The lowdown on what’s up on screen, on stage

MOVIES
Opening August 14
»The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the best selling novel, tells the story of semi-unrequited love between a man (Munich’s Eric Bana) who involuntarily travels through time and his wife (Rachel McAdams of The Notebook and Wedding Crashers.) They meet and part, without warning, during various times in her life.
»District 9, produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, utilizes a science fiction plot involving aliens living in a segregated “district” in modern South Africa to examine issues of prejudice and corporate exploitation.

» The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is a “guy” comedy starring Entourage’s Jeremy Piven, as a used car liquidator trying to save a failing dealership (never heard of “cash for clunkers,” I guess.)
» Soul Power (moved from last week) is a concert film highlighting the music festival that augmented the Ali-Foreman heavyweight fight held in Zaire in 1974. James Brown, B.B. King and The Spinners are some of the talents presented here. Reviews of these films will appear Thursday.

THEATRE
» The Keegan Theatre presents a festival of three works about love and romance under the title Acts of Love, starting Thursday at the Theater on the Run in Arlington.
A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters begins the series with performances from Thursday through Saturday. It’s followed by an original work by Keegan company actor Megan Thrift called Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. It will be performed Aug. 20-22. Another original work, False Romance: An Intergalactic Farce, written by company member Joe Baker, winds up the festival with performances Aug. 27-29.
Tickets for individual performances cost $15 or you can see all three plays for $30. For more information, call 703-228-1850 or visit http://www.keegantheatre.com.
» Closing this week is the Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Gypsy. It ends Saturday. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.thelittletheatre.com.

CLUBS & CONCERTS
» Wolf Trap stays in its mid-summer grove of top notch shows with Bill Cosby on Thursday (lawn seats only.)
Crosby, Stills & Nash are on tap for Friday, but, as of press time, this show was nearly sold out.
Motown legends The Temptations and The Four Tops share the stage on Saturday.
Bonnie Raitt teams with Taj Mahal for a concert Sunday (this show is also nearly sold out as of this writing.)
» Two of the more popular singer/songwriters of the 70’s and ’80’s appear at the Birchmere on Aug. 19, as Al Stewart (Year of the Cat, Time Passages) and Jesse Winchester share the bill.
» Blues Alley in Georgetown welcomes trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval for a three-night stand, from Friday through Sunday.
» The DC Improv welcomes political humorist Will Durst for two shows Friday and Saturday, while Michael McDonald also plays the club from Sunday.
» The Route 29 Revue, featuring Levon Helm and the Old Crow Medicine Show, appears at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., on Sunday.
» Kevin Eubanks, leader of Jay Leno’s Tonight Show band, does a 7:30 p.m. show at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on Thursday. The Marshall Tucker Band headlines there Sunday.
» Collective Soul makes a rare local appearance at the Rams Head Live! in Baltimore on Aug. 19. Enjoy!
Joe Barber’s entertainment reports and reviews can be heard Fridays through Sundays on the WTOP-FM Radio Network. He can be seen regularly on WETA-TV’s Around Town.