Essential Arts: Dudamel speaks out, the new rack of Tony nominees, Cheech Marin's Chicano art center

An opposition activist attends a march against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The political crisis has led the L.A. Phil's Gustavo Dudamel to speak out.

May 6, 2017 6 AM PT

Gustavo Dudamel goes political. The Tony nominations are in — and they are eclectic. Plus, Cheech Marin wants to open a Chicano art center in Riverside. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and here is your saucy guide to all things culture:

Dudamel speaks out on Venezuela

Gustavo Dudamel is greeted by music students in Venezuela in 2012.

Gustavo Dudamel, the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has for years faced questions in his native Venezuela for his involvement with the regime of Nicolas Maduro. (Dudamel is the longtime face of the country’s El Sistema music education system.) But growing violence in the country and a rise in protester deaths led Dudamel to make a Twitter video calling on Venezuela’s political leaders to “solve the crisis.” Then a 17-year-old violinist from a youth orchestra was killed during protests and Dudamel came forward with a more forceful written statement calling on the government to “listen to the voice of the Venezuelan people.” Los Angeles Times

Times classical music critic Mark Swed sat down for an interview with Dudamel amid these pronouncements. His words will likely not silence his critics. “I have been attacked for many years,” says Dudamel. “This is nothing new.” But, he says, he is now keen to address the leadership. “If a way to get out of this is to go to elections, that is what we will have to do.” Los Angeles Times

Tony nominations are in!!!

Denee Benton during a performance of "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812," in New York.

In the lead, with 12 Tony Award nominations, including best musical, is “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” an experimental work that takes place in 19th century Russia. Also in line for best musical are “Dear Evan Hansen” (a social media story), “Come From Away” (about the aftermath of 9/11) and “Groundhog Day the Musical” (based on the Bill Murray film). Times reporter Steven Zeitchik has the whole enchilada. Los Angeles Times

Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2” earned eight nominations, more than any play this year. The Times’ Jessica Gelt scored an interview with its star, Laurie Metcalf. Los Angeles Times

Plus, Times theater critic Charles McNulty gets parsing. Since there is no blockbuster à la “Hamilton,” McNulty reports that there is more uncertainty as to who might win. But the nominations show that inventive work is being rewarded, such as “Great Comet” and “Come From Away,” as well as Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” Hnaths’ “Doll House” sequel and “Oslo,” which McNulty describes as “a slow-simmering drama.” Los Angeles Times

And because you can never have too much Tony: the full nominations list. Los Angeles Times

Chicano art in Riverside

Riverside City Manager John Russo, left, actor and collector Cheech Marin, Riverside Art Museum Executive Director Drew Oberjuerge and Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey at the Riverside Art Museum.

Actor and comedian Cheech Marin, who in addition to being one half of Cheech & Chong is also a noted collector of Chicano art, has teamed with the city of Riverside and the Riverside Art Museum to launch a Chicano art center. “It’ll be the one place worldwide that everybody can go to for all things Chicano art,” says Marin. Los Angeles Times

A season of Ninths

David Lockington leads the Pasadena Symphony in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

It is the season of Beethoven’s Ninth. And fresh off of listening to a version by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Mark Swed caught the Pasadena Symphony’s take on the “symphony of symphonies.” Conductor David Lockington took it fast, he reports — for a Ninth Symphony that was less about dwelling in spiritual moments and more “like gliding on a hovercraft above the Beethovenian waves.” Los Angeles Times

Swed also reports on the Hear Now Music Festival, which offers a broad overview of all the original composing that is currently going down in L.A. Los Angeles Times

Harvard’s first online architecture course

Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne sat in on the first online architecture course offered by Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, led by K. Michael Hays, a professor of architectural theory. The course, writes Hawthorne, is an example of how architecture pedagogy “doesn’t simply treat architecture as a discipline separate from the rest of the world, with its own passwords and protocols. It guards that separation with its life.” Pure fire. Los Angeles Times

A literary figure leaves us

Jean Stein, the author most recently of "West of Eden: An American Place," is shown in Los Angeles in 1990.

