2 & 8 pm: Pop Music
Remember “Dream”? “Mairzy-Doats”? “Takin’ a Chance on Love”? These songs, and other hits of the ‘40s, will be brought to life when the Harry James Orchestra, directed by trumpeter Fred Radke, vocal group the Lancers and singer-television personality Marilyn King of the King Sisters appear in “A Big Band Salute to the Music That Won World War II,” with matinee and evening performances.
* “A Big Band Salute to the Music That Won World War II,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. $30-$45. (562) 916-8500.
7:30 pm: Movies
“Chaplin: A Life on Film,” a comprehensive survey of the films of Charles Chaplin, begins Friday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with “City Lights” (1931), plus shorts. The series continues weekends through Jan. 31.
* “Chaplin: A Life on Film,” LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., continuing weekends through Jan. 31. $6-$4. (213) 857-6010.
9:30 pm: Pop Music
The disgrace of the Milli Vanilli scandal might seem insurmountable, but Fabrice Morvan has set his sights on rehabilitation. There will be no lip-syncing at the Viper Room, where the singer continues his quiet, recently launched comeback campaign.
* Fabrice Morvan at the Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. $7. (310) 358-1880.
8 pm: Theater
Old passions are rekindled when a divorced couple find themselves honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” at South Coast Repertory.
* “Private Lives,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 9. $18-$43. (714) 708-5555.
8 pm: Theater
“Mystery Play,” Garrett Omata’s drama about an Asian American family in upheaval after the death of their father and the revelation of family secrets, inaugurates the New Asian American Theatre at Actors’ Playhouse in Long Beach.
* “Mystery Play,” Actors’ Playhouse, 1409 E. 4th St., Long Beach, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. through Feb. 8. $15. (562) 590-9396.
all day: Family
Celebrate Richard Nixon’s 85th birthday at the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda. Admission and tours of the museum, library and the birthplace are free all day. A ceremonial color guard will place a memorial wreath on the grounds, and historian-presidential speech writer James Humes will give a lecture ($6) and sign his book “Nixon’s 10 Commandments of Statecraft.” An optional luncheon with the author is $45. Admission to the current exhibit “Freedom Comes in Small Pieces: Keepsakes of America’s Vietnam Prisoners of War” is also free for the day.
* Celebrate Nixon’s Birthday, Nixon Library and Birthplace, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free, except $6 charge for James Humes lecture and $45 for luncheon. (714) 993-5075.
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FREEBIE: Gilles Ragon, tenor; Jean-Louis Hagenauer, piano, Harbor College in Wilmington, 8 p.m. (310) 374-2141.