Today’s Best Bets

Pop Music

Veteran singer Michael Martin Murphey applies his American West fixation to a cowboy Christmas concert.

Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, (310) 825-2101. 8 p.m.

Stage

Orson Bean headlines as Scrooge (with Jimmy Baker as Tiny Tim) in Venice theater’s annual staging of “A Christmas Carol.”

Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice, (323) 660-8587. 7:30 p.m. Regular schedule: Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Jan. 3.

Jazz

Stefon Harris is arguably the first original voice on the vibraphone since Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson.

Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. 8:30 p.m. Also Saturday-Sunday.

Radio

Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie present “Alien Voices,” five science-fiction classics read by themselves and Kate Mulgrew, Ethan Phillips, Nana Visitor, Armin Shimerman, Dwight Schultz and William Shatner.

H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” (9-11 a.m.), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World” (11 a.m.-1 p.m.), Wells’ “The Invisible Man” (1-3 p.m.), Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (3-5 p.m.), KCRW-FM (89.9).