Best Bets February 25-March 3, 2001

Movies

Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt team for the first time in “The Mexican,” a comic adventure that finds bagman Pitt facing a pair of ultimatums: Go to Mexico to retrieve a priceless antique pistol for his mob boss and, from girlfriend Roberts, quit the mob or else. James Gandolfini, with Roberts, right, co-stars. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film opens wide Friday.

Jazz

Distinctive guitarist Robben Ford has jammed on blues with the late Jimmy Witherspoon, been an original member of the Yellowjackets, done studio work and played jazz. At Catalina’s for four days (starting Thursday), you can expect to hear plenty of evidence of his blues roots.

Music

In one of only three U.S. recitals she’s giving this season, Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, below, on Monday will sing music by Antonio Vivaldi in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. She will be assisted by the 15-member period instrumental ensemble Il Giardino Armonico in excerpts from “Juditha Triumphans,” “Gloria,” “Bajazet,” “Griselda,” “Ottone in Villa” and “Farnace.”

Pop Music

Roni Size/Reprazent represents the core of drum-and-bass, a genre the Bristol, England, musician is fond of stretching--the collective’s current album, “In the Mode,” includes appearances by rapper Method Man and Rage Against the Machine alumnus Zack de la Rocha. Size and company play two Houses of Blues this week--Anaheim on Thursday and West Hollywood on Friday.

Dance

From Paolo and Francesca to Little Nicky, the hottest people can be found in the underworld. Rosanna Gamson’s new full-evening dance-theater epic, “Rita Goes to Hell,” redefines the eternal infernal, using music by Bill Burnett, projected imagery by Sallie DeEtte Mackie and a 12-member cast to make Hades sheer heaven at Santa Monica’s Highways Performance Space from Thursday to next Sunday.

Video

Spike Lee directed the acclaimed documentary “The Original Kings of Comedy,” which stars funnymen Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac. Filmed in Charlotte, N.C., during the Kings of Comedy tour, the movie not only captures their routines, but offers behind-the-scenes insight into the psyches of the four headliners. The box office hit arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.

Theater

“Mamma Mia!,” ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’ hit musical based on the group’s songs, opens Monday at L.A.’s Shubert Theatre. Set on a tiny, mythical Greek island, the show, written by Catherine Johnson, weaves more than a score of ABBA songs--including “Dancing Queen,” “The Winner Takes It All,” “I Do, I Do, I Do”--into a comedic love story.