Sophia Loren and dancing ‘Little Women’: The best of L.A. arts this weekend

Happy “Wicked” week, Essential Arts readers! The film adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical arrives in theaters this weekend. I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, who’s already seen it twice and plans at least more big-screen visit to Oz. I’m here with my colleague Jessica Gelt with other must-see suggestions, plus the arts and culture news you might have missed.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘Little Women Ballet’
Emma Andres’ dance series based on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 19th century novel concludes with its winter-set chapter, staged inside the stately Victorian homes of the Heritage Square Museum. “[It] might be as close as we’ll ever get to stepping into a time machine,” writes Times staffer Sonaiya Kelley of the immersive works. “The show is intimate — dancers are not even two feet away from audience members … They’re so close that you can hear the muffled sounds of their ballet shoes on the carpet and can make eye contact.” Five performances are scheduled from Friday through Sunday (ahead of a full-length stage version on Dec. 7 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre). Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St, Montecito Heights. littlewomenballet.com

‘Celebrating Sophia Loren’
The Los Angeles Virtuosi Orchestra kicks off its 10th season by saluting the Italian film icon with a program conducted by Loren’s son, music director Carlo Ponti, and featuring tenor Pasquale Esposito. The most devout fans can get tickets to meet Loren herself at an intimate reception, complete with bites and beverages from Anaheim White House and Joseph George Fine Wines — the proceeds of which benefit the orchestra and the Notable Music and Arts Organization. Friday, 8 p.m. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. lavirtuosi.org

“Isabella Cuglievan: A ripple and a nest” is currently on view at the Pit.

(Chris Hanke / Courtesy of the artist and the Pit)

‘Isabella Cuglievan: A ripple and a nest’
After a joint exhibition with Tamara Gonzales at the Pit’s Palm Springs space two years ago, Isabella Cuglievan is presenting a new set of vibrant, kaleidoscopic compositions in her first solo show at the gallery’s Atwater Village location. Spanning seven paintings and four works on paper, each one features intricate accretions of color as part of its vitalizing visual rhythm, allinspired by the artist’s life in Lima, Peru. The exhibition, which opened last week, is on view through Dec. 21. The Pit Los Angeles, 3015 Dolores St., Atwater Village. the-pit.la

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

Cyndi Lauper performs Saturday at the Intuit Dome, part of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun farewell tour.

(Paul R. Giunta / Invision/AP)

FRIDAY
Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert A live orchestral performance of music from the popular Nickelodeon animated series synched to a two-hour recap of fan-favorite scenes.
8 p.m. Friday. 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. broadwayinhollywood.com

Corita Day The Corita Art Center pays tribute to its namesake, the late artist and longtime nun Corita Kent, with family-friendly art making, readings and conversation, performances and film screenings, plus a holiday pop-up shop. 3 p.m. Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd. corita.org

Ordinary Extraordinary Commonplace items transformed and reframed as art are on display in this exhibit that asks viewers to reconsider their environments.
Through May 25. Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art

SATURDAY
Empire of the Sun The Australian electronic music duo performs on the Ask That God tour.
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com

Interpol The band marks the 20th anniversary of its sophomore album, “Antics,” which yielded the hits “Slow Hands,” “Evil” and “C’mere.”
8 p.m. Saturday. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com

Cyndi Lauper The colorful singer-activist comes to town on her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun farewell tour.
8 p.m. Saturday. Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood; 7 p.m. Sunday. Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Road, Palm Desert. cyndilauper.com

Ordinary People This large-scale exhibition explores “Photorealism and the Work of Art since 1968” through paintings, drawings, sculptures and archival materials.
Through May 4. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org

Ana Segovia The Mexican painter challenges traditional ideas of masculine identity through a queer lens, using bright colors and cinematic framing.
Through May 4. MOCA, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org

Three Homelands: The Transcaucasian Cinema of Sergei Parajanov American Cinematheque and UCLA Film & Television Archive collaborate on a centennial retrospective of Parajanov’s work.
Through Dec. 18. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.; Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. americancinematheque.com; Dec. 7-15. Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood.

