BEST BETS Saturday 11/18

8pm

Jazz

Violinist Regina Carter has been one of the brighter lights to appear on the jazz scene in recent years. She’s performed locally at the Hollywood Bowl and at the Jazz Bakery, and now here’s a chance to hear her in a formal concert setting.

* The Regina Carter Quintet, Saturday at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, Westwood. 8 p.m. Sold out. (310) 825-2101.

3 & 7:30pm

Music

The Minnesota Klezmer Band pays tribute to the music of George Gershwin and other music by Jewish composers with the show “Gershwin the Klezmer,” starring Michael Paul Levin as Gershwin, and featuring Maggie Burton, Bruce Henry and Prudence Johnson.

* “Gershwin the Klezmer,” Cal State Northridge Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 3 and 7:30 p.m. Also Sunday, 3 and 7 p.m. $29. (818) 785-8885.

7pm

Pop Music

The Orange County punk scene hasn’t produced a much bigger success story than the Offspring, whose last album, “Americana,” offered some stinging social commentary while selling more than 4 million copies. The new one, “Conspiracy of One,” has just hit the stores, and Dexter Holland and company mark the occasion with a trip to the Forum.

* The Offspring, with Cypress Hill and MxPx, Great Western Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 7 p.m. $29.50. (310) 419-3100.

8pm

Theater

After a troubled residency at the Luckman Fine Arts Center, A Noise Within returns to its Glendale home with “The Skin of Our Teeth,” Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic comedy about the absurdities of modern life and the Ice Age weathered by an all-American family.

* “The Skin of Our Teeth,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Saturday, 8 p.m. Also Nov. 24-25, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 13-14, 8 p.m.; Sunday and Nov. 26, Dec. 10, 2 and 7 p.m.; Nov. 25, Dec. 2, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 14. $26 to $40. (323) 953-7795.

8pm

Theater

“Sleepwalk,” Daniel Cariaga’s new play about a corporate climber’s visits to a suburban sex shop, directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, opens the [Inside] the Ford season.

* “Sleepwalk,” [Inside] the Ford, John Anson Ford Theater Center, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Dec. 17. $15 to $20. (323) 461-3673.

8pm

Festival

The Festival of Jewish Artisans returns to Temple Isaiah this weekend as artists from America, Israel and Italy congregate in West Los Angeles for the 20th annual event. The exhibit and sale of contemporary Judaica will include textiles, photography, paintings and many holiday items. The two-day festival will open Saturday evening with a concert featuring the Rev. Andrae Crouch and his choir, who will share the stage with Cantor Evan Kent and other local cantors.

* The Festival of Jewish Artisans, Temple Isaiah, 10345 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles. Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Saturday tickets: $18; seniors, $15. Sunday: $4; children 12 and under, $2. (310) 277-2772.

9pm

Pop Music

“Woke up this morning and found out my career wasn’t dead after all. . . . “ That might have been the refrain sung by the English band A3, one of those provocative outfits that appeared too complex and edgy to survive. But on the way to its funeral, its song “Woke Up This Morning” became the opening theme of “The Sopranos,” and voila--here they are with a new album, “La Peste,” and a new shot.

* A3, with Mocean Worker, the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 9 p.m. $13.50. (310) 278-9457.

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FREEBIE

Appearances by children’s authors and illustrators, storytelling, a puppet show and a poetry workshop will be among the highlights of the Children’s Book Festival, Santa Monica Public Library, 1343 6th St., Santa Monica. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (310) 458-8600.