Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

POP/ROCK

Free Raging: Rage Against the Machine, the politically conscious L.A.-based rock band, will play a free concert Saturday night in the Olympic Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Tickets will be distributed at 9 a.m. Thursday at Tower Records outlets and selected Blockbuster Music stores. Meanwhile, band members were upset that their weekend appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was cut short after they attempted to hang U.S. flags upside-down from their amplifier grilles as a protest against the show’s guest host, publisher and former Republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes and against a U.S. political system they believe is geared to the wealthy, a band spokeswoman said Tuesday. The flags were removed by stagehands before the group’s performance of the song “Bulls on Parade,” she said, and the group was not allowed to perform a previously scheduled second song, “Bullet in the Head.” An NBC spokesman said Tuesday that the group was told earlier in the week that, according to the show’s policy, bands are not allowed to “dress” the set. “As for the second song,” the spokesman added, “this is a live show and, unfortunately, the show ran long and there wasn’t enough time.”

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Returning to ‘Detroit Rock City’: The ‘70s rock group Kiss made it official Tuesday by announcing that the group’s expected reunion tour will kick off June 28 in Detroit--with the Stone Temple Pilots as opening act. At a press conference in New York, band members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Freley also announced 23 other dates, including stops in Dallas (July 5), New Orleans (July 9), Washington (July 23) and New York (July 25-26). Opening acts for those shows will be announced later. A Mercury Records spokesman said the group is expected to play Los Angeles at a date still to be determined.

STAGE

Latino Co.’s First Season: Latino Theatre Co. will open its first full season with an Evelina Fernandez play, “Luminarias,” on May 4. The venue will be Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Theatre 3 instead of the group’s permanent home at Plaza de la Raza, where the seating area is being renovated to enlarge its capacity. The rest of the season will return to Plaza de la Raza: “Latinos” (Sept. 11-Oct. 6), based on a book by Earl Shorris, and the Christmas pageant “La Virgen” (Dec. 11-22).

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The Curtain Sure Fell: Trish Vradenburg’s “The Apple Doesn’t Fall . . ,” which played the Tiffany Theatre earlier this year in a Broadway tryout, opened on Broadway Sunday--and immediately closed after the Monday reviews. Vincent Canby of the New York Times had called the comedy “ghastly,” while Linda Winer-Bernheimer of Newsday wrote that it was “shamelessly cliched.”

DANCE

Dancing Around the Country: New York City Ballet announced plans Tuesday to dance in all 50 states in 1998 in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary, kicking off with a performance at the annual Fourth of July event on the Mall in Washington, to be telecast on PBS. The tour will consist of three separate troupes of 30 members each--dubbed the Red, White and Blue companies--each accompanied by members of the New York City Ballet’s orchestra. Peter Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief, said the tour will aim to “raise the profile of ballet . . . across the country” and to help realize a goal set by choreographer George Balanchine to “make dance accessible to all Americans.” In addition to evening performances, the tour will include such outreach programs as free performances for schoolchildren and master dance classes at universities.

TELEVISION

Enhanced Narration for Blind: Eleven classic movies, including “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “On the Town” (1949), “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938) and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939), are scheduled to air on cable’s Turner Classic Television in coming months with narrated descriptions of key visual elements aimed at making the movies accessible to the blind. The series, co-presented by TCM and Descriptive Video Service, is to begin May 5 with “King Kong” (1933).

QUICK TAKES

A new date for Oasis’ sold-out Universal Amphitheatre concert is expected to be announced next week, a band spokeswoman said Tuesday. The English group canceled Monday’s scheduled show at Universal because guitarist Noel Gallagher was suffering from a throat infection and fever. . . . After only two outings, CBS has canceled the Wednesday night sitcom “My Guys,” which will be replaced tonight by a repeat of “The Nanny.” Another CBS comedy, “Good Company,” has been placed on hiatus after just four outings and will be replaced next Monday with a repeat of “Cybill.” . . . The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has approved yet another Emmy category, this time for outstanding commercial of the year. The first award in the new category will be presented in 1997. . . . “Melrose Place” star Andrew Shue, 29, survived the final cut Monday to play midfielder on the Los Angeles Galaxy, a major league soccer team. He will continue his work on the TV series.