press titled “Art Above Everything,” which chronicles the lives — and countless sacrifices — made by more than 100 female artists around the world in service of their vocations. At the core of Griest’s explorations in Rwanda, Romania, Qatar, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Cuba and the U.S., is the question: What is the pursuit of art worth?

The SoCal scene

Quinn Kelsey as Rigoletto in Los Angeles Opera’s new production of Verdi’s opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

(Corey Weaver / L.A. Opera)

”L.A. Opera unveiled a violent, politically disquieting production in which a tortured jester faces mob rule,” Times classical music critic Mark Swed writes in his review of the company’s season closer, Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” L.A. Opera has tackled the show before, usually to lackluster effect, Swed notes. This show, however, is different. Thanks to outgoing music director James Conlon’s deft approach to Verdi, this production — featuring a truly terrifying clown suit — sizzles with visceral energy. “After 32 years of failed attempts, L.A. Opera has finally moved the ‘Rigoletto’ needle in the right direction,” Swed says.

Cynthia Erivo poses for a portrait October 28, 2024, in New York.

(Victoria Will/For The Times)

Once you’ve read Times music critic Mikael Wood’s recent interview with Cynthia Erivo about her new album “I Will Forgive You” and what she’s doing during her break from “Wicked,” be sure to check out the talented multiplatform artist’s lengthy June 2 profile in Billboard. Erivo discusses the world’s reaction to her being queer. For the most part, she says, she didn’t experience much difficulty in the wake of her decision to come out. But there was a major exception, she told Billboard: a massive conservative backlash earlier this year after the Hollywood Bowl announced that Erivo would play Jesus in its summer production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” “You can’t please everyone. It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth,’ ” Erivo says in the article.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

There are 600 L.A. landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places, and lifelong Angeleno Etan Rosenbloom is determined to visit them all. Thankfully, for us, Rosenbloom has highlighted his picks for the top 10 in a handy map.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles threw a glitzy bash at the institution’s Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo Saturday, raising $3.1 million and honoring architect Frank Gehry, artist Theaster Gates and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi — a surprise guest — showed up to pay tribute to Gehry, while Ava DuVernay celebrated Gates and Jane Fonda honored Schmidt.

The special program honoring “visionaries” who helped shaped the museum’s trajectory is part of a new gala tradition called MOCA Legends, which will continue with new honorees next year.

The night began with cocktails in the plaza and private access to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, “OPEN.” The Japanese American drumming group TAIKOPROJECT played while guests found their seats for dinner.

MOCA director Johanna Burton welcomed attendees with a speech about the power of art and its ability to bring communities together.

“As we celebrate our annual gala, we are not just honoring individual achievements, but reaffirming our collective belief in the power of art to connect and challenge; uplift and endure,” Burton said, according to a news release about the event.

After Pelosi’s introduction of Gehry, which included mention of his 1983 renovation of the Geffen Contemporary, the 96-year-old legend noted how much the museum has meant to him over the years.

“Artists brought me into their club — it’s where I wanted to be, and they opened my eyes to another world,” Gehry said.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, and I’m here for all the celebrations of art and artists — the more the better. Here’s your weekend rundown of arts news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Noah Davis at work in Los Angeles in 2009.

(Patrick O’Brien-Smith)

Noah Davis
A collection of more than 50 figurative paintings made by the late Los Angeles artist, who died at 32 in 2015, just as Davis’ career was beginning to attract wide attention, arrives after stops in Potsdam, Germany, and London. Davis’ paintings, often built around found photographs, regularly balance on a knife-edge between daily life and dream. The exhibition represents the first institutional survey of Davis’ work.
Sunday-Aug. 31. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

Hong Yoo, on the daegeum, performs at the L.A. Phil’s “Seoul Festival” on June 3.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Seoul Festival
The L.A. Phil turns to the South Korean capital this week for a follow-up to its revelatory Reykjavik and Mexico City festivals. Unsuk Chin, today’s best-known Korean composer, is the curator. Despite a seeming wealth of renowned performers, Korea remains a musically mysterious land. The mostly youngish composers and performers in the first festival event, an exceptional concert of new music on Tuesday night, were all discoveries. The festival continues with weekend orchestra concerts featuring different mixes of four more new Korean scores commissioned by the L.A. Phil, Chin’s 2014 Clarinet Concerto and a pair of Brahms concertos. A chamber music concert with works by Schumann and Brahms played by Korean musicians is the closing event Tuesday.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Emily Yetter and Jack Stehlin in “Lear Redux” at the Odyssey Theatre.

