President Trump continues to press for control over institutions that shape the arts, culture — and history. Last week the administration removed board members appointed by former President Biden from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff, who is Jewish and a leader in fighting rising antisemitism against Jewish Americans, wrote on social media after his termination. “To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
A few days earlier, the Associated Press reported that a week of events connected with the city’s World Pride Festival celebrating the LGBTQ+ community had been quietly canceled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The news was not surprising to those who have followed the national arts institution since Trump fired much of the board and orchestrated his appointment as chairman.
A page on the Kennedy Center website still references its Tapestry of Pride programming, but it doesn’t connect to any events. Groups planning festivities at the center told the AP that after Trump’s takeover, their contact with the venue went dark, forcing them to relocate their performances to other venues.
One sign of resistance, however, flashed on Friday, when House Democrats asked the Smithsonian’s inspector general to investigate the legality of Trump’s executive order threatening to pull funding for museums with ideology that the president deemed “improper.” That announcement follows resistance seen on a more local level, including the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. declaring that it would not bend to pressure to scrub references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its website. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” a museum official said.
I’m culture writer Jessica Gelt, here with Ashley Lee with your weekly arts news and some worthwhile diversions from our reality.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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Analia Saban with her “Broken Vase” project at Gemini G.E.L. in 2016.
(Sidney B. Felsen)
Analia Saban and Printmaking in L.A.
“Saban has made it her cunning practice to reconstitute painting and sculpture, to fiddle with foundations, essences and definitions, to take nothing for granted,” wrote Times contributor Leah Ollman of Analia Saban in 2017. The artist will be joined by Naoko Takahatake (director and chief curator of the UCLA Grunwald Center of the Graphic Arts), Case Hudson (master printer at Gemini G.E.L.), Shaye Remba (director of Mixografia) and Francesco Siqueiros (founder of El Nopal Press) in a conversation exploring the place of printmaking in her creative practice, as well as her many collaborations with renowned print shops around Los Angeles. The free talk takes place Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu
Esa-Pekka Salonen Leads Debussy and Boulez
To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of revolutionary French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (which Boulez conducted often), French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (whom Boulez invited to be in his Ensemble Intercontemporain) and L.A. Dance Project will join Esa-Pekka Salonen for a program that Times classical music critic Mark Swed touted last month. The belated birthday concerts (Boulez was born March 26) take place Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. (Another Boulez-centric event is set for May 30 at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater, with L.A. pianist Gloria Cheng and Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat performing Boulez’s two-piano “Structures,” along with pieces by John Cage, Stravinsky and Frank Zappa.) This week’s concerts will be at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown. laphil.com
Michael Luo and Charles Yu
“Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America” tells the story of the Chinese populations who were lured to the United States in the 19th century to work, only to be expelled later by politicians as a perceived national threat. Writers Bloc presents a conversation about the book between author Michael Luo, also the executive editor of the New Yorker and a former New York Times journalist, and Charles Yu, author of the novel “Interior Chinatown.” The talk takes place Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Ebell of Los Angeles, 741 S. Lucerne Blvd., Mid-Wilshire. ebellofla.org
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
Monday
ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest Stephen Schwartz hosts this two-night event: Monday features “Songs From the Cutting Room Floor,” composers performing tunes that were painfully excised from their hit musicals; in Tuesday’s Musical Theatre Workshop, composers present excerpts from “Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled” and “Weekend.”
7:30 p.m. Monday. 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
1975: Fifty Is the New Hollywood The Who’s musical “Tommy,” directed by Ken Russell, launches this tribute to one of the landmark years in cinema; other films (with special guests) include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Nashville,” “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” and “Cooley High” (with Michael Schultz, Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs).
1 and 4 p.m.; series continues through May 26. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. egyptiantheatre.com
Tuesday
Dr. Phil Live With Adam Ray The lighthearted lampooning of the TV therapist returns with an all-star supporting cast of comedians in an array of ridiculous sketches.
8 p.m. Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., L.A. www.showclix.com
Life of Pi A 16-year-old boy survives on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger in Lolita Chakrabarti’s adventurous stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel.
Through June 1. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org
Wednesday
Central Cee The U.K. rapper tours behind his debut LP, “Can’t Rush Greatness.”
7 p.m. Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. hollywoodpalladium.com
Thursday
J Balvin The reggaeton singer goes “Back to the Rayo” on his tour.
8 p.m. Toyota Arena, 4000 Ontario Center, Ontario; 8 p.m. Friday. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. jbalvin.com
Debussy & Boulez Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the L.A. Phil in a program contrasting Bartók and the two iconic French composers.
8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Love’s End French director Maurice Attias brings a slice of French culture to L.A. with the West Coast premiere of “Clôture de l’amour” (Love’s End) by celebrated French playwright Pascal Rambert in an English translation by Jim Fletcher and Kate Moran.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through June 15. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. odysseytheatre.com
Yo La Tengo An evening with the eclectic indie rock band and its most recent album, “This Stupid World.”
8 p.m. The Novo, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. thenovodtla.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway.
(Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
Tony Awards
When nominations were announced, even the most bankable star power couldn’t push aside artistic innovation in the races for theater’s biggest honors. Broadway is awash in big names — Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney, Kieran Culkin — and even bigger ticket prices this season, but only one of those megastars received a nomination: Clooney for his work in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Bob Odenkirk also earned a nod for his role in the revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Death Becomes Her” and “Maybe Happy Ending” led the pack with 10 nominations each. Read all about the nominations here.
Times theater critic Charles McNulty offered his take in a piece titled “Tony nominations reward audacious risk-taking on Broadway.” ICYMI, you can catch up with McNulty’s earlier assessment of this year’s crop of new shows.
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Art lovers view select art pieces at an exhibition preview party/dinner for Frieze LA on Feb. 15, 2022, in Santa Monica.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Frieze
Ownership of the Frieze art organization is changing hands. Beverly Hills entertainment company Endeavor is selling it to a new events and experiences company launched by Endeavor’s founder, agent Ari Emanuel. Times staff writer Wendy Lee has the full story of the transfer of ownership, reportedly worth an estimated $200 million.
Gustavo Dudamel
Beloved L.A. Phil music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel is heading to New York City in advance of his move there to take over the New York Philharmonic at the end of the 2025-26 season. He may still belong to L.A., but this summer he’s scheduled to conduct four free New York Phil concerts in parks around the Big Apple.
Hollywood Fringe
The 15th annual theater festival is on the calendar for June 12-29, and tickets for hundreds of shows, featuring a wealth of local and national talent, are on sale now.
LACO
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra recently held a sold-out gala at the Skirball Cultural Center that raised more than $1 million for the organization. Paul Broucek, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Music, was honored at the event, as were longtime LACO supporters Sandy and Pat Gage.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Want a ridiculously filling, meat, cheese, egg and potato-stuffed breakfast burrito? Head to Pasadena!