POP/ROCKMusic for the World: Bob Dylan, INXS,...

POP/ROCK

Music for the World: Bob Dylan, INXS, Joni Mitchell and the Chieftains are among the acts scheduled for the first installment of “The Great Music Experience,” a series of seven yearly concerts staged for television in conjunction with the United Nations Educational and Scientific Cultural Organization. The concert, May 22 at the Todaiji Temple in Nara City, Japan, will unite Western and Japanese artists for a rare performance in the culturally significant 8th-Century Buddhist temple. Other acts scheduled to participate include guitarist Ry Cooder, Queen’s Roger Taylor, a choir of 150 Buddhist Monks, 10 masters of traditional Japanese drumming and Japanese rock star Yoshiki. Michael Kamen will direct the collaborative musical numbers. The event will be broadcast to an estimated 60 countries worldwide in conjunction with UNESCO’s May 21 observance of World Cultural Day. Future concerts are planned in sites including the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, and in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

MOVIES

Lazar’s Paintings on Block: Paintings from the estate of talent agent Irving (Swifty) Lazar will be offered for sale in New York May 11-12 during Sotheby’s big spring auction of modern and contemporary art. Lazar, who died Dec. 30, was perhaps best known to the public for hosting his legendary Oscar night parties. The most expensive auction item, valued at $800,000 to $1 million, is “The Dream,” surrealist Paul Delvaux’s 1944 painting of the artist asleep in his studio, surrounded by nude female models. The Delvaux and other paintings from Lazar’s collection--including the work of Kees van Dongen, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Edouard Vuillard and Raoul Dufy--will be previewed April 13-16 at Sotheby’s Beverly Hills office.

* Western Settles Score: “Frank and Jesse” can ride again. Trimark Pictures, distributors of the independently produced feature made by Cassian Elwes and Rob Lowe, have settled most claims brought against the duo’s Lone Rider Prods. for non-payment of location services in conjunction with the movie’s filming in Arkansas. The townspeople of historic Van Buren also are satisfied that Trimark is donating $8,000 to local charities, fulfilling what Chamber of Commerce President Marjorie Armstrong said was a prior commitment. The movie, a Western, is expected to be released in the fall.

STAGE

‘Twilight’ Does Well in N.Y.: Anna Deavere Smith’s revised “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” which opened Wednesday at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York following its premiere last June at L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum, drew mostly favorable reviews from New York critics. David Richards of the New York Times welcomed “its restless intelligence and passionate understanding” and said, “for its appreciation of the singular voice within the howling throng, it will be treasured.” Jan Stuart of Newsday called it “breathtaking,” while Clive Barnes of the Post found “genius” in it. Critics for USA Today and Associated Press had a few more reservations among their generally favorable reactions. Howard Kissel of the Daily News liked Smith’s “journalism” but panned the show as theater. Correcting an earlier report in these pages, Taper officials said 21 of the 26 people depicted in the L.A. version of “Twilight” are still in the New York production, which has a total of 43 characters.

* Casting, Season Changes: Nine-year-old Kathryn Zaremba, who has been hailed as a “pint-size Bette Midler” and recently starred as Annie Warbucks in New York, will replace 8-year-old Lindsay Ridgeway in the starring role of “Ruthless!,” starting April 12. Ridgeway’s final performance in the musical at Beverly Hills’ Canon Theatre will be April 10. . . . The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego has substituted Brian Friel’s recent work “Wonderful Tennessee” for his not-quite-so-recent “Dancing at Lughnasa” as the opening play of its summer season. The play is slated for July 6-Aug. 7 in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

QUICK TAKES

Funeral services for “Days of Our Lives” star Macdonald Carey, who died Monday at age 81, will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Cardinal Roger Mahony will officiate. . . . LaToya Jackson is in a Nashville recording studio this week, working on an as-yet-unsigned country album that includes a duet with Lee Greenwood. Jackson’s husband and manager, Jack Gordon, called the album “very Garth Brooks-like.” . . . Actress Drew Barrymore, 19, married Jeremy Thomas, a 31-year-old British bar owner, over the weekend. It is the first marriage for each. . . . Jazz singer Nina Simone has sued San Juan Music Group, claiming it refused to pay her royalties for her recordings, which it distributes worldwide.