WEEK IN PREVIEW

THEATER

Ric Salinas, left, Herbert Siguenza and Richard Montoya-- a.k.a. Culture Clash-- star in Aristophanes’ “The Birds,� a comic romp about men who battle angry gods and meddling humans while trying to create their ideal republic in the realm of birds. It opens Friday at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa.

THEATER

“The Real Thing,� Tom Stoppard’s play-within-a-play comedy exploring love and marriage, concerns a famous playwright whose actress wife tries to merge “worthy causes� with her career. The staging, by new Artistic Director Sheldon Epps, opens today at the Pasadena Playhouse.

MUSIC / DANCE

Forget Martin Scorsese and Brad Pitt. For a rare live introduction to authentic, ancient, embattled Tibetan Buddhist culture, check out “Sacred

Music, Sacred Dance,� performed by the Dalai Lama’s own Drepung Loseling monks at the Probst Center in Thousand Oaks, this afternoon.

ART

L.A.’s own Lari Pittman, one of the most celebrated artists of his generation, weaves together a figurative cast of characters, from acrobats to submarines, creating tapestries of ornamental abstraction in a new series of paintings, “Once a Noun, Now a Verb,� opening Saturday at Regen Projects.

ART

“Pablo Picasso: Works From the Estate and Selected Loans� opens Thursday at Pace-Wildenstein with a range of paintings from Picasso’s prolific career, from “Woman With a Pink Dress� (1917), an oil-on-canvas Cubist work, to “Seated Man� (1971), one of the artist’s last works.

POP MUSIC

New York rapper Wyclef Jean, who won a pair of Grammys with the Fugees last year and is nominated as a solo act this year, has a busy Monday ahead. His 9 p.m. show at the House of Blues sold out, so to satisfy his many L.A. fans, he’s added a 6 o’clock set across town at the Palace in Hollywood.

JAZZ

George Shearing, who first made records back in 1939 (and is currently recording for Telarc), has long been one of jazz’s most brilliant and popular pianists. For five nights starting Wednesday, Shearing and bassist Neil Swainson will perform lightly swinging and witty duets at the Jazz Bakery.

VIDEO

Michael Douglas is at his Gordon Gekko best playing a heartless, wealthy executive who is given the birthday present from hell from brother Sean Penn in David Fincher’s eerie “The Game.� The stylish thriller, which also features Carroll Baker and Armin Mueller-Stahl, arrives Tuesday in video stores.

Early Warning: A.R. Gurney’s new comedy, “Labor Day,� will have its world premiere on Feb. 12 at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.