BEST BETS: Thursday 9/2 : 2 & 8 pm: Theater

“Miss Saigon,” the musical epic by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg about a young Vietnamese woman and an American soldier at the time of the fall of Saigon in 1975, returns to the Southland for a short run. The schedule includes some weekday matinees.

* “Miss Saigon,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Today, 2 and 8 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Also Sept. 20, 8 p.m.; Sept. 22, 2 p.m. Dark Sept. 6 and Sept. 13. Sign language interpreted on Sept. 11, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 25. $16 to $66. (714) 740-7878; (213) 365-3500.

2 pm: TV Museum

Film curators are tripping over themselves to get to their prints of “North by Northwest” and “Rebecca” to mark the 100th birthday of Alfred Hitchcock. But what gets largely overlooked is Hitchcock’s fabulous work for television. For its program “Hitchcock by Hitchcock: A Centennial Salute,” the Museum of Television & Radio is screening 20 telefilms, most of them episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” that were directed by the master of suspense. Two programs are screening this weekend: “The Ticking Clock,” which has three episodes showing how Hitchcock manipulated time to create suspense; and “The Roald Dahl Connection,” three adaptations of Dahl stories. TV interviews with Hitchcock will also be screened.

* “Hitchcock by Hitchcock: A Centennial Salute,” at the Museum of Television & Radio, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. “The Ticking Clock,” today-Saturday, 2 p.m. “The Roald Dahl Connection,” today-Friday, 3:45 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. “The Dick Cavett Show” interview, today, 6 p.m. “Tomorrow With Tom Snyder” interview, Saturday-Sunday, 3:45 p.m. Program continues through Sept. 12. $6; $4, seniors and students; $3, ages 13 and younger. (310) 786-1000.

8 pm: Movies

The American Cinematheque kicks off its retrospective of “An American Girl: The Sad-Eyed Splendor of Natalie Wood” with a screening of director Elia Kazan’s beautiful evocation of William Inge’s tragic love story “Splendor in the Grass” (1961). Wood plays a tormented small-town beauty torn between her intense love for a handsome schoolmate (Warren Beatty in his film debut) and her desire to be “a good girl.”

* American Cinematheque presents “An American Girl: The Sad-Eyed Splendor of Natalie Wood,” Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Today: “Splendor in the Grass,” 8 p.m. Friday: “Rebel Without a Cause,” 7 p.m.; “Love With the Proper Stranger,” 9:45 p.m. Saturday: “A Cry in the Night,” 3 p.m.; “The Great Race,” 5 p.m.; “Gypsy,” 8:30 p.m. Sunday: “All the Fine Young Cannibals” and “Kings Go Forth,” 4 p.m. Sept. 10: “West Side Story,” 8 p.m. Sept. 11: “Sex and the Single Girl,” 6 p.m.; “Inside Daisy Clover,” 9 p.m. Sept. 12: “Miracle on 34th Street,” 3 p.m.; “This Property Is Condemned” and “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 5 p.m. (323) 466-3456. Screenings (and double features when indicated) are $5 for cinematheque members and $7 for all others.

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FREEBIES: The Cajun band Beausoleil Avec Michael Doucet performs at the Santa Monica Pier, with parking at 2030 Barnard Way, 7:30 p.m., (310) 458-8900.