8 pm: Theater

With an environmental noir staging that takes the audience back to the dance-marathon craze of the Great Depression, watching desperate marathon hopefuls compete for cash prizes and three meals a day, Greenway Arts Alliance presents an original stage adaptation of Horace McCoy’s novel “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” by Rick Sparks and Gary Carter.

* “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends April 28. $18-$22. (323) 930-9304.

9 pm: Pop Music

It’s been nearly five years since Suzanne Vega’s last album, “Nine Objects of Desire,” but the arty folk-pop princess has been in the studio lately with producer Rupert Hine. Meantime, Vega-heads have contented themselves with items such as her version of “The Erie Canal” on the children’s album “Rocket Ship Beach.”

* Suzanne Vega, the Knitting Factory Hollywood, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., L.A., 9 p.m. $25. (323) 463-0204.

8 pm: Theater

A woman’s journey to her mother’s deathbed catapults her into a wild terra incognita in O-Lan Jones’ new theatrical chamber opera, “The Woman Who Forgot Her Sweater,” presented by Overtone Industries as part of the “Hot Properties” new play series.

* “The Woman Who Forgot Her Sweater,” [Inside] the Ford, John Anson Ford Theatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood Hills. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends April 22. $15-$20. (323) 461-3673.

7 pm: Pop Music

There are “jam bands,” and there are techno and dance acts. Who’s bridging the gap? Groups like Lake Trout, New Deal and, maybe the best, Disco Biscuits. The Santa Cruz-based band’s upcoming album, “They Missed the Perfume,” figures to accelerate the cross-cultural synergy.

* Disco Biscuits, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 7 p.m. $16. (323) 848-5100.

8 pm: Theater

Long-separated twin brothers unknowingly meet in “The Comedy of Errors,” Shakespeare’s classic comedy of mistaken identities, presented by A Noise Within.

* “The Comedy of Errors,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Friday and Saturday, and April 13-14, May 2, 5, 16-17, 25 at 8 p.m.; Saturday and April 8, 14, May 5, 13, 26 at 2 p.m.; April 8 and May 13 at 7 p.m. Ends May 26. $16-$40. (323) 953-7795.

8 pm: Jazz

What do you do after your life story has been chronicled in an HBO movie? If you’re Arturo Sandoval, you simply carry on as one of the best jazz trumpeters working today.

* Arturo Sandoval, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach, 8 p.m. $25 to $30. (562) 985-7000.

8 pm: Dance

From ancient Bugaku to contemporary butoh, no concert-dance culture takes itself more seriously than Japan’s. But director/choreographer Ryohei Kondo intends to change his very sedate island nation into the Land of the Rising Fun with Condors, an all-male, off-the-wall dance-comedy troupe that the New York Times described as “both mysterious and nutty.” Currently on its first U.S. tour, the 14-member company arrives in Little Tokyo with “Conquest of the Galaxy: Jupiter--Love You Live,” spoofing everything from pop culture to its own art form. “Full of a daring and lighthearted desire to laugh off the idea of established dance,” Dance Magazine wrote recently. “. . . The whole theater was enveloped in laughter.”

* Condors, Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., L.A., 8 p.m. $12 (students, seniors) to $20. (213) 680-3700.

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FREEBIES: Soprano Lisa Stidham is soloist with the Pasadena Community Orchestra, with Wayne Reinecke conducting, at First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena, at 8:15 p.m. Stidham sings Cantata No. 84 by J.S. Bach. The orchestra also plays music by Brahms, Verdi and Schubert. (626) 445-6708.

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“Urban Wilderness: Chaos Transformed,” an exhibition of Irving Greines’ abstracted Cibachrome photographs capturing urban decay, opens with a reception for the artist from 7 to 9 p.m. Stephen Cohen Gallery, 7358 Beverly Blvd., L.A. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Ends May 26. (323) 937-5525.