‘Mozart Under the Stars,’ ‘Twisters,’ ‘Queer Rhapsody’ and the best culture L.A. has to offer this week
Welcome to another edition of Essential Arts, bringing you L.A.‘s finest culture, must-watch film openings, stunning art and a dash of Kenny Chesney. This week’s offerings arrive at the peak of summer with all manner of live, outdoor fun to guide you through the city. Let’s take a look at what’s going on this week.
Best bets: What’s on our radar this week
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1. “Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal”
Artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez weave a compelling web of works reflecting their heritage as part of the indigenous Oaxacan diaspora and their contemporary Southern Californian approach to fiber arts. Aguiñiga, who is showing a self-portrait made of woven cotton rope with terra cotta casts of her hands, says such works allow her to “fully delve into larger issues of identity, place and politics, always at the forefront of life at the borderlands.”
At the heart of the show is cochineal, the ancient, blazingly bloody-red Zapotec dye made from crushed insects that live on nopales (prickly pear cactuses). Aguiñiga uses the dye for ombres on braided cotton ropes; Gutiérrez weaves it into richly colored, geometric-patterned updates of traditional Oaxacan tapestries. “The depth of these materials,” he says, “is not just the colors but the complexity of transforming nature into color.”
Through Jan. 12 at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, 308 Charles E. Young Drive North, Los Angeles. fowler.ucla.edu
— David A. Keeps
2. “Newsies”
As a newspaper reporter, a proud union member and a lifelong fan of Alan Menken’s Disney songs, I’m the prime target for the stage musical about the newsboys’ strike of 1899, in which the young newspaper sellers of New York City joined together to fight a publishing industry titan. I had a blast at Musical Theatre West’s production of the Disney hit — a glossy mix of underdog inspiration, wage discourse, acrobatic dance numbers and even a little romance. The galvanizing ensemble showstopper “Seize the Day,” led by Dillon Klena and Jaylen Baham, left the Carpenter Performing Arts Center buzzing.
Through July 28. 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. musical.org
— Ashley Lee
3. “Mozart Under the Stars”
Once upon a time, which is to say half a century ago, Zubin Mehta, then-music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was a Hollywood Bowl fixture. On Tuesday night, the 88-year-old L.A. Phil conductor emeritus returns to the Bowl for the first time in 31 years. Mehta will be joined in the all-Mozart program by a close friend, Pinchas Zukerman, who has his own Hollywood cred — half a century ago, the star Israeli violinist was married to actor Tuesday Weld, who personified L.A. in “Play It as It Lays.”
8 p.m. Tuesday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 Highland Ave., L.A. hollywoodbowl.com/
— Mark Swed
4. Eslabon Armado
The young música Mexicana acts that took off on TikTok in 2023 are beginning to figure out their next moves. Peso Pluma is trying to split the difference between corridos tumbados and designer-touting trap beats on “Éxodo”; Fuerza Regida is rumored to be leaning into the kind of dance music it tried with Marshmello on “Harley Quinn” for its new LP. Then there’s Eslabon Armado, the Patterson, Calif., group that broke through with its own Peso Pluma collaboration, “Ella Baila Sola,” that announced the genre’s new prowess on the pop charts. The quartet is perhaps the most traditional in its instrumentation yet ultramodern in its lyrics, sweeping through Gen Z digital malaise in its ballads. 2023’s “Desvelado” topped the Latin charts and hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200; now, the group is savoring this round of arena touring as newly minted pop stars.
July 26. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. kiaforum.com
—August Brown
The week head: A curated calendar
THURSDAY
Ballet Folklórico de México The esteemed dance company, led by Carlos Miguel Prieto, joins the L.A. Phil for works by Márquez, Moncayo, Revueltas and more.
8 p.m. 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean Robert Altman’s 1982 film adaptation of the Broadway play stars Sandy Dennis, Karen Black and Cher as three small-town Texans reckoning with their pasts.
7:30 p.m. Vidiots, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock. vidiotsfoundation.org
Dido of Idaho Abigail Deser directs Abby Rosebrock’s dark comedy about an alcoholic musicologist wreaking havoc in the lives of those around her.
Through Aug. 26. Echo Theater Company, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village. echotheatercompany.com
Tellers of Tales: The Films of Powell & Pressburger A 35mm nitrate screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 film “Black Narcissus” launches the month-long series devoted to the celebrated British filmmakers.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org
El Laberinto del Coco The Afro Puerto Rican bomba fusion ensemble plays the Skirball’s summer concert series.
8 p.m. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. skirball.org
FRIDAY
Campfire Music Sunset Series “Cowpoke Country Night” features live, interactive music and dance.
5 to 8 p.m. Kidspace Children’s Museum, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena. kidspacemuseum.org
Queer Rhapsody Organized by the UCLA Film & Television Archives, the citywide series celebrates contemporary LGBTQIA+ cinema.
