all day: Art

It’s hard to imagine Nicole Kidman hiring Robert Rauschenberg to help publicize “Eyes Wide Shut,” but that is essentially what popular British actress Sarah Siddons did in the 18th century in hiring Sir Joshua Reynolds and others to promote her acting career. The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Huntington Library together will focus on Siddons’ merging of fine art and publicity in “A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists,” at the Getty, a show of works by 10 leading figures in 18th century British portraiture, and the Huntington’s “Cultivating Celebrity: Portraiture as Publicity in the Career of Sarah Siddons, Star of the Georgian Stage,” drawn from the museum’s holdings in 18th century British theater history. The survey will include prints, drawings and paintings by George Romney, Reynolds and others.

* “Cultivating Celebrity: Portraiture as Publicity in the Career of Sarah Siddons, Star of the Georgian Stage.” Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Ends Sept. 19. Tuesdays-Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Adults, $8.50; seniors, $8; students 12-18, $6; children under 12, free. (626) 405-2141. “A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists.” J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. Ends Sept. 19. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thursdays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission free; reservations required: (310) 440-7300.

8 pm: Theater

Robert Goulet is Don Quixote, tilting at windmills in the classic musical “Man of La Mancha,” Pacific Coast Theatre Group’s touring production.

* “Man of La Mancha,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. $45 to $65, (800) 300-4345 or (562) 916-8500.

8 pm: Dance

Not content with merely reconstructing lost 20th century masterworks, the acclaimed, locally based American Repertory Dance Company is now re-creating the unique personalities of their deceased creators. And who could be more ripe for resurrection than modern dance matriarch Martha Graham, who died in 1991 but lives on in the startling impersonations of New York underground sensation Richard Move. Expect Move-as-Martha to provide irreverent introductions to American Rep’s program of “Legendary California Choreographers”--works by Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, Agnes de Mille, Lester Horton, Joyce Trisler, Bella Lewitzky and Donald McKayle. The same program just won a Lester Horton Award.

* American Repertory Dance Company, Watercourt, California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Also Friday, 8 p.m. Free. (213) 687-2159.

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FREEBIES: One (lucky?) child will get slimed today as part of the Museum of Television & Radio’s summer-long celebration of Nickelodeon, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, 1:30 p.m. (310) 786-1000.