In praise of theater for kids: L.A. arts and culture this week

I have an admission to make: I recently cried during a matinee of “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical” at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. I was surrounded by giggling grade-schoolers watching a grown man with broom bristles attached to his head sing about being a toothbrush lawyer for dinosaurs.

I didn’t cry because the silly song tugged at my heartstrings. I cried because sitting in that darkened theater with my 8-year-old and a bunch of other little kids who were getting truly excited about live theater made me feel hopeful and happy. It was a sentimental cry brought on by a surge of faith in humanity. The humanity in question was the group of talented grown-ups onstage who were giving it their all to entertain the diminutive wisecrackers who occasionally snorted out loud or yelled, “Get up!” when a character collapsed. One kid laughed so hard that he fell out of his seat during a number called “Chubbs McSpiderbutt.”

The show was presented by Center Theatre Group, but it’s a production of TheaterWorksUSA. Its shows feature fantastic actors and singers — adults who clearly care about what they’re doing and feel a connection to the kids they’re serving, but who also would be at home in a serious drama or high-flying comedy for adults. Their time and devotion are gifts to these kids. Kids who will one day, hopefully, grow up to be theater lovers.

As I type this, I’m sitting in the community room of a church that Pasadena Playhouse uses for its Playhouse Players courses for children 7-12. These kids — mine included — are in the midst of a dress rehearsal for a production of “Annie” that they’ve been working on since September. The adults teaching them are endlessly enthusiastic and supportive — giving the gift of craft and changing lives in the process.

I can hear the kids singing “Tomorrow” in the other room. Little voices rising high and fragile and hopeful — annnddd I’m crying again.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, here to tell you that the kids are alright. My colleague Ashley Lee and I have the lowdown on arts and culture.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen from the Museo Nacional del Prado’
Diego Velázquez’s nearly life-size portrait “Queen Mariana of Austria (1652–53)” is on special loan from the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, marking the first time the extraordinary painting is being exhibited on the West Coast (and only the second time it’s been in the U.S.). The piece is being shown alongside paintings by artists Velázquez knew and admired — Nicolas Poussin, Guido Reni and Peter Paul Rubens — and adjacent to works by fellow 17th century Spanish painters Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Zurbarán. The exhibition, which opened this last weekend, is on view through March 24. Look for Times art critic Christopher Knight’s piece on “Mariana” soon. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena. nortonsimon.org

Sweet Honey in the Rock
Described as “one of the best-kept secrets in the music world … with a startlingly pure and vibrant sound” by Times contributor Connie Johnson, the Grammy-nominated African American vocal ensemble is bringing a 50th anniversary tour to Southern California via Northridge — one of their few concert stops where the group will perform the signature celebration of the “HolyDays,” a rare fusion of traditional holiday spiritual songs and hymns from numerous faith backgrounds. Thursday, 8 p.m. Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org

Sandra Bernhard will perform two shows at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

(Courtesy of Sandra Bernhard and Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts)

‘Sandra Bernhard: Easy Listening’
A performance from this pioneer of the one-woman show doesn’t just include music. “Her social critique is reliably on the money,” wrote Times theater critic Charles McNulty in 2012. “She’s still the urban-chic canary in the pop cultural coal mine, and hearing her sound her caustic alarms remains a giddy pleasure.” This time, Bernhard brings audiences on a tour of her musical influences; a second show has been added due to high demand. Thursday and Friday, 7:30 p.m. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

MONDAY
Jeff Parker EVA IVtet The guitar genius leads the band — a cadre of jazz and session heroes who are among the city’s best improvisers.

8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Zebulon, 2478 Fletcher Drive. dice.fm

Carols on the Plaza The public is invited to join a free, 30-minute sing-along of holiday songs led by Grant Gershon on the Music Center plaza.
6 p.m. 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. lamasterchorale.org

Messiah Sing-Along Grant Gershon leads the Los Angeles Master Chorale in a holiday tradition.
7:30 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. lamasterchorale.org

WEDNESDAY

Both: A Hard Day’s Silent Night The Open Fist Theatre Company combines the music of the Beatles with Christmas. What’s not to love?

8 p.m. Wednesday; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. openfist.org

Jennifer Hudson The EGOT winner has a new holiday album, “The Gift of Love.”

8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

THURSDAY

2024, You Hot Mess! Year-end sketch comedy show written by Lory Tatoulian recaps the pop culture and politics that made 2024 what it was.

10 p.m. Groundlings Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A. groundlings.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

“Untitled,” a new pigment on canvas from Lita Albuquerque’s “Earth Skin” at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. Albuqueque’s work, including her signature blue pigment, will be featured in Frieze Projects during Frieze Los Angeles next year.

(Courtesy of Lita Albuquerque and Michael Kohn Gallery)

Frieze Los Angeles has announced the artists and work to be featured in Frieze Projects, which will be free and open to the public during the annual fair from Feb. 20-23 at Santa Monica Airport. This year’s crop of site-specific installations is curated by Art Production Fund and includes work by Lita Albuquerque, Jackie Amézquita, Claire Chambless, Joel Gaitan, Madeline Hollander, Greg Ito, Ozzie Juarez and Dominique Moody. The theme, according to a news announcement, will be “how personal histories and experiences shape our understanding of Los Angeles.” The work promises to be interactive and unexpected. Golden eggs filled with miniature sculptures by Chambless will be hidden across the festival, for example, and Hollander, with the help of local flight school Santa Monica Flyers, will host a limited number of choreographed flights for individual guests with the goal of exploring human’s relationship to machines.

Janet Hilbert, co-founder of the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University.

(Courtesy of the Hilbert family)

Janet Hilbert, co-founder with her husband, Mark, of the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, has died. She was 83. The museum originally opened in 2016 and has since expanded to 22,000 square feet from 7,000. Its new home made The Times’ list of the year’s eight best new architectural projects in L.A. The inspiration for the museum came from Hilbert’s love of scene paintings, and she and her husband eventually built what the museum calls one of the most comprehensive collections of California art in the world. Hilbert spent 36 years as a professor of business at Santa Ana College. She is survived by her husband, their children and grandchildren.

Actress Annie Korzen is one of many Jewish performers to tell stories at the Braid over the years.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The Braid, which for 17 years has featured Jewish stories through salons, play readings and more, now has a physical home on Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica. The organization, which is billing itself as “America’s largest independent Jewish theater,” has a production of Monica Piper’s one-woman show, “Not That Jewish,” which previously ran off-Broadway at New World Stages. “Unlike most theater companies which usually license existing works or produce material by a singular voice, The Braid democratizes storytelling by inviting all types of writers to submit autobiographical stories that are then carefully curated and woven together into original shows reflecting the variety of contemporary Jewish life in all its rich, kaleidoscopic complexity,” the Braid said in its announcement.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has hired Mitch Bassion as its new chief philanthropy officer, starting in February. He arrives from the Philadelphia Orchestra Assn., where he served in the same capacity since 2021. He succeeds Margie Kim, who held the position for five years.

And last but not least

This headline: How an 836-pound ‘cursed’ emerald traveled the Americas, ruining lives and bankrupting men