13 unmissable arts events we're looking forward to this summer

Scorching temperatures are expected this summer. Luckily, L.A. has no shortage of cool, air-conditioned museums, music halls and theaters.

There’s a veritable slew of exciting cultural happenings on the horizon this summer. See pop artist Keith Haring’s first-ever museum survey in L.A. at the Broad museum, catch indie theater across Los Angeles at the 13th Hollywood Fringe festival, take in painting, photography, sculpture and more by a multigenerational group of Chicanx artists at the Cheech and enjoy a “Ghost Opera” at the Ojai Music Festival. And nothing says summer like a Stephen Sondheim tribute at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Times’ arts team waded through the city's sea of cultural happenings to distill the highlights for you. Sunscreen not required.

Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl

At least until he decamps to New York in 2026, Dudamel’s performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic remain quintessential summer Hollywood Bowl enticements. This year, he will be on hand only for the first few weeks of the Philharmonic’s summer season, but they are weeks packed with Dudamel specialties, one being his electrifying treatment of Alberto Ginastera’s 1941 gaucho ballet, “Estancia.” At the Bowl, we get the added attraction of the viscerally vibrant Brazilian modern dance company Grupo Corpo. — Mark Swed

'Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody'

The Broad museum will present Haring’s first-ever museum survey in Los Angeles on May 27. “Art Is for Everybody,” organized by curator and exhibitions manager Sarah Loyer, will feature more than 120 works spanning the late 1970s — when Haring was a student — through 1988, shortly before he died of AIDS-related complications. Paintings, drawings, videos, sculptures and graphic works will be on view. The New York-based Keith Haring Foundation contributed personal ephemera and documentation, such as buttons, children’s toys and posters that the artist made to support activist causes close to his heart. — Deborah Vankin

‘Ghost Opera’ at Ojai Music Festival

"In Hunan, where I grew up, people believed they would be rewarded after death for their sufferings," writes Tan Dun of his “Ghost Opera.” The score was written in 1994 for the Kronos Quartet and the eloquent pipa virtuoso Wu Man, with the players also employing water, stones, paper and metal in music that includes classical, folk and avant-garde traditions, as well as spiritual ones. It begins with "Bach, Monks and Shakespeare Meet in Water,” all of which make it perfect for a staging at this everything-goes festival that will also feature the Attacca Quartet and Wu Man. — M.S.

The Hollywood Fringe Festival

Scratch your indie theater itch at the 13th Hollywood Fringe festival in June, featuring hundreds of performances and premieres at venues large, small and entirely unexpected across Tinseltown. With an average ticket price of $10, and offerings in every genre of theater imaginable, the freewheeling festival is one of the best ways to celebrate the majesty of the city’s vibrant live theater scene. — Jessica Gelt

Alonzo King Lines Ballet: ‘Deep River’

The San Francisco troupe makes its way to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts this summer for its 40th anniversary season. The dancers will be performing “Deep River,” a new work featuring vocals by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lisa Fischer and a score by MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran. The work merges Black spirituals with ballet and contemporary dance. “Deep River” runs from June 9 to 10, with tickets going between $39 to $125. For more information, visit the Wallis’ website. — Steven Vargas

‘Xican-a.o.x. Body’

To put your body on the line is to assume risk for an action. This touring exhibition, which travels to four other venues after debuting at the Cheech on June 17, will look at the ways in which a multigenerational group of Chicanx artists has placed the brown body at the center of its work — not only as a symbol of resistance but also as a way of asserting presence. It will include a wild range of objects: pottery, painting, photography, sculpture, film and even lowriders by about 70 artists and collectives, including Laura Aguilar, Nao Bustamante, Jay Lynn Gomez and rafa esparza. —Carolina A. Miranda

‘Into the Woods’

Are you up for another sylvan frolic, courtesy of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine? Lear deBessonet’s 2022 Broadway revival of this classic musical deconstruction of fairy tales arrives at the Ahmanson Theatre on June 27 with spry theatrical imagination, daring wit and all the mixed emotions that make Sondheim Sondheim. Montego Glover, Stephanie J. Block and Gavin Creel are among the cast members reprising their Broadway performances. Inspired silliness has rarely felt this profound. — Charles McNulty

50 years of Theatricum Botanicum

Enjoy nature’s own amphitheater in a Topanga hillside as Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum celebrates its 50th anniversary summer season featuring two of Shakespeare’s greatest hits: “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Picnicking in the garden before the shows, which run from July 10 through September 23, is encouraged. — J.G.

Dutch National Ballet: ‘Frida’

In mid-July, Colombian Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s ode to Frida Kahlo arrives at the Music Center by way of the Dutch National Ballet. “Frida,” which presents the life story of the iconic artist, uses “expressive surrealism” to document her loneliness, her relationship with husband Diego Rivera, sexuality and image. “Frida” runs from July 14 to 16, and tickets range from $34 to $138. Details can be found on the Music Center’s website. — S.V.

'Giacomo Ceruti: A Compassionate Eye'

In Italy, the three Carracci brothers and Caravaggio, who never saw a dirty foot or head of tousled hair he couldn’t lovingly consecrate through dramatizing strokes of paint, nourished a tradition of so-called low-life painting that lasted into the 18th century. Everyday experience in all strata of society became common subject matter. Ceruti was tagged “Pitocchetto” — the little beggar — given his fondness for pictures of maidservants, peasant families and vagrants in tattered rags. Ceruti isn’t widely known today, so this exhibition, organized by the Getty Museum with the Brescia Museums Foundation and opening July 18, might hold surprises. — Christopher Knight

Honor Titus' 'Advantage In'

The Brooklyn-born Titus came up in the New York punk scene — he was the frontman for the band Cerebral Ballzy, whose 2011 debut album featured cover artwork by Raymond Pettibon — but he now lives in Los Angeles and has established himself as a painter. Mentor Henry Taylor gave Titus his first L.A. solo show in 2020 at his eponymous studio gallery in Chinatown. Now, Titus will hold his second solo presentation in L.A. at Gagosian beginning July 20. Titus draws on architecture, music, film, literature and sports in his work, which explores race, class and belonging, among other ideas. — D.V.

‘Everybody Rise! A Sondheim Celebration’

Turn off your cellphones and get ready to genuflect because Patti LuPone, musical theater royalty, is heading to the Hollywood Bowl on July 30 for a one-night tribute to Sondheim. LuPone leads the divine ensemble that’s been assembled for the celebration, curated by Robert Longbottom (director of the fabulous Hollywood Bowl production of “Into the Woods”) and conductor Kevin Stites. With Sierra Boggess and Sutton Foster on hand, you can count on this being one of the most beautifully sung nights of the summer. — C.M.

‘Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela (1928-1978)’

Boulton (1908-95) was a figure whose work — in more ways than one — was devoted to chronicling his native Venezuela. As a scholar, he published dozens of books, including key art historical texts from the pre-Columbian era to the late 20th century. As a photographer, he captured, in elegant ways, the country’s people and landscapes spanning the Caribbean to the Andes. In 2020, the Getty Research Institute acquired Boulton’s archive, which also includes his art historical records and his correspondence with other important Venezuelan Modernists. Opening Aug. 29 at the Getty Research Institute, the exhibition will present more than 100 images by this under-examined photographer. — C.A.M.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.