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Movies
“Last Orders,” which had a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in December, re-opens Friday in selected theaters. Fred Schepisi wrote and directed the adaptation of Graham Swift’s novel about a group of pals carrying out their friend’s final wish. The film’s co-stars include Michael Caine, above left, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay and David Hemmings.
Theater
The secrets and lies of two star-crossed married couples--one poor, one the beneficiary of Ireland’s new, robust “Celtic Tiger” economy--come to light in the U.S. premiere of Bernard Farrell’s wicked comedy, “Stella by Starlight.” Opening Saturday at the Laguna Playhouse, the production features a respected international cast, headed by Bairbre Dowling, Thomas MacGreevy, Warren Sweeney and Amelia White. It’s the second Laguna outing for critically acclaimed Irish playwright Farrell: His play “Kevin’s Bed” received its U.S. premiere there last year.
Music
Dutch conductor Hans Vonk, now in his sixth season as music director of the St. Louis Symphony, returns as guest conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic this week, leading a Beethoven program to include the Third “Leonore” Overture, the Fourth Piano Concerto--with American pianist Andre Watts as soloist--and the Sixth Symphony.
Dance
A starry roster of principals graces Kevin McKenzie’s staging of the full-evening “Swan Lake” when American Ballet Theatre appears at the Orange County Performing Arts Center Tuesday through next Sunday Perhaps the newsiest casting: Russia’s Nina Ananiashvili, below, and Argentina’s Julio Bocca on Friday and next Sunday, if only because Ananiashvili has never appeared with the company in the Southland.
Art
“Willem de Kooning: Tracing the Figure,” the first comprehensive survey of works on paper devoted to the artist’s Expressionist images of women, opens today at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. The show will include 78 works produced between 1938 and 1955, from Surrealist-inspired portraits of wife Elaine de Kooning and Juliette Brauner in 1938 to later abstract figures drawn in 1955. Above: a detail from “Elaine de Kooning, 1940-41.”
Pop Music
Billed as the largest reggae festival outside Jamaica, the 21st annual Bob Marley Day festival Saturday and next Sunday at the Long Beach Arena gathers an impressive roster of performers, including offspring Damian Marley with his Ghetto Youth Crew (on Sunday). Highlights include Beenie Man, Sizzla, Junior Reid and Michigan & Smiley on Saturday, and Luciano, Bounty Killer and Gregory Isaacs on Sunday.
Jazz
After touring with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker in their Miles Davis-John Coltrane tribute, trumpeter Roy Hargrove brings his quintet Tuesday to the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood for a six-night run.
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