Día de los Muertos and a new ‘Spanish Dracula’ score: The best of L.A. arts this weekend
While the weekend is once again upon us, I can’t stop thinking about an intimate, site-specific, one-night-only performance I experienced last weekend. Before I jump into that, let’s get into the arts and culture news you might have missed and some can’t-miss events in and around Los Angeles. I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, here with another weekend edition of Essential Arts with my colleague Jessica Gelt.
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‘Spanish Dracula’
L.A. Opera’s annual celebration of horror and live music spotlights the rarely seen 1931 Spanish-language “Dracula,” which was filmed at night on the same sets as the famed English-language version with stars Carlos Villarías and Lupita Tovar. Three screenings with English subtitles will feature live sound effects and a newly commissioned score by composer Gustavo Santaolalla, played live by the L.A. Opera Orchestra, conducted by Lina González-Granados. Audiences are invited to attend the performances in costume Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. The United Theater on Broadway, 929 S. Broadway, downtown. laopera.org (Can’t make these shows? The Academy Museum is also screening the new 4K print, minus the live orchestra, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.)
‘Strange Science: Out of Time’
“Scary? Probably not, but this evening at the Huntington should strike a balance between science and mysticism,” wrote Times features columnist Todd Martens of the museum’s Halloween offering in his picks for the city’s spooky season to-do’s. The museum’s Halloween offering includes an illuminated nighttime garden walk, falcon meet-and-greets, and a Los Angeles Ballet performance, as well as talks on the first urban pet cemeteries, the universe’s origins via NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the future of rainforests with author Charles Hood. Saturday, 6 p.m. 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org
‘Spirit Guides and Guardians, Tonas and Nahuales’
This year, Hollywood Forever’s 25th annual Día de los Muertos draws inspiration from the Zapotec Indigenous culture and features a children’s plaza, culinary vendors, artisan crafts and performances by Pedro Fernández, Los Lobos, Reyna Tropical, Ambar Lucid, Niko Rubio and more. Among the 90+ altars on display throughout the cemetery grounds is one by The Times’ De Los, where readers can write or record messages to honor their loved ones. Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight. Hollywood Forever, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. ladayofthedead.com
For more on the Día de los Muertos celebrations that get into full swing this weekend, check out Times staff writers Karen Garcia and Andrea Flores’ thorough guide to the many festivities happening in the Los Angeles area and beyond.
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
The Civil Twilight Taylor Gilbert and Andrew Elvis Miller star in playwright Shem Bitterman’s new thriller about a radio host trapped in a Midwestern motel with his biggest fan during a once-in-a-century storm.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 24. The Broadwater Studio Theatre, 1078 Lillian Way. theciviltwilight.ludus.com
Disclaimer An interactive offering from the collaborative collective Piehole, designed to help “fix” the U.S.’ relationship with Iran by probing identity, fear and cultural (mis)representation.
8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., Westwood. cap.ucla.edu
An Evening of Film & Music: From Mexico to Hollywood Gustavo Dudamel conducts a program of Golden Age cinema scores curated by John Williams.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
High Art UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Sundance Institute present the world premiere of a restored version of Lisa Cholodenko’s acclaimed 1998 feature film debut, starring Radha Mitchell and Ally Sheedy, with the director and other special guests in person.
7:30 p.m. Billy Wilder Theater (inside the Hammer Museum), 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu
Olvera Street Día de los Muertos Festival The merchants of the historic calle at L.A.’s center celebrate with rituals incorporating pre-Columbian, Aztec, Mayan and Catholic traditions surrounding death.
Through Nov. 2. El Pueblo Historical Monument, 125 Paseo de la Plaza, downtown L.A. olveraevents.com
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse A full orchestra, a scratch DJ, percussion and electronic instrumentalists perform Daniel Pemberton’s score to the animated film live-to-screen.
