Best things to do in L.A.: ‘Chocolate Room,’ Maurice Sendak

It’s been asked before, and we’ll ask it again: If music festival-goers need payment plans, have concert tickets gotten too expensive? We’re here for all things Coachella, but before we dive into that annual desert diversion, first let’s roll through your other weekend options, starting with recommendations from the culture staff here.

Best bets: What’s on our radar

1. “Chocolate Room”
In a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment, step inside this room shingled with hundreds of sheets of paper screen-printed with chocolate paste. The sweet environment is fragrant in a contradictory way — enticing and sickly, indulgent and off-putting, decidedly lovely and vaguely gross. The eccentric installation is part of “Ed Ruscha / Now Then,” a retrospective that includes paintings, drawings, photographs and more.
Through Oct. 6. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. lacma.org
— Christopher Knight

2. “La Passion de Simone”
Come for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and hear Viet Thanh Nguyen speak about his illustrated children’s book, “Simone.” Stay for USC Opera. In a wonderfully weird coincidence, USC’s venturesome opera program happens to have its own “Simone” as part of a double bill. Composer Kaija Saariaho’s powerful “La Passion de Simone,” with a libretto written by the celebrated Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf and centered on the French philosopher Simone Weil, will be paired with a more fanciful collaborative opera composed by Philip Glass and Robert Moran and based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Juniper Tree.”
7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. April 21. Raubenheimer Music Faculty Building, 840 W. 34th St., L.A. music.usc.edu/events/
— Mark Swed

3. “Tiny Beautiful Things”
I’ve teared up more times than not while watching shows at Chance Theater: a brilliant “Next to Normal,” a stunning “Fun Home,” an expert “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” So I fully expect the waterworks when I visit that intimate Anaheim venue for “Tiny Beautiful Things,” famously a cathartically emotional play adapted by Nia Vardalos from Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling collection of columns. Directed by Katie Chidester, the piece stars Aubrey Saverino as Sugar, the wise advice writer who commits to “radical sincerity” by sharing her own stumbles.
Through April 28. Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. chancetheater.com
— Ashley Lee

4. Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak
This exhibition is touted as the largest showing of the beloved author’s artwork and his first major retrospective since his death in 2012. More than 150 sketches, storyboards and paintings will be on view. Fans can explore his ideas not only for children’s books but also for opera, film and TV. (If you want to prepare by listening to that classic Terry Gross radio interview, here’s a link.)
Thursday through Sept. 1. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. skirball.org
— Craig Nakano

Maurice Sendak, “Where the Wild Things Are,” 1963, tempera on paper, 9¾ inches by 22 inches. The artwork is part of the Sendak exhibition opening at the Skirball Cultural Center.

(The Maurice Sendak Foundation)

The week ahead: A curated calendar

SUNDAY

Hooray L.A. Bob Baker Marionette Theater is back with its annual celebration of puppetry shows exploring aspects of the city plus hands-on activities for children.
Select Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 16. 4949 York Blvd., L.A. bobbakermarionettetheater.com

TUESDAY

Li Songsong: The Past Chinese artist Li Songsong’s stream-of-consciousness abstractions are on view in his first solo exhibition in L.A.
Through April 27. Pace, 1201 S. La Brea Ave., L.A. pacegallery.com

Francesca Gabbiani The cactus is a metaphor for resilience, endurance and adaptation in an age of climate change in the artist’s hand-cut paper collages.
Through May 11. Baert Gallery, 1923 S. Santa Fe Ave., Los Angeles. baertgallery.com

Francesca Gabbiani’s “Survivor (3)” is a 2024 work in acrylic, ink, watercolor, salt and hand-colored paper, roughly 38 inches by 43 inches.

(Photo by Paul Salveson / courtesy of Baert Gallery and the artist)

WEDNESDAY

Stalin’s Master Class Playwright David Pownall imagines what happens when composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich see their musical genius fall under the order of the Soviet dictator and his cultural commissioner.
Through May 26. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. odysseytheatre.com

Brazil Director Terry Gilliam’s 1985 spectacle starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Michael Palin and Jim Broadbent unfolds on the big screen in this Academy Musuem screening.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. academymuseum.org

THURSDAY

The Body’s Midnight Boston Court Pasadena co-production with IAMA Theatre Company centers on a couple setting out on an idyllic road trip but soon confronting “the unavoidably messy and breathtaking journey of their lives” in Tira Palmquist’s play.
Through May 26. Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave. bostoncourtpasadena.org

The Labèques, Muhly, and Dessner Sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque perform piano concertos by Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra Music Director Gustavo Gimeno leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
8 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. Friday, 2 p.m. April 21 Walt Disney Concert Hall. 111 S. Grand Ave, L.A. laphil.com

Sisters Katia Labeque, left, and Marielle Labeque.

(Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

How Green Was My Night Soil: The Excremental Economy in Edo Japan Harvard professor David L. Howell lectures on the 18th and 19th century urban practices of what became Tokyo, where excrement was deployed as fertilizer for vegetable fields that fed a growing city.
4 p.m. Rothenberg Hall at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org

“Ravi GuneWardena: Ikebana for Hollyhock House”
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is the site for this installation on view through fall. Starting Thursday, Sogetsu School of Ikebana also will present a fresh flower exhibition.
Select days through April 28. 4800 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. hollyhockhouse.org

FRIDAY

Adventureland. The 2009 cult classic directed by Greg Mottola and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart screens as part of “The Black List: 20 Films for 20 Years” series.
7 p.m. Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., L.A. americancinematheque.com

I Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker The first West Coast exhibition of the artist’s major print series in their entirety, including more than 200 works from the Norton Simon’s rare collection.
Through Aug. 5. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. nortonsimon.org

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes’ Caprichos series of etchings include “There They Go Plucked (i.e. Fleeced)” (Ya van desplumados) from 1799, etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin with watercolor additions on laid paper.

