Best Bets / APRIL 29-MAY 5, 2001

Brendan Fraser, above, is back as adventurer Rick O’Connell in “The Mummy Returns,” set in 1935, a decade after “The Mummy.” Now married to Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and living in London, he soon discovers you can’t keep a good man--OK, an evil mummy--down. Opens Friday.

Theater

The nationally touring “Catskills on Broadway,” Freddie Roman’s nostalgic salute to Borscht Belt comedians, returns to the Southland with original cast members Roman, Mal Z. Lawrence and Dick Capri, along with singing comic impressionist Scott Record. Opens Tuesday at the Wilshire Theatre for a two-week engagement.

Music

Jeffrey Kahane conducts the L.A. Chamber Orchestra in three concertos plus Bizet’s Symphony in C, closing the ensemble’s season Friday in Royce Hall at UCLA and Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Redoubtable American musician Garrick Ohlsson is soloist in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Haydn’s Concerto in D. Susan Greenberg is soloist in Bruce Broughton’s Piccolo Concerto.

Dance

Video artist Kate Johnson, painter Richard Lopez, composer Robin Cox and five modern dancers will all be creating in the moment Saturday, when award-winning choreographer Loretta Livingston takes over the art gallery in the Luckman Complex at Cal State L.A. for “Dances for White Rooms.” Livingston will also dance in the program--and that alone makes it a must.

Pop Music

The 12th annual free Fiesta Broadway L.A. marks Cinco de Mayo nearly a week early today, filling a swath of downtown with food, rides and Latin music ranging from traditional pop to rock en espanol. Among the acts: fiesta queen Paulina Rubio, Natalia Oreiro, above, Jon Secada, Pablo Montero, Jose Jose and MDO. Still to be announced is whether grand marshal Oscar De La Hoya will favor the throng with a song.

Art

‘To Create a Living Art: 19th Century Drawing,” opening Tuesday at the J. Paul Getty Museum, documents a period in history when idealized landscapes gave way to more naturalistic renderings and studies of everyday life became tinged with social criticism. Artists represented include “radicals” Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis-Leopold Boilly, Gustave Corbet, Georges Seurat and Pierre Bonnard. Above, Courbet’s charcoal “Head Study of a Sleeping Bacchante” (1847).

Jazz

Jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and his quartet will pay homage to the incomparable Louis Armstrong in “A Tribute to Satchmo,” Saturday night at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theatre in Malibu. Gordon, a veteran of Wynton Marsalis’ Septet, is known for his powerful, intricate runs and clean melodies.

Video

David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton supply the voices for the peppy Disney animated comedy “The Emperor’s New Groove,” with music by Sting. It arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.