Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams, whom many know from his guest appearances at La Jolla Symphony, will receive another honor in the fall, when he is presented the $50,000 William Schuman Award in recognition of lifetime achievement. The presentation coincides with a three-evening tribute to Adams that begins Oct. 7 and includes the New York premieres of his works, “Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Knowing,” “In the White Silence” and “for Lou Harrison,” to be performed by the JACK Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble. The works will be conducted by Steven Schick, La Jolla Symphony artistic director. Next up at La Jolla Symphony & Chorus is a Feb. 7-8 program of works featuring Israeli-born “cello goddess” Maya Beiser. The works include Osvaldo Golijov’s concerto titled “Azul” and UCSD professor Chinary Ung’s “Khse Buon.” Also to be heard is Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 (“Inextinguishable”). The concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8 at UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium. lajollasymphony.com or (858) 534-4637. Diane Rodriguez has been nominated by President Obama for membership in the National Council on the Arts. Rodriguez, since 1995 an associate artistic director at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, is known to many in San Diego, where she was first introduced as an actor in the Old Globe’s 1984 presentation of Luis Valdez/El Teatro Campesino’s “Corridos.” Congratulations, Diane. Vanessa Hudgens, the inaugural Cindy Lou Who in The Old Globe Theatre’s “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” will open April 8 at New York’s Neil Simon Theatre in the Broadway revival of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s “Gigi.” Currently, the musical is playing through Feb. 12 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Check it out: The current issue of American Theatre magazine features Seema Sueko, former founding artistic director of Mo’olelo Performing Art Company and current associate artistic director at Pasadena Playhouse. The New York Times has announced dates and partial casting for the Broadway production of Michael Weller and Lucy Simon’s “Zhivago.” Former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff will stage the work, which had its premiere showing at the Playhouse in 2006. “Jesus Christ Superstar” alums Tom Hewitt and Paul Nolan play the villainous Viktor Komarovsky and the revolutionary Pasha Antipov, respectively. Making his Broadway debut in the title role is British talent Tam Mutu, with Lara to be portrayed by Kelli Barrett. Previews are set to begin March 27 at the Broadway Theater, with the official opening scheduled for April 21. It doesn’t get any better Destined to be one of the best productions of 2015, Marsha Norman’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, “’night Mother” is showing through Feb. 7 at ion theatre company. The show is helmed by producing artistic director Glenn Paris and features tour-de-force performances of Yolanda Franklin as Jessie and Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson as her beleaguered mother Thelma, who learns soon after the lights come up that Jessie plans to commit suicide just as soon as she does her mama’s nails. Grim as that sounds, the suspenseful play is rife with humor that proceeds from the mother-daughter relationship and from their well-written, unseen friends and relatives. It just doesn’t get better than this. Amid what it intended to be a transitional year of play development, ion scattered some additional play readings, one of which was “’night, Mother,” read by Franklin and Thompson. The reading was so sensational that Paris and his partner Claudio Raygoza decided to mount a full production. Don’t miss it. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays through Feb. 7 at ion theatre’s Lipinsky Stage, 3704 Sixth Ave. in Hillcrest. iontheatre.com or (619) 600-5020.