(John Dlugolecki Photography)

‘Lear Redux’
While Center Theatre Group reworks Shakepeare’s “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum (see item below), across town, Odyssey Theatre renews its collaboration with theater artist John Farmanesh-Bocca for a madcap adaptation of the Bard’s “King Lear,” another entry in the director-playwright’s Redux series. Veteran stage actor Jack Stehlin stars as the titular monarch in the production, which Stage Raw’s Deborah Klugman described as “wildly idiosyncratic.” In 2016, Times’ contributor Philip Brandes made Farmanesh-Bocca’s “Tempest Redux” at the Odyssey (also starring Stehlin) a Critic’s Choice, writing that the work “boldly transposes Shakespeare’s play to a darker, more unsettling key, but the inventive staging and solid command of source text make for a memorable re-imagining.”
Wednesday-Sunday, through July 13. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com

Dispatch: ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’

George Clooney in “Good Night and Good Luck” on Broadway.

(Emilio Madrid)

When CNN broadcasts a live performance of “Good Night, and Good Luck” from the Winter Garden in New York City on Saturday (4 p.m. PDT), it’s apparently the first time a Broadway play will be shown live on television, and the timing could not be better.

An adaptation of George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s 2005 film, which chronicled CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s heroic crusade against Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunts, the broodingly elegant production, sharply directed by David Cromer and starring a quietly committed Clooney in the role of Murrow (played in the film by David Strathairn), was not only one of the most stirring offerings of the Broadway season but also one of the most necessary.

As media companies face a campaign of intimidation from the Trump administration, the figure of Murrow, standing tall in the face of demagogic adversity, is the courageous example we need right now.

I don’t know how different the experience will be watching at home, but “Good Night, and Good Luck” made me reflect on what theatergoing might have been like in ancient Greece. Athenian citizens would gather at an open-air theater as a democratic privilege and responsibility. Playwrights addressed the polis not by dramatizing current events but by recasting tales from the mythological and historic past to sharpen critical thinking on contemporary concerns.

Clooney and Heslov aren’t writing dramatic poetry. Their more straightforward approach is closer to documentary drama, but the effect is not so disparate. We are affirmed in the knowledge that we are the body politic.

— Charles McNulty

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Gina Torres from “Suits” and Patrick Ball from “The Pitt” pose for a portrait as they rehearse for “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Director and playwright Robert O’Hara’s world premiere adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum starring Patrick Ball from “The Pitt” and Gina Torres from “Suits.” The Times sat down with the trio of creatives for an interview about how the show came together — as well as the many novel ways it diverges from the traditional script. O’Hara presents a modern-day vision that questions whether Hamlet is a tragic hero or a murderous psychopath. The mystery is solved “CSI“-style and the tone is very L.A. noir. For his part, Ball can’t believe any of this is really happening, having been a relative unknown before “The Pitt” premiered in January.

Domingo Hindoyan was named the new music director of L.A. Opera.

(Chris Christoloudou)

L.A. Opera announced Domingo Hindoyan as its new music director. Hindoyan — chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic — will replace outgoing music director James Conlon when he steps down at the end of the 2026 season. When Hindoyan, a native of Venezuela, made his L.A. Opera debut last November with “Roméo et Juliette,” Times classical music critic Mark Swed speculated he might be in the running for the coveted position. Turns out he was right.

“Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850-1950” by Arnold Hylen with Nathan Marsak.

(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)

Times contributor Nick Owchar talks with architectural historian Nathan Marsak about the Angel City Press reissue of photographer Arnold Hylen’s book of mid-20th century photos, “Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850-1950.” Marsak curated and expanded the new edition, which details a fascinating world of lost streets, civic buildings, shops and restaurants.

Heidi Zuckerman at the construction site of the Orange County Museum of Art in 2021.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Orange County Museum of Art executive director Heidi Zuckerman — who announced she will step down in December — has launched a new online platform called “About Art.” It’s home to her “Why Art Matters” newsletter and “About Art” podcast, as well as a number of lifestyle offerings including an entry on Zuckerman’s love of matcha and how to prepare the perfect cup. In a news release about the venture, Zuckerman notes that her work has gathered a community of 40,000 art enthusiasts.

