Quick Takes - July 12, 2011

See the ‘new’ Da Vinci

An oil painting recently authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci will be on display at the National Gallery in London in the fall as part of a larger exhibition on the Renaissance artist.

“Salvator Mundi,” which dates to around 1500, depicts a half-length figure of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding an orb.

The National Gallery said Monday that the work will be included in an exhibition titled “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan,” from Nov. 9 to Feb. 5, 2012.

“This will obviously be the moment to test this important new attribution by direct comparison with works universally accepted as Leonardo’s,” the museum said.

— Associated Press

Good ratings for talk with Dugard

The story of a California woman kidnapped and held prisoner by a sex offender for 18 years proved compelling for television viewers.

The Nielsen Co. reported Monday that 14.8 million people watched ABC’s Diane Sawyer interview Jaycee Dugard in a two-hour special Sunday night. Dugard, who was 11 when she was kidnapped and is now 31, has a memoir about her experience being published Tuesday, “A Stolen Life.”

It was the most-watched Sunday night program on ABC, not including sports, since the Academy Awards in February.

After the broadcast, “A Stolen Life” shot to the No. 1 bestseller spot on Amazon.

— Associated Press

‘Clybourne Park’ set for Taper run

“Clybourne Park,” Bruce Norris’ drama that won the Pulitzer Prize this year, will make its Los Angeles debut at the Mark Taper Forum in spring 2012. Center Theatre Group said it will pair the production with a separate staging of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, running a few weeks prior.

Norris’ play serves as a companion piece of sorts to “Raisin,” imagining the events taking place before and after Hansberry’s classic. “Clybourne” will be an original CTG production, and is scheduled to open March 21, running through April 22.

CTG will remount the Ebony Repertory Theatre’s recent production of “Raisin,” directed by actress Phylicia Rashad. The production will open Jan. 22 and run through Feb. 19 at the Douglas.

—David Ng

Jazz festival will jam around L.A.

Heading into its fourth year, the Angel City Jazz Festival announced a smorgasbord of events Monday that spans seven nights and six venues.

The festival will open at the Blue Whale in Little Tokyo on Sept. 22 with a performance by the Australian improv trio the Necks and will end on Oct. 2 with a 70th birthday tribute to the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Roscoe Mitchell at REDCAT in downtown L.A.

Also planned are performances by, among others, Colombian harpist Edmar Castaneda at Zipper Hall, the Larry Karush Quintet in a free show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Lukas Ligeti’s dance-oriented Burkina Electric at the Echoplex and bassist Todd Sickafoose’s band Tiny Resistors with vocalist Theo Bleckmann, who will also appear at REDCAT.

— Chris Barton