BEST BETS Friday 9/8

6:30pm Pop Music

Fans who like their rock heavy but prefer something a little more, um, subtle than the Limp Bizkit approach have helped make A Perfect Circle one of the year’s big arrivals. After a break-in swing with Nine Inch Nails, the L.A.-based band is on its first headlining North American tour.

* A Perfect Circle, with Sunna, at the Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 6:30 p.m. Sold out. (323) 962-7600.

8pm

Jazz

What else would you call a tribute to Gene Krupa except a bash? The late drummer, whose powerful sticks and style made him a superstar in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, is being saluted at this “Big Band Bash.”

* “Big Band Bash” with Barbara McNair, the Ink Spot Generations, the Dick Parent Big Band and others, Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro. 8 p.m. Tickets, available at the box office on the day of the show only, are $20 general admission, $17 for Arts Card L.A. members. (310) 548-7466.

7:30pm

Movies

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art Film Department presents “The Talented Alain Delon” film series over the next two weekends. Seven of the French cinema icon’s films will be presented, including tonight’s double bill of 1960’s “Purple Noon” and the 1963 crime caper “Any Number Can Win.” “Purple Noon” is based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and was remade last year by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon. “Any Number Can Win” co-stars another French icon, Jean Gabin. See Screening Room, Page XX.

* “The Talented Alain Delon” film series, Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. “Purple Noon” and “Any Number Can Win,” Friday, 7:30 p.m.; “Le Samourai” and “Nouvelle Vague,” Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Series continues through Sept. 16. $5 to $7. (323) 857-6010.

7:30pm

Opera

The celebrated American mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore returns to Los Angeles Opera this week as Cinderella in Rossini’s popular opera “La Cenerentola,” sharing the stage with tenor Kurt Streit and baritone Rodney Gilfry. This new co-production, with the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the opera companies of Pittsburgh and Graz, Austria, has been designed by Riccardo Hernandez, with costumes by Joel Berlin. Gabriele Ferro conducts; stage director is Thor Steingraber.

* Los Angeles Opera presents Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” in Italian, with English supertitles, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. 7:30 p.m. $28-$148. Also Sunday at 1 p.m., and through Sept. 24. (213) 365-3500.

7:45pm

Theater

“Everett Beekin,” a new comedy by Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (for “Three Days of Rain”), is about an immigrant family’s road to assimilation spanning 50 years and three generations, from New York City to Orange County. It premieres on South Coast Rep’s Mainstage.

* “Everett Beekin,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 8. $28-$49; except this Saturday, 2 p.m., pay what you can. (714) 708-5555.

all day

Museum

Who wants to be a millionaire? Name the founding father of English literature: (a) William Shakespeare, (b) Geoffrey Chaucer, (c) William Blake, (d) Thomas More. If you didn’t pick (b), get thee to the Huntington Library, where the library is marking the 600th anniversary of Chaucer’s death with “A Mirour Polisshed Bryght: Reflections of Chaucer 1400-2000.” Drawing on the library’s massive collection, curators have culled Chaucer criticism from six centuries. And, of course, the famous illustrated Ellesmere manuscript of “The Canterbury Tales,” created circa 1410, will be on view.

* “A Mirour Polisshed Bryght: Reflections of Chaucer 1400-2000” at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Ends Jan. 28. Open Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 4:30 p.m. $8.50; $8 seniors; $6 students; free age 12 and younger. (626) 405-2141.

8pm

Theater

Performed outdoors in a specially built mini-bullring, “The Bullfight (Looking Into the Stands)” is a surrealistic play about the final moments of confrontation between bull and bullfighter. Written by Venezuelan playwright Rodolfo Santana, it is adapted and directed by Paul Verdier.

* “The Bullfight (Looking Into the Stands),” Stages Theatre Center, 1540 N. McCadden Place. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 29. $18. (323) 465-1010.

Freebie

The Laurel Canyon Ramblers perform acoustic bluegrass, folk, country and Appalachian-influenced music, California Plaza, 300-350 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., noon. (213) 687-2159.