‘Nochebuena’ and BodyTraffic’s Buddy Holly: The best of L.A. arts this weekend
It’s December, which means I’m playing Christmas music favorites on repeat. I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, here with my colleague Jessica Gelt with some arts events (festive or otherwise) to check out this weekend, plus the week’s biggest culture news.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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‘Nochebuena’ and ‘La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin’
It’s a weekend of Mexico-centric Christmas celebrations! The Soraya’s “Nochebuena: A Christmas Spectacular” is returning for its eighth year to fete Mexico’s vibrant regions via performances by Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles, Mariachi Pueblo Viejo and special guest Camila Fernández. Saturday and Sunday, 3 p.m. Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
And Latino Theater Company’s “La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin” returns, as it has every year since 2002. This take on the mid-16th century text “The Nican Mopohua” features more than 100 actors, singers and Indigenous Aztec dancers. Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 6 p.m. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 West Temple St., downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
(Craving more Christmas cheer? Behold: The Times’ full list of holiday to-do’s around town, plus a special set for lots of lights.)
BodyTraffic
The Los Angeles-based contemporary dance company has three performances of an exciting program: the world premiere of Trey McIntyre’s “Mayday,” inspired by the life and music of Buddy Holly; the full production premiere of Juel D. Lane’s “Incense Burning on a Saturday Morning: The Maestro,” inspired by the work of the prolific painter Ernie Barnes; and a presentation of Matthew Neenan’s “I Forgot the Start,” featuring songs by Sinéad O’Connor, Sufjan Stevens and Broken Social Scene. Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
Zaachariaha Fielding
This weekend, contemporary art gallery Albertz Benda presents the first U.S. solo show of the Australian abstract painter’s work in conjunction with his feature at Miami’s Untitled Art Fair. Fielding — who is also one-half of the electronic music duo Electric Fields — was raised in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara region, and embeds within his art iconography that pay respects to traditional Aṉangu culture and his inherited Tjukurpa belief system. The exhibition is on view through Feb. 1. Albertz Benda, 8260 Marmont Lane, West Hollywood. albertzbenda.com
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Bob’s Holiday Office Party Playwrights Joe Keyes and Rob Elk’s crude, irreverent cult comedy sloshes through its 27th season.
Through Dec. 21, Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com
KIIS-FM Jingle Ball This annual all-star holiday concert provides efficient one-stop Top 40 shopping with acts including SZA, Benson Boone, Tate McRae and Shaboozey scheduled to perform.
7:30 p.m. Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood. kiisfm.iheart.com
Brahms With Zubin Mehta The conductor returns to the L.A. Philharmonic with violinist Leonidas Kavakos as soloist.
11 a.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Turing Tests, Apples, and Queens: Collective Storytelling Through Fairy Tales and Artificial Intelligence The Invertigo Dance Theatre applies fact and mythological fiction through movement to the life and work of English mathematician Alan Turing.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena. pst.caltech.edu
SATURDAY
Festival of Carols The L.A. Master Chorale performs arrangements of holiday songs from around the world.
2 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown. lamasterchorale.org
Little Women Ballet Full-length version of Emma Andres’ series of dance works inspired by the writing of Louisa May Alcott.
2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. 8th St. littlewomenballet.com
The Nutcracker Pacific Inland Ballet The Inland Pacific Ballet performs the Tchaikovsky.
2 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Dec. 21-22. Bridges Auditorium. Pomona College, 333 N. College Way, Claremont; 2 p.m. Dec. 15 and 15. Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside. ipballet.org
Tragic Women Trilogy The American Cinematheque presents a triple header of Pablo Larraín films: “Jackie” starring Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy, ”Spencer” with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and his latest, “Maria,” with Angelina Jolie as opera soprano Maria Callas, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.
11 a.m. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com
SUNDAY
Andrea Bocelli The Italian tenor’s 30th anniversary tour delivers hits from his classical, pop and holiday repertoires.
8 p.m. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
The Importance of Being Earnest Final performances of the sold-out Oscar Wilde farce about two late Victorian-era men leading double lives. Check for cancellations, or join an in-person wait-list one hour before showtime.
2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; 8 p.m. Monday. Antaeus Theatre Company, Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 E. Broadway, Glendale. antaeus.org
Los Temerarios The Mexican grupera band, featuring brothers Adolfo and Gustavo Ángel, say farewell on their Hasta Siempre tour.
8 p.m. BMO Stadium, 3939 S. Figueroa St. bmostadium.com
The Nutcracker The Westside Ballet of Santa Monica dances Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic to a score performed live by the Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra.