Jean Stein, the literary editor and author known for producing essential oral history on disparate topics — including Andy Warhol Factory girl Edie Sedgwick and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy — and daughter of Hollywood royalty, has died. Los Angeles Times

I worked for Stein during the summer of ’92, conducting oral histories around a wrecked Los Angeles in the wake of the riots. As I wrote in an appreciation, “Jean was at home everywhere with everybody — disarming high-ranking cops and inscrutable former gang members.” And she never once minded tooling around in my sweaty, banana-yellow ’75 Mustang. Los Angeles Times

Gala-palooza

The art party set has been going hard on both coasts.

Patricia Arquette, right, with artist Eric White, wins the MOCA Gala red carpet with her T-shirt featuring Trump on a tank.

The Times’ Deborah Vankin endured the annual fundraising gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, where she was treated to some speechifying and got to devour a chocolate hazelnut Napoleon with a Jeff Koons-inspired balloon bunny (he was the gala’s honoree). Los Angeles Times

You may have also heard of a little soiree hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in honor of a show devoted to Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo, an elusive figure known for her sculptural, body-bulging designs. Art critic Roberta Smith has a look at the installation of Kawakubo’s work, which constantly presses “forward with fresh ideas about form, process and meaning.” New York Times

Rihanna in Comme des Garcons at the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In the meanwhiles, Vanessa Friedman parses all the red carpet looks from the party. New York Times

The best ensemble at the Met’s big design party? In my humble opinion, the Russian artist Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, who showed up naked in a Plexiglass box — and got arrested for doing so. Now that’s avant-garde. Art F City

CAP UCLA extends East

Kelly Sawdon, left, partner and executive vice president of Ace Hotels, and Kristy Edmunds, right, artistic director for Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.

Eastsiders: No more slogs on the 10 Freeway at rush hour to see a good show! UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance is partnering with the Theatre at the Ace Hotel to bring a third of its programming to downtown Los Angeles. The Times’ Jessica Gelt has the deets. Los Angeles Times

Must-see: The story of the missing legs

Moi Medina’s video installation at Mandujano Cell in Inglewood examines two tales of lost legs. One focuses on a 16th century episode in New Mexico, when a Spanish conquistador ordered the removal of the right legs of Acoma pueblo men; the second explores the travails of the wooden leg that belonged to Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. On Saturday, at 9 p.m., Medina will stage a closing-night performance. For location information and other arts listings, check out my weekly arts Datebook: Los Angeles Times

In other news…

Choreographer Kyle Abraham and his company, Abraham.In.Motion, perform this weekend at the Broad Stage.

— Choreographer Kyle Abraham received rapturous ovations for past performances in L.A. This weekend he dances at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica — and Times contributor Lewis Segal has a Q&A. Los Angeles Times

— A staged reading of Steven Bannon’s screenplay about the ’92 L.A. riots (featuring lines about stink-eye and crotch-grabbing — hmmm). Washington Post

— A copycat Rain Room installation will open in Shanghai. The Art Newspaper

— A downtown Los Angeles mural of Ed Ruscha by Kent Twitchell is making a comeback. Los Angeles Downtown News

— Would the late Vito Acconci’s artwork be possible today? Probably not, reports Kriston Capps. The Atlantic

— Alex Webb’s Mexico photographs are wondrous. New York Review of Books

— LA Weekly’s annual “People Issue” features some key art worlders, including artist Rafa Esparaza; curator Pilar Tompkins-Rivas, who heads up the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College; and Jamillah James, of the new Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. Dapper crowd!

— The 14th Factory temporary art installation in Lincoln Heights seems designed for Instagram. So I covered it entirely through Instagrams. Los Angeles Times

— Brad Pitt has been chillin’ at sculptor Thomas Houseago’s studio and “making stuff.” As one does. GQ

— “As a librarian, my gut reaction to that was, ‘You know what else is a free library? A regular library.” The urbanistic case against Little Free Libraries. Citylab