Weekend Picks: ‘Cats,’ Martha Graham and ‘Magic Flute’ inspired by video games

The Oscars are over, so your weekend should be wide open to check out the return of “Cats” to L.A., a revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” and two very different takes on two very different Mozart works, courtesy of Los Angeles Opera and Pacific Opera Project. Composer Meredith Monk presents a new vocal work, two L.A. Times Critics’ Choice dramas give their final performances, and Los Angeles Ballet, Trinity Irish Dance and Martha Graham Dance Company all perform.

Midnight, not a sound from the pavement ...

If you know those lines, you know “Cats.” Based on poems by T.S. Eliot, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony-winning musical is back with new choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler (“Hamilton”). Hollywood Pantages, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; other dates through March 24. $49 and up; children under 5 not admitted. www.hollywoodpantages.com

It’s-a me, Papageno!

The law of un-Nintendo’d consequences will be in full effect as Pacific Opera Project opens its season with “The Magic Flute.” The local company’s family-friendly, video game-style take on Mozart’s romantic fantasy features a new English libretto by Scott Levin and artistic director Josh Shaw. El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; other dates through March 10. www.pacificoperaproject.com

L.A. Ballet doubles down

Los Angeles Ballet pairs the Balanchine classic “Serenade,” set to the music of Tchaikovsky, with “La Sylphide,” a Romantic-era supernatural fable set in Scotland. Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd. (Program repeats in Westwood on March 9 in and Glendale on March 16.) www.losangelesballet.org

A gentleman calls

A faded but domineering Southern belle, her sensitive aspiring-writer son and his cripplingly shy sister share an apartment in St. Louis in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ semiautobiographical drama “The Glass Menagerie.” A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; other dates through April 26. $25 and up; student rush, $20. www.anoisewithin.org

At a ‘Cellular’ level

Composer-performer Meredith Monk and company will explore humankind’s relationship with the natural world in the West Coast premiere of Monk’s multimedia vocal work “Cellular Songs.” Presented by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. Royce Hall, UCLA, 340 Royce Drive, Westwood. 8 p.m. Saturday. $29-$59. www.cap.ucla.edu

Martha Graham meets Caroline Shaw

Martha Graham Dance Company joins forces with L.A.-based modern music collective wildUp for the world premiere of choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s “Untitled (Souvenir),” set to music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. The program also includes the Graham classics “Secular Games” and “Chronicle.” Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 8 p.m. Saturday. $39 and up. www.TheSoraya.org

When in Rome …

Tenor Russell Thomas stars as the titular Roman emperor in Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Mozart’s historical drama “The Clemency of Titus.” James Conlon conducts. Sung in Italian with English supertitles. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Saturday; other dates through March 24. $16 and up. www.LAOpera.org

Stepping lively in Long Beach

Get a jump on St. Patrick’s Day with Trinity Irish Dance Company. The female-centric company offers a program that includes the West Coast premiere of Mark Howard and Chelsea Hoy’s “An Sorcas.” Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. 8 p.m. Saturday. $50. www.carpenterarts.org

Last call for ‘Two Trains,’ ‘Witness Uganda’

It’s your last weekend to catch these two L.A. Times Critics’ Choice shows:

“Two Trains Running,” August Wilson’s drama about African American life in 1960s Pittsburgh, ends its run at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $35. (855) 326-9945. www.eventbrite.com

“Witness Uganda: A Documentary Musical” closes at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. $50. www.TheWallis.org