World City Guide

Culture

Given the fact that LA is the home of the film industry, it might come as a surprise that the city is also the home of a wide range of cultural scenes, all thriving. The leading venue in Los Angeles is the Performing Arts Center (PAC), a complex of four theatres known as the Music Center, which is located at 135 North Grand Avenue (tel: (213) 972 7211; website: www.musiccenter.org), in the heart of Downtown.

The complex stages music, theatre, dance and opera and includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (host for many years to the Oscars ceremony), the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theater and the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 South Grand Avenue (tel: (323) 850 2000; website: www.wdch.laphil.com). The Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (website: www.laphil.com) and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

The best source of up-to-date information on cultural events around the city is the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau (tel: (213) 624 7300; website: www.visitLAnow.com). Tickets can be purchased from Ticketmaster (tel: (213) 480 3232; website: www.ticketmaster.com). Other agencies that handle concert, sport and theatre tickets include Musical Chairs (tel: (800) 659 1702 or (310) 207 7070; website: www.musicalchairstickets.com), Al Brooks Theatre Ticket Agency (tel: (800) 341 2766 or (213) 626 5863; website: www.albrooks.com) and V.I.P Tickets (tel: (800) 328 4253; website: www.viptickets.com).

Music: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (website: www.laphil.org) is one of the best in the world and performs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (see above). The Los Angeles Opera (tel: (213) 972 8001; website: www.losangelesopera.com) performs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (see above). Chamber music and performances by distinguished alumni can be heard at the Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, 200 South Grand Avenue (tel: (213) 621 2200; website: www.colburnschool.edu). The classic summer venue to hear music outdoors is the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 Highland Avenue (tel: (323) 850 2000; website: www.hollywoodbowl.org), with concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as jazz and pop artists.

Theatre: The Ahmanson Theater at the PAC (see above) stages large classical productions. Smaller and more adventurous productions take place in the Mark Taper Forum, a theatre-in-the-half-round, also at the PAC.

The Geffen Playhouse, 11301 Wilshire Boulevard (tel: (310) 208 5454; website: www.geffenplayhouse.com) stages classical and contemporary plays in a historic building in Westwood Village. The Pantages Theater, 6233 Hollywood Boulevard (tel: (323) 468 1770; website: www.nederlander.com/wc) is an outstanding Art Deco theatre that hosts Broadway musicals and concerts, while the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue (tel: (626) 356 7529; website: www.pasadenaplayhouse.org) is an incredible 1925 Spanish Colonial Revival building.

Theatre LA, 644 South Figueroa Street (tel: (213) 614 0556; website: www.theatrela.org), is an association of some 150 theatres; services include Times Tix, a half-price day-of-the-show ticket outlet.

Dance: The Joffrey Ballet Company (website: www.joffrey.com) has its main west-coast season in the spring at the PAC (see above). In March, the Shrine Auditorium, 649 West Jefferson Boulevard (tel: (213) 748 5116; website: www.usc.edu/dept/CCR/theme/shrine), hosts the American Ballet Theater (website: www.abt.org). The UCLA Center for the Arts, 4405 North Hillgard, Westwood (tel: (310) 825 2101; website: www.performingarts.ucla.edu), is the venue for touring dance troupes, as well as the UCLA Dance Company.

Film: The historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, 6925 Hollywood Boulevard (tel: (323) 464 8111), presents first-run movies. Pacific El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Boulevard (tel: (323) 467 7674), also screens first-run films. The Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard (tel: (323) 461 2020), shows foreign films and documentaries in Hollywood’s oldest restored cinema. The Pacific Theatres Cinerama Dome, 120 North Robertson Boulevard (tel: (323) 464 4226), has been refurbished in keeping with its late 50s architecture and turned into the centrepiece of a three-level entertainment and retail centre, with 15 screens and shops and restaurants.

As for films that are shot in the city, it would be easier to compile a list of those that weren’t. Films that capture various different moods of LA include Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950), starring Gloria Swanson, and more recently LA Confidential (1997) and Swingers (1996).

Cultural Events: The Los Angeles Festival is a city-wide arts festival held in August that focuses on LA’s African-American, Hispanic and other ethnic cultures and neighbourhoods, through music, dance, theatre, film and art. The American Film Institute, 2021 North Western Avenue (tel: (323) 856 7600; website: www.afi.com), holds annual film and video festivals in October. The LA Independent Film Festival takes place in April. The Shakespeare Festival/LA is held annually in July. The Cinco de Mayo (5 May) celebrations on Olvera Street highlight LA’s Mexican heritage with mariachi music and folk dancing. Also in May is the Venice Art Walk, with art exhibitions and music.

Literary Notes: Los Angeles has inspired many writers and served as the setting for their books and novels. Nathanael West (1903-40) lived in Hollywood from 1933. His novel The Day of the Locust (1939) is considered one of the best about Los Angeles. The Loved One (1948) by Evelyn Waugh and After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1938) by Aldous Huxley were both set in LA. F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon (1941-), his final unfinished masterpiece, was also set in LA.

LA has attracted many detective writers over the years. The original, Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), lived in LA, and his character, Philip Marlowe, explores its seamier side in the 1930s, in such novels as The Big Sleep (1939) and Farewell My Lovely (1940). Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles by Elizabeth Ward and Alain Silver is an enlightening look at the author’s relationship with the city. Another detective writer James Ellroy was born in LA in 1948 and the city inspired his LA Quartet of novels – Clandestine (1982), Black Dahlia (1987), LA Confidential (1990) and White Jazz (1992). William Harrington created another LA detective, Columbo (not from TV). Some novels in the series include The Helter Skelter Murders (1994), The Hoffa Connection (1995) and The Game Show Killers (1996).

Other novels about LA include Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays (1970), Alison Lurie’s The Nowhere City (1965), Walter Mosley’s Black Betty (1994) and William Penn’s The Absence of Angels (1995).