BEST BETS / OCT. 17, 1999

MOVIES

“Boys Don’t Cry” stars Hilary Swank as Teena Brandon, a young girl who was successfully passing as a young man in a small Nebraska town until her exposure resulted in her rape and murder by a pair of enraged men. Chloe Sevigny, left, and Peter Sarsgaard co-star. It opens Friday at selected theaters.

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Malcolm D. Lee’s “The Best Man” offers an intimate view of life for a group of successful friends reunited when oe of their college buddies gets married. Produced by Spike Lee and starrring Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun and Nia Long. It opens on Friday.

THEATER

“Sweet Bird of Youth,” Tennessee Williams portrait of an aging film goddess and an ambitious young hustler with dreams of becoming a movie star, features theater veterans Pamela Payton-Wright, M. Emmett Walsh and Patrick Wilson. It’s the fianl production of La Jolla Playhouse’s departing artistic director Michael Greif’s final production and opens today.

FAMILY

A touring stage version of the popular PBS children’s show, “The Huggabug Club,” starring sisters and co-creators Audrey and Judy Landers, Huggabug, Auntie Bumble, Miss Oops-a-Daisy and the “Buggsters,” plays twice today at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.

VIDEO

“The Blair Witch Project” was the talk of the summer--as much for its marketing campaign as for its cheap thrills. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez II’s’ low-budget psychological horror film has grossed nearly $140 million to date. Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard star in the chiller based on the “found” footage of three student filmmakers who disappeared in the woods while making a documentary. It casts its spell Friday in video stores.

POP MUSIC

Bruce Springsteen and Staples Center both come up against high expectations tonight, when the E Street Band plays the first concert at the new arena, opening its four-night stand. The reunion tour has been a smash so far, and the venue couldn’t have found a better performer to test its ability to showcase both intimate and epic moments.

ART

On Aug. 24, AD 79, the city of Pompeii was buried following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Unearthed 17 centuries later, artworks and buildings were found beautifully preserved thanks to volcanic ash and other debris. “Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town,” opening today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrates what daily life in Pompeii was like through more than 400 such preserved objects such as frescoes, ancient glass, tools and decorative objects.

MUSIC

Four-by-four: It’s a week for famous string quartets. Today at 4 at UCLA, the Guarneri Quartet hosts violinist Ida Kavafian, then plays alone, Monday at the Barclay in Irvine. Music Guild opens its season Monday in Northridge with the St. Petersburg Quartet. Percussionist Burhan Ocal and the Kronos Quartet play in Irvine, tonight at 7. And the Emerson Quartet appears in La Jolla, Saturday night.

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There’s a limited time to catch Esa-Pekka Salonen on the L.A. Philharmonic podium this season--at the end of the month he begins a year-long sabbatical. Today he conducts an all Mahler program at the Music Center; starting Thursday, three performances of Borodin, Stravinsky and a world premiere piano concerto by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin written for featured soloist Olli Mustonen.