BEST BETS / Friday 7/21

8pm

Music

Minnesota product Linda Eder has a voice that can melt snow. The star of hubby and composer Frank Wildhorn’s Broadway musical “Jekyll & Hyde,” Eder combines Streisand-like vocal skills with a sense of theatrics that make each song a performance of its own. Standards, show tunes and music from Wildhorn’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “The Civil War” all get the fresh face treatment as Eder sings.

* Linda Eder, Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. $40-$50. (213) 380-5005.

all day

Celebration

The Southwest Museum’s Fiesta Weekend heralds the closing of “Ancient Trails: Connecting the Gran Chichimeca,” an exhibition at the museum focusing on ancient pottery produced in the Casas Grandes site in Chihuahua, Mexico. The two-day celebration will include pottery and painting demonstrations, folklorico dancing and lectures. Dealers will also be present with a selection of Mata Otiz pottery. The exhibition runs through Aug. 13.

* Fiesta Weekend, Southwest Museum, 234 Museum Drive, Los Angeles. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Adults, $6; seniors, $4; ages 6-17, $3; younger than 6, free. (323) 221-2164.

7:30pm

Pop Music

Argentine rocker Fito Paez has been turning out smart and edgy music since the early ‘80s, and the rise of rock en espan~ol might help him regain the audience he found with his 1992 hit “El Amor Despues del Amor.” So far, so good: The singer-keyboardist comes to town riding the momentum of four Latin Grammy nominations, the fruit of his collaboration with veteran hit producer Phil Ramone on the album “Abre.”

* Fito Paez, Saturday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 7:30 p.m. $20. (323) 848-5100.

7:30pm

Movies

Robert Altman’s America: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s salute to the maverick filmmaker concludes tonight with “MASH” (1970). Altman’s comic masterpiece about a medical unit during the Korean War established him as a major director and launched the careers of many of its great cast--including Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Robert Duvall and Sally Kellerman (respectively, the original Hawkeye, Trapper John, Frank Burns and Hot Lips), Gary Burghoff as Radar, Tom Skerritt and Rene Auberjonois--many of whom will be on hand for a discussion afterward.

* Robert Altman’s America: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective, “MASH” screening, plus cast-and-crew reunion, LACMA, Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. $5-$7. (323) 857-6010.

8pm

Theater

In David Rambo’s fact-based play, staged by noted international director Leonard Foglia, two Baptist pastors struggle to see who will be “God’s Man in Texas,” vying for control of a multimillion-dollar religious institution.

* “God’s Man in Texas,” Old Globe Theatre, Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, San Diego. 8 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 26. $23-$42. (619) 239-2255.

all day

Theme Parks

No wonder Knott’s Berry Farm is calling its new water ride Perilous Plunge. The Niagara Falls-like thrill ride sends 24-passenger boats on a leisurely tour of the 650,000-gallon California Harbor before plummeting them down a world-record, 115-foot waterfall at a 75-degree angle. Knott’s claims just the splash is taller than a four-story building.

* Perilous Plunge, Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. Monday-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fridays-Saturdays, 9 a.m.-midnight; Sundays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. $38; seniors and ages 3-11, $28; younger than 3, free. (714) 220-5200.

8pm

Music

With a cast of hundreds, Pacific Symphony music director Carl St.Clair conducts both Carl Orff’s popular cantata, “Carmina Burana,” and Liszt’s First Piano Concerto at the former Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre--now the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Joining the orchestra, the Pacific Chorale and the Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus are vocal soloists Kirsten Leslie, Christopher Pfund and Daniel Belcher. In the Liszt, pianist Sergei Edelmann is featured.

* Carl St.Clair leads the Pacific Symphony and Friends at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8088 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, at 8 p.m. $15-$60. (714) 755-5799.

FREEBIES

A classic car show and a street concert for the entire family will take place at Cruise Night, Brand Boulevard between Broadway Avenue and Doran Street, Glendale. 6-10 p.m. (818) 548-6464.

Children’s Book World hosts poet Janet Wong for an hour of interactive storytelling for ages 4 and older. 10580 1/2 Pico Blvd., L.A. 10:30-11:30 a.m. (310) 559-BOOK.