8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. broadwayinhollywood.com
SATURDAY
Border Wars “The Radical Ethnography of John T. Caldwell” features three experimental documentaries by the UCLA professor and filmmaker that explore the exploitation of migrant workers and populist rhetoric amid the current election cycle.
7:30 p.m. Billy Wilder Theater (inside the Hammer Museum), 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu
Colburn Orchestra Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the conservatory’s young musicians in an all-Finnish program featuring selections from Jean Sibelius and Kaija Saariaho.
2 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
El Velorio Day of the Dead music and art festival offering a contemplative path to honor the holiday.
6-11:30 p.m. Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road, Lincoln Heights. culture.lacity.gov
Pasadena Symphony Brett Mitchell makes his debut as music director with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”), Peter Boyer’s “New Beginnings” and soloist Akiko Suwanai performing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s “Hollywood” Violin Concerto.
2 and 8 p.m. Ambassador Auditorium, 131 S. St. John Ave., Pasadena. pasadenasymphony-pops.org
SUNDAY
Joan The triumphs and tragedies that defined the life of comedian Joan Rivers are fodder for Daniel Goldstein’s dramatization.
Through Nov. 24. South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org
Maxwell and Jazmine Sullivan A pair of skilled R&B singers join forces for a night of songs about the grown-up pleasures — and the occasional indignities — of love.
7:30 p.m. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
Alonso Ruizpalacios The American Cinematheque presents an in-person retrospective celebrating the work of the Mexican filmmaker.
“Güeros,” 4 p.m. Sunday; “A Cop Movie,” 9:30 p.m. Monday. Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. “La Cocina” and “Museo,” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com
Salt of the Earth A 70th anniversary screening of the neorealist drama made during Hollywood’s Red Scare by blacklisted filmmakers includes a panel discussion and reenactment of House Un-American Activities testimony, followed by a Q&A with family members of the filmmakers.
5:30 p.m. Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. theatricum.com
Science Fiction Against the Margins This UCLA Film & Television Archive series, part of PST Art, includes Nuotama Bodomo’s 2014 “Afronauts,” 1986’s “Man Facing Southeast” by Eliseo Subiela and 2021’s “Neptune Frost” by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.
Through Dec. 14. Billy Wilder Theater (inside the Hammer Museum), 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu
Dispatch: ‘The Infinite Swell’
“At first, a journey presents itself as an illusion of a straight line: start and end, begin and return, born and die,” said IAMA Theatre Company ensemble member Tom Amandes, as the waves crashed behind him. “But in practice, it’s a circumambulation: an undulation into faith and doubt, a deepening into complexity of the meaning of lost and the meaning of found, again and again.”
These lines are from the concluding scene of “The Infinite Swell,” a site-specific, one-night-only performance commissioned by the Casa Loma Beach Hotel. Yet the same could be said of the entire Saturday evening, as the invite-only audience — including IAMA’s Patron of the Arts Shonda Rhimes and Shondaland actors Katie Lowes, Scott Foley, Dan Bucatinsky, Guillermo Díaz, Jason George and Bellamy Young — wandered through the oceanside Laguna Beach lodging for vignettes that lauded the life of a fictional surf entrepreneur.
Regardless of the order in which one saw the scenes — a passionate flashback in a suite, a comical conversation in the lobby, a heartbreaking eulogy in a conference room — we all reunited on the property’s pool area for these closing remarks, as attendees of both the performance’s memorial finale and the opening of the hotel itself. I found myself inspired by the experience, not only because of its intimacy and transience (actors performed their 15-minute scenes on loop for around two hours, often for just a dozen-ish onlookers at a time) but also because of its capitalist context; never did I expect to be so moved by a performance at the unveiling of a luxury hotel.
