MUSICThe SmithereensSaturday, 8 p.m.World Cafe Live3025 Walnut St.$22-$30, 215-222-1400www.worldcafelive.comClad with Rickenbacher guitars, leather jackets and a well-studied collection of British Invasion 45’s, The Smithereens were a key East Coast band in the ’60s rock revival in the 1980s. They proudly remained about 20 years behind the times, embracing a harder ’70s power pop style in the ’90s. They’ve never broken up; their last album dropped in 2011.Harmony Across Barriers: Black Origins in American Classical MusicSaturday, 7:30 p.m.Ivy Hall6331 Lancaster Ave.$25, 215-803-9725fineartmusiccompany.ticketleap.comThe Fine Art Music Company performs a program celebrating African-American contributions to classical music, including works by William Grant Still and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, two 20th century black composers who integrated their native folk traditions into the classical idiom, and Betty Roe and George Gershwin, white composers inspired by black musical forms.Relache in Residence: Mummies outside the BoxSunday, 3 p.m.Penn Museum3260 South St.$15, 215-898-4000www.penn.museumAt this concert, their second as artist-in-residence at the Penn Museum, the music ensemble Relache will perform a newly composed live soundtrack to the spooky 1918 silent film “Eyes of the Mummy” by Philly composer Mike Stambaugh. They’ll also play an original piece before the film. If you show up an hour early, you can take a mummy-themed tour of the museum’s impressive collection.VARIETYRites of PassageSaturday, 8:30 p.m.Headlong Performance Institute1170 S. Broad St.$5-$10, appliedmechanicstheater@gmail.comwww.appliedmechanics.usExperimental theater group Applied Mechanics hosts this immersive experience, described as “part treasure hunt, part hedonistic party, part ritual.” It’s a choose-your-own-adventure play that the audience explores instead of just watches. The troupe poses as a mysterious secret society opening its doors to new members for the first time in years, offering food, games and weird lore. Pigonometry: Let Us Take You On A TangentFriday, 8 p.m.Trocodero Theater1003 Arch St.$25-$125, 18+, 215-425-1100pigonometry.brownpapertickets.comThis cabaret fundraiser for the Pig Iron Theatre Company features an motley crew of performers including the defiantly hairy 6’7” drag singer Martha Graham Cracker, aka Pig Iron co-founder Dito van Reigersberg. The line up of local favorites also features the intense circus of Brian Sanders’ JUNK, dance duo Magda and Chelsea, Murmuration, Johnny Showcase and his Lefty Lucy Cabaret, the hip-hoppin’ senior citizens of Fantasy Grandma and the Brazilian samba band Unidos de Fidelfia.ARTAnd the Word Is…Thursday through May 14The Gershman Y401 S. Broad St.Free, 215-545-4400www.gershmany.orgThis multimedia group exhibition brings together eight artists from across the United States who’ve used religious texts in their art, in ways ranging from devout to irreverent. The religions explored here seem mostly Abrahamic — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — but maybe the deeper element here is the mysterious psychological power of words themselves, whether they’re said to issue from God or humans.The Sky’s Gone OutSaturday through March 14Moore College of Art and Design20th St. and Ben Franklin Pkwy.Free, 215-965-4027www.thegalleriesatmoore.orgSigmund Freud had a lot of unusual ideas, some of which are not too politically correct these days, but one of the most intriguing was his notion of the uncanny — an aesthetic experience that both fascinates and repels, where the familiar and unfamiliar are distressingly mixed. The artists in this show explore aspects of the uncanny in modern life.DANCEThe Delicate HourFriday and SaturdayConwell Dance Theater1801 N. Broad St.$15-$20, 800-298-4200www.liacourascenter.comChoreographer Molly Shanahan and her Mad Shak Ensemble present the latest manifestation of Shanahan’s long-term project “Stamina of Curiosity.” Shanahan integrates commonplace communicative gestures into her choreography, mixing the rarified language of high art with the dance of everyday life. The music has a similar mix — previous versions have made surreal use of the Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler.” THEATER‘Under the Skin’Through March 15Arden Theater40 N. Second St.$43-$48, 215-922-1122www.ardentheatre.org“What does it mean to give a part of yourself to someone else?” That’s how Arden Theater Company poses the central question of this new play by Michael Hollinger. The dying Lou needs a kidney transplant, and appeals to his estranged daughter Raina for hers. But her resentment for her father may prove harder to cut out than her kidney. ‘Closer’Through February 7Luna Theater620 S. 8th St.$15-$30, 18+, 215-704-0033www.lunatheater.orgLuna Theater Company presents this erotically preoccupied 1997 play by British playwright Patrick Marber, which revolves around a love quadrangle drawn between its four main characters, who swap partners (as well as bitterness and jealousy) with impunity. Love, in this world, is war, and it produces more alienation than attraction in the long run. And truth? It’s strictly a matter of convenience. MOVIES‘The Ruling Class’Thursday, 7 p.m.International House3701 Chestnut St.$7-$9, 215-387-5125www.ihousephilly.comPeter O’Toole stars with his usual relish as a mentally unhinged aristocrat in this dark satire on the British class system from 1972. His madness, while it disturbs his family, proves a perfect fit for the madness of the system — in one scene, he delivers a psychotic rant on the floor of the House of Lords that gets an ironically rousing reception.COMEDYThe Wadsworth ConstantSaturday, 7:30 p.m.Adrienne Theater2030 Sansom St.$10-$12, 267-233-1556www.phillyimprovtheater.comThe Wadsworth Constant is a duo composed of Nick Gillette and Kristen Schier, who mix improv comedy and absurdist theater. The Wadsworth Constant is also a satirical “rule” originating on Reddit, which states that the first third of an Internet video is never worth watching. What, if anything, does this have to do with Gillette and Schier’s show? You’ll just have to find out.
