Skip to content
Entertainment
Link copied to clipboard

St. Patrick's Day, Remy Ma, qFlix Philadelphia film fest, Opening Corks, and other great events, March 16-23

The opening of Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music exhibition, qFlix Philadelphia film fest, Opening Corks, Winter Blues Festival at Longwood Gardens, and other great events, March 16-23.

Audra McDonald in "Hello Again."
Audra McDonald in "Hello Again."Read moreCourtesy SPEAKproductions

FILM

qFlix Philadelphia

Celebrating films created by members of the LGBTQ community and those corresponding to related themes, the annual qFlix Philadelphia returns this week. The seven-day festival brings movie nights to various venues, including the Kimmel Center, Plays and Players Theater, and the University of the Arts. Opening night features the movie musical Hello Again, to be followed by an array of comedies, dramas, and other genres from which to choose. Choose a movie to match your mood, and then secure a seat in advance by purchasing tickets online. — Grace Dickinson

March 19-25, festival locations vary by venue, $8-15, qflixphilly.com

EXHIBITION

Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music

On the occasion of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth, NMAJH mounts the first large-scale museum exhibition to illustrate the conductor and composer's life, his Jewish identity, and his social activism. On view among the 100 historic artifacts: Bernstein's piano and conducting suit, family heirlooms, original films, and immersive sound installations.

Opens Friday, March 16, National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S. Independence Mall East, $13 for adults, 215-923-3811, nmajh.org

EXHIBITION OPENING

Winter Blues Festival at Longwood Gardens

One of the rarest colors in the plant world, blue takes center stage in several ways during Longwood Gardens' Winter Blues Festival. One of the festival's biggest highlights is the schedule of weekly Saturday performances delivered by blues musicians from across the country. In addition to the live tunes, the monthlong celebration also features a special display of indigo poppies, echiums, and other blue-hued blossoms and foliage. Book tickets today, and get ready to fight off any of those lingering winter blues. — G.D.

Through March 25, free with admission,  610-388-1000, longwoodgardens.org

LAST CHANCE: ART

Winter Fountains by artist Jennifer Steinkamp

The four-month stint for artist Jennifer Steinkmap's Winter Fountains comes to a close on Sunday. If you have yet to view the four, 13-feet-tall domes lighting up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, consider marking out some time over the next day or two to go view the installation. Featuring video projections created by 16 projectors, the work of art is best seen at night. Take an evening stroll along the Parkway, stopping at Aviator Park, the Rodin Museum near 21st Street, the Park Towne Place Museum Residences, and the Spring Garden Triangle near Eakins Oval, all spots where the domes reside. — G.D.

Sunday March 18, various locations along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, free, parkway100.org

URBAN CULTURE

Be Expo 2018

With rappers Remy Ma and Doug E Fresh headlining the day, the Be Expo unfolds for its fourth year this Saturday. Hosted by Radio One, the event caters to Philadelphia's urban market with an array of empowering seminars, live entertainment, food and drink samplings, and more. Panel discussions cover a wide range of topics, such as how to turn your side hustle into your main hustle, health issues affecting African Americans, and top expert beauty tips. An array of vendors will also set up shop to bring an abundance of shopping opportunities all day long. — G.D.

10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street Hall D, $15 for general admission, BeExpoPhilly.com

DRINK

Philadelphia Wine Week Opening Corks

Kicking off the eight-day Philadelphia Wine Week, Opening Corks welcomes wine lovers to the 23rd Street Armory for an evening full of tastings, including rare wine finds and complementary culinary pairings. More than 100 different pours will be served by winemakers and importers from across the country, and chefs from local spots including The Good King Tavern, Barbuzzo, Tria Cafe, Lacroix, Oloroso, and Royal Boucherie will serve up eats throughout the party. For the vino enthusiast, the event brings an unparalleled opportunity to meet and mingle with other grape worshipers. — G.D.

6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 23rd Street Armory, 22 S. 23rd St., $48 for general admission, 610-793-3578, localwineevents.com

FAMILY

Brunch with the Bunny at Garden State Discovery Museum

Bring the kids out for brunch with the Easter bunny at the Garden State Discovery Museum, one of South Jersey's largest family attractions. Be sure to leave some time before or after the celebratory meal to explore the more than 20 kiddo-oriented exhibitions scattered throughout the museum. Brunch seatings can be reserved at 11 a.m. and noon. – G.D.

11 a.m. to  1 p.m. Saturday, Garden State Discovery Museum, 2040 Springdale Rd., Cherry Hill, Camden, $17 for nonmembers, $12 for members, 856-424-1233, discoverymuseum.com

St. Patrick’s Day

Family Festival – St Patrick’s Day

Bring the kids and celebrate St. Patrick's Day with activities like collaging, cooking, and storytelling. In the afternoon, stop by Hamilton Hall to see a performance by the Coyle School