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Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: Tonys dedicated to Orlando shooting victims, Cindy Sherman at the Broad and the arrival of the Hammer’s Made in L.A.

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I’m Laurie Ochoa, arts and entertainment editor at the Los Angeles Times, filling in for the vacationing Carolina A. Miranda, and this is your weekly update on everything arts and culture in the Southland and beyond.

Tony Awards: ‘Our hearts are heavy’

Sunday night’s Tony Awards were supposed to be about the dominance of “Hamilton.” But as news spread of the worst shooting attack in U.S. history, Tonys producers released a statement that said the show would go on as scheduled but would be dedicated to the victims killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.: “Our hearts are heavy for the unimaginable tragedy that happened last night in Orlando. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected. The Tony Awards dedicate tonight’s ceremony to them.”

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We’ll be watching for comments about the tragedy from winners and presenters during our live coverage of the awards, which begin at 5 p.m. PST and air on the West Coast on CBS at 8 p.m. It’s a night “Hamilton” could match or surpass “The Producers’ ” record of 12 Tony wins. It’s also a night that should highlight the rise of the ensemble cast on Broadway. Read theater critic Charles McNulty’s fine essay on the subject and check out his Tonys predictions. Los Angeles Times

The Corden factor: Steven Zeitchik, on the scene at a Tonys rehearsal, writes that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon that has expanded interest in the Tonys. CBS has turned to late-night personality, car-pool karaoke sensation and Tony winner James Corden to attract a broader audience and try making a perpetually niche show a national event. Los Angeles Times

True confession: Our film editor Marc Bernardin weighs in on the Tonys with an admission that even though he’s never seen “Hamilton” onstage, he’s listened to the original Broadway cast recording at least 40 times and cried every single time. His essay explaining why was so moving Miranda himself tweeted his thanks. Los Angeles Times

Martine Syms in "Made in L.A. 2016," the Hammer Museum biennial.
Martine Syms in “Made in L.A. 2016,” the Hammer Museum biennial.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times )

‘Conceptual entrepreneur’ Martine Syms

The Hammer Museum’s third biennial, “Made in L.A.,” opens Sunday and one of the artists to seek out is Martine Syms, who is having a global moment. As Deborah Vankin writes in her engaging interview with the artist, Syms’ work is “rooted in the tradition of ’80s’ appropriation art, but with a millennial twist.” Los Angeles Times

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Cindy Sherman at the Broad.
Cindy Sherman at the Broad.
(Christina House / For The Times )

Cindy Sherman’s ‘Imitation of Life’

For decades, artist Cindy Sherman insisted the characters she embodies in her photographs, seen in museums worldwide, had nothing to do with her. Now 62, and with a major survey exhibition that opened at the Broad on Saturday, Sherman admits to writer Deborah Vankin that there is something of the artist in all of her latest characters, and there’s something of them in her. Art critic Christopher Knight says the show is a mixed bag, but two site-specific murals marvelously demonstrate why Sherman has ranked among the most admired American artists of the last three decades. Los Angeles Times

How SFMOMA changed SoMA

The $305-million renovation of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has gotten a lot of attention, but Carolina A. Miranda takes a deep look at its effect on the city’s South of Market neighborhood. The new SFMOMA, she writes, “caps a period of transformation that speaks to forces at play in many U.S. cities — the rehabilitation of what had once been dilapidated urban cores.” In her fascinating essay on the history of South of Market and its gentrification, she examines “the role that high culture can play in that process. With its very presence, a museum can help shift the dynamics of a neighborhood.” Los Angeles Times

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A new FAB park downtown

Right next to downtown’s Grand Park, owned by the County of Los Angeles, is a plot of land, also planned as a park, owned by the city. This week, as architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne reports, the city announced the winner of the design competition for the two-acre park, which will be called FAB, for First and Broadway. Led by landscape architecture firm Mia Lehrer & Associates, the design group will join with Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture and the design firm IDEO. The question is whether the new city park will mesh or clash with the county park and its distinctive hot pink benches. Los Angeles Times

Endangered symphonic film scores

The news that John Williams was the first composer to win the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award prompted music critic Mark Swed to realize how threatened symphonic film scores have become. His essay tells us why this matters. Los Angeles Times

Gronk’s B-movie monsters

Carolina A. Miranda will be back next week. Until then, we’ll leave you with an interview of hers with the always-fascinating artist Gronk, who talks about how he got into set design, the worst play ever written and why “The Giant Claw” should be revered as high art. Los Angeles Times

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Follow me on Twitter @Laurie_Ochoa


UPDATES:

11:02 a.m.: This post was updated with news that the Tony Awards would be dedicated to victims of the mass shooting attack in Orlando. The post was originally published at 9:01 a.m.

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