BEST BETS FRIDAY 10/20

8pm Music

With Midori as violin soloist, conductor Christoph Eschenbach leads his touring NDR Symphony Hamburg in a two-piece program at the L.A. County Performing Arts Center. The agenda: the Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky and Arnold Schoenberg’s famous orchestral transcription of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor, Opus 25. Eschenbach conducts the orchestra in a different program, Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

* The NDR Symphony Hamburg plays in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. 8 p.m. $10 to $70. (323) 850-2000. Also, Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $15 to $55. (949) 553-2422.

8pm

Pop Music

Radiohead might have entered the album sales chart at No. 1 last week, but they don’t make it easy to love them. The album, “Kid A,” is a moody, atmospheric work that spurns the rock anthems and catchy hooks that helped make the English band a modern-rock stalwart, and their initial promotion consists of just two U.S. concerts, in New York and L.A.

* Radiohead, with Handsome Boy Modeling School, Friday at the Greek Theatre, 2700 Vermont Canyon Road, Griffith Park. 8 p.m. Sold out. (213) 480-3232.

all day

Movies

Working-class Las Vegas, the world beyond the Strip not often seen in Hollywood films, serves as the setting for Mimi Leder’s drama “Pay It Forward.” Kevin Spacey stars as a meticulous social studies teacher who gives his students a unique assignment: Try to change the world for the better. One of his seventh-graders, Trevor (Haley Joel Osment), takes on the challenge and creates the idea of doing something for three people, who then must “pay it forward” by doing something for three other people and so on. Helen Hunt co-stars as Trevor’s single mom.

* “Pay It Forward”--rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, including substance abuse/recovery, some sexual situations, language and brief violence--opens Friday in general release.

6:30 & 9pm

Movies

Hey Ab-BOTT! Bud and Lou encounter Universal’s gallery of monsters in the 1948 comedy “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,” presented by the Alex Film Society. Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, Glenn Strange as Frankenstein’s Monster and Vincent Price as the Invisible Man co-star in the film, regarded as one of Abbott and Costello’s best. The evening also includes the 1945 Looney Tunes cartoon “A Tale of Two Mice” and is hosted by author Jeffrey Miller (“The Horror Spoofs of Abbott and Costello”). Halloween costumes are encouraged.

* “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,” Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Friday, 6:30 and 9 p.m. $6 to $8.50. (800) 233-3123.

8pm

Theater

Denise Moses opens in her solo comedy, “Girly Americana,” about the world’s oldest kindergarten teacher (and her hand-puppet), a Webcam dating addict, a Shakespeare-quoting beauty pageant contestant and other wacky characters. The show kicks off Grove Theater Center’s residency at the Burbank Little Theatre.

* “Girly Americana,” Grove Theater Center at Burbank Little Theatre, George Izay Park, 1111 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 11. $18.50. (818) 238-9998.

7&9pm

Screening

Has the SAG strike got you hankering for new commercial material? Check out the British Television Advertising Awards 2000. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art offers a 100-minute package of the best ads the British have to offer. Among the selections are spots for Nike, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, British Airways, Sega and Playstation that range from dry as a martini to wacky as Monty Python.

* British Television Advertising Awards 2000 at the LACMA’s Bing Theatre, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 7 and 9 p.m. $7; $5 for members. (323) 857-6010.

8pm

Dance

Whether crashing headfirst through panes of glass or bouncing off walls, the eight members of Elizabeth Streb: Ringside fuse the skills of stunt performers with a postmodern dance sensibility. In “ActionHeroes,” Streb uses a portable 20-foot-tall metal box-truss as a self-contained performance space to celebrate daredevils of the circus, fairground, movies and TV. Streb calls her company members “transgressive action maniacs,” and this new 70-minute extravaganza may be the ultimate proof. In addition to the two evening programs, a final, abridged matinee performance (“Kid Action”) will introduce Streb’s techniques to young students from the St. Joseph Ballet of Santa Ana.

* Elizabeth Streb: Ringside in “ActionHeroes,” Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. 8 p.m. Also Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday (special abridged family show), 3 p.m. $15 to $35. (949) 854-4646.

Freebies

The seven-person singing ensemble Kitka performs at noon at California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. (213) 687-2159.