BEST BETS / MARCH 19-25, 2000

MOVIES

Billy Crudup stars in “Waking the Dead” as an attorney haunted by memories of his dead girlfriend, Jennifer Connelly, right. Oscar nominee Janet McTeer co-stars as his sister. Opens Friday in selected theaters.

THEATER

Passion and suspicion feed on each other, and things are never what they seem, in Steven Dietz’s romantic thriller “Private Eyes,” about an actress who may be having an affair with her director--or maybe it’s just a play, or perhaps it’s just her husband’s imagination. . . . Opens Saturday at the Old Globe Theatre’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage in San Diego.

MUSIC

The Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, makes three stops in Southern California. Monday night, the orchestra plays in Civic Theatre, San Diego. Tuesday it performs at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara. Santa Ana High School is the venue Thursday, when Ashkenazy conducts Mahler’s Seventh Symphony and also serves as his own soloist in Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto.

Pop Music

Two of the most refined exponents of Afro Cuban music come to the Conga Room this week. Veteran trumpeter Jerry Gonzales leads his Fort Apache Band in two shows tonight. L.A.-based, Congo-raised Ricardo Lemvo (who plays Wednesday) is a relative newcomer, but his new album, “Sa~o Salvador,” is already a contender for tropical album of the year.

DANCE

The versatile performer-historians of American Repertory Dance Company add vintage works by Bella Lewitzky and Anna Sokolow to their extensive collection of modern dance revivals and reconstructions on Friday in Marsee Auditorium at El Camino College in Torrance. Completing the program: choreography by Helen Tamiris, Mary Wigman, Agnes de Mille Eve Gentry and Valerie Bettis.

JAZZ

Jazz singer Kitty Margolis, who will appear at El Camino College on Saturday, consistently stretches herself while keeping her music swinging and accessible. Her renditions of standards and originals are full of risks, surprises and good-natured humor.

VIDEO

Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda, two icons of the 1960s, star in Steven Soderbergh’s sublime dramatic thriller “The Limey.” Stamp is terrific as an ex-con, fresh from a prison term in England, who travels to L.A. to exact revenge for the murder of his daughter. Fonda plays the ultra-slick record producer who had an affair with Stamp’s daughter. Lesley Ann Warren also stars. Available Tuesday on video and DVD.

ART

More than 250 objects, including artworks, objects from daily life, jewelry, architectural elements, graphics and an interactive Web site will bring the Amarna Age (1353 BC to 1336 BC) to life in “Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamen,” opening today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.