1 Zoe Pappas has always had the chops for a diva-worthy gig and now she's getting her chance as the singular "Evita" in Theatre Latté Da's tango-flavored production at the Ordway Center. The show was extended two weeks before it even opened. www.ordway.org

2 The funky, cozy, college-friendly Varsity Theater is one of our favorite spots for live music. Now the former Dinkytown movie house has been spiffed up with a months-long renovation, including mosaic tile on the floor and counters, stylish second-floor restrooms and an expanded wraparound balcony that can accommodate many music lovers besides Prince (who has used it as his private perch). www.varsitytheater.org

3 Didn't we all know someone in high school or college who was a brilliant, ambitious, socially inept nerd like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook? In "The Social Network," Jesse Eisenberg portrays Zuckerberg with obsessive, obnoxious, Oscar-worthy perfection.4 Sergio Aragones, the fastest inkslinger in the West, has been contributing wordless, wacky, wonderful cartoons for Mad magazine since 1962. He temporarily debarked from the crazy train to put together "Sergio Aragones: Five Decades of His Finest Works" (Running Press). Put it on your coffee table to let guests know you're the hippest carpooler in the neighborhood.

5 The sizzling photo career of local boy Alec Soth is rightly being celebrated at Walker Art Center, but Weinstein Gallery gets the smarts prize for cleverly pairing a Soth portrait of model "Natalia" (above) with a self-portrait by the young Robert Mapplethorpe, who is a dead ringer for the Russian beauty. www.weinstein-gallery.com