Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: Stormy days at LACMA and a local hero to hail
I'm Kelly Scott, arts and culture editor of the Los Angeles Times, pointing out a few stories about the fall's arts events this week, as the season continues to heat up.
Drought-tolerant, but what happens when El Niño arrives?
If an art installation in which rain falls heavily and nonstop as California endures the mother of all droughts sounds like an odd proposition to you, you’re not alone. If you want to see this art installation, you will also not be alone, because the reputation of "Rain Room" preceded it: long lines at previous museums. Now the museum is selling tickets (seven people at a time, 15 minutes at a time) well into next year. It’s all drought-correct: The same 528 gallons of water are recycled during its four month run. Read Deb Vankin’s interview with its creators and find out why you shouldn't wear stripes when you go.
Random International's Hannes Koch tests the sensitivity of the sensors inside the Rain Room. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
A portrait of the artist, a longtime Angeleno
Jim Shaw lives in Los Angeles. He makes art in Los Angeles. And yet art critic Christopher Knight had to go to New York to see a major retrospective of his work, "Jim Shaw: The End Is Here." “The national id is Shaw’s subject,” Knight writes, as he explores his career from his studies at Cal Arts to the New Museum, where the retrospective is happening. Shaw has consistently worked found objects into his art — he “seems to regard thrift stores as treasure houses holding relics of society's soft underbelly — revelatory museums of the mundane and cast-aside, if one knows how to look." Now, why is this show not coming to Los Angeles?
Jim Shaw’s visual roller-coaster ride “Labyrinth” is among part of a retrospective of the artist’s work over almost 40 years. (New Museum, New York)
Let's try that again — take it from the top...
There’s a classic arc to stories about making it in show biz, especially the music biz, judging from movies, plays and TV shows on the subject: Characters go from naive to promising to hitting it big to disenchantment with stardom to decline and fall. (There are a few more permutations on "Empire.") The Pasadena Playhouse takes a shot at a fresh approach with “Breaking Through." “We’ve made sure we’re focusing on this as a story about artistry and authenticity, and a young woman who is not necessarily on the climb to stardom — at least not if she knows what’s good for her,” says director Sheldon Epps. Another twist is that both of the songwriters have been through the star-making machinery themselves. With some notable examples of the genre.
Alison Luff, Matt Magnusson and the ensemble of "Breaking Through" at the Pasadena Playhouse. (Jim Cox Photography)
The sound of another recovered voice
Walter Arlen once gave James Conlon a bad review, but Conlon hasn’t held a grudge. In fact, he’s drawing attention to music written by Arlen, a former music writer for the L.A. Times -- and an escapee from Austria in 1939. In a concert at the Wallis Annenberg center, one in his series spotlighting the works of composers who were the victims of Nazi Germany, Conlon conducted a program of Arlen’s work. But the evening could have used a little more context and depth. The concert "appeared to be carelessly thrown together," Mark Swed wrote.
Los Angeles Opera’s James Conlon, left, pays tribute to composer Walter Arlen, the subject of “The Poet in Exile” at the Wallis. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
In short
The Hammer Museum announced its intention to expand into the first five floors of the Occidental Petroleum building in Westwood ... Wanted: Artist who can help save lives on city streets ... If you think getting into the Rain Room is hard, try getting a ticket to “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” once it opens next spring.
Coming up this week
Mark Swed reviews the opera on wheels, the Industry's "Hopscotch," and Los Angeles Opera's production of Jake Heggie's "Moby Dick" ... David Ng checks out Halloween night with Danny Elfman and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" at the Hollywood Bowl ... Film critic Kenneth Turan watches the Bela Lugoli "Dracula" at the Ace Hotel, while the Kronos Quartet plays a Phillip Glass score.
What we’re reading, watching and listening to
Charles McNulty listened to Marc Maron’s interview with playwright Annie Baker, whose adaptation of “Uncle Vanya” is the latest work by L.A.'s Antaeus Theater, on podcast: #UncleVanya.
Follow me on Twitter at @kscottLATarts.
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