Best Bets Orange County HERE AND NEAR

TODAY

8pm

Last Chance

The premiere run of Lucille DeView’s coming-of-age drama, “A Summer With Hemingway’s Twin,” ends Saturday at Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana. Directed by Joel Cotter and starring Myrna Niles and Heather Kjos, the story follows a young woman who finds a summer romance when she takes a job as an aide to Ernest Hemingway’s older sister, Marcelline, in hopes of meeting the famous writer.

* “A Summer With Hemingway’s Twin” at Alternative Repertory Theatre, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. $22-$25. Also Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. (714) 836-7929.

TODAY

10am-5pm

Last Chance

Between the fireworks, the backyard barbecues and flag-waving, try to find some time this weekend to visit “Great American Quilts: A Look at Patriotism and Friendship in Needlework” at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. On view through Monday are more than 30 vintage and new quilts and other needlework exploring presidential, patriotic and community themes. One standout features a needlepoint neighborhood of 21 presidential residences, including the White House, Monticello and Mount Vernon. Others include a cherry tree motif quilt presented to Pat Nixon in 1971 by Appalachian Fireside Crafts, and an “Olde Yorba Linda” quilt with hand-stitched images of area landmarks.

* “Great American Quilts: A Look at Patriotism and Friendship in Needlework” at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda. $2-$5.95. Also Friday, Saturday and Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $2-$5.95. (714) 993-5075.

TODAY

8pm

Jazz

Start with top-shelf pianist Joe Massimino’s trio featuring bassist Luther Hughes and drummer Matt Johnson. Add trumpeter Buddy Childers, the Stan Kenton-Woody Herman veteran who’s played for everyone from Quincy Jones to Sinatra. Sprinkle with musical sweets from vocalist Corliss Dale. Your host, as always for the weekly jazz party, is singer Jack Wood. They’ll cook!

Joe Massimino Trio, Restaurant Kikuya, 8052 Adams Ave., Huntington Beach. $10 minimum. (714) 536-6665.

TODAY

8pm

Theater

As the warm breezes of the Adriatic cross the top of the Italian boot, they help warm things in Verona, the setting of the world’s greatest love story. Two teenagers meet at a ball, fall in love and follow their karma to tragedy in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the opening production of Shakespeare Orange County’s eighth season. One of the Bard’s most popular and most produced plays, the drama is directed by Shakespeare O.C.’s founder and artistic director, Tom Bradac. The production features founding member Daniel Bryan Cartmell as Friar Lawrence, who tries to help the star-crossed lovers, and Teri Cirrana as Juliet’s boisterous nurse.

“Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare Orange County, Waltmar Theatre, Chapman University Campus, Orange. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 11 (No performance July 4). $22. (714) 744-7016.

FRIDAY

8pm

Theater

“The Perils of Monogamy, the Game of Seduction, and the War Between the Sexes” is the name of a lecture by a college professor whose wife is Dean of Women at the same college. Even in 1958, when Leslie Stevens’ “The Marriage-Go-Round” landed on Broadway with Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert in the roles, the comic war the lecture caused between that academic couple bubbled like a glass of champagne. Rarely performed today, the play, directed by Darlene Hunter-Chaffee, highlights humorous insights into the skirmishes of wedded bliss that are still pertinent.

* “The Marriage-Go-Round,” Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays July 11, 25 & Aug. 1, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 7. $12-$15. (562) 494-1616.

