BEST BETS Saturday 7/8

HUNTINGTON BEACH

2 pm

Theater

Huntington Central Park doubles as the Kingdom of Navarre in the Huntington Beach Playhouse’s outdoor production of Shakespeare’s comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” The action starts when his highness the king and his closest courtiers take a three-year monastic vow of study and celibacy--only to have temptation intrude in the form of the Princess of France and her ladies in waiting, visiting on court business. Unlike Kenneth Branagh, who turns “Love’s Labour’s Lost” into a 1930s romantic musical comedy in his current film version, the Playhouse will be playing it straight in the old Elizabethan tradition.

* “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” Huntington Central Park Amphitheatre, 7111 Talbert Ave. Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ends July 30. $7. (714) 375-0696.

CYPRESS

6pm

Music

Founding music director John Hall will lead the Cypress Pops Orchestra in a collection of American favorites, including “I Got Plenty of Nothing” from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and Bette Midler’s hit song “Wind Beneath My Wings,” among other works. Vocal soloists will include Carolyn Leenerts and Brian Sherick.

* Cypress Pops Orchestra, Cypress Civic Center Green, 5275 Orange Ave., Cypress. 6 p.m. Free. (714) 828-4276.

ORANGE

7pm

Music

Hugh Wolf’s “Italienishes Liederbuch” consists of 46 miniature songs that embody multiple aspects of love, from humor and joy to vulnerability and despair. As part of Summer Songfest 2000, a professional training program for young singers, participants will sit together onstage and respond to one another in song. The event will be staged by accompanist Martin Katz. A free Songfest fifth anniversary concert will be presented Sunday at 2 p.m. in Chapman University’s Memorial Hall. The Songfest program continues Aug. 6 to 18.

* Summer Songfest 2000, Salmon Hall, Bertea Music Building, Chapman University, 1 University Drive, Orange. 7 p.m. Free. (714) 997-6871.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

8pm

Pop Music

British blues godfather John Mayall returns to the Southland after a swing through the Northeast with his latest lineup of the ever-evolving Bluesbreakers band, a group that was the spawning ground for the likes of Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and Mick Taylor, among many others. Stepping into the band this summer is bassist Dave Boaz, a veteran of Dave Alvin’s group.

* John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. With Mo Evans Blues Band and Breaking the Code. 8 p.m. $19.50 to $21.50. (949) 496-8930.