Best Bets / SEPT. 24-30, 2000

Movies

Christopher Guest’s comedy “Best in Show” focuses on several eccentric dog owners gearing up for the canine showdown of their lives--the prestigious Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey head an ensemble cast. Opens exclusively at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood and the Loews Broadway in Santa Monica on Friday.

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Also: Sally Field turns director with “Beautiful,” which stars Minnie Driver, who doggedly enters beauty contests in an attempt to escape from a dismal household. Against all odds she begins to maneuver her way up the pageant ladder. With Joey Lauren Adams and Hallie Kate Eisenberg. Opens wide Friday.

Music

Nikolai Lugansky brings music by Rachmaninoff, Medtner and Tchaikovsky (plus Mozart) to his single recital at the Cerritos Center Monday night.

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Also: Narimichi Kawabata, a 28-year-old Japanese violinist, makes his U.S. debut in the Japan America Theatre today in a recital the blind musician is dedicating to the Japanese American doctors at UCLA who saved his life 20 years ago. Assisted by South African pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar, he’ll be playing sonatas by Tartini and Beethoven and pieces by Brahms, Ernst and Ravel.

Art

The ancient customs and craftsmanship detailed in Pueblo pottery are represented in “From Earth, Fire and Spirit: Historic Pueblo Pottery from the Southwest Museum,” opening today at the Southwest Museum. A selection of the Mount Washington museum’s world-renowned collection will feature more than 100 works by the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico.

Theater

Broadway veteran Eileen Barnett stars in Musical Theatre Guild’s “Broadway in Concert” presentation, a staged reading with live orchestra West Coast premiere of the newly revised musical epic “Rags.” By Charles Strouse, Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein, it’s about Ellis Island immigrants and their struggles in the New World. Monday at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Video

The versatile Billy Crudup, currently starring in “Almost Famous,” headlines Keith Gordon’s drama “Waking the Dead.” Crudup plays a congressional candidate who begins to question his sanity when he believes he sees his long-dead girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly). Janet McTeer and Hal Holbrook also star in the drama, which arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.

Pop Music

Like Ibrahim Ferrer, another Cuban singer of distinguished vintage, 69-year-old Omara Portuondo has recently come to prominence in the U.S. through her association with the Buena Vista Social Club. But that’s just the tip of a career that spans half a century. The bolero specialist plays Royce Hall on Friday and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday.