Best Of This Week

DVD

DEATH AT A FUNERAL / / MGM. Available Tuesday. $29.99.

.......................

Death is more like a madcap macarena in Death at a Funeral, an often-hilarious farce about a family's vain attempt to bury its patriarch with dignity at his suburban manse in the verdant English countryside.

Laughs mount as tensions reach the flash point among the stay-at-home, married brother Daniel (Matthew MacFadyen), his famous expatriate-novelist sibling Robert (Rupert Graves), their self-dramatizing mother Sandra (Jane Asher) and Robert's long-suffering wife Jane (Keeley Hawes). Director Frank Oz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), helps the actors get the most out of barbed throwaways, such as Sandra's remark, "Tea can do many things, Jane, but it can't bring back the dead." The dead man's niece, Martha (Daisy Donovan), shows up with an insecure fiance, Simon (Alan Tudyk), who has inadvertently taken hallucinogens. Tudyk, who was also terrific this year in 3:10 to Yuma, is the stand-out.

.......................

[MICHAEL SRAGOW]

MUSIC

JILL SCOTT AND RAHEEM DEVAUGHN / / 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. $50-$93. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com

.......................

When Jill Scott blew onto the scene seven years ago with her double-platinum debut Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, the neo-soul movement was in full-bloom. Though some of the genre's key artists, such as Maxwell, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill, have since fallen off, Scott has maintained a solid profile as one of the most refreshing voices in modern soul. She's on the road supporting her current CD, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3. DeVaughn, her opening act, is a Washington native whose sophomore album, Love Behind the Melody, made its debut atop the R&B charts in January. Both artists offer silken melodies laced with ambitious poetic lyrics, and they infuse it all with remarkable, soul-dipped vocals.

.......................

[RASHOD D. OLLISON]

CLASSICAL

ALBAN BERG QUARTET / / 5:30 p.m. today. Shriver Hall, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St. $17, $33. 410-516-7164 or shriver concerts.org

.......................

Founded in 1971, the Alban Berg Quartet quickly established itself among the world's leading chamber ensembles. Three years ago, the group's longtime violist died, and, although he was succeeded by one of his gifted students, things haven't been quite the same for the others. "There was a big rupture in our hearts," cellist Valentin Erben said recently. So, this summer, the quartet will disband, ending a remarkable run of first-rate music-making.