The summer Hollywood Bowl season is upon us, and with it comes the complimentary Market Tasting Series with wine picks by chef Caroline Styne. The fun begins with the Roots Picnic this Sunday in the Plaza Marketplace near the box office. Tastings start an hour before doors open, and you can meet with vintners and reps from Habit Wines, Skurnik Wines, Grapevine Wine Company, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Elevage Wines and more. The final tasting will take place before the John Legend concert on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Guests enjoy wine and friendship at the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation’s weekly wine tasting.

(Photo by Janna Ireland; courtesy of Barnsdall Art Park Foundation)

Speaking of wine, Barnsdall Art Park Foundation is back — beginning tonight at 5:30 p.m. — with its 16th annual Barnsdall Fridays wine tasting fundraiser (the first two Fridays are already sold out). Proceeds from the events, scheduled to run through Sept. 26, support cultural programming at the park. The popular summer series comes as proposed city budget cuts imperil the park’s finances. Guests are invited to relax on Olive Hill, as well as the west lawn of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House — the only existing UNESCO World Heritage site in the city of Los Angeles. Wines come courtesy of Silverlake Wine, and there are always a variety of local food trucks onsite, as well as a DJ. While there, visitors can check out exhibitions and artist-led presentations at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Barnsdall Junior Arts Center Gallery.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

I’m happy to report that I’ve been to 14 of the 17 eateries on The Times Food section’s list of L.A.’s oldest restaurants. Some, like Musso & Frank Grill, I’ve ambled into many times (that martini!), and others, like Mijares Mexican Restaurant, I’ve stumbled upon while walking around town. I’ll spend this weekend visiting the remaining three.

The sculptor Robert Therrien had a deep connection with the Broad museum. He was among the first L.A. artists that founders Eli and Edythe Broad began collecting almost half a century ago, and the museum holds 18 of his works in its collection. Those pieces, along with more than 100 others, will go on view at the Broad beginning in November in “Robert Therrien: This Is a Story,” the largest-ever solo museum show of the artist’s work.

Therrien, who died of complications from cancer in 2019, is best-known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects. His sculpture of a giant table and chairs, “Under the Table,” is among the Broad’s most photographed — and Instagrammed — pieces. Intimate work — drawings of birds, snowmen and chapels — will be on view, as will a reconstruction of Therrien’s downtown L.A. studio.

The Broad’s founding director Joanne Heyler once told The Times that Therrien’s studio was among the most fascinating she had ever visited. In an email shortly after Therrien’s death, she described the ground floor as “the ultimate tinkerer’s den, with endless tools, parts and found objects awaiting their role in his work, while upstairs were these perfectly composed galleries, every surface painted a warm, creamy white, including the floor, which charged the sculptures, paintings and drawings he’d install there with a dreamy, floating, hallucinogenic effect. That studio was his dreamland.”

An L.A. story

Like his studio, Therrien’s work exists in a liminal space — where memory fades into time. Standing beneath one of his giant tables evokes vague recollections of what it feels like to be a very small child in a world of legs and muffled adult activity above. A ruminative melancholy arises when viewing a precarious stack of white enamel plates. Therrien’s artistic voice is at once singular and universal — and specific to art history in L.A.

Robert Therrien, no title, (stacked plates, white), 1993.

(The Broad Art Foundation)

Exhibition curator Ed Schad summed up Therrien’s importance to this city in an email.

“Los Angeles is one of the most dynamic places in the world to make sculpture, and for 40 years, Robert Therrien was vital to that story while also hiding in plain sight,” Schad wrote. “From the spirit of experimentation and freedom in the 1970s, to the rise of fabrication and the expansion of scale in the 1980s and 1990, to Los Angeles’s ascendant presence on the global stage of contemporary art in recent decades, Therrien’s work has not only mirrored every shift but also has maintained a singular, unmistakable voice. This exhibition aims to show both the Therrien people know and love — his outsize sculptures, tables and chairs, and pots and pans, rooted in memory — and the Therrien that is less often seen: the brilliant draftsman, photographer, and thinker, whose work in these quieter forms is just as enchanting.”

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, remembering the time I spent an entire meal hiding under a table in Nogales, Ariz., when I was five. Or was that a dream? Here’s this weekend’s arts headlines.

