7Days: Regional arts and entertainment

Variety show

The invaluable 1812 Productions presents Big Time: New Vaudeville for the Holidays, a revue of comedy styles featuring loquacious cowboys, tango battles, swaggering tennis clowns, and helium-balloon burlesque, at 2 p.m. Sunday at Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., and continuing on a varied schedule to Dec. 31. Tickets are $25 to $40. Call 215-592-9560.

It's on

The experimental troupe Brian Sanders' Junk performs the choreographer's new seasonal work, Snowball, about a gang of kids battling an evil ice queen to a score of 1980s pop hits. The interactive work, which lets audience members do some dancing and get into an indoor snowball fight (wear all white and get five extra snowballs!), goes on at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St., and continues with rematches at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. next Sunday. Tickets are $20 to $40. Call 215-898-3900.

With strings

The sparkling violist Ayane Kozasa plays a recital of works by Caroline Shaw, Bach, Michael Djupstrom, Beethoven, and Hindemith at 3 p.m. at the Trinity Center for Urban Life, 2212 Spruce St. Tickets are $20; $18 seniors; $5 students. Call 215-735-6999.

Christmas special

The husband-and-wife act of Judith Owen and Harry Shearer present their annual Holiday Sing-Along, in which (sometimes) famous guests drop by to sing favorite seasonal tunes (with a few funny bits), followed by audience participation, at 8 p.m. at the World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. Tickets are $30. Call 215-222-1400.

Race matters

In Thomas Gibbons' 1999 drama, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, a young editor seeks out a reclusive African American woman writer, only to find her expectations about identity and authenticity upended. Theatre Horizon presents a reading of the play at 7 p.m. at the company's theater, 401 DeKalb St., Norristown. Admission is free; tickets required. Call 610-283-2230.

Punk pioneer

The original guitarist and singer for the smart, seminal punk band the Stranglers, Hugh Cornwell has continued to develop a distinctive voice. He plays at 8 p.m. at Sellersville Theater, 24 W. Temple Ave., Sellersville. Tickets are $15. Call 215-257-5808.

On call

Cuban-American artist Alex Queral carves discarded phone books into visages of the famous, the forgotten, and the fictional. His work is collected in the exhibition Face | Book - Phonebook Portraits, at the Projects Gallery, 629 N. Second St., to Dec. 21. Admission is free. Call 267-303-9652.

Chamber music Christmas

The baroque sextet known as the Amerita Players, with guest Elinor Frey, violoncello, plays seasonal works by Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Boccherini, and Corelli at 8 p.m. at Temple Zion-Beth Israel, 18th and Spruce Streets. Admission is free. Call 215-735-3250.

Classic holiday

A virtuosic bluegrass combo, the DePue Brothers Band draws its members from a classical background. They present A Magical Grassical Christmas at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 N. Broad Street. Tickets are $15. Call 800-298-4200.

The estimable Andrew's Video Vault presents a typically arresting double bill of William Dieterle films: the 1949 noir thriller Rope of Sand, about a hunting guide (Burt Lancaster) trying to conceal the location of a cache of diamonds in South Africa, paired with the 1932 caper flick Jewel Robbery, in which a gentleman thief (William Powell) romances a baroness while plotting a daring daylight heist. The films screen at 8 p.m. at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. Admission is free. Call 215-573-3234.

Eclectic music

The sensational clarinetist Anthony McGill plays an intriguing program of works by Debussy, Scriabin, Messiaen, Poulenc, Schumann, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern at 8 p.m. at the American Philosophical Society, 105 S. Fifth St. Tickets are $24. Call 215-569-8080.

In clubland

The great heavy-metal space-rock outfit Monster Magnet plays at the Note, 142 E. Market St., West Chester, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $25. Call 484-947-5713. . . . Metal-core quintet The Devil Wears Prada plays at the Trocadero, 10th and Arch Streets, at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $23. Call 215-922-5483.