Best Bets / SEPT. 17-23, 2000

Movies

Penelope Cruz plays a mystically gifted chef who leaves Brazil to make her way in San Francisco in Venezuelan director Fina Torres’ “Woman on Top.” Murilo Benicio, Mark Feuerstein and Harrold Perrineau Jr. provide the spice in her life. Opens wide Friday.

Music

Music Director Jeffrey Kahane opens his fourth season as conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Saturday night in Royce Hall, UCLA. American violinist Joshua Bell is soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto; the program also includes Copland’s Three Latin-American Sketches and Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, “Drumroll.” This gala opening program will not be repeated.

Jazz

The double bill of Charlie Haden’s Quartet West and Shirley Horn’s Trio at Royce Hall this Thursday is quite logical. Singer-pianist Horn is a masterful interpreter of ballads while bassist Haden’s group (featuring Ernie Watts’ passionate tenor) often emphasizes haunting melodies.

Pop Music

It’s hello-goodbye for La Barbra this week, as fans welcome a new Streisand live album (recorded in Vegas on New Year’s Eve) into the stores on Tuesday, then brace for the first set of the diva’s farewell concerts. Streisand will say so long to L.A. at Staples Center on Wednesday and Thursday, before presenting what she has announced as her final performances in New York on Sept. 27-28.

Theater

Lee Blessing’s “Going to St. Ives,” with Tony Award-winning actress L. Scott Caldwell (for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”) and Steppenwolf Theatre’s Amy Morton, will have its California premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse. It’s about the mother of a vicious African dictator who consults an English eye surgeon, but their meeting holds a hidden agenda. Opens today.

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Also: Glenne Headly, stars in the Loretta Theatre’s Los Angeles premiere of “Detachments,” Colleen Dodson-Baker’s screwball comedy about a woman who finds herself suddenly facing a retinal detachment and a breakup with her long-term boyfriend. Original “SNL” alumna Laraine Newman is also featured. Opens Monday at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood.

Dance

The 80-member Veriovka Ukrainian National Dance Company tours the Southland this week, performing its acclaimed folkloric program on Tuesday in the Smothers Theatre of Pepperdine University in Malibu. The company next appears at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, then moves to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Friday and Saturday.

Video

In 1990, Stephen Frears directed John Cusack in the acclaimed film noir, “The Grifters.” A decade later, they teamed up for “High Fidelity,” a sharp, sophisticated comedy about the fear of commitment. Based on the book by Nick Hornby, the romantic comedy also stars Todd Louiso and Jack Black as the “musical moron twins” and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The movie arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.