8 pm: Movies

Mexican-born Ramon Novarro was the original Latin Lover, a romantic leading man whose popularity was rivaled only by Rudolph Valentino and John Gilbert. The high point of the Silent Movie Theatre’s monthlong tribute to Novarro is tonight’s screening of “Ben-Hur” (1925). Novarro plays the title character, the Jew who avenges the destruction of his family by Messala (Francis X. Bushman). The MGM movie was one of the grandest epics of its day, boasting “a cast of 125,000!”

* “Ben-Hur” at the Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. $9. (323) 655-2520.

8 pm: Theater

Dan Castellaneta, Arye Gross, Barbara Bain and Roxanne Hart are among those slated to perform in L.A. Theatre Works’ live radio theater production of “Lost in Yonkers,” Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy about two teenage boys who must spend a year with their demanding German Jewish grandmother.

* “Lost in Yonkers,” Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Today and Friday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 4 and 7:30 p.m. (Dark Saturday.) $32 to $36. (310) 827-0889.

8 pm: Dance

A survey last year of 30 critics from 14 countries voted Nederlands Dans Theater the company with the best dancers and choreographies. And who can argue--especially when the company is bringing back to the Southland some of the most acclaimed pieces from its engagements at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in the 1990s. “Petite Mort” and “No More Play” are works that choreographer Jiri Kylian calls coloring books for adults, demanding the creative interpretation of each viewer. “Start to Finish” is a celebration of human eccentricity by British choreographer Paul Lightfoot. And “Bella Figura” is a complex Kylian essay in what The Times called “sublime lyricism.”

* Nederlands Dans Theater, Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. (at Western Avenue), L.A. 8 p.m. Also Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. $30 to $60. (310) 825-2101.

8 pm: Poetry

Black History Month gets a jolt of passionate versifying from the Last Poets, a group whose politically charged albums in the early ‘70s opened a vein of social commentary that nourished such later rap and rock groups as Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine. The group is joined at the El Rey Theatre by Kamau Daaood (known as “the griot of Leimert Park”), MC and poet Medusa, slam poetry champ Jerry Quickley, Seattle poet Piece and improvisational jazz group Infiniti Project.

* The Last Poets at the El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 8 p.m. $15. (323) 936-4790.

*

FREEBIES: Artist Barbara Kruger, known for her socially and politically charged black, white and red artworks, lectures at 5 p.m. at Loyola Marymount University, Hilton 100, 7900 Loyola Blvd., Westchester. (310) 338-7424.

*

The Museum of Tolerance screens “Street Dreams,” a documentary focusing on six homeless and at-risk youths with artistic aspirations. The filmmakers and some of their young subjects will participate in a discussion after the film. 7 p.m., 9786 W. Pico Blvd., L.A. (310) 772-2452.