WEEK IN PREVIEW

MOVIES

“Great Expectations” is a contemporary adaptation of the Dickens classic starring Robert De Niro, Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Cooper and Anne Bancroft (left, with Jeremy James Kissner). The film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron (“A Little Princess”), opens Friday in general release.

THEATER

Tony Award-winning Broadway star and “Chicago Hope” veteran Mandy Patinkin performs an evening of works by Rodgers & Hart, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other musical greats, Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

THEATER

Carole Cook, Dorian Harewood, Michael Jeter, Shirley Jones and Betty Garrett are among the notables scheduled to perform in “Lerner, Loewe, Lane & Friends,” the 14th annual S.T.A.G.E. event to benefit AIDS charities, Friday through next Sunday at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Theatre.

MUSIC

Guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the West Coast premiere of Peter Lieberson’s “Drala,” Thursday and Friday in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The program continues Saturday in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

MUSIC

The Kronos Quartet brings the staged version of Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera” to Southern California for the first time, Tuesday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The work, based on ancient Chinese peasant tradition, was written for string quartet, pipa (played by Wu Man), water gongs and more.

ART

South African artist William Kentridge combines the terrains of medical imaging and geological mapping to depict mining areas outside Johannesburg in “Weighing . . . and Wanting,” an exhibition of charcoal drawings and video projections opening today at San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

POP MUSIC

Led by the battling Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, Oasis is finally scheduled to play its twice-postponed Universal Amphitheatre dates Tuesday and Wednesday. The British quintet has something to prove: Its “Be Here Now” album has not caught fire in the United States the way it did back home.

JAZZ

Gene Harris has long symbolized soulful and swinging jazz, during his early years with the Three Sounds and on his many more recent Concord recordings. Harris will bring his special brand of jazz (an accessible mixture of joyful blues, bop and swing) to Catalina Bar & Grill for a six-night run starting Tuesday.

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Early Warning: Robert Benton’s “Twilight,” opening Feb. 20, mixes star power (Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman) and murder mystery.