(Steven Oliver Photograpy / The Norton Simon Foundation)

SATURDAY

Patti Lupone: A Life in Notes The singer performs songs that have been touchstones in her life.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Avenue, L.A. laopera.org

APRIL 21

Galilee, 34 South Coast Repertory presents an Eleanor Burgess play that got a reading last year as part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Cast includes Amy Brenneman.
Through May 12. 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org

The biggest SoCal culture news

Coachella is upon us! Times editor Vanessa Franko asks quite possibly every question you could conceive about this year’s festival — and answers them all. ICYMI, Vampire Weekend is a late addition to the lineup. If that doesn’t float your boat, the crew here offers up 18 other acts worth watching. Taking the Coachella stages this year will be 21 Latin acts, including Peso Pluma, J Balvin and Ice Spice; staff writers Cerys Davies and Angie Orellana Hernandez check in with a few of them to find out how they’re prepping for their big weekend.

Doja Cat will be the first female rapper to headline Coachella, prompting writer Liz Sanchez to wonder why, after all these years, Doja Cat remains the only female rapper from L.A. to hit superstardom. And staff writer Kaitlyn Huamani notes how Coachella, which sold out in just 40 minutes in 2015, still has tickets available even as it’s starting, raising the question: Why?

If an air-conditioned theater is more your speed, critic Charles McNulty reports there’s much to like at opposite ends of SoCal’s theatrical map this week. At the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize winner “Fat Ham” proves to be a deliciously funny drama. And at A Noise Within in Pasadena, a revival of August Wilson’s “King Hedley II” comes alive thanks to the direction of Gregg T. Daniel and some strong performances, including a turn by Veralyn Jones that is nothing short of a master class in acting.

Nikki Crawford and Marcel Spears in “Fat Ham” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Nick Owchar has an interview with Geraldine Knatz, who with Naomi Hirahara wrote the new book, “Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America’s Edge” (with forward by William Deverell and an afterword by George Takei). The authors set out to preserve the history of Terminal Island — not just the Japanese American village notoriously uprooted by government order, but also the land’s past as a resort, artists colony and more.

Jennie Merwin, standing at right with an unidentified woman, lived on Terminal Island with her children and husband Frank, who was employed on the government dredge.

(Los Angeles Harbor College Library, Archives and Special Collections via Angel City Press)

With The Times’ Festival of Books just one week away, we dropped our Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf, a debate-inducing ranking of the 50 best Hollywood books of all time. Hate our picks? Suggest your own!

Illustration for The Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf

(Golden Cosmos / For The Times)

“The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, has claimed a special place in local literary circles since its publication in 2015. Now the book has been adapted into a seven-part HBO miniseries produced with A24. Writer Laura Zornosa has the back story.

More culture news, briefly …

This year’s crop of Guggenheim Fellows has been announced. The 13 L.A.-area honorees among the 188 mid-career creators in art, culture, humanities and sciences include photographer Matthew Brandt (Playa del Rey), composer Nicolas Benevides (Signal Hill) and fiction writer Justin Torres (L.A.).

Gustavo Dudamel is adding another feather to his cap: On May 7 the Los Angeles Philharmonic music and artistic director will receive the UCLA Medal, the highest honor given to an individual by the university.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale announced its 60th anniversary season, which includes two notable premieres: Doug Aitken’s “Lightscape,” presented in collaboration with the L.A. Phil & PST ART; and the North American premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem.”

Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts has awarded grants totaling $400,000 to 15 L.A. organizations. The foundation’s fourth annual Organizational Support Grants are going to Armory Center for the Arts, Automata Arts, CalArts REDCAT, Clockshop, Coaxial Arts Foundation, Echo Park Film Center, Fulcrum Arts, Future Roots/Lookout FM, Human Resources, JOAN, LAXART, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles Poverty Department, Museum of Jurassic Technology and Self-Help Graphics & Art.

The Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside has announced its 2024-25 Broadway at the Fox season lineup, which includes “Mean Girls,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations” and “Chicago.”

And one tidbit for anyone traveling through Northern California wine country in the weeks ahead: Keep an eye out a compelling mobile art installation by Ana Teresa Fernandez that evokes our Hollywood sign, but with a twist. Fernandez’s 6-foot-tall letters spell “TIERRA,” or land, and are covered in tiles of varied skin tones. “TIERRA,” produced with support from di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art and hosted by the Mexican American Vintners Assn. member vineyards, is part hommage to the Latinx communities whose labor and tending of the land make the wine in “wine country” possible.
— Jessica Gelt

“TIERRA” on view at MaCo Vineyards

(Ana Teresa Fernández / courtesy the artist)

And last but not least …

Here’s a rare reason to get some U.S. postage stamps: A new set featuring some of Ansel Adams’ most beloved imagery — think Half Dome, Golden Gate Bridge, Sequoia National Park — will be coming in May. We leave you with a sneak peek:

The U.S. Postal Service will be issuing a new set of stamps celebrating the photography of Ansel Adams.

(United States Postal Service)