BEST BETS Thursday 11/30

5:30pm

Pop Music

They call it the “My VH1 Music Awards” not just because you can buy tickets to the show, but also because fans created the categories and selected the nominees through online voting, and will determine the winners the same way right up to presentation time. U2 is scheduled to perform, along with big nominees Creed and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.

* VH1 Music Awards, Shrine Auditorium, 665 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles. 5:30 p.m. $45 to $65. (213) 749-5123.

7:30pm

Theater

In “Ennio: Starring Ennio Marchetto,” a comic “human origami” tour-de-force, internationally acclaimed Italian comedian-performance artist Marchetto morphs into 150-plus characters with the help of his unique paper costumes and props.

* “Ennio: Starring Ennio Marchetto,” Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood, Tuesdays-Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 and 8:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.; also Dec. 13, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 31. $20 to $42. (310) 208-5454.

8pm

Theater

“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy”: The music and dance of the 1930s and ‘40s are celebrated in the acclaimed Tony-nominated song-and-dance spectacular, “Swing!,” an eclectic mix of new and classic tunes and jive, Latin swing, West Coast swing, hip-hop swing, and country and western swing.

* “Swing!,” Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; also this Sunday and Dec. 17, 31, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 7, 21, Jan. 4, 11, 2 p.m. Ends Jan. 14. $35 to $70. (213) 628-2772.

8pm

Music

Zubin Mehta returns for a second week as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducting two works, Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins,” with soprano Sheri Greenawald and the Hudson Chad Quartet, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, the “Great” C-major symphony.

* Zubin Mehta and the L.A. Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. 8 p.m. $10 to $70. Also, Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (323) 850-2000.

*

Freebie

Students of chamber-music veteran violinist Peter Marsh give a second 12-hour chamber-music marathon in Alfred Newman Recital Hall at USC, from noon to midnight. (213) 740-7111.