Three-day forecast

ART

Gehry from start to end

The Walt Disney Concert Hall doesn’t open until October, but the curious can marvel at its dramatic exterior, then walk across the street to the Museum of Contemporary Art for Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress, opening Sunday. Gehry, the Disney Hall’s architect, has gained worldwide acclaim for buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. And this exhibit demonstrates how his creative processes work, from original sketches, computer-generated architectural drawings, photography and sample materials to architectural scale models of Gehry’s buildings.

Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress, MOCA at California Plaza, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Also, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Ends Jan. 26. $5-$8; 11 and younger, free. (213) 621-2766.

JAZZ

A week of a wunderkind

Acclaimed jazz singer Jane Monheit, (she’s a couple of months shy of her 25th birthday) warms up for her weeklong stint later this month at Feinstein’s in Hollywood with performances this weekend in Mission Viejo and Santa Barbara. Monheit first gained national attention when she named first runner-up at the 1998 Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition.

Jane Monheit, McKinney Theatre 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Saturday, 8 p.m. $25-$30. (949) 582-4656. Also at the Lobero Theatre 33 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara. Sunday, 8 p.m. $25-$35. (805) 963-0761.

WORDS

Crime made personal

Fictional crime, detective and mystery yarns are spun from the fertile minds of authors who have not necessarily committed nor witnessed a crime. They may not have walked the mean streets or turned down dark alleys in the wee hours, but they will have done their research. A group of writers, Sisters in Crime, is bringing such studies to its home turf when former convict Robert Labhart presents Gangs, Drugs, Crime & Prison: A Personal Experience. Labhart will recount his more than 30 years in the prison systems, street life, gang life and the drug life.

“Gangs, Drugs, Crime & Prison,” South Pasadena Public Library Community Room, 1115 El Centro St., South Pasadena. Sunday, 2 p.m. $5. (213) 694-2972.

FESTIVAL

The return of Core Tour

If you missed the Core Tour, when it was in Venice Beach in June, you’ve got another chance to catch it this weekend in Huntington Beach. The free alternative sports and music festival with competitions in skateboarding, inline skating, BMX and mountainboard skills plus live concerts by alternative music bands, takes over the beach 2 to 6 p.m. Friday for open practice. The actual competition qualifying starts at 11 a.m. Saturday. Music begins at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, see www.coretour.com.

Core Tour, Huntington Beach Pier Plaza, Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street, Huntington Beach. Friday, 2-6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Free. (562) 804-5542.

EVENTS

Car benefit rolls in

The Concours 2003 Color and Chrome Show happens Sunday at the Pacific Design Center and will feature nearly 200 classic, vintage and rare autos including a 1935 Duesenberg speedster and a 1964 Imperial Ghia limousine. The Great Autos of Yesteryear Classic Car Club, the largest gay and lesbian car club in the U.S., is sponsoring the show; proceeds will benefit the AIDS Service Center.

Concours 2003 Color and Chrome Show, Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $15. (323) 848-6471.

MOVIES

New wave translation

Jacques Becker, a former assistant to Jean Renoir who on his own directed only 13 features, was dismissed by critics, but his 1953 “Touchez pas au Grisbi” was a favorite of the New Wave directors. Back with a new 35-millimeter print, translations and subtitles, “Touchez pas au Grisbi” (translated as “Don’t Touch the Loot!”) features Jean Gabin and Rene Dary as past-their-prime gangsters planning one last heist. When Dary’s moll, a very young Jeanne Moreau, rolls over on them to drug merchant Lino Ventura, a gory battle ensues.

“Touchez pas au Grisbi,” unrated, opens Friday exclusively at the Landmark Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. (310) 281-8223.

THEATER

A second look at love

East West Players presents the Los Angeles premiere of “Passion,” the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical about an army captain on a remote military outpost in 1863 Italy, who finds that he must re-evaluate his beliefs about love when he becomes the object of his colonel’s plain, sickly cousin’s obsessive desire. Directed by Artistic Director Tim Dang.

David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., L.A. Opens Wednesday, 8 p.m., then runs Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m., except Sept. 13, 8 p.m. only. Sign-interpreted performance Oct. 4, 2 p.m.; ends Oct. 5. $23-$38; opening night, $63. (213) 625-7000, Ext. 20.

THEATER

From riches to roots and reality

Alfred Uhry followed his best-known play, “Driving Miss Daisy,” with the Tony-winning “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” another look at life among highly assimilated Jews in the American South. The Nazi threat seems far away as rich, snobbish Atlantans prepare for their big society bash in December 1939. Can the earthy, young New Yorker who enters their orbit bring them back to reality -- and their Jewish roots?

“The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” South Coast Repertory’s Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 2:30 and 8 p.m., Sundays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 5. $27-$55. (714) 708-5555.

DANCE

Ballet celebration

Three years ago, a Times reviewer praised the contemporary, locally based Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre for offering “a fine company and inspired choreography.” And now comes “Love, Loss and Lullabies,” a program that celebrates the company’s 23rd anniversary with a trio of ballets choreographed by Martinez, who won Lester Horton Dance Awards in 1999 and 2000. “Sing to Me of Love” is a poetic abstraction set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. “Places” deals with relationships and is danced to works by Felix Mendelssohn. “Fostering Dreams” is choreographed in turn-of-the-century style and has music by Stephen Foster. Expect balletic lyricism galore, sometimes updated and layered with deep emotions, but most notable for its musicality and stylistic refinement.

Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre in “Love, Loss and Lullabies,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. Friday, 8:30 p.m. $12 to $20. (323) 461-3673.

POP MUSIC

Latin finale at the Bowl

Three generations and three geographical centers of Latin music are represented in “Latin Roots and Rock” at the Hollywood Bowl. East L.A. patriarchs Los Lobos preside over the evening with their embracing mix of traditional Mexican music and rock. That eclecticism is echoed by Mexico City’s rock en espanol stalwarts Cafe Tacuba and Monterrey’s multifaceted Kinky.

Los Lobos, Cafe Tacuba, Kinky, Sunday, Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, 7 p.m. $1-$100. (323) 850-2000.