1 and 5 p.m.. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. westsideballet.com/nutcracker
Social Distortion Orange County punk legends Mike Ness and company wrap a three-night stand.
7 p.m. The Belasco, 1050 S. Hill St., downtown L.A. thebelasco.com
Dispatch: Martin Benson, theater visionary
Martin Benson, who co-founded South Coast Repertory with his institutional partner, David Emmes, understood dramatic structure the way a Swiss watchmaker understands the inner workings of a timepiece.
As a director, he could be counted on to find the spine of the play. His productions at SCR, where he served as founding artistic director for 46 years, were distinguished by their clarity and drive. His mission was always to serve the play, not impose his own ideas on the work. There was a modesty to his ambition, but his humility ensured reliability. Audiences could be assured that the story would crackingly come through when his name appeared as the director in the program.
He treated classics and new works with the same level of respect. He turned George Bernard Shaw’s garrulous “Misalliance” into a graceful garden party of ideas and brought imaginative breadth to Samuel D. Hunter’s play “The Whale.”
Sometimes, as in his revival of Augustus Goetz and Ruth Goetz ‘s “The Heiress,” he nailed the structure but missed some of the psychological subtlety. But more usually, his actors would supply just what was needed, as when the superb (and much missed) Kandis Chapell reprised her role in the 2009 revival of Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories,” which had its world premiere at SCR in 1996.
Benson and Emmes established South Coast Repertory as one of the country’s premier centers of new play development. World premieres by Margulies, Richard Greenberg, Craig Lucas and Amy Freed were a regular occurrence. Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” Julia Cho’s “The Piano Teacher,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s play “Kimberly Akimbo” and Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Wit” (which Benson directed) all debuted at SCR.
The list of playwright commissions from SCR yielded award-winning work that enriched the national repertoire immeasurably. Martin and Emmes built a Tony Award-winning regional theater by making the case to their donors and to their local audience that drama matters. They cultivated in Orange County an appetite for adventurous playwriting that changed the face of the American theater.
Benson was a director of remarkable lucidity. But it was as an institutional leader that he was a true visionary.
Benson died Nov. 30 of natural causes. He was 87.
— Charles McNulty
Culture news and the SoCal scene
In the 20th century, critics of all stripes loomed large, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty in an essay examining the role of the critic in our increasingly fractured times. “I wonder if anyone under 40 is even aware that there once was a time when critics bestrode the media universe like giants, issuing cultural verdicts with the gavel-pounding authority of high court judges,” McNulty notes, before detailing what made him want to become a theater critic, and why he still believes it matters. “As a critic, I consider myself a teacher who is at the same time a perpetual student,” McNulty writes.
Times art critic Christopher Knight headed to MOCA for the exhibit, “Ordinary People — Photorealism and the Work of Art Since 1968,” which examines the often misunderstood art form that originally took root in the imaginations of artists who “matured during decades when camera images, still and moving, from broadsheets and tabloids to television and CinemaScope, became ubiquitous in American life,” Knight writes. “In retrospect, the fact that camera images themselves would become a subject seems inevitable.” The exhibit features the work of 44 artists including well-known names like Vija Celmins and Chuck Close.
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Architectural journalist Sam Lubell put together a list of the eight best new architectural projects in L.A. for 2024. I could tell you what they all are, but then you wouldn’t have to click on this link to see for yourself. It’s been a weird year, Lubell writes, “But for Los Angeles architecture, it’s been a surprisingly good one. The region’s best projects are as clear and practical as they are creative and striking.”
A little good news goes a long way in these days of anxious doomscrolling, which is why I’m happy to report on an inspiring music project created by children at Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in Laurel Canyon under the guidance of parent and Grammy-winning music producer Thom Russo and the school’s own Grammy-winning music instructor Erin Barnes. The goal was to raise money for the public school’s arts programs, and the means to that end was the production of a vinyl record titled “Wonderland,” featuring students singing iconic tunes from their own neighborhood, which happens to be among history’s hottest hot beds of folk and rock music. Tracks, of course, include covers of Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Lee Ramer, an influential L.A. arts leader who believed in the city as a cultural capital, has died. She was 90. “Ramer served on the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission from 1994 to 2013, eventually becoming the group’s president. Her service in city government began in 1978 with her work as cultural affairs assistant and deputy to former City Councilman Joel Wachs for 17 years,” writes Barbara Isenberg in Ramer’s obituary.
—Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
For your perusal: the full script of Ayad Akhtar’s latest Broadway play, “McNeal,” with a foreword by actor Jeremy Strong.
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