TODAY’S BEST BETS

Theater

The notable activist San Francisco Mime Troupe takes on America’s health care crisis in “Damaged Care,” its “nouveau commedia nightmare”--a one-night stand that’s part of the Cal State Long Beach Summer Arts series. Tonight only at 8.

Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach, (562) 985-7000. 8 p.m.

Pop Music

Missouri-based singer-songwriter Iris DeMent has earned a strong critical reputation and a loyal fan base with three albums of folk-country character sketches whose themes range from the philosophical to the political.

The Neighborhood Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 303-7014. 8 p.m. (With Kieran Kane.)

Television

Beantown not on your summer vacation plans? The next best thing is tuning in to PBS’ “Evening at Pops,” which kicks off its 29th season tonight. The opener finds Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra and welcoming guests Sarah Jessica Parker and the all-male a cappella group the Krokodiloes.

“Evening at Pops,” 9 p.m., KCET-TV Channel 28.

Art

Ed Ruscha will screen his 30-minute film, “Miracle,” and discuss its relationship to the current Getty Museum exhibition, “Ed Ruscha’s Light.”

Harold M. Williams Auditorium, the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, (310) 440-7300. 7 p.m. Free, but reservations required.

Movies

Nicholas Ray’s 1955 “Rebel Without a Cause” is moody, electric, full of vibrant reds, warm shadows and intimations of doom. Its subject--juvenile delinquency among the affluent young, and the strange beauties of youthful alienation--is personified by James Dean.

“Twentieth Century Fox and the Golden Age of CinemaScope,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (213) 857-6010. 7:30 p.m. (Followed by “Bonjour Tristesse.”)