Critics' Choice

THEATER

PRAVDA. A stinging British satire of Murdochian media moguls more concerned with money than truth gets its U.S. premiere from the Guthrie troupe in Minneapolis.

THE HEIDI CHRONICLES. Playwright Wendy Wasserstein revisits the rise and fall of principle among baby boomers, and star Joan Allen makes the stereotypes come touchingly alive, off-Broadway.

WE. Pulitzer prizewinner Charles Fuller (A Soldier's Play) launches an earnest, poignant cycle of five black history dramas, beginning with Sally and / Prince, in repertory off-Broadway.

PLATONOV. Rumanian director Liviu Ciulei blends farce and great sadness in Chekhov's early drama, at Harvard's American Repertory Theater.

MUSIC

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG: AMERICAN DREAM (Atlantic). The title cut on this reunion album delivers more bounce -- as well as a bit of bile -- than the rest of the album combined, but the guitar work has some fire and those famous harmonies can still soar high.

THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET: FOR ELLINGTON (East-West). Part hommage, part reinvention, this is a ravishing tribute by one of the premier jazz groups to one of America's greatest composers. The M.J.Q. pays the Duke the ultimate honor: it doesn't just respect him, it makes him swing.

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 6 (EMI). The obscure Sixth in a bang-up reading by Riccardo Muti and the Berlin Philharmonic. And you thought Bruckner was boring.

TELEVISION

SMOKING: EVERYTHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY NEED TO KNOW (HBO, Jan. 11, 12, 14, 17). First appearing on the day that Surgeon General C. Everett Koop releases his new report on smoking, this half-hour special dramatically exposes the dangers of tobacco usage, while contrasting old TV cigarette commercials with patients' case histories.

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (PBS, Jan. 14, 8 p.m. on most stations). Wonderworks presents the first hour of a three-part mini-series based on the classic C.S. Lewis story of four children who discover a magical kingdom.

THE COVER GIRL AND THE COP (NBC, Jan. 16, 9 p.m. EST). A streetwise cop is assigned to guard a frivolous actress-model, witness to a murder. Dinah Manoff and Julia Duffy, two of the tube's slyest comedians, play the odd- couple title characters in this TV movie.

ART

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: THE EARLY WORK, 1929-1934, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Some 75 prints from the period when Cartier-Bresson was creating one of the most original and influential styles in the history of photography. Through Feb. 26.

PAINTING IN RENAISSANCE SIENA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The gentle, graceful 15th century fragments and miniatures in this scrupulous show offer a respite from the brutish realities of modern life. Through March 19.

RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Formica and Celotex are among the odd materials employed by this enigmatic but important American painter and sculptor. Through Jan. 29.

MOVIES

PELLE THE CONQUEROR. A timid old Swede and his dashing young son find work on a 19th century Danish farm. Aided by stars Max von Sydow and Pelle Hvenegaard, director Bille August cuts a stern, colorful grand swatch of masterpiece cinema.

MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN. Kim Basinger is an unlikely E.T. and Dan Aykroyd the earthling who humanizes her in a clever fable -- sweet and light enough for the kids, sexy and suspenseful enough for adults.

WORKING GIRL. Pert secretary Melanie Griffith climbs the corporate ladder, dislodging career gal Sigourney Weaver and claiming hunky Harrison Ford in Mike Nichols' suave tale about getting it all on your own sweet terms.

BOOKS

AMERICAN APPETITES by Joyce Carol Oates (Dutton; $18.95). A prolific author's powerful novel about a well-to-do married couple falling before a fate that is unearned and undeserved.

THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS by Robertson Davies (Viking; $19.95). The third novel in a trilogy about the life and aftereffects of an eccentric Canadian millionaire. An engaging plot involving high finance, grand opera and a voice from Limbo.

DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS: A LEXICON NOVEL by Milorad Pavic (Knopf; $19.95). A wacky, totally fabricated reference book, translated from Serbo-Croatian, about a people that vanished centuries ago. Sheer oddity mixed with eerie entertainment.