Arts briefs: Cabaret, dance and music

Cabaret

MARCOVICCI SINGS

MOVIE MEMORIES

Andrea Marcovicci used to make movies. Now she sings them -- or, more precisely, she sings the songs that have made the movies an indelible part of our collective memory.

Kicking off the cabaret half of The Smith Center's Cabaret Jazz lineup tonight and Saturday, "Marcovicci Sings Movies" serves up a way-we-were feast of beguiling melodies from 1935's "Top Hat" to 1999's "Toy Story 2," offering a tip of the (top) hat to such silver-screen legends as Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Audrey Hepburn.

Among the show's highlights: "Two for the Road," "The Days of Wine and Roses," "Charade," "Long Ago and Far Away," "The Way We Were" and -- you must remember this -- "As Time Goes By."

Marcovicci, whose acting roles range from "The Front" to "Hill Street Blues," also has performed onstage (playing Ophelia to Sam Waterston's Hamlet and all of Charlie Chaplin's wives opposite Anthony Newley's "Chaplin") and made her solo Carnegie Hall debut, with the American Symphony Orchestra, in 1993.

She'll perform "Marcovicci Sings Movies" at 8:30 tonight and at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. Tickets are $39-$75 and are available by phone at 749-2000 or online at www.TheSmithCenter.com.

Dance

HOUSTON BALLET II

DANCES AT UNLV

Call it the deuce troupe.

That's Houston Ballet II, the acclaimed Houston Ballet's young company, which visits the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Saturday as part of the Charles Vanda Masters Series.

Representing the next generation of Houston Ballet artists, the dancers -- part of the ballet's academy -- will present a repertory evening combining classical and contemporary works.

Saturday's UNLV performance concludes Houston Ballet II's current-season tour, which has taken its dancers from Louisiana to Las Vegas.

The performance takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday at UNLV's Artemus Ham Concert Hall, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. Tickets are $35-$75 and may be purchased by calling the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 895-2787 or online at pac.unlv.edu.

Music

VEGA, SHEIK TEAM

AT CABARET JAZZ

Singer-songwriters who have branched out to musical theater, Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik branch out once again to collaborate onstage, headlining The Smith Center's intimate Cabaret Jazz Sunday and Monday nights.

Following her success as a songwriter and recording artist during the early '80s neo-folk revival, the Grammy-winning Vega last year collaborated with Sheik, writing and starring in the New York stage project "Carson McCullers Talks About Love," about the life of the title writer.

Grammy-nominated for his 1996 pop hit "Barely Breathing," Sheik has explored musical theater on an even larger scale, winning a Grammy -- and a Tony Award -- for the score of the 2007 Broadway hit "Spring Awakening."

Vega and Sheik will perform at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Monday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. Tickets, priced at $39-$55, are available by phone at 749-2000 or online at www.TheSmithCenter.com.

-- By CAROL CLING