8 pm: Concert

Until his death last month, Duane Ebata was a leading voice for Japanese performing arts. As artistic director of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center and an arts presenter, he helped propel taiko, butoh and noh into the mainstream. Those who worked with him offer as a tribute “Celebration! J-Town Beat Reunion Concert,” which will feature artists who appeared in the annual J-Town Beat concert series Ebata organized for about 10 years. Dan and June Kuramoto of the group Hiroshima and San Jose Taiko, musician Daniel Ho, saxophonist Michael Paulo and the hereandnow theater company will perform.

* “Celebration! J-Town Beat Reunion Concert” at the Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., Little Tokyo, downtown L.A. 8 p.m. $23 to $25. (213) 680-3700. Memorial service at 6:30 p.m. in the adjacent Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Plaza.

8 pm: Theater

Charles Marowitz’s dark comedy “Stage Fright,” starring Nan Martin, Alan Mandell and Jeremy Lawrence, inaugurates the new Malibu Stage. It illuminates the conflict between artists and critics.

* “Stage Fright,” Malibu Stage, 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $20. (310) 289-2999.

all day: Movies

The new movie “Shaft” is director and co-writer John Singleton’s reworking of the 1971 blaxploitation classic of the same name. Samuel L. Jackson plays renegade cop John Shaft, who puts his life on the line to protect a witness (Toni Collette). Vanessa L. Williams, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes and Richard Roundtree (the original Shaft) co-star.

* “Shaft,” rated R for strong violence and language, opens Friday in general release.

7:30 pm: Dance

The two-night “This Is Nureyev!” film festival offers some of the late Kirov defector’s most popular vehicles, but also rare performance and interview footage not seen in public since the 1960s. From Nureyev’s graduation solo at age 20 to a full-length ballet film he choreographed and directed at 35, the festival emphasizes the earliest and best work of a ballet legend who became increasingly self-destructive after the period represented here. The Friday bill includes the pas de deux from “Le Corsaire” (in two versions), “Le Jeune Homme et La Mort,” “Romeo and Juliet” and the documentary “This Is Rudolf Nureyev.”

* “This Is Nureyev!” film festival, Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. $7; $5, museum and AFI members, students and seniors. (800) 522-6225.

8 pm: Theater

Legendary iconoclastic performance artist Rachel Rosenthal, who is retiring from solo performance, presents her last work as a solo artist, “Ur-Boor.” The seriocomic work, set in a 17-foot-tall musical space capsule, is about a woman, trapped in orbit with a talking computer, who has been selected by lottery to rid the world of boorishness and barbarism.

* “Ur-Boor,” Los Angeles Theatre Center, Tom Bradley Theatre, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 24. $10. (213) 485-1681.

all day: Exhibit

The Petersen Automotive Museum goes Hollywood with “Hollywood Star Cars: Great Cars of the Movies,” featuring 20 of the most recognizable automobiles from the silver screen, including the 1966 Thunderbird convertible from “Thelma & Louise,” the 1949 Mercury driven by James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and the Lotus Submarine car from “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

* “Hollywood Star Cars: Great Cars of the Movies,” Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Ends Sept. 24. Museum admission: $7; $5, seniors and students with ID; $3, ages 5-12. (323) 930-CARS.

1 pm: TV Museum

When Norman Lear introduced “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” to television in 1976, it was purchased by local stations as a syndicated series because it was too offbeat for the networks. The Museum of Television & Radio will screen the entire 325-episode series in order from Friday through Sept. 17 with the “ ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’: Marathon, Marathon.”

* “ ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’: Marathon, Marathon” Museum of Television & Radio, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. Friday, 1 p.m. Regular schedule: Wednesdays-Saturdays, 1 p.m.; Sundays, 1 and 3 p.m.; four-episode highlight packages, Thursdays at 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 17. $6; $4, students and senior citizens; $3, under 13. (310) 786-1000.

FREEBIE

Trumpeter Jeff Beal’s combo performs with pianist Alan Pasqua at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 5:30-8:30 p.m. (323) 857-6000.