BEST BETS / Thursday 1/18

8pm

Dance

Originally a seven-minute segment in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, “Riverdance” has experienced a number of dramatic highs and lows since it became a full-length Irish dance spectacle the following year. The ups include phenomenal (and ongoing) worldwide success in live, video and CD editions, plus a Grammy Award for composer Bill Whelan. The downs include legal action by its original co-star and co-choreographer, Michael Flatley, and a nasty scandal over its use of prerecorded (dubbed in) taps. Now “Riverdance” returns to the Southland, with Tara Barry and Michael Patrick Gallagher in the leads and the same high-tech reinterpretation of traditional Irish culture as ever.

* “Riverdance,” Shubert Theatre, 2020 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, 8 p.m. Schedule: Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 4. $40 to $70. (800) 447-7400.

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7pm

Pop Music

SnoCore, the “winter lifestyle” concert tour, marks its sixth year by putting two separate packages on the road simultaneously. The lighter fare arrives tonight at the Palace, where New Orleans funk-rock specialists Galactic head a bill that also includes Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade. Things get cranked up on Saturday when Fear Factory and Kittie spearhead the higher-decibel side of SnoCore.

* SnoCore 2001 with Galactic, Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade, Lake Trout and Drums and Tuba, at the Palace, 1735 N. Vine St., Hollywood, 7 p.m. $25. (323) 462-3000. Also Saturday with Fear Factory, Kittie, the Union Underground, Slaves on Dope and Boy Hits Car, at the Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, 5 p.m. $22.50. (323) 962-7600.

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10 pm

Movies

David Drake’s long-running, one-man stage show “The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me” is now a feature film and will screen tonight at the Sunset 5, followed by a Q&A; with the author-performer. “Larry Kramer” features a series of provocative monologues that explore sexual, spiritual and political issues affecting gay America. Emmy Award-winning director Tim Kirkman (“Dear Jesse”) filmed the piece, which was originally staged off-Broadway in 1992.

* “The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me,” Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Q&A; with actor-writer David Drake, tonight, 10 p.m.; the film also screens Fridays and Saturdays, midnight. $5.50-$8.50. (323) 848-3500.

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8pm

Theater

Tony Abatemarco’s critically acclaimed, razor-edged solo work, “Cologne, or the Ways Evil Enters the World,” reopens. Starring Abatemarco and directed by David Schweizer, the play is about a young gay boy’s coming of age in 1960s Long Island.

*”Cologne, or the Ways Evil Enters the World,” Evidence Room, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A., Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 2. $18. (213) 381-7118.

Freebie:

Artist Billy Al Bengston discusses the arts scene in California with Getty visiting lecturer and L.A. Times contributor Barbara Isenberg for the “Art Matters” lecture series, which complements the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition “Made in California.” 8 p.m. in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. (310) 440-7300.