Best Bets / DECEMBER 10-16, 2000

Dance

Stagings of “The Nutcracker” reach critical mass in the Southland this week. For starters, the Ballet Pacifica version opens Thursday and runs to Dec. 24 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The Inland Pacific Ballet edition, with Samantha Mason, right, as the Snow Queen, plays Bridges Auditorium in Claremont from Saturday to the Dec. 24. And the Westside Ballet Sugar Plum visits the Wadsworth Theatre in Brentwood on Saturday and next Sunday.

Theater

From Italy, internationally acclaimed avant-garde artist Dario D’Ambrosi explores the line between sanity and insanity and the plight of misfits in a violent society in “The Prince of Madness,” about the nightmarish journey of a man towing a cage full of people to sell at auction. Wednesday through Friday at the Italian Cultural Institute’s Sala Rossellini Theatre in Westwood.

Movies

An arrogant young ruler asks a peasant for help after his power-hungry advisor turns him into a llama in Disney’s animated comedy “The Emperor’s New Groove.” David Spade, John Goodman and Eartha Kitt provide the voices, and Tom Jones delivers the emperor’s theme song, below. Opens Friday.

Music

Six winners of Operalia 2000, Placido Domingo’s international opera competition, appear with tenor Domingo Friday night in Royce Hall at UCLA. They are sopranos Isabel Bayrakdarian, Virginia Tola and He Hui, tenors Daniil Shtoda and Konstyantyn Andreyev and basso Robert Pomakov. The singers have already been given a total of $200,000 as winners of the Alberto Vilar Awards.

Video

With his leather duds and shaved head, Samuel L. Jackson is beyond cool in John Singleton’s pumped-up remake of the classic 1971 action-thriller “Shaft.” However, it’s Jeffrey Wright who steals the movie as an outrageous criminal kingpin. Richard Roundtree, who played the original John Shaft, plays Jackson’s uncle. And look for Gordon Parks, the director of the original, in a brief scene. The hit arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.

Pop Music

It’s a rockin’ California Christmas this year for KROQ-FM (106.7). The station’s now-familiar Almost Acoustic Christmas concerts return Saturday and next Sunday to the Universal Amphitheatre and feature a raft of big-name Golden State acts, among them No Doubt (Anaheim), Deftones (Sacramento), above, Papa Roach (Vacaville), Incubus (Calabasas) and Weezer (Los Angeles).

Jazz

One of the top classic bop pianists active in jazz today but surprisingly obscure, Hod O’Brien is a major talent. He will be making several appearances during his swing through Los Angeles, starting with the Westin LAX on Wednesday at 5 p.m.