BEST BETS Thursday 5/31

8pm

Dance

The Santa Ana-based St. Joseph Ballet company will give its annual spring concert through the weekend. On tap are company artistic director Beth Burns’ new “Listen Look” to live accompaniment by jazz pianist Geoff Keezer. The concert showcases 120 dancers, ages 13-18. Other works include “All Heaven Broke Loose” and Melanie Rios’ “Embraceable You.” Two of Rios’ works, which premiered last May, were the first created for the company by a guest choreographer.

* St. Joseph Ballet, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. 8 p.m. Also Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. $15 to $35. (949) 854-4646.

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2 pm and 8 pm

Theater

First produced in 1975, “American Buffalo” certified David Mamet as an important voice in the theater. At the time, the gritty, vulgar, staccato street dialect spoken by its three characters broke new ground. A quarter of a century later, with profanity and gritty circumstances commonplace in the arts, “Buffalo” still offers a funny yet bleak portrait of futility. A trio of Chicago down-and-outers hang out in a junk shop while ineptly plotting the heist of the valuable Indian-head nickel that gives the play its title. Robert Duvall, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman are among those who have tackled the central role of Teach, the desperate, volatile and resentment-filled hood for whom pulling the burglary becomes a test of mettle.

“American Buffalo,” Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Previews today at 2 and 8 p.m. and Friday at 8 p.m. Regular performances begin Saturday. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m., matinees Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 1. $24-$43. (949) 497-2787.