8 pm: Music

Conducted by their music director, Canadian musician Michael Gormley, the Vienna Choir Boys return to Southern California, singing in Escondido the same kind of mixed program they have been bringing here since a first U.S. tour in 1932. They move on to Long Beach on Saturday.

* Vienna Choir Boys at the California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $15-$30. (800) 988-4253. Also, Saturday, 8 p.m., at Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St. $15-$25. (562) 985-7000.

11:30am

11:30 am: Art

The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach presents its holiday exhibition Archangels in the Latin American Tradition: Contemporary Interpretations. Thirty-one contemporary Latin American artists contribute sculptures, paintings, photographs and installations that interpret the archangel tradition. The Latin American art tradition of representing angels and archangels dates from the 17th century and was influenced heavily by Renaissance and Baroque iconography.

* Archangels in the Latin American Tradition: Contemporary Interpretations, Museum of Lain American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach. Tuesday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. $3 adults, $2 seniors, free to members and children under 12. (562) 437-1689. Ends Jan. 4.

2 & 7 pm: Family

Pair figure skating champs Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner headline in “Nutcracker on Ice,” an ice show spectacular based on the holiday classic that also stars champion skaters Chip Rossbach, Bobby Beauchamp and Tracy Wainman.

* “Nutcracker on Ice,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. Friday-Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $25-$40. (800) 300-4345, (562) 916-8500.

8 pm: Cabaret

Author, comedian and television pioneer Steve Allen is also a prolific composer who, according to “The Guinness Book of World Records,” has written more tunes than anyone else on the planet. A true renaissance man, Allen will dispense wit and wisdom--as well as songs galore--from the keyboard during this intimate, small-club appearance.

* Steve Allen, Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. $20. Also Saturday. (213) 466-7000.

6:30 & 8:30 pm: Pageant

The Crystal Cathedral’s Glory of Christmas is indeed a spectacle. With flying angels, live animals, a cast numbering more than 100, lifelike earthquakes, storms and other elaborate special effects all set to prerecorded music by the London Symphony Orchestra.

* Glory of Christmas, Crystal Cathedral, 12141 Lewis St., Garden Grove. Tuesday-Sunday, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. through Dec. 19. Daily, 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. through Dec. 30. Dark Dec. 24-25. $15-$30. (714) 54-GLORY.

8 pm: Music

Leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a two-week guest appearance, Los Angeles-born conductor Lawrence Foster--noting the 30th anniversary of his debut on this podium--leads the orchestra in a Mozart-Ravel program. His soloist is the much-acclaimed Russian pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn in Mozart’s C-major Concerto, K. 503. Closing the program: “Bolero.”

* Lawrence Foster conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. Also Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. $8-$63. (213) 850-2000.

*

FREEBIE: Kim Richmond-Clay Jenkins Ensemble with Bill Perkins at L.A. County Museum of Art, 5:30 p.m. (213) 857-6000.