After a year of cancellations and closings, it seems like a tempting fate to bet on a number of things that are yet to happen in 2021. However, we firmly believe that we can enjoy these seven Los Angeles openings unless you include your preferred natural or political disaster of your choice here.
There are many things that we would like to include on our list that we cannot quite fully yet. Maybe Primavera Sound and Virgin Fest are making their LA debut after having to cancel their 2020 editions? And what about Coachella and his promised reunion of Rage Against the Machine? Will there be Duel Pride Parades? Will we be able to step into Made in LA and all of the city’s other never-opening art exhibits before they have to move on?
However, there is one common theme on our list that we can commit to with some confidence: getting back to work indoors. Restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums – we don’t know exactly when or in what form our favorite pastimes will return, but all signs point to them arriving again later in 2021.
Sundance is bringing a series of drive-through shows to LA
You don’t need to take a road trip to Utah this winter to see Sundance’s list of future hits and indie favorites. Instead, the mostly online festival, which runs January 28 through February 3, hosts some of its only personal SoCal drive-ins: the Mission Tiki drive-in theater in Montclair and the Rose Bowl have occasionally operated one since the summer Entrance to the parking lot. Expect tickets to the film festival over 70 on January 7th.
Photo: Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X.
Desert X takes over the Coachella Valley
What better way to get back to the art world than with a cross-desert biennale that is largely held outdoors? In its third iteration, Desert X will once again be performing site-specific installations over 40 miles of the Coachella Valley. While we don’t know exactly what to expect from the 2021 edition, what we do know is that it runs from February 6th to April 11th, entry is free, and there is an emphasis on visitor safety (that’s worth mentioning ) The regional stay-at-home ordinance does not currently prohibit essential travel and museums, but the event should stand up to the slightly less stringent instructions we saw earlier in the fall.
Hamilton and a number of other musicals will return
Before the world was turned upside down, the hip-hop story of Alexander Hamilton’s life was on the verge of returning to the Pantages Theater for a scheduled run through the fall. But its opening happened to coincide with the ban on major events in California. Cue a slew of delays and expansions, the last of which will be seen in Hollywood from April 6th to June 27th, followed by October 12th to January 2nd, 2022 (The Lion King and Mean Girls will occupy the theater this summer ).
However, since this once safe spring date looks a bit fuzzy, it is perhaps worth mentioning that the Center Theater Group, which is also planning a relaunch in April, has postponed its season at the Ahmanson Theater to August and is kicking it off with two newcomers: Rodgers and Hammersteins Oklahoma! (which was previously planned for the Dolby Theater) and A Christmas Carol.
The Crenshaw Line is set to launch duty
The opening date has kept falling, but Metro’s newest light rail line is expected to debut in 2021 (when the agency will also release more information on its proposal for a free fare). When completed, the route will connect the E-Line stop on the West Adams-Leimert Park border with LAX’s C-Line stop (which will see an extension to the People Mover in 2023), with stops in Inglewood along the way. But even now, you can see train test runs on tracks along Crenshaw Boulevard – the first time since the 1950s that trains have rolled down this street. Look for an update on the line in January when we hopefully find out what the name of the letter will be.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally opening
Sure, this is the third time the upcoming film museum has made one of our lists for the coming year, but barring a few 2020 size curveballs, we believe this one will stay. For starters, we entered it last winter and can vouch that it is actually real – and the museum has also posted some pictures of the installation progress on its Instagram. Previously planned for April, but now postponed to September 30, the Miracle Mile institution opens with a Hayao Miyazaki retrospective immersing itself in 11 films by the animator and director of Studio Ghibli.
Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. The National Portrait Gallery would like to thank the following major donors for supporting the Obama portraits: Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia. © 2018 Kehinde Wiley
The Obama portraits are coming to town
Most presidential portraits feature sober, boring reproductions of former county’s leaders, but that’s certainly not the case with this pair of paintings. Two Barack and Michelle Obama paintings by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively, will leave their homes at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC for a five-city tour. The display boards were obviously messed up last year, but we checked in at LACMA and the original dates – November 5, 2021 to January 2, 2022 – are still on the agenda.
Vidiots revives an old cinema in Eagle Rock
Speaking of cinema: the popular film distributor Vidiots, which closed its decade-old store in Santa Monica in 2019, is renovating a 90-year-old theater on Eagle Rock Boulevard (not far from the new Chifa restaurant). . The restored 200-seat Yosemite Theater features repertoire titles, new independent releases, and hard-to-find and popular classics on both digital and 35mm levels. In addition, Vidiots will again offer its archive of 50,000 films for rent. The theater was supposed to open last fall, but now it’s slated for 2021.
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