Transfigurations Multidisciplinary filmmaker David Lebrun, who uses animation, documentary and experimental techniques, joins the UCLA Film & Television Archive for a weekend of screenings, including the restoration premiere of his 1966 short “Sanctus” and other works from his six-decade career.
7:30 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. cinema.ucla.edu

SUNDAY
Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film The exhibition examines the aesthetic impact and philosophical implications of image-editing software over the past four decades.
Through July 13. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

Hannah Gadsby The Australian comedian, actor and author brings their anxiety-inflected Woof! tour to L.A..
7 p.m. The United Theater on Broadway, 929 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. theunitedtheater.com

Motor Tapes A Monday Evening Concert (on a Sunday) features the house ensemble ECHOI performing Sarah Hennies’ neuroscience-inspired composition.
8 p.m. 2220 Arts and Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. mondayeveningconcerts.org

Jonathan Nolan The American Cinematheque retrospective of the writer-producer’s work continues with screenings of “The Dark Knight” at the Egyptian, and “Prestige” (Saturday, sold out) and “Memento” (Dec. 1) at the Los Feliz 3.
5 p.m. Sunday. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.; 7 p.m. Saturday. 4 p.m. Dec. 1. Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. americancinematheque.com

Tiny Beautiful Things Scripps Ranch Theatre presents Nia Vardalos’ stage adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s collection of essays written anonymously for an online advice column.
Through Dec. 8. Legler Benbough Theatre on the campus of Alliant International University, 9783 Avenue of Nations, San Diego. scrippsranchtheatre.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Wild Up performs a “Democracy Bardo” as part of the ensemble’s “Democracy Sessions” at Geffen Contemporary on Sunday.

(Evelina Gabreille / MOCA)

The election may be over, but music is not done weighing in, writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed in a piece of commentary about two new-music groups tackling the complexity of current politics in their latest work. On election night, Brightwork newmusic presented “VOTE! (and then come to this concert)” for its monthly Tuesdays @ Monk Space series in Koreatown. The following weekend, Wild Up orchestra hosted five “Democracy Sessions,” presented by the Museum of Contemorary Art in its Warehouse performance space at the Geffen Contemporary. “For more than 70 years, entertainment, art and politics have been enmeshed in a complicated web, with Los Angeles playing an often unexplored role. But two of L.A.’s most gutsy new-music ensembles prepared with prescient immediacy for last week’s stunning election results,” writes Swed.

By not pandering to the audience, or giving in to self-consciousness, comedians Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi have helped deliver a stellar “Waiting for Godot” to Los Angeles, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty of the production playing at Geffen Playhouse through Dec. 15. “This is perhaps the first time I’ve seen the play that I’ve had the sense that Vladimir and Estragon have spent possibly a half-century together, sleeping in ditches and keeping hunger at bay with rotting root vegetables,” writes McNulty. “The production makes real their complicated friendship without sacrificing the aesthetic nature of Beckett’s universe.”

The world premiere musical “It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price!,” which tackles the misunderstood chronic disease of epilepsy, runs through Dec. 15 at Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. Times staff writer Ashley Lee goes behind the scenes of its creation to explore how one family’s quest to find treatment for their daughter led to this moment on stage.

Indian classical musician Aashish Khan in an undated photo.

(Aashish Khan family archives)

Aashish Khan — the Grammy-nominated Indian classical musician best known for his collaborations with Ravi Shankar and members of the Beatles, as well as for his work on films including “Ghandi” and “A Passage to India,” has died. He was 84. A master of the sarod, Kahn earned a Grammy nomination in 2006 for his album “Golden Strings of the Sarode.” He was also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at Cal Arts and UC Santa Cruz, as well as president of the Aashish Khan School of World Music in Kolkata, India.

Vladimir Shklyarov, a principal dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, died Nov. 16. He was 39. A spokesperson for Mariinsky told a Russian newspaper that the dancer died after falling from a fifth-story balcony in St. Petersberg. He had apparently been taking painkillers for an injury prior to scheduled back surgery, and for the time being his death has been called an accident. Until the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Shklyarov regularly danced abroad, including with America Ballet Theatre. A story in Pointe magazine about his death notes, “He had initially opposed the war in a social media post, which he later deleted.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Here’s a treat for getting through the week: Kristin Chenoweth‘s take on Patsy Cline and the Jordanaires’ “I Fall To Pieces.” The cover is part of the Great Performances special “Patsy Cline: Walkin’ After Midnight,” airing tonight on PBS.