Best Bets / September 5-11, 1999

Movies

The supernatural thriller “Stigmata” stars Patricia Arquette as a seemingly ordinary young woman overcome by a mysterious powerful force. Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce co-star, and Rupert Wainwright directed. It opens Friday in general release.

“Best Laid Plans,” a thriller that explores the unexpected consequences of life-altering decisions, stars Allessandro Nivola, Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin as three young people testing the limits of their morality. Mike Barker directed from a script by Ted Griffin. It opens Friday in selected theaters.

Theater

George Bernard Shaw’s “The Philanderer,” meets his match--if not his mate--in a “new woman” who belongs only to herself and won’t be any man’s property, in this comic treatise on marriage and the avoidance thereof. Opens Friday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

Art

From bread-wrapper rugs to tin can encrusted travel trunks culled from urban America to the far corners of the Amazonian rain forest, “Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap,” proves there’s nothing too trashy for refabrication in an exhibition opening today at UCLA’s Fowler Museum. Above, “Guerreiros’s King’s Crown,” worn in Christmas festival dances, made from cardboard, broken mirrors, beads and ribbon by Jorventino Fevire of Brazil.

Music

L.A. Opera’s second offering of the new season comes three days after the first. It’s a revival of the company’s 1996 mounting of Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love,” conducted by the American, John Keenan, with Ruth Ann Swenson (debut) as Adina and, in their 1996 roles, Ramon Vargas and Thomas Allen; Rodney Gilfry is Belcore. The opening is Saturday, with five repeats through Sept. 25.

Dance

Fusing a contemporary sensibility with a ballet-based style, the Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre opens its 19th season next Sunday with the premiere of “The Colorado” (music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold) and a repeat of last season’s acclaimed “Dark Corner” (music by Alberto Ginastera) in the New Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge.

Pop Music

Hard-core hip-hop has secured its spot high on the pop music food chain, but its assorted relations are establishing themselves too. A wide range of the eclectic field is on display Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre, where Everlast is joined by the Roots, Eminem and Black-Eyed Peas, along with neo-soul singer Macy Gray.

Jazz

Since the 1960’s, McCoy Tyner has been one of the most influential pianists in jazz. A powerful improviser with his own unique chord voicings, Tyner came to fame with the John Coltrane Quartet and has been a significant leader for the past 30 years. His trio will be at Catalina’s this week starting Tuesday.