7:45 pm: Theater

A rock ‘n roll Santa, dancing teddy bears and wooden soldiers, a live menagerie and those high-kicking Radio City Rockettes: “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular” returns to the Southland with added surprises for 1999.

* “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City. Today, 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, Dec. 14, 25, 28, 7:45 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 10, 17, 2:15 and 8:15 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 11, 18, 12:15, 4:15 and 8:15 p.m.; Sundays, 11:15 a.m., 2:15 and 6:15 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 15-16, 20-23, 27, 2:15 and 7:45 p.m.; Dec. 24, 1:15 p.m. (Performances in Spanish: Dec. 12, 6:15 p.m.; Dec. 20, 2:15 p.m.; Dec. 26, 6:15 p.m.) Ends Dec. 28. $19.50 to $59.50. (213) 252-TIXS.

8:30 pm: Dance

After dealing with Balkan ethnic cleansing and the isolation of Angelenos, Lester Horton Dance Award-winning choreographer Rosanna Gamson now explores links between psychoanalysis and motion pictures in her new full-evening work, “Lovesickness.” Movies and psychoanalysis developed at the same time, she says, and caused people to abandon linear thinking and start thinking in images. If this theme sounds much too murky for dance, Gamson has a knack for physicalizing unlikely subjects--often (as here) by using fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. And who else would fill the stage with clotheslines hung with what she calls “Freudian slips”?

* “Rosanna Gamson/World Wide in “Lovesickness,” Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. Thursday-Sunday, 8:30 p.m. $15. (310) 315-1459.

8 pm: Theater

It’s classic Neil Simon: Six people gather in the private dining room of a chic Paris restaurant, strangers to each other and not knowing why they’ve been invited in the world premiere of Simon’s new comedy, “The Dinner Party.”

* “The Dinner Party,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Also Dec. 23, 30, 2:30 p.m.; Dec. 20, 27, 8 p.m. Dark Dec. 24-25, Dec. 31-Jan. 1. Ends Jan. 16. $33 to $42. (213) 628-2772.

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FREEBIE: The groove-pop band Watsonville Patio performs at the Borders Books & Music, Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, 7:30 p.m. (310) 393-9290.