Best Bets / JULY 22-28, 2001

Movies

“Greenfingers” stars Clive Owen (of “Croupier”), above right with David Kelly, as a long-term British convict whose life is transformed when he unexpectedly finds himself cultivating a garden behind prison walls. With Helen Mirren. Opens Friday at selected theaters.

Also: Jon Gries stars in “Jackpot” as a struggling country and western singer in search of fame and fortune who sets off on a karaoke tour of bleak towns. Written and directed by the brothers Michael and Mark Polish, whose 1999 debut feature was “Twin Falls, Idaho.” Opens Friday at selected theaters.

Theater

The sister act that wowed audiences in the 1930s and was a major influence on vocal groups with its groundbreaking syncopated rhythms and swinging tight harmonies, is the subject of the world premiere musical, “The Boswell Sisters.” Directed by “Forever Plaid” creator Stuart Ross, who co-wrote the show with Mark Hampton, it opens Saturday at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.

Music

It’s Beethoven week at the Hollywood Bowl: Swiss conductor Matthias Bamert takes over the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Ninth Symphony on Tuesday, and on Thursday offers the Fifth Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 3, with soloist Andreas Haefliger. The weekend’s Beethoven Spectacular will be led by Eri Klas, with pianist Norman Krieger in the Choral Fantasy.

Dance

Ballet Pacifica’s innovative three-week Pacifica Choreographic Project culminates in a works-in-progress presentation Saturday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. Newly developed pieces by Susan Hadley, Jacques Heim, Manard Stewart and Dominic Walsh will be on view, with Ballet Pacifica artistic director Molly Lynch leading a discussion afterward.

Art

“David Hockney Retrospective: Photoworks,” a traveling exhibition opening today at downtown L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art at California Plaza, examines the role photography has played for the British expatriate in L.A. While best known for his brightly colored paintings and drawings, the focus here is on photography from the 1960s to the 1990s and from traditional stills to experimental collages such as “Prehistoric Museum Near Palm Sprints” (1982), below left.

Jazz

Grammy-winning, best-selling jazz pianist-singer Diana Krall, above, performs Wednesday with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. Krall, whose 1999 CD, “When I Look in Your Eyes,” was nominated for album of the year, plans to offer a taste of the music from her upcoming CD. The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra will open the show.

Pop Music

Hip-hop’s bohemian side gets a showcase in the Family Tree Tour, a caravan that comes to the House of Blues branches in Anaheim on Friday and West Hollywood on Saturday. Highlights include Slum Village and its eight-piece band, Tribe Called Quest alumnus Phife Dawg with Jarobi, DJ Rasta Root, Dwele and two formidable female rappers, Mystic and Bahamadia.