Best Bets for Sunday Calendar, Sept. 2, 2001

Movies

Mark Wahlberg, above left, has the title role in “Rock Star.” He’s a copy-machine repairman by day, cover-band rocker by night. Jennifer Aniston, center, with Dagmara Dominczyk, is his girlfriend, who believes he has the talent to go all the way to the top. Opens Friday. Also: Barbet Schroeder’s “Our Lady of the Assassins” stars German Jaramillo as a renowned writer, middle-aged, gay and thoroughly burned out, who returns to his native Medellin, Colombia, after decades as an expatriate. Opens Friday at the Nuart.

Theater

Warner Shook directs W. Somerset Maugham’s theatrical masterpiece, “The Circle,” a social satire about the ups and downs of a prominent family in 1920s high society. Will Lady Kitty’s son forgive her for abandoning him for her lover 30 years ago? Is his own wife about to follow suit? Starring Carole Shelley, William “Biff” McGuire and Paxton Whitehead, it opens Friday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. Also: Reprise! Broadway’s Best presents “1776,” the Declaration of Independence musical by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone. Gordon Hunt directs Roger Rees, Orson Bean, Marcia Mitzman Gaven, Thomas Ian Griffith and John Scherer in the semi-staged production. Opens Tuesday at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.

Jazz

The George Shearing Quintet, the John Pizzarelli Trio and the Ray Brown Trio will be featured at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night in a show aptly titled “Art of the Combo.” New Orleans’ Pete Fountain will perform at the Bowl on Friday and Saturday.

Art

Forty digitally manipulated photo-paintings by L.A. artist Willie Robert Middlebrook will go on view Wednesday at USC’s Fisher Gallery. “Family Pictures/Ecumenical Icons” features portraits of the Watts resident, his family and friends in an intimate look at the heritage of African Americans as a family. Below: “Black Angel 28r: Temptation 1.”

Pop Music

Besides singing on the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, Gillian Welch, above, served as the film’s associate music producer. With that record’s surprise success under her belt, the West L.A. girl with an Appalachian heart has released her third album, “Time (The Revelator).” She and partner David Rawlings play L.A.’s El Rey Theatre on Friday.

Video

“Memento” is writer-director Christopher Nolan’s clever film noir starring Guy Pearce as a tormented former insurance investigator who has lost his short-term memory. It arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.