Race, religion and terrorism: In the prescient 2015 drama "Bars and Measures" at the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, playwright Idris Goodwin hits the trifecta of incendiary headline topics, overlaid with rich musical inflections. In the captivating opener, music takes center stage as two men seated across a table launch into an intricate skat and bebop routine. Through the efficiently crafted dialogue that follows, we learn they are brothers who hold opposing faiths. And the reason this performance is a cappella: Inmates are not permitted musical instruments. Loosely based on a 2005 domestic anti-terrorism case, the play has classically-trained pianist Eric (Donathan Walters), a Christian, visiting his imprisoned brother Bilal (Matt Orduña), a stellar jazz upright bassist and converted Muslim who's been arrested in a sting operation.

In what may be one of the year's easiest renewal decisions, FX announced Tuesday that "American Horror Story" would return for a seventh season in 2017. The horror anthology series from co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk has won 15 Emmy Awards, and its latest iteration -- "American Horror Story: Roanoke" -- has seen a 25% leap in audience over Season 5 -- "American Horror Story: Hotel" -- growing to 6.89 million viewers from 5.52 million. "Ryan, Brad and their team of remarkable writers have done an amazing job of keeping'American Horror Story' endlessly inventive, shocking and entertaining and we are honored to move ahead with them on the seventh installment," said John Landgraf, chief executive of FX Networks and Productions, in a statement Tuesday. "'AHS' confronts our deepest fears with unmatched suspense and style. Each new installment is a cultural event, hotly anticipated for its theme, imagery, cast and twists," Landgraf continued.

No one did more to put Los Angeles theater on the map than Gordon Davidson. The founder of the Mark Taper Forum, he was one of the city's cultural founding fathers, a mild-mannered but determined revolutionary who built Center Theatre Group into the prodigious theatrical institution it is today and, even more important, built an audience with an appreciation for serious drama in this town. It is impossible to do justice to the dimensions of such a legacy. Davidson's influence on Los Angeles is twinned in my mind with the architectural landmark just down the street from his old Music Center headquarters -- Walt Disney Concert Hall. The reason is that I believe Davidson, who died Sunday at age 83, has done as much to transform the city's conception of itself as a cultural capital as Frank Gehry's magnificent building.

Offering further evidence that the thirst for reviving vintage TV continues, ABC announced that it is bringing back "The Gong Show" with executive producer Will Arnett. Scheduled for a 10-episode run, the game show/talent competition will "celebrate un-traditionally talented, unique performers plucked from the Internet and put on a primetime stage," according to a statement from ABC. During the peak of its late-'70s run, "The Gong Show" was hosted with a sort of anarchic glee by Chuck Barris (whose bizarre autobiography "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" became a 2002 film directed by George Clooney). An outlet for the quasi-talented and otherwise fringe performers on NBC's daytime schedule and later nighttime syndication, the show was a competition to see who could last the longest onstage before one of the celebrity panelists struck a large gong, which ended the performance. "The comedy culture we are living in has finally caught up to'The Gong Show,' " said Holly Jacobs, executive vice president, reality and syndication programming for Sony Pictures Television.

Apparently, director Tim Burton would be fine if you retitled his movie "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children but Only if They're White." In an interview with the website Bustle, Burton was asked why, given the pervasive, ongoing discussion of diversity in Hollywood, the overwhelming majority of the characters (and, hence, actors) in his latest fantasy film are white. "Nowadays, people are talking about it more," Burton said. He went on to talk about how, as a kid, he would've been dismayed to see an Asian kid or a black kid on "The Brady Bunch," or more white actors in blaxploitation movies. Burton's statements are just the latest from a celebrated, veteran filmmaker unable to wrap his mind around why diversity matters.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have come to a temporary, three-week agreement on custody of their six children, a person familiar with the negotiations said Friday. The deal was voluntary and doesn't reflect any ruling from the court regarding permanent custody, legal or physical, the source said. Both Pitt and Jolie agreed to get individual counseling, the source said, and Pitt offered to submit to drug and alcohol testing, which was not required. The couple agreed that Pitt's first visit with the kids would include a therapist, but there was no requirement for a monitor during subsequent visits. Decision-making for Maddox, 15; Pax, 12; Zahara, 11; Shiloh, 10; and 8-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne will follow a structured plan agreed to by both parents.

We never need to go far for a little -- or a lot -- of Beethoven in our concert halls. The Los Angeles Philharmonic (with help from the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela) wasn't kidding when it began its season last year with Gustavo Dudamel conducting all nine Beethoven symphonies by calling the festival "Immortal Beethoven." Last weekend, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra opened its season with Beethoven's Seventh. Next week, Esa-Pekka Salonen begins a West Coast tour with his London orchestra, the Philharmonia, playing Beethoven's "Eroica" in Costa Mesa, Northridge and Santa Barbara. Thursday night, the L.A. Phil did it again, opening another season with a Beethoven program at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the orchestra living up to its venturesome reputation by including John Adams in its definition of Beethoven.

Looking back, it makes sense that nobody could agree on what Bon Iver's second album was called. Was it simply "Bon Iver," as some, including the Grammy Awards, referred to it? Or was it the more complicated "Bon Iver, Bon Iver," as many of the record's rave reviews had it? The lack of consensus five years ago reflected a growing uncertainty about Bon Iver's identity -- a mystery that only intensifies with Friday's release of an excellent new album "22, a Million." The answer seemed plain enough in 2008, when the first Bon Iver album appeared, a stark yet tender document titled "For Emma, Forever Ago" that singer-songwriter Justin Vernon created largely by himself in a remote hunting cabin in the Wisconsin woods.

Columbia-Legacy has announced the release of a crucial Southland document that captures a snapshot moment when bassist Mike Watt, co-founder of influential San Pedro band Minutemen, went on the road with members of Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, the Germs and others in support of Watt's first solo album, "Ball Hog or Tugboat?" Called "ring spiel tour '95," the album captures a gig at Chicago's Cabaret Metro that featured Watt and a backing band consisting of musicians from opening acts Foo Fighters and Hovercraft. Specifically, playing with Watt were Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam, Hovercraft), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Pat Smear (Foo Fighters, Germs) and William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters). For Grohl, the tour was his first since the suicide of Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain. The forthcoming archival release will arrive on Nov. 11 as a double LP, CD or digital download. Among its 50-plus collaborators were future or current members of Bikini Kill, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, the Pixies, Swell Maps, Pearl Jam, Meat Puppets, Black Flag, Queens of the Stone Age, Wilco (guitarist Nels Cline) and Sonic Youth.

Nate Parker has broken his silence over a 2001 sexual-assault trial, saying he does not feel remorse about the events in question. "I don't feel guilty," the filmmaker and star of "The Birth of a Nation" told Anderson Cooper in a "60 Minutes" interview scheduled to air Sunday. Parker was accused and acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman in 1999 while he was a student at Penn State University. Parker said it was consensual sex. "Birth" co-writer Jean Celestin was convicted; the ruling was overturned on appeal.