Through July 28. UCLA Hammer Museum, Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz; Vidiots, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock; the Broad, Oculus Hall, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. cinema.ucla.edu
Twisters Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos star in “Minari” director Lee Isaac Chung’s standalone sequel to the 1996 hit about storm chasers in the American heartland.
Starts Friday (with Thursday previews) in theaters. twisters-movie.com
SATURDAY
Bye Bye Butterfly The Long Beach Opera deconstructs composer Pauline Oliveros’ 1965 deconstruction of Puccini, along with five of her other works.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., downtown L.A. longbeachopera.org
Kenny Chesney The indefatigable Tennessean is joined by the Zac Brown Band with opening acts Megan Moroney and Uncle Kracker.
5 p.m. SoFi Stadium, 1001 Stadium Drive, Inglewood. sofistadium.com
Tartuffe: Born Again Freyda Thomas’ modern adaptation transports the Molière classic to the 1980s American South in the form of a televangelist.
7:30 p.m. Through Oct. 13 (check schedule). Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. theatricum.com
L.A.’s biggest culture news
Staff writer Jessica Gelt reports that the Broad, with the Getty’s PST Art, is presenting an exhibition of Joseph Beuys’ work and planting trees in Elysian Park and at the Kuruvungna Village Springs.
Classical music critic Mark Swed reviews the opening of the L.A. Phil’s Hollywood Bowl season, featuring rising conductor Elim Chan conducting Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto with Agustin Hadelich and “Scheherazade.”
Art critic Christopher Knight writes an obituary for artist Bill Viola, whose pioneering work with video since the 1970s opened the door to what would become a major artform internationally. He was 73.
Swed added to our coverage of the late Viola with an appreciation column about his work. As an artist, he was influenced by, and made a significant contribution to, music — all with a little help from L.A.
Knight also reports on this subscriber exclusive about how newly discovered photos raise compelling questions about an important Frida Kahlo portrait and what it meant to the man who painted it — her husband.
Theater critic Charles McNulty reviews “The Substance of Fire” starring Rob Morrow and Marcia Cross in an uneven revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s classic production at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica.
More culture news, briefly ...
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MOCA has announced a new award called the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Environment and Art Prize. The winner will be selected by a jury, with the prize going to an artist whose work intersects with art, architecture, design, climate, conservation, sustainability and environmental justice. The $100,000 unrestricted award, named for the philanthropists backing it, will be given to a new artist every two years from 2014 until 2030 — for a total of three prizes over six years. In addition to the funding, the chosen artist will also receive resources and support from MOCA to complete a project commissioned and presented by the museum. The inaugural winner will be announced in the fall, and the first commissioned project will go on view in spring 2026.
Inglewood’s Intuit Dome — the new home of the L.A. Clippers — unveiled six commissioned public artwork late last week. The Clippers, and the team’s president of business operations, Gillian Zucker, engaged an art consultant to put together a jury from the community to recruit a team of local artists, including Refik Anadol (who created a 40- by 70-foot digital artwork titled “Living Arena”), Glenn Kaino (a massive sculpture called “Sails”), Patrick Martinez (a neon sculpture titled “Same Boat”), Michael Massenburg (a printed porcelain enamel mural, “Cultural Playground), Kyungmi Shin (a stained glass mosaic, “Spring to Life”) and Jennifer Steinkamp (a digital artwork in the surface of the dome titled “Swoosh”). A seventh work by Charles Gaines will go on view at a later date.
The Petersen Automotive Museum is unveiling four new exhibits on Aug. 3. “Alternating Currents: The Fall and Rise of Electric Vehicles,” explores the evolution of EVs from the 1800s (an 1896 Riker electric roadster) to the current day; “Modern Concepts: Future Visions from the Recent Past,” looks at notable concept cars that have emerged from 1994 on, including a 2002 Xeno III; “Super/Hyper: The Ultimate Automobiles,” features a rotating display of some of the world’s most powerful super and hyper cars from the 1960s through today, including a Bugatti Divo and a Koenigsegg CCXR; and “Driven by Possibility: Waymo’s Road to Autonomous Transport,” which zeros in on the software company’s advancements in autonomous driving technology, beginning with the Google self-driving car project.
The annual OC Parks Summer Concert Series and Sunset Cinema film series is back, presented by the County of Orange and OC Parks. The event features regional parks, including Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Miles Square, as well as Bluff Park at Salt Creek Beach, hosting free concerts and movie screenings for the whole family on various Thursdays and Fridays in August. Details and times can be found at ocparks.com.
And last but not least
The British royal family must have needed some press pretty baaaa-dly this week. King Charles III has bestowed a royal title on a rare golden goat breed — nope, we’re not even kidding.
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