Films, full orchestras and reforestation: The best of L.A. arts this weekend
This weekend’s Essential Arts events are all about big screens and bold ideas. I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, here with my colleague Jessica Gelt to bring you the headlines and happenings of Los Angeles’ arts and culture scene.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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‘Kiss Me, Kate’
Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar led the West End revival of Cole Porter’s classic backstage musical earlier this year, and thankfully, for all of us who couldn’t get to London to catch it live, the Bartlett Sher staging was filmed. (Yes, watching the dance number “Too Darn Hot” on a big screen and witnessing Block belt out “I Hate Men” with a full orchestra is definitely self-care.) The pro-shot will be playing in select movie theaters on Sunday afternoon, as well as Wednesday evening. kissmekatecinema.com
‘Lightscape’
Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic join forces for a project from multimedia artist Doug Aitkin that “centers on a dream-like feature-length film of landscapes and encounters along the West Coast,” writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed. It screens with live music (composed by Aitken) on Saturday as the climax of the L.A. Phil’s daylong new-music extravaganza “Noon to Midnight” and will also be mounted as an installation at the Marciano Art Foundation (complete with live pop-up concert performances) from Dec. 17 through March 15. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown. laphil.com
‘Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature’
The Broad is not only presenting more than 400 works from the German contemporary artist and environmental activist but it’s also debuting its first permanent off-site project: the planting of 100 native trees in Elysian Park, inspired by Beuys’ monumental “7000 Oaks” project. “It starts with Beuys’ seed of an idea, and then it jumps off and thinks about ways that this idea can be relevant to Los Angeles today,” Broad curator Sarah Loyer says of the initiative. The free exhibition opens Saturday and will be on view through March 23. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown. thebroad.org
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Sabrina Carpenter The singer, who had two of the summer’s biggest pop hits in “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” hits town on her first arena tour behind the album “Short n’ Sweet.”
7 p.m. Friday. Crypto.com Arena, 1111 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A.; 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday, Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. store.sabrinacarpenter.com
Fuerza Regida The San Bernardino-based quintet performs on its Pero No Te Enamores tour.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood. intuitdome.com
Time Alone Richard Cabral and Kandiss Edmundson star in Alessandro Camon’s play about a young man convicted of killing a gang rival and a woman whose police officer son died in the line of duty.
7:30 p.m. Friday; 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Plaza de la Raza, 3540 North Mission Road. eventbrite.com
SATURDAY
David Sedaris The bestselling author and humorist reads from his diaries and books, including his most recent, “Happy-Go-Lucky.”
7:30 p.m. The United Theater on Broadway, 929 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. theunitedtheater.com
Plática at the Cheech A conversation with artist Yreina D. Cervántez in conjunction with the exhibition “Shifting Perspectives: Cheech Collects.”
1 p.m. Saturday. Cheech Marin Center, 3581 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside. riversideartmuseum.org
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West The London-based painter blends fable, history and autobiography in the fantastical works featured in the exhibition “Ballads of East and West.”
Through March 3. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org
SUNDAY
Architecture & Design Film Festival Screenings of documentaries including “Schindler Space Architect,” “The Pavilion on the Water” and “We Start With the Things We Find.”
7:30 p.m. Sunday through Friday. Writers Guild Theater, 135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills; all day Saturday, Culver Theatre, 9500 Culver Blvd., Culver City. adfilmfest.com
Astra Lumina “An Enchanted Night Walk Among the Stars” is an hourlong immersive experience featuring projections, lighting and music to conjure a celestial pathway.
Continuing nightly, Thursdays through Sundays. South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Peninsula. astralumina.com/los-angeles
Enchanted Forest of Light Installations use light, color and ambient music to recast familiar garden spaces into nocturnal botanical artscapes, including a town of “stained glass” houses by contemporary sculptor Tom Fruin.
Nightly through Jan. 5 (except Nov. 28, Dec. 24 and 25). Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge. descansogardens.org
There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning 2007 epic, loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil” and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, screens in 35mm.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Opera in Los Angeles is experiencing a moment of true revitalization and reinvention, writes Times’ classical music critic Swed, noting a passage from experimental company the Industry founder Yuval Sharon’s recently published book, “A New Philosophy of Opera,” which contains chapters titled “Toward an Anti-Elite Opera” and “Breaking the Frame.” The Industry is, of course, based in L.A., but other companies are part of this shift, Swed writes, pointing to three operas by more mainstream companies that have also broken established molds with presentations of a trio of mid-19th century operas. These are: Independent Opera’s “The Stone Guest,” L.A. Opera’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Pacific Opera Project’s “Don Bucefalo.” “If Los Angeles has a reputation for opera, it is as an outlier, a city freed from encrusted tradition and eager to invent,” writes Swed.
Recordings by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic earned six 2025 Grammy nominations last week, including one for orchestral performance for their work on composer Gabriela Ortiz’s “Revolución Diamantina.” Ortiz’s first full-length album of orchestral works also picked up nominations for contemporary classical composition, engineered classical album, classical producer of the year (Dmitriy Lipay) and classical compendium. In addition, composer John Adams’ opera “Girls of the Golden West,” performed by the L.A. Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, was nominated for opera recording and engineered classical album.
“Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander is back onstage in a musical for the first time in decades with “Fiddler on the Roof” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Lee caught up with Alexander to find out how he was feeling about his performance in the ambitious, large-scale show, which runs through Dec. 1. Alexander at first wondered whether he was still capable of giving the needed life to the legendarily boisterous character of Tevye, noting that, “I can’t dance the way I used to, and my best scampering days may be behind me.” Be that as it may, Alexander’s star power is such that the show is already a hit, writes Lee. “Eleven days before the first performance, the show broke even, setting records for the theater’s season subscriptions and single-ticket sales — a rare return in today’s regional theater landscape.”
Swed also takes us on a journey to Austria for the annual Salzburg Festival, which had a 62-million euro budget ($67.8 million), making it on par with the budget for the stellar 1984 Olympic Arts Festival when adjusting for inflation. Swed makes the comparison because he believes the scale and deep attention to detail that Salzburg pulls off each year can and should be replicated for the LA28 Cultural Olympiad. “Grand and consequential Salzburg markedly demonstrates what makes festivals matter,” writes Swed.
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Pacific Symphony — the resident orchestra of Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts — has announced its new music director, Alexander Shelley. Shelley will be the company’s third music director when he takes over from Carl St.Clair, who led the orchestra for more than three decades. Shelley’s tenure begins in the 2026-27 season, for an initial five-year term, and he will serve as music director designate during the 2025–26 season. St. Clair will become music director laureate. Shelley arrives at Pacific Symphony with an impressive resume. He was music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, and since 2015, he has also been principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2023, he began leading the Naples Philharmonic in Florida after being named artistic and music director at the multidisciplinary organization Artis — Naples. From 2009 to 2017, Shelley was the youngest-ever chief conductor of Germany’s Nürnberger Symphoniker. “Since my first visits to Orange County as a boy, its natural beauty and human dynamism have resonated with me deeply ... The artistic excellence, flexibility and passion of this great orchestra have struck me since our first meeting. I look forward to building on these deep foundations, growing the reach and renown of the orchestra, and reaffirming the power and importance of music in our world through innovative programming and committed performances,” Shelley said in a news release.
The New Year isn’t here yet, but the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. is already teasing out details of the Hollywood Bowl season for summer 2025. It announced earlier this week that Earth, Wind & Fire has signed on for three performances, including the annual Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular. The remainder of the season won’t be announced in full until February.
— Jessica Gelt
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