Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Out of the Box: Garth Brooks’ new budget-priced boxed set, “The Limited Series,” sold about 160,000 copies on Tuesday--its first day in stores--according to Capitol Nashville. Company President Pat Quigley based his estimate on reports from the label’s leading retail accounts. “It’s a monster,” Quigley said of the six-CD package, which is selling for as low as $27.85. “It’s well beyond anything anyone imagined.”

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Stage ‘Fever’: The $6.6-million stage version of “Saturday Night Fever” opened in London Tuesday night with Australian Adam Garcia taking on the role that made John Travolta famous on film. “There may not be much of a plot . . . but as a dancing musical, it is irresistible,” said a Times of London reviewer, adding, “I don’t think I’ve seen a British theater company exploit their bodies more fully or more exuberantly.” Reuters said the musical “faithfully re-created the cult film classic,” a feat made possible because the production has the same producer and composers (Robert Stigwood and the Bee Gees, respectively) as the 1977 movie.

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Depicting Abuse: Fox’s “Party of Five,” which features two characters battling alcoholism, received a Prism Award Tuesday from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Entertainment Industries Council. Other Prism winners (the award honors accurate depictions of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse) included the movie “Gridlock’d,” starring the late Tupac Shakur, which looked at the bureaucracy surrounding treatment programs.

QUICK TAKES

George Harrison went to court in London Wednesday to stop the sale of a 1962 recording of the Beatles singing drunkenly in a British club. Lingasong Music Ltd. says John Lennon gave his verbal consent for the tape, but Harrison contends: “One drunken person recording another bunch of drunks does not constitute business deals.” . . . Madonna has reportedly signed to co-star with Rupert Everett (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) in “The Next Best Thing,” a romantic comedy about a woman who decides to have a child with her best friend before her biological clock runs down. . . . Francois Pinault, a wealthy French investor who owns France’s biggest department store and the Samsonite luggage company, has paid $49.4 million for 29.1% of Christie’s stock, making him the auction house’s largest shareholder. . . . British rocker Gary Glitter (“Rock ‘n’ Roll, Part 2”) was charged Tuesday in London with five counts of child sexual abuse occurring between 1976 and 1983, police said. Glitter, 57, already faced 50 counts of taking indecent photographs of juveniles. Glitter’s attorney said his client “vigorously protests his innocence.”