8 pm: Dance

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater appears at the Los Angeles Music Center for the first time in two repertory programs--with Ailey’s 38-year-old masterwork “Revelations” featured at all four performances. Program 1 (tonight and Friday) also includes George Faison’s “Slaves” (1971) and Ulysses Dove’s “Bad Blood” (1984). Program 2 (Saturday and Sunday) offers more Ailey classics--”Night Creature” (1974) and “Cry” (1971)--plus a new production of Talley Beatty’s “The Stack Up” (1982). And to make the engagement more special, the spirituals that accompany “Revelations” will be performed live.

* Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. today and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. $15-$55. (213) 365-3500.

8:30 & 10:30 pm: Jazz

Just because he turned 90 last year doesn’t mean Benny Carter’s hanging up his saxophone. Carter gained prominence with the Fletcher Henderson orchestra in 1930 and a decade later his own bands gave such upstarts as Miles Davis, Max Roach and J.J. Johnson their first important gigs. Long employed as a film composer-arranger, Carter penned such jazz standards as “When Lights Are Low” and “Easy Money.” Here’s your chance to hear a living musical legend.

* Benny Carter Quartet, Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Today and Sunday, $14; Friday-Saturday, $17. (213) 466-2210.

8 pm: Theater

Flavored with Japanese Kabuki theater elements, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical “Pacific Overtures,” about the culture shock and price of progress surrounding the opening of Japan to the West, launches East West Players’ inaugural season at the new David Henry Hwang Theatre.

* “Pacific Overtures,” David Henry Hwang Theatre, Union Center for the Arts, 120 N. Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m., except no matinee this Saturday. Ends April 5. $20-$32; opening, $32-$37. (800) 447-7400.