This was the third time that the Los Angeles theater company — which helped develop Max Wolf Friedlich’s “Job” and Leslye Headland’s “Cult of Love,” both on Broadway this season, and is presenting John Lavelle’s “The Very Best People” and Graham Sibley’s “My Right Wing Uncle” at the Atwater Village Theatre this weekend — has partnered with Marc & Rose Hospitality for such an offering. Their collaborations began two years ago with an adventure-centric piece at High Country Motor Lodge in Flagstaff, Ariz., followed by a 1920s-set story at Carmel-by-the-Sea’s La Playa Hotel earlier this year. The goals? Draw inspiration for a piece from the history of the surrounding area, stage it to debut an original work, showcase the IAMA ensemble and exhibit the new space.
“It’s so cool that this company wants to create original art in their pieces of art,” director Eli Gonda, who created all three productions with playwright Christian Durso, told me after the performance. Given the growingly precarious task of putting on new work — a feat so dependent on real estate decisionmakers — I’m curious about what other luxury brick-and-mortar businesses could house their own circumambulations for this kind of mutually beneficial site-specific theater.
“It’s different from screening a film or having a band play,” said IAMA’s executive director, Cara Greene Epstein. “We’re learning that it’s an authentic experience that allows people to connect with each other, yes, but also with the space in a uniquely invigorating way. And each time we do it, it just gets better.”
Culture news and the SoCal scene
The touring production of “Kimberly Akimbo” gets a rave review from Times theater critic Charles McNulty. He was charmed by the musical on Broadway (it won the Tony for best new musical in 2023), but this incarnation really captured his heart, he writes of the show. The story is about a teenage girl with a rare genetic disorder that causes her to rapidly age, and the ensemble cast is excellent all around. But the power of this production arises, in particular, from stars Carolee Carmelo and Miguel Gil, who find a tenderness of attachment between them that defies stereotypes. “There’s no accounting for when a show will speak to you, but this fleetly staged, sensationally acted touring production is first-rate all around,” McNulty writes.
Times classical music critic, Mark Swed, headed to San Diego to experience the city’s renovated symphony hall. If there ever was cause for a redo, writes Swed, it could be found in the bland, corporate Symphony Towers, which have been reimagined to stunning effect by architectural firm HGA and acoustician Paul Scarbrough. Crucially, it also sounds great. Swed notes that even the formerly deserted neighborhood around it has perked up, with a selection of restaurants and easy parking. “All that’s left is for San Diegans to wake up and smell the coffee on the way in and divine the music inside. On but the second week in the hall, too many of the 1,831 seats were empty,” notes Swed.
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A revival of theatrical rebel Richard Foreman’s “Symphony of Rats” wrapped a seven-performance run at REDCAT, a production co-directed by Wooster Group ensemble member Kate Valk (who was in the 1988 original) and the group’s leader, Elizabeth LeCompte. The show, about a president whose mind is spiraling out of control, is almost impossible to explain — sometimes more like a conceptual immersive art piece than a theater experience — but its riveting once it all comes together. In his review, Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes: “The world of the play is one of sci-fi satire, underscored like a merrily suspenseful summer blockbuster. It is a world of cinematic quotation, in which ‘Women in Love’ is juxtaposed with the gory action-comedy antics of ‘The Suicide Squad’ and a sequence from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ is reenacted for resonant kicks.”
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s principal concertmaster, Martin Chalifour, is set to retire at the end of the 2024/25 season, the orchestra announced this week. Chalifour is the longest-serving principal concertmaster in the organization’s history, having racked up 30 years in that position. Chalifour is a Quebec native who graduated from the Montreal Conservatory. Prior to joining the L.A. Phil, he served as associate concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. During that time he received a certificate of honor at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition and became a laureate of the Montreal International Music Competition.
President Biden awarded philanthropist Wallis Annenberg with the National Humanities Medal in a ceremony at the White House earlier this week. Annenberg was one of 19 medal recipients for 2022 and 2023, a list that included filmmakers, actors, writers and scholars, including LaVar Burton and Anthony Bourdain (posthumously). Annenberg is one of L.A.’s most prominent philanthropists, having given to more than 2,800 nonprofit organizations through the Annenberg Foundation.
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