A week's worth of things to do in the Philadelphia region
Sunday Political artifact Gore Vidal, who died July 31 at 86, was a celebrity intellectual, a job description that doesn't really exist anymore. A highly regarded novelist, playwright, and essayist, he was also an actor, screenwriter, (unsuccessful) politician,
Sunday
Political artifact Gore Vidal, who died July 31 at 86, was a celebrity intellectual, a job description that doesn't really exist anymore. A highly regarded novelist, playwright, and essayist, he was also an actor, screenwriter, (unsuccessful) politician, and reliable talk-show wit. His verbal jousts with Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley Jr., and Truman Capote are legendary (and sometimes turned physical - the usually unflappable Buckley threatened to punch Vidal while both were commentators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and Mailer head-butted him in 1971 while backstage at The Dick Cavett Show). Vidal's 1960 drama The Best Man is informed by this sense of public and private repartee as both combat and entertainment. Set at a political convention - back when such gatherings were the method for choosing presidential candidates rather than mere coronations - the story reflects its age, as an urbane, cerebral front-runner runs up against what was then a new type: a pragmatic insurgent who will say and do anything to reach the White House. Appalled by his opponent's tactics, the established candidate must decide whether to adopt them. The 1964 film adaptation of the play screens at 2 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville. Tickets are $8; $6 for seniors and students. Call 610-917-0223.
Guys and gals
In Shakespeare, the gender-bending
Mauckingbird Theatre Company
has a perfect match. In the Bard's original productions, men playedthe roles of women. The local troupe presents
Much Ado About Nothing
with an all-male quartet playing the loving couples at the play's center, but with all the roles changed to men. It works. The show goes on at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at
Off-Broad Street Theater
, 1636 Sansom St., and continues with shows at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 and 7 p.m. next Sunday. Tickets are $25. Call 215-923-8909.
Monday
That guy
You might know
Doug Benson
from his many small roles on sitcoms, or his stints on
Last Comic Standing
or
Best Week Ever
, or his podcast, or the time he sparked an international incident with Canada (really!). Yeah, that's him - he's that guy. He performs at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at
Helium Comedy Club
, 2031 Sansom St. Tickets are $18. Call 215-496-9001.
Tuesday
Super hero
The art of swashbuckling was perfected by Douglas Fairbanks in the 1920 silent epic
The Mark of Zorro
. Every action star who followed is just doing a variation on the original. The film screens, with a live musical score performed by
Not-So-Silent-Cinema
, at 7 p.m. at
the Ambler Theater
, 108 E. Butler Ave., Ambler. Tickets are $9.75; $7.25 for seniors and students. Call 215-345-6789. The film also screens at
the County Theater
, 20 E. State St., Doylestown, at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $9.75; $7.25 for seniors and students. Call 215-345-7855.
Wednesday
Funkadelic
Michael League's jazz-fusion dance-band collective
Snarky Puppy
performs at 8 p.m. at
the North Star Bar
, 2639 Poplar St. Tickets are $12. Call 215-787-0488.
Thursday
Key player
Deft smooth-jazz pianist Lao Tizer and his group
Tizer
, featuring the virtuoso violinist Karen Briggs and the sensational guitarist Chieli Minucci, open for soul man
Will Downing
at 7 p.m. at
Dell East
, Ridge Avenue and Huntingdon Drive. Tickets are $25 and $40. Call 215-685-9564.
Friday & Saturday
In clubland
Local psychedelic-pop geniuses
Cheers Elephant
play at
Johnny Brenda's
, 1201 Frankford Ave., at 9:15 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $10. Call 215-739-9684. . . . Former Mercury Rev front man David Baker brings his trippy, synth-heavy musical project
Variety Lights
onstage as an opener for
Vapour Theories
(a Bardo Pond side project by John Gibbons and Michael Gibbons) at
Kung Fu Necktie
, 1250 N. Front St., at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10. Call 215-291-4919.
Double bill
Rowdy Roddy Piper was a star pro wrestler as a heel whose skills on the microphone surpassed his formidable prowess as a grappler. So, it seemed only natural that he would succeed in Hollywood. It didn't quite work out that way, but he starred in one classic B-movie, John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi thriller
They Live
. The story seems prescient, somehow: A homeless drifter (Piper) finds a pair of sunglasses that reveals most of those with authority and wealth as alien invaders depleting the planet's resources with the help of human dupes. The film screens at
the Bryn Mawr Film Institute
, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, at 11:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $7. Call 610-527-9898. . . .
The Awesome Fest
film series concludes its summer season with Matthew Lillard's affecting 2012 comedy
Fat Kid Rules the World
, about a despondent teen outcast whose unlikely friendship with a punk rocker leads to redemption as a drummer. The film screens at
Race Street Pier
, Race Street and North Columbus Boulevard, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Call 215-629-3200.