WEEK IN PREVIEW

MOVIES

Eddie Murphy, right, stars as “Doctor Dolittle,” a physician who has suppressed the special talent he had as a child: an ability to communicate with animals. When his dormant talent is awakened, animals start teaching him about being human. The film, directed by Betty Thomas, opens wide Friday.

THEATER

A.S.K. Theatre Project’s free “Common Ground Festival ‘98” offers new works, labs and a theater fair with such noted performers, directors and playwrights as Chris Wells, John Fleck, Rachel Rosenthal, Maria Irene Fornes and Jose Cruz Gonzalez. It runs Tuesday through next Sunday at UCLA.

ART

The tiny picturesque village of Giverny comes to life in “Monet: Paintings of Giverny From the Musee Marmottan,” a collection of Impressionist paintings Claude Monet created between 1901 and 1926. The exhibition opens Saturday at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

MUSIC

The first-ever klezmer concert at Hollywood Bowl, “In the Fiddler’s House,” takes place Thursday night with violinist Itzhak Perlman performing along with four klezmer bands: the Klezmatics, Brave Old World, the Klezmer Conservatory Band and the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra.

MUSIC

A gala Hollywood Bowl tribute on Wednesday to former L.A. Philharmonic managing director Ernest Fleischmann, above, features Kathleen Battle, Itzhak Perlman, Harry Connick Jr. and others. Richard Dreyfuss is emcee, John Williams conducts and the band is--what else?--the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

POP MUSIC

Canadian-born Shania Twain mixes lithe country textures and a feisty female perspective with glistening pop savvy on her two best-selling albums, 1995’s “The Woman in Me” and last year’s “Come on Over.” The country music star makes her local debut tonight at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

JAZZ

The Yellowjackets (keyboardist Russell Ferrante, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip, drummer William Kennedy and saxophonist Bob Mintzer) are one of the most popular of the electric R&B-ish; jazz bands. The group can be seen up close in a five-night stand at the Jazz Bakery starting Tuesday.

VIDEO

Errol Morris (“The Thin Blue Line”) interweaves the stories of four obsessive men in the award-winning “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.” Morris visits with a lion tamer, a topiary gardner, a man fascinated with mole-rats and a scientist who created bug-like robots. The film debuts Tuesday on video.

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Early Warning: The B-52’s and Pretenders hook up for flashback fun Aug. 2 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and Aug. 4 and 5 at Universal Amphitheatre.