Here come the Tony Awards

Director Michael Arden photographed in New York.

(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)

Times theater critic Charles McNulty sat down in New York City with the directing powerhouse Michael Arden, 42. In a wide-ranging profile, McNulty discusses Arden’s path to becoming among the most sought-after directors on Broadway — and why his latest Tony-nominated musical, “Maybe Happy Ending,” is the season’s “most surprising and heartwarming.” He also writes about Arden’s new company, At Rise Creative, which he founded with scenic designer Dane Laffrey. Their production of “Parade” begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre on June 17.

McNulty also checks in with L.A. Theatre Works, which celebrated its 50th anniversary and has found fresh opportunities for its radio plays through the rise of podcasts and on-demand streaming. “Currently, LATW’s program airs weekly on KPFK 90.7 in Southern California and on station affiliates serving over 50 markets nationwide. But the heart and soul of the operation is the archive of play recordings,” writes McNulty. This archive has almost 600 titles that can be accessed via a recently launched monthly subscription service.

The SoCal scene

Times art critic Christopher Knight examines the curious case of the art museum that wasn’t. Despite having a social media presence and a webpage, the Joshua Tree Art Museum has not manifested as an actual space for art. This is because, writes Knight, “the charitable foundation sponsoring the project was issued a cease and desist order two years ago by the California attorney general’s office. All charitable activity was halted, a prohibition that has not been lifted.”

“Forest Therapy Class” led by therapist Debra Wilbur at the Huntington.

(Yuri Hasegawa / For The Times)

Along with other organizations across the country, the Huntington recently lost its National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The money funded the Huntington’s research programs, and the institution is nonetheless determined to honor its awards to this year’s recipients. The Huntington will welcome more than 150 scholars from around the world this year and next, granting nearly $1.8 million in fellowships — a notable achievement in a climate of shrinking opportunity for research and innovation. “Supporting humanities scholars is central to the Huntington’s research mission. Here, scholars find the time, space, and resources to pursue ambitious questions across disciplines. The work that begins here continues to shape conversations in classrooms, publications, and public discourse for years to come,” Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence said in a statement.

Skirball Cultural Center has announced its 2025 season of Sunset Concerts. The popular series began in 1997 and takes place at the Skirball’s Taper Courtyard. This summer will feature two acts each night, including Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante, the Colombia-based all-female trio La Perla and the Dominican band MULA. Click here for the full lineup and schedule.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that it has acquired Cynthia Daignault’s “Twenty-Six Seconds.” The artwork is a series of frame-by-frame paintings based on Abraham Zapruder’s famous 26-second 8mm color film capturing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through 486 painted frames, Daignault’s work further interrogates the tragedy, imbuing it with modern context.

And last but not least

This past weekend I took my daughter to the Summer Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita Park. It was more adorable and more ridiculous than you could imagine — with the short-legged dogs racing for the finish line in a chaotic competition that sometimes found contenders chasing one another back to the starting line.

The Getty Villa Museum will reopen to the public on a limited basis beginning June 27 after a nearly six-month closure forced by the devastating Palisades fire.

On the night of Jan. 7, reports swirled that the wind-driven conflagration had reached the outskirts of the Villa. A Getty team stayed through the night, putting out spot fires with fire extinguishers and ensuring that the galleries were safely sealed off, while updating a command team at Getty Center that included Getty President and Chief Executive Katherine Fleming.

A few days later, Fleming told The Times that the teams were confident that their thorough preparation — including extensive brush clearing — would keep the museum from burning. The galleries and other buildings did remain safe, but the glittering fountain pools went dark with ash. Extensive work on the property, including intensive cleaning and testing of indoor and outdoor spaces for toxic residue, is nearing completion. The water system has been flushed, and air and water filters have been replaced. More than 1,300 fire-damaged trees were removed.

A burned hillside above the Getty Villa, where the Palisades fire burned around the educational center and art museum.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

“The site may look different to visitors,” the museum warned in an announcement this week, “with less vegetation and some burn damage to the outer grounds.”

The limited visitor hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday. The goal will be to help limit traffic on Pacific Coast Highway, which is the only way to reach the campus. (The Villa is not yet accessible via Sunset Boulevard.) Reservations are limited to 500 visitors daily, and free, timed-entry reservations can be booked online. Parking is $25.

