BEST BETS THURSADAY 10/26

8pm Theater

The world-renowned Gate Theatre of Dublin presents Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic classic, “Waiting for Godot,” about two darkly comic vagrants whiling away their time waiting for the mysterious someone who may or may not come.

* “Waiting for Godot,” Freud Playhouse, UCLA campus,Westwood. Today-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $40. (310) 825-2101.

8pm

Dance

Contemporary dance plunges through cycles of innovation so quickly that the radical, minimalist postmodern period is now kaput, passe, nostalgia-fodder. As proof, here comes Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project in “PastForward: The Influence of the Post-Moderns,” a living Terpsichorean equivalent of those CDs and audiocassettes sold on cable TV that compile the greatest rock hits of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Here, on one stage, are golden oldies by Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton Lucinda Childs and Simone Forti, along with new or revived pieces by David Gordon, Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Two programs are scheduled, though exact rep is to be announced.

* White Oak Dance Project in “PastForward: The Influence of the Post-Moderns,” Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood. 8 p.m. Also Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. $30 to $60. (310) 825-2101.

8:30pm

Dance

Celebrating a decade of work by his New York-based company Reality, the multitalented, multidisciplinary David Rousseve performs his first solo evening since 1987: a work in progress of reminiscences and excerpts titled “The Ten Year Chat.” A writer and actor as well as choreographer and dancer, Rousseve specializes in a personal style of dance-theater fusing contemporary issues (including race, gender and AIDS) with the history of his family from generations ago. Southland audiences will remember his charismatic performances at the Bradbury Building (1990), Wadsworth Theater (1994), Royce Hall (1998), Dance Kaleidoscope (1997 and ‘98) and Highways (1998 and ‘99).

*David Rousseve in “The Ten Year Chat,” Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. 8:30 p.m. Also Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m. $13 to $16. (310) 453-1755.

8pm

Music

The acclaimed young British tenor Ian Bostridge gives a Schubert-Wolf lieder recital in intimate Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight, part of the ongoing Eclectic Orange Festival. He will be assisted by pianist Julius Drake.

* Ian Bostridge sings in Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $40. (949) 553-2422.

Freebie

Michael Wilson, best known as a producer of James Bond films, chronicles 20 years of collecting photography in a lecture, “Voyages and Visions: Early Photographs From the Wilson Family Collection.” 7 p.m. the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. (310) 440-7300.