Doomsday Clock dance and Sara Bareilles’ beloved musical: The best of L.A. arts this weekend
It’s Friday, which means it’s time to pause those Moo Deng videos — just for a moment! — and explore our city’s expansive arts offerings. I’m arts and culture writer Ashley Lee, here with my colleague Jessica Gelt to bring you the Essential Arts news you might have missed and The Times’ top picks for new things to do around town.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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1. “100 Seconds to Midnight”
The dance company Blue13, which blends contemporary and traditional forms to challenge perceptions of South Asian American women, is back at the outdoor venue with a one-night-only performance inspired by the Doomsday Clock‘s countdown to global catastrophe. The program, choreographed by Achinta S. McDaniel and with original music by Reena Esmail and Nina Shekhar, features three movements that jump through different eras in global history through the lens of immigrant Americans and third-generation people. Saturday, 8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. theford.com
2. “Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design”
Times art critic Christopher Knight mentions this new PST Art exhibition, which explores the role of nature as a starting point for material experimentation in contemporary design practices. It’s organized around five events in a material’s production — animating, disassembling, feeding, re-fusing and stitching — and also highlights the wave of more sustainable principles that are being embraced by designers to use fewer resources and allow for recycling and recovery. The exhibit runs Sept. 28 through Jan. 5, 2025. Craft Contemporary, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. craftcontemporary.org
3. “Waitress”
After a Broadway run and multiple national tours, the beloved Sara Bareilles-penned stage musical — based on Adrienne Shelley’s 2007 movie about a server who dreams of opening a pie shop but finds herself unexpectedly pregnant — is available to regional theaters, and this McCoy Rigby Entertainment production is a treat from start to finish. The show stars Desi Oakley, who previously played the lead on Broadway, and features movements by the viral choreographers Cost n’ Mayor. Runs through Oct. 13. La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada. lamiradatheatre.com
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Anohni and the Johnsons The singer of blue-eyed soul reunites with her band for the “It’s Time to Feel What’s Really Happening” tour.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Gloria A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016, this play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins features a group of 20-something journalists at a New York culture magazine facing a career-defining moment.
Through Oct. 20. Chance Theater, Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. chancetheater.com
Ohana Festival Pearl Jam headlines the opening and closing nights of the event founded by its frontman, Eddie Vedder, with Sting the topper on Saturday. Also on the bill: Devo, Alanis Morissette, Jenny Lewis, Maren Morris, the Breeders and Cat Power.
Through Sunday. Doheny State Beach, 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. ohanafest.com
Secret Walls “The Art of Competition” features paint battles, musical performances, DJs, academy workshops and more.
7 p.m. SRGN, 3855 S. Hill St. secretwalls.world
Davóne Tines & the Truth The singer and his band perform the album, “Robeson,” his tribute to Paul Robeson, described as “a classical Americana electro-gospel acid trip.”
8 p.m. Zipper Hall at the Colburn School. 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. mondayeveningconcerts.org
SATURDAY
La Nubiana Pole performers, including Bama Babii, KayOz, Inten$ity Bankroll, Naomi Jade, Kitty B, Saki, Peppa Pou, Alex With His Fine Ass, Jade, Halo and the Spinning Rose, engage in an immersive art and party fusion.
9 p.m. 718 S. Hill Street, downtown L.A. lu.ma/lanubiana
National Bunraku Theatre The troupe returns to L.A. for the first time in nearly two decades with a production of traditional Japanese puppet theater, featuring two quintessential climaxes from bunraku repertoire.
7:30 p.m. Aratani Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., Little Tokyo. jaccc.org
Randy Newman’s Faust: The Concert Reeve Carney and Javier Muñoz star in this presentation of the composer’s only musical, an American retelling of the classic tale of good and evil.
8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
SUNDAY
Air Fresh from their appearance in the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the down-tempo electronic music duo Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel perform their landmark 1998 album “Moon Safari.”
8 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. laorpheum.com
Jennifer Kent The Australian filmmaker introduces Robert Bresson’s 1956 thriller “A Man Escaped” as part of Beyond Fest.
1 p.m. Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. americancinematheque.com (Kent will also appear for a 10th anniversary screening of her debut feature, “The Babadook.” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Vidiots, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock. vidiotsfoundation.org)
Brian Rochefort The exhibition “Staring at the Moon” showcases the artist’s mixed-media sculptures, which “incorporate a variety of different textures, surfaces and colors to create rich, otherworldly forms.”
Through Nov. 2. Sean Kelly Los Angeles, 1357 N. Highland Ave. skny.com
The Very Best People Two childhood friends from Staten Island investigate the killing of a disgraced NYPD detective in IAMA Theatre Company’s world premiere of a satire by John Lavelle.
Through Oct. 27. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. iamatheatre.com
Wavespace In this water, light and sound installation by artist Lachlan Turczan, vibrations create waves with the patterns projected overhead through a liquid lens, observed by the audience reclining on custom furniture.
7 and 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, through Nov. 9, 821 Traction Ave., Arts District. experience-wavespace.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
New media artist Refik Anadol announced he will open the world’s first AI arts museum — called Dataland — in downtown’s Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A. development. The 20,000-square-foot museum will operate using an AI model developed by Anadol’s studio, called the Large Nature Model, which was trained on a half-billion images of nature from participating sources including the Smithsonian. I sat down with Anadol to hear about his plan, and got to walk through the raw museum space, which is in the process of being built out for an opening sometime next year.
Homeboy Art Academy co-founder Fabian Debora was named a 2024 National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts at a recent ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Debora is a muralist and former gang member who spent several years in jail before using art as a means to transform his life. Times staff writer Nathan Solis has the story about this East Los Angeles educator and mentor.
The San Diego Symphony launches its 2024-25 season later this month in a newly renovated home. The Jacobs Music Center is set to debut a $125 million makeover that got its start during the COVID pandemic shut-downs. Writer Tim Greiving recently toured the updated concert hall and interviewed the symphony’s CEO Martha Gilmer about how it came to be.
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Clifford Bell, a cabaret impresario, director and producer who collaborated with celebrities including Walter Cronkite, Michael Eisner and Katey Sagal, has died. He was 68. Bell worked in show business for 40 years and was well-known for his variety shows, often for charitable causes — most notably an annual celebration of Barbra Streisand’s birthday called “Our Name Is Barbra,” which raised funds for Project Angel Food for 26 years. Bell also helped establish Broadway for Autism, which works to create access and inclusivity in arts education for people on the autism spectrum.
The National Endowment for the Arts recommended 112 organizations for awards through ArtsHERE — a new pilot program in partnership with South Arts and the United States Regional Arts Organizations, with the aim of expanding access to arts participation across the country. The nonprofit organizations chosen share a demonstrated commitment to equity and have been recommended for non-matching grants of $65,000 to $130,000. The total sum of the grant money is nearly $12.4 million, and is intended to help recipients create projects that will deepen community engagement and increase arts participation in underserved communities.
L.A.-based interdisciplinary artist Nikita Gale has been given the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2024 Bucksbaum Award. Gale was chosen from the 71 artists and collectives participating in the Whitney’s 2024 biennial. Gale’s installation piece, “Tempo Rubato (Stolen Time),” (2023-24), is currently on view on the Whitney’s sixth floor. It features a modified player piano which, according to an announcement about the award, “has been programmed to silently play a series of performances by various pop musicians, exploring the space between a score and its performance,” leaving only the amplified sound and image of the instrument’s mechanisms.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Who should star in the officially-in-the-works remake of the “Guys and Dolls” movie?
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