BEST BETS / MAY 14-20, 2000

Movies

Disney’s “Dinosaur” combines computer character animation with digitally enhanced live-action backgrounds to transport audiences to prehistoric times for an action-comedy adventure centering on a 3-ton Iguanadon named Aladar, who embarks on a dangerous journey to safety. Opens wide Friday.

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Todd Phillips’ “Road Trip” follows the exploits of a college student and three buddies on a 1,800-mile trek from New York to Texas to salvage a lifelong romance. MTV’s Tom Green, Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott and Amy Scott head the cast. Opens wide Friday.

Pop Music

There have been some big changes for Wynonna lately, ranging from a move to a new record label to a divorce to the long-awaited teaming with mom Naomi for the recent Judds reunion tour. So when the singer headlines the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Thursday, she should be able to pack plenty of conviction into the title song of her latest album, “New Day Dawning.”

Theater

Susan Sullivan--best known for her “Dharma & Greg” role as Greg’s snooty mom, plays a different maternal role: controlling Amanda in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” Raphael Sbarge plays her restless son, Rachel Robinson her fragile daughter, and Tony Crane is the Gentleman Caller. Andrew Robinson directs. Opens today at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Music

Even in a spring season notable for splendid piano playing, one more event promises much: the recital Friday night by justly celebrated Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida, closing the Celebrity Recital season in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The program: sonatas by Chopin (B-flat minor) and Schubert (D-major, D. 850), plus Webern’s Variations (1936) and the B-minor Adagio of Mozart.

Jazz

The seventh annual Newport Beach Jazz Festival, this weekend and next at the Hyatt Newporter, features top names in the pop/jazz and crossover/R&B; fields. Among today’s headliners are Keiko Matsui, Patti Austin and Guitar & Saxes; next Friday has Eric Marienthal; and Saturday includes Joe Sample/Lalah Hathaway and David Sanborn.

Art

Artworks by 17 mid-career artists will be featured in “Shifting Perceptions: Contemporary L.A. Visions,” opening Wednesday at the Pacific Asia Museum, One Colorado, Pasadena Art Space, Pasadena Public Library and Pasadena Historical Museum. The group show was designed to challenge preconceived notions of an artist’s work based on ethnicity, and will include artists Soonja Oh Kim, Yon Soon Min, Carl Cheng, Margaret Honda and Dinh Q. Le.

Family

The centerpiece of the rapidly growing, second annual “International Performing Arts Festival for Youth,” Saturday at USC, is Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano,” a collaboration between the respected Blau Vier Theatre of Belgium and Seattle Children’s Theatre. Dance, comedy, Bali and Beyond shadow puppets, workshops and multicultural hopscotch are also on the bill.