FRIDAY

11pm

Retro TV

Now that James West and Artemus Gordon are on the big screen, they’re getting more attention than usual on the small one. TNT and KDOC Channel 56 are airing “Wild Wild West” marathons this holiday weekend. The KDOC presentation, which is 11 hours’ worth of shows in order from 1967-68, starts Monday at 11 a.m. TNT’s marathon, made up of more selective, solid episodes, starts Friday at 11 p.m. with “The Night of the Big Blackmail,” guest-starring Harvey Korman, and ends with “The Night of the Green Terror” (Saturday at 10:55 a.m.), Dr. Loveless’ fifth episode. KDOC marathon highlights: “The Night of the Falcon” (Monday at noon), which guest-stars Robert Duvall during his more lowbrow days (that big hole in the ground in the opening scene is the drained “Gilligan’s Island” lagoon) and “The Night of the Vipers” (Monday at 7 p.m.), which features the last TV appearance of Robert Conrad’s pal Nick Adams, who died of a drug overdose a month after it aired. The KDOC marathon concludes with “The Night of the Death Masks,” a bizarre story with West fighting an escaped murderer, mannequins--and Artemus.

* “The Wild Wild West” marathons. Friday 11 p.m. to noon Saturday, TNT. Also Monday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (with an hour break between 8 and 9 p.m.), KDOC Channel 56.

FRIDAY

8:30pm

Jazz

You may remember trombonist Bill Watrous for his standout role in the old Merv Griffin Show band, or his work with Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Quincy Jones or Kai Winding. The ‘bone master has a tone that ranges between silky and robust, and the kind of improvisational smarts that make every standard a new adventure. Here, he leads a quartet.

* Bill Watrous Quartet, Steamers Cafe, 138 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. $5, two-drink minimum. (714) 871-8800.

SATURDAY

7 pm

Music

Tenor John Aler will open UCI’s Summer SongFest ’99 with a program of French music, including works by Bizet, Saint-Saens, Duparc, Faure and Dupont. Martin Katz will be the accompanist. The SongFest, in its fourth year, will continue with recitals Tuesday by soprano Ruth Golden and July 9 by baritone Brandon Velarde.

* UCI’s Summer SongFest ’99 continues withtenor John Aler’s recital of French songs at the UCI Concert Hall, West Peltason Drive and Mesa Road, Irvine. Admission is free, but tickets are required. (949) 824-1974.

SATURDAY

noon

Pop Music

“Hootenanny” used to be a polite folk-music song-swap, but the all-day concert that uses that name in the ‘90s is a little more raucous, gathering as it does an array of roots-minded rock acts (including Mike Ness, Reverend Horton Heat, Cadillac Tramps and Dave Alvin) as well as one major influence on rock ‘n’ roll rhythm and attitude: Bo Diddley.

* Hootenanny, Oak Canyon Ranch, 5305 Santiago Road, Irvine. $35. (714) 991-2055. See schedule page XX.

SUNDAY

noon

Pop Music

The American independent rock movement has produced such major acts as R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, but after two decades is it running out of steam as a cultural force? The concert dubbed This Ain’t No Picnic might offer some answers, since it features the cream of today’s indie-rock crop, from Sonic Youth and Guided by Voices to Sleater-Kinney and Superchunk.

* This Ain’t No Picnic, Oak Canyon Ranch, 5305 Santiago Road, Irvine.$27.50. (714) 991-2055. See schedule page XX.

SUNDAY

6pm

Jazz

The bougainvillea-draped outdoor amphitheater of the Hyatt Newporter is a most appropriate setting for the exotic, new age-meets-smooth jazz sounds of Bamboo Forest, led by percussionist Steve Reid, a founding member of the Rippingtons. Sultry vocalist Joyce Cooling is also on the bill. Stick around after the show and watch the fireworks over Newport’s Back Bay.

* Steve Reid and Bamboo Forest, Joyce Cooling, Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. $30. (949) 650-5483.

SUNDAY

8pm

Music

Music by Irving Berlin, Max Steiner, Jerry Goldsmith, George M. Cohan and John Philip Sousa makes up the “Spirit of the Century” program celebrating the Fourth of July, when the Pacific Symphony, conducted by Richard Kaufman, salutes the holiday at Irvine Meadows. Soloists are soprano Marcia Mitzman and singer-dancer Jason Graae.

* The Pacific Symphony, Irvine Meadows, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 8 p.m. $14 to $57. (714) 755-5799.