BEST BETS Thursday 12/21

7:30pm

Dance

The only imported “Nutcracker” on local stages this season, the familiar Moscow Classical Ballet edition returns with its unusual combination of Christmas-card settings and competition-style bravura. As choreographed by company directors Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov (with borrowings from the same Vainonen version danced by the Kirov Ballet), this “Nutcracker” gives nearly everyone showpiece opportunities, from little Fritz to old Drosselmeyer. The title character here is a big stuffed doll who turns into a cavalier-prince in virtually the same instant that the heroine changes from a sweet little girl to a glittering ballerina. Not a hard “Nut,” but certainly a hard-sell one.

* Moscow Classical Ballet in “The Nutcracker,” Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, 7:30 p.m. Also Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. $21-$56. (626) 449-7360.

7pm

Movies

The world of 19th century London with its orphans, misers, rogues, foundlings and spinsters gets a full cinematic rendering with the American Cinematheque’s “Great Expectations: Charles Dickens on Film.” The author has been a popular literary source for filmmakers since 1897’s “The Death of Nancy Sykes”--more than 100 Dickens-based films were shot in the silent era alone. Opening the series is tonight’s screening of David Lean’s 1946 adaptation of “Great Expectations,” starring John Mills, Jean Simmons and Alec Guinness. Other highlights include actress June Lockhart’s appearance Saturday at a post-screening discussion following the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol,” which starred Reginald Owen as Scrooge; director Ronald Neame will attend Saturday’s screening of the 1970 “Scrooge”; and actress Shani Wallis and choreographer Onna White will be on hand for “Oliver!” on Wednesday.

* American Cinematheque presents “Great Expectations: Charles Dickens on Film,” Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. “Great Expectations” (1946), Thursday, 7 p.m.; “A Tale of Two Cities” (1911) and “Oliver Twist” (1922), Friday, 7 p.m.; “David Copperfield” (1934), Friday, 9:15 p.m.; “A Christmas Carol” (1938), Saturday, 5 p.m.; “Scrooge” (1970), Saturday, 7:15 p.m. The series continues through Dec. 30. $5 to $7. (323) 466-FILM.

8pm

Pop Music

Pure-pop role model Paul Williams (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” et al.) is set to join several denizens of the Los Angeles pop underground in a special edition of Highland Grounds’ regular monthly showcase. The holiday themed event has no admission charge, but funds will be raised for the Community High School in Nashville.

* Paul Williams, Evie Sands, Dan Navarro, Probyn Gregory, Darian Sahanaja, Eddie Munoz, Cindy Lee Berryhill and others, Highland Grounds, 742 N. Highland Ave., L.A., 8 p.m. Free. (323) 466-1507.

8pm

Dance

Trading a magic Christmas tree for a magic pumpkin, American Ballet Theatre is bypassing “The Nutcracker” and presenting “Cinderella” as its holiday offering at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. This is the same full-length “Cinderella” (choreography by Ben Stevenson, music by Prokofiev) that American Ballet Theatre danced three years ago at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. So the news is the casting, especially such stellar couples as Paloma Herrera and Giuseppe Picone (tonight and Saturday afternoon), Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes (Friday afternoon), Amanda McKerrow and Ethan Stiefel (Friday night) and the newly promoted husband-and-wife team Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky (Saturday night). See review, Page TK.

* American Ballet Theatre in “Cinderella,” Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, 8 p.m. Also Friday-Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m. $12 to $70. (714) 740-7878.

9pm

Pop Music

Scarface writes some of rap’s most potent and brutal lyrics, and the Houston MC’s show at the House of Blues figures to tap into the history of controversy that has tailed him throughout his career--it will feature a reunion of his notorious group the Geto Boys, with Willie Dee and Bushwick Bill joining the headliner.

*Scarface, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. $20. (323) 848-5100.

FREEBIE

Carnival games and rides, live music, vending booths and Santa Claus giving away 10,000 free toys will make up the South Gate Holiday Street Festival, corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Liberty Street, South Gate. Thursday-Friday, 5-11 p.m.; Saturday, noon-11 p.m. (323) 588-0934.