Daily News picks for what to do & see the weekend of 10/4-10/6

CASINOS

WALK ON THE MILD SIDE

With so much of contemporary stand-up comedy dominated by practitioners who favor the raw and coarse, Rita Rudner stands out like a bond trader in a three-piece suit at an Occupy Wall Street rally. The veteran entertainer, who performs tomorrow at the Music Box at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, specializes in G-rated material that tends toward the self-deprecating, and which is never insulting or rude.

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City, 9 p.m. tomorrow, $45 and $35, 866-900-4849, theborgata.com.

DANCE

DANCO DOES IT OVER

"For Your Pleasure" is a can't-miss, greatest-hits plus one from proud, 40-years-young, Philly-born-and-bred Philadanco. The lineup includes reprises of ever-popular ballet "Sweet Otis," featuring music by the suddenly trending Otis Redding, "La Valse" in its entirety, and an energetic, all-male "Blue." The lineup's newbie is the local premiere of "Watching Go By, the day," by Philadanco-star-turned- Ailey star-turned-choreographer Hope Boykin. Tonight, when musicians from the Jazz at Lincoln Center will play for Boykin's piece, is nearly sold out. The following three performances still have lots of seats available.

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 260 S. Broad St., $29-$46, 7:30 tonight, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 215-670-2300 or www.kimmelcenter.org.

FAMILY

BUBBLELICIOUS

Canadian bubble artist Fan Yang brings his interactive bubble world to the Kimmel Center this weekend. "Gazillion Bubble Show" includes lasers, music and lights but it's really the artistry of Yang and his wife, Ana, that makes the magic. Yang holds 16 world records for his bubbles, including one set in Santa Ana, Calif., in 2004 for the most people inside a soap bubble - eight! Dress the kids in their best, because Yang likes to pull members of the audience into his translucent universe.

Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St., 2 and 5 p.m. tomorrow, 11 a.m., 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday, $15-$65, kimmelcenter.org

MUSIC

DOOM WOP

Yeah, that's what Mister Heavenly call their eccentric mix of classic doo wop and downbeat indie pop - with an occasional intrusion of reggae riddims. The group includes Philly guy Ryan Kattner (from Man Man), Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, Shins) and Nick Thorburn (Islands, The Unicorns). Mr. Dream and Buffalo Stance hit first.

First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 8 tonight, $13, 215-821-7575, www.r5productions.com.

TALE OF 2 CULTURES

David Wax Museum showcases border-crossing Americana. Missouri-born Wax first dived into rural Mexican culture as a summer volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee, later returned on a fellowship to study folkloric traditions. Then in Boston, he melted muses with singer/fiddler Suz Slezak. Museum lights have been burning bright ever since. Lion Versus opens.

Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9:30 tonight, $12, 215-739-9684, www.johnnybrendas.com.

TUPELO HONEY

Like fellow jazzbo Tom Waits, the sagely wise and amusing Mose Allison long seemed an old man in a young man's clothes. Now the whole outfit is coordinated! Guitarist Jim Dragoni and bassist Fred Weiss dress up Allison's pianistics.

Rollers at Flying Fish, 8142 Germantown Ave., 8 & 10 tonight and Saturday, $37.50 & $75 (the latter includes a CD), 866-450-0826.

TITANS COMETH

While not playing together, classic talents Harry Belafonte and Tony Bennett are both in town tonight, and would probably be thrilled to reconnect. Eons ago, the respective kings of calypso and crossover pop/jazz jointly rallied marchers on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic freedom walk from Selma to Montgomery. Mr. Bennett performs at the Academy with daughter Antonia filling out parts from his hit "Duets II" album. Belafonte speaks at the Central Library about his cause-centric life and signs copies of the memoir "My Song."

Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets, 8 tonight, single tickets available at $51, $66, $81 and $106, 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.

Central Branch, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 7:30 tonight, auditorium sold out, video simulcast (and access to the signing line) available for $6, 215-686-5322, www.freelibrary.org.

KASPER'S HOST

We've gotten a preview of local emo folkster Chris Kasper's new album ("The First Hundred Years Are the Hardest") and are duly impressed by its craft and emotional depth. Vandaveer and Adrien Reju add to the "Philly's happening" impression.

World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 8 tonight, $15-$20, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com.

DROWNING IN POP

There's a dangerous undertow to the frothy music of British indie popsters Noah and the Whale. (Think Ray Davies meets Lou Reed.) Honky-tonk country revivalist Nikki Lane unloads woeful tales, too.

TLA, 334 South St., 7 p.m. Sunday, $29, 800-745-3000, www.livenation.com.

THEATER

SOLDIER ON

What happens when a soldier goes AWOL from Iraq, only to hide in a 13-year-old girl's body? Anyone who has suffered the affliction of teen girldom knows that's a terrifying idea, but Pvt. Malcolm Jack will simply have to learn from his mistakes in the world premiere of Philly playwright Joy Cutler's "Pardon My Invasion." Last year, Cutler served as one of the playwrights in residence at Plays and Players. She and her colleagues studied alternative disciplines like puppetry and movement in order to broaden their playwriting. Now, it's Cutler's chance (and ours) to see if it paid off.

Plays & Players, Third Floor, Skinner Studio, 1714 Delancey Place, 8 tonight and tomorrow, 3 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday, through Nov. 19, $20-$25, 215-735-0630, playsandplayers.org

CROSS DRESSED

Azuka Theatre opens up its season with "Act a Lady," a play by Philly's own Jordan Harrison, who began writing the play at PlayPenn and just wrote the book and cowrote the lyrics for the Barrymore-nominated "The Flea and the Professor" at the Arden. "Act a Lady" is a gender-bending show set in the Prohibition-era Midwest. The menfolk decide to put on a play dressed as women. "Act a Lady" also ushers in a new period for Azuka, who presents the show at the Off-Broad Street consortium's new home at the First Baptist Church.

First Baptist Church, 1636 Sansom St., 8 tonight and tomorrow, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 20, $15-$27, 215-733-0255, azukatheatre.org

FILM

OY VEY

The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival returns to Philly for its 31st year of bringing Jewish cinema from all over the world to our shores. The films are from Israel to Argentina to the United States and cover different time periods and topics of the Jewish diaspora, including periods not often screened at the neighborhood multiplex. The movies themselves range in genres, from thrillers ("Little Rose") to coming-of-age tales ("I Miss You (Te Extrano)") to documentaries ("Jews and Baseball").

Various locations through Nov. 19, $5-$15, 215-545-4400, complete schedule: gershmany.org/aboutpjff.php

- Chuck Darrow, Molly Eichel, Lauren McCutcheon and Jonathan Takiff contributed to this calendar.