Here is your best bet This Weekend in LA (8/24-8/26):
It wouldn’t be the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl without the annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular with Fireworks. On Friday and Saturday, Gustavo Dudamel will once again be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an evening devoted to the Russian master.
The program begins with Marche Slave. Perhaps the name doesn’t register but the music certainly does.
Closing out the evening is, of course, the 1812 Overture complete with fireworks.
What intrigues most this year is that music Tchaikovsky wrote for Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet will be performed – as will dialogue from both of Shakespeare’s plays. Anika Noni Rose, (who won a Tony Award for Caroline, or Change and recently concluded a highly-successful run in a revival of Carmen Jones off-Broadway) will be paired with Ioan Gruffudd (who has appeared in such films as Black Hawk Down and The Fantastic Four) and they will be handling the iambic pentameter. Joining them is Asia Kate Dillon (of Showtime’s Billions and the Netflix series Orange is the New Black.) Directing is Kate Burton (who recently played “Prospera” in a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Old Globe in San Diego.)
The music will be great. The Shakespeare will be great. Once again the evening of Tchaikovsky at the Bowl will truly be spectacular.
