8pm Pop MusicWill “The Last Broadcast” be...

8pm Pop Music

Will “The Last Broadcast” be the first broadside? The English trio the Doves hope that its new album--which drew rave reviews and big sales numbers in the U.K.--will catch on in the U.S. They’re out to expand on the cult audience they attracted with their 2000 album, “Lost Souls.” First step: a headlining tour linked to this week’s American release of “Broadcast.”

The Doves, with Elbow, Mayan Theatre, 1038 S. Hill St., downtown L.A., 8 p.m. $22. (213) 746-4674.

5pm Art/Jazz

One of the wonderful staples of summer in L.A. is the Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual Summer Nights at MOCA series, which kicks off today. The festive Thursday-night series, held this year at the Geffen Contemporary, offers free admission to exhibitions such as the current “Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972” and the upcoming “H.C. Westermann,” as well as weekly jazz performances and wine, microbrews and barbecue available for purchase. First up tonight: the Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Summer Nights at MOCA, Thursdays through Aug. 29, 5 to 8 p.m. Galleries close at 9 p.m. MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo, downtown L.A. Free. (213) 626-6222.

8pm Jazz

Percussionist Ray Barretto burst upon the international music scene in the 1950s, when he replaced Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente’s band. More than 40 years later, he’s still pounding out vital music that fuses jazz, salsa, funk and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. His current group, New World Spirit, plays four nights at the Jazz Bakery.

Ray Barretto & New World Spirit, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City, today to Sunday, 8 and 9:30 p.m. $25. (310) 271-9039.

8pm Theater

Love proves to be the most complex equation of all in “Proof,” David Auburn’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. An enigmatic young woman and her manipulative sister clash in the days after the death of their father, a brilliant but unstable mathematician. A former student of his stumbles upon a remarkable, mysterious mathematical proof in his papers, wreaking havoc on the daughters. Robert Foxworth stars in this national tour.

“Proof,” Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Tuesdays to Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends June 14. $42 to $52. (213) 365-3500, (714) 740-7878.

8pm Dance

The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet--Moscow’s other leading ballet company (besides the Bolshoi)--

arrives for its Los Angeles debut with two full-length calling cards: “Don Quixote” and “Swan Lake.” This “Swan Lake” differs from the familiar version. It was created in 1953 by Vladimir Burmeister, who returned to the original score Tchaikovsky created for the Moscow premiere in 1877, not the reworked version used by Petipa and Ivanov for St. Petersburg in 1895. Among other changes, the music for the “Black Swan” pas de deux now appears in its original place, in Act 1. See review, Page 57.

Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet, Kodak Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. “Don Quixote,” today, 8 p.m., repeats Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m. “Swan Lake” will be danced Friday, 8 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. $32 to $72. (213) 480-3232.