Unfortunately, the exhibition on view when the fire erupted, “Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures From Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece,” had to close, but the Getty created a virtual tour. Times art critic Christopher Knight had great things to say about it when he viewed the exhibition in person just before the fire.

The exhibition for the reopening is “The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece,” which will be on view from June 27 through Jan. 12. It will feature more than 230 works of art and artifacts from Messenia, a region in Greece where the Mycenaean civilization flourished during the Late Bronze Age.

Theater fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The outdoor classical theater will return in the fall with “Oedipus the King, Mama!” co-produced by Troubadour Theater Company.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, looking forward to reading a book in the shade by a Villa fountain. Here’s your weekend arts roundup.

The SoCal scene

Omar Ebrahim as Schoenberg and conductor Neal Stulberg in Tod Machover’s “Schoenberg in Hollywood” at UCLA Nimoy Theater.

(Taso Papadakis / UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music)

Does Los Angeles have its own musical style? Times classical music critic Mark Swed answers the question after attending the Hear Now Music Festival and Tod Machover’s opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood.” “Los Angeles is the home of film music. The two most influential classical composers of the first half of the 20th century, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, lived here. … The composer with the most radical influence on the second half of the 20th century, John Cage, was born and grew up here. Ferreting out L.A.’s bearing on jazz and the many, many aspects of popular music, as well as world music, is a lifetime’s effort,” Swed writes.

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse gets a mixed review from Times theater critic Charles McNulty, who praises Jason Butler Harner’s performance as Torvald, while noting that costumes and set design did not entirely come together. Lucas Hnath’s play picks up 15 years after the conclusion of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 classic, when Nora famously walks out on her husband and children. Nora’s life is complicated. And so is McNulty’s reaction to the show.

Last week, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art laid off 15 full-time employees, accounting for 14% of its staff. Most were from the organization’s education and public programming team. Seven part-time, on-call employees were also let go, according to the museum. Sources described the morning of the layoffs as chaotic and shocking, with staff being summoned by human resources and being told they needed to be out of the building by 2 p.m. The museum said in a statement, “Education remains a central pillar of the Lucas Museum.”

Lauren Halsey, from left, Jane Fonda and Zoë Ryan attend the 20th Annual Hammer Museum Gala in the Garden on May 17.

(Charley Gallay / Getty Images for The Hammer Museum)

The Hammer Museum raised $2.4 million during its 20th annual Gala in the Garden last Saturday. The fete honored Jane Fonda and artist Lauren Halsey, and it featured a performance by the singer Griff. This marked the first gala for the museum’s new director, Zoë Ryan, who took over in January. Last year’s party marked a heartfelt send-off for longtime director Ann Philbin, who retired after 25 years at the helm of the institution. This year, per usual, plenty of celebrities were in attendance, including LeBron and Savannah James, Usher, Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and Molly Shannon, as well as plenty of artists including Doug Aitken, Andrea Bowers, Diedrick Brackens, Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha and Jonas Wood. Thelma Golden, the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, paid tribute to Halsey; Danson and Steenburgen celebrated Fonda.

The Fowler Museum on Tuesday returned 11 objects to the Larrakia community of the Northern Territory in Australia. The items, which hold deep cultural and spiritual significance to the Larrakia people, consist of 10 glass spearheads and a kangaroo tooth headband worn by a Larrakia elder. Elders have worked closely with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the museum over the last four years to identify and arrange the return of the objects. This particular return ceremony is the second time the Fowler has returned artifacts in partnership with AIATSIS. Last July, the museum repatriated 20 items to the Warumungu community of Tennant Creek in northern Australia.

More culture news

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced its 2025-26 theater season — the first with President Donald Trump as chair. “Hamilton,” as previously reported, is out. Offerings include plenty of Trump-approved Broadway fare, including “Moulin Rouge,” “Chicago,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Back to the Future: The Musical” and “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

Tony Award winner Charles Strouse, who composed the music for “Annie,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Applause,” has died. He was 96.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

You can opt to be buried up to your neck in compost at this California spa. I love a good spa day, but this is a hard pass for me.

This Memorial Day weekend marks the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Floyd’s murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked a protest movement that reached the streets of cities across the nation.

In Minneapolis, residents, activists and artists painted murals and messages on plywood boards used to protect storefront windows during the unrest. More than 1,000 of those pieces of art have been collected and preserved by the organization Memorialize the Movement. The Minnesota Star Tribune recently ran a fascinating profile by Dee DePass and Alicia Eler of MTM’s founder and executive director, Leesa Kelly, along with two other community activists, Kenda Zellner-Smith, who created the group Save the Boards, and Jeanelle Austin, who started George Floyd Global Memorial, now called Rise and Remember.

Together, the three women have dedicated themselves to ensuring the Floyd protest art remains visible and accessible to the public. A large portion of their time is spent on fundraising to pay for the costly storage of the boards.

According to the Star Tribune, the rent on Memorialize the Movement’s warehouse is $3,500 a month, and the group spends another $1,500 on utilities and staff. Fundraising for this kind of work may become more challenging with the Trump administration’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion — not to mention the possible elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

These headwinds have not dimmed the spirits of the women, who regularly stage exhibitions of the protest murals in places such as Minnesota’s Carleton College, Normandale Community College, Franconia Sculpture Park and Roseville Lutheran Church, as well as Watermill Center in upstate New York,

For more information on Memorialize the Movement, click here.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt taking a moment to reflect and remember. Read on for this week’s arts news.

Best bets: Holiday edition

Haven’t yet made plans for Memorial Day? Go to a museum! Here’s a quick sampling of places that are open on the holiday:

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the new NHM Commons and the dinosaur Gnatalie. The NHM’s sister operation at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum also is open, same hours. nhm.org

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can take in the new exhibition “Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,” centered on the filmmaker behind “Parasite,” “Mickey 17” and “Snowpiercer.” Make a day of it and walk over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena will be open its usual Monday hours, noon to 5 p.m. Times critic Christiopher Knight offers this exceptionally helpful guide to the collection.

Unless it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day, the California Science Center in Exposition Park is always opens, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission to the galleries. Bring kids to the just-opened interactive exhibition “Game On! Science, Sports & Play” or the return of “Dogs! A Science Tale.”

The Huntington in San Marino will be open. “Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits” (read Knight’s praise for the show) and the Betye Saar site-specific installation “Drifting Toward Twilight” are on view, and temperatures in those fabulous gardens should be lovely.

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Sadie Sink in “John Proctor Is the Villain.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

Times theater critic Charles McNulty spent time in New York talking with Kimberly Belflower about her Tony-nominated play, “John Proctor Is the Villain,” starring Sadie Sink from the Netflix hit “Stranger Things.” The play, about students in Georgia reading Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” “casts a mysterious spell that I’m still processing a month later,” McNulty writes.

Meanwhile, back in L.A., McNulty praises a lovely revival of playwright Terrance McNally’s musical adaptation of the 1994 film “A Man of No Importance.” The film starred Albert Finney as a Dublin bus conductor obsessed with Oscar Wilde and amateur theater. The musical team behind “Ragtime” — Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) — adds whimsical dimensions to the story. Of particular note, McNulty writes, is the “graceful direction of the company’s producing artistic director, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott,” who “finds freedom in Wilde’s iconoclastic example.”

Arnold Schoenberg arrived in L.A. after fleeing Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s, and the composer eventually found himself in a meeting with MGM producer Irving Thalberg about scoring “The Good Earth.” This encounter provided the genesis for Tod Machover’s opera, “Schoenberg in Hollywood,” which staged its West Coast premiere at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater. Times classical music critic Mark Swed was present and wrote this review, noting at the end that despite all of his contributions to the city’s cultural ecosystem, Schoenberg does not have his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Sacramento on Feb. 27.

(Associated Press)

The Theatre Producers of Southern California, a trade group representing nonprofit theaters, is raising alarms about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $11.5-million cut to the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, which was only recently instituted after years of efforts by struggling arts organizations. “We understand that the state faces a challenging budget deficit and are prepared to support you in making difficult decisions,” board vice president Beatrice Casagran said in a statement. “However, the proposed clawback of 100% of the state’s entire investment in the Payroll Fund will eradicate six years of bipartisan legislative efforts to address cascading negative impacts that have led to dire economic instability for workers in the live arts.”

The Actors Equity Assn., under its president, Brooke Shields, also opposes the proposed cuts. “At a time when the arts are under attack in Washington, D.C., it’s deeply disappointing to also be fighting funding cuts again in Sacramento. California, which now ranks 35th in the nation in arts funding, cannot be a leader in the arts if it continues to cut arts funding year after year,” Shields said in a statement.

Concerned voters can ask their senators to sign on to the letter opposing the cuts by state Sen. Ben Allen to the Senate Budget Committee. They also can ask their assemblymembers to sign onto the letter by Assemblyman Matt Haney to the Assembly Budget Committee.

Los Angeles Opera is staging a costume shop sale for the first time in more than a decade, and the public is invited. Expect handmade outfits from shows such as “Carmen,” “The Magic Flute” and “Macbeth.” A news release about the event describes the offerings: “From 16th-century finery to fantastical creations, this sale includes complete costumes in all sizes, along with wigs, accessories, shoes, jewelry, masks, headpieces and more, each piece a work of art designed by visionaries such as Julie Taymor, Constance Hoffman, Gerald Scarfe and Martin Pakledinaz.” The fun gets going in the lobby of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 9:30 a.m. on June 21 and lasts until 3 p.m.

More culture news

The Washington Post reports that former Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter is defending the finances of the organization prior to President Trump’s takeover. Rutter’s leadership has been under attack by the center’s new interim director, Ric Grenell, who accused her and other former executives of “fraud” during a speech at the White House last week. “I am deeply troubled by the false allegations regarding the management of the Kennedy Center being made by people without the context or expertise to understand the complexities involved in nonprofit and arts management, which has been my professional experience for 47 years,” Rutter said in a statement to the Post.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

The headlines out of Cannes this year feel a bit subued, if not bleak. But leave it to Times film critic Amy Nicholson to open her latest Cannes diary with a Samoyed walking the red carpet in a ruffled gown. And because I love him and I miss him, I also point you to The Times’ former Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, Justin Chang, who has this stellar coverage.

Ahmaud Arbery. His name is just one that we’ve come to associate with senseless racial violence in America. On the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020, in Georgia’s Glynn County, Arbery, 25, was out running when three white men chased him down and shot him. His death ricocheted across the nation just three months before the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Now, five years later, the Grammy-winning choral ensemble Tonality is dedicating a show to Arbery at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. The May 24 program, “Put Your Guns Down,” includes the world premiere of founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake’s piece “Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery.”

Tonality choral ensemble during a performance.

(Dorian Bonner)

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, will attend the concert and has already heard Blake’s 30-minute work for choir, orchestra and soloists. She took time while traveling to answer questions via email about experiencing the music.

“When I first heard the composition, I was overwhelmed. It’s beautiful. I wish I could play it over and over again,” Cooper-Jones wrote. “The fact that someone took the time to honor Ahmaud in this way — it means more than I can put into words. One of the movements is called ‘Running Free,’ and when I heard that, I told Alex that it was like we were made to make a connection.”

After Arbery’s death, Cooper-Jones channeled her grief into creating the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which champions mental health awareness and provides scholarships and youth development camps for young Black men.

“One of my favorite quotes from Ahmaud is, ‘When life gets hard, you gotta get hard with it,’” Cooper-Jones wrote. “I hear his voice saying that all the time, especially when I get to the point where I want to give up. Starting the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation hasn’t been easy. It’s hard work. But those words keep me going.”

Arbery, Cooper-Jones explained, inspired everything she does.

“He had a way of leaving every person with ‘I love you,’ no matter who they were. Since losing him, I try to do the same, letting people know I love them, just in case I leave here tomorrow,” she said. “Through the foundation, I’m working to be the change for young Black men like Ahmaud who may be facing mental health challenges or simply struggling to find their place in the world. If they choose running as their outlet, I want them to be able to run free, without fear. That’s what this work is about, honoring Ahmaud’s legacy by fighting for freedom, for justice, and for love.”

Tonality’s Blake also wants to honor Arbery’s life with his music.

“I remember reading about Ahmaud Arbery’s story in 2020 and feeling a deep frustration at how little attention it received. That frustration led me to create a project in 2020 with 60 Black musicians to honor the countless Black lives lost without consequence,” Blake wrote in an email. “‘Running From, Running To’ is my way of ensuring his story is not forgotten — a reflection of our need to remember, to heal, and to strive toward justice that has yet to be fully realized.”

Tonality founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake.

(Dorian Bonner)

“Put Your Guns Down,” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased at thewallis.org.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, grateful for Cooper-Jones’ reflections on the power of love. Here’s a rundown of this week’s other arts news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘Califas Trilogy’

Playwright and actor Roger Q. Mason made waves with their play “Lavendar Men,” which reimagined Abraham Lincoln’s life through a queer lens. Now Mason has launched the “Califas Trilogy,” plays exploring the California dream at various points in the past, present and future. Times contributor Amanda L. Andrei sat down with Mason to discuss the works, two of which are up and running. Check them out and dive into Mason’s story.
“California Story” runs through June 3 at Caminito Theatre of Los Angeles City College “Hide and Hide” runs through May 29 at Skylight Theatre in L.A.; “Juana Maria” runs May 25-June 1 at Caminito Theatre. www.califastrilogy.com

‘Schoenberg in Hollywood’

Tod Machover’s opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood” is based on a remarkable incident from 1935: In the office of legendary Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg, composer Arnold Schoenberg asks for more than an astronomical fee to score the MGM feature film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s “The Good Earth.” He also asks for full control of the movie’s sound — and wants the actors to recite their lines to his musical rhythms. Three more performances of “Schoenberg in Hollywood” by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music are scheduled this week at the Nimoy Theater in Westwood. Until then, you can read music critic Mark Swed’s take on Schoenberg and his contribution to the L.A. sound.
7:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., L.A. schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner, who star as Nora and Torvald in “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” at the Pasadena Playhouse on Friday, May 2, 2025.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Since Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “A Doll’s House” premiered in 1879, one thing has not changed: It’s still shocking for a woman to walk out on her child. Which is where playwright Lucas Hnath’s starts his 2017 play, “A Doll’s House, Part 2”: 15 years after Ibsen’s female protagonist, Nora, left her husband and daughter to find her own way in life. In a new production at Pasadena Playhouse, screen actors Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner play Nora and husband Torvald, coming up with their own answers about what these two former life partners may now think and feel about each other. Read all about the show here.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty, a part-time professor at CalArts, enjoyed reading playwright Sarah Ruhl’s new book, “Lessons From My Teachers.” Ruhl is a playwriting instructor at Yale who finds plenty to learn from her students. “Even in the classroom, with its necessary hierarchies and rigorously observed boundaries, teaching isn’t a one-way street,” McNulty writes in review of the book. “Authority is enriched, not undermined, by intellectual challenge. The most thrilling moments in my years of teaching drama have come when in the dialectical heat of class discussion, a new way of understanding a scene or a character’s psychology emerges from conflicting perspectives.”

Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at piano at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(David Swanson/For The Times)

The classical music world is abuzz with the thought that conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen might return to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic after Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel leaves at the end of next season to take over the New York Philharmonic. Times critic Swed ruminates on the possibility of Salonen playing a transitional role for a couple years while the search continues for a permanent successor.

Joe Ngo, Abraham Kim, Kelsey Angel Baehrens, Jane Lui and Tim Liu in “Cambodian Rock Band” at East West Players.

(Teolindo)

Massive cutbacks to the National Endowment for the Arts continue to send shock waves through L.A.’s arts community. East West Players announced that it lost a $20,000 grant meant to support the creative team behind the world premiere of Prince Gomolvilas’ “Paranormal Inside,” scheduled for the fall. “The loss of this funding represents more than a financial setback; it is a symbolic blow to our mission and to the creatives who rely on institutional support to tell vital, underrepresented stories,” the theater wrote in an email to supporters. The loss, which represents 10% of the budget for the project, couldn’t come at a worse time for the company, which in April was forced to layoff five full-time staff members. The theater is calling on members of the community to help fundraise and to contact their local representatives to protest the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of the NEA.

A massive art installation created by transgender and nonbinary artists in support of visibility and acceptance for their community was unveiled Saturday in Washington, D.C. The “Freedom to Be” project was spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and helped kick off World Pride in the capital by displaying hundreds of quilts meant to build on the legacy of the 1987 AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The Getty has announced the lineup for its free outdoor summer concert series, “Off the 405.” This year’s performers include Bartees Strange, Cate Le Bon, Helado Negro, Alabaster DePlume and Moses Sumney. Check out the full schedule here.

And last but not least

Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, who may have the best job at the paper, just released this list of “the 34 coolest, kitschiest, most fascinating motels in California,” which appeals to just about every aspect of my personality and taste. Now I just need a few months off — and a lottery win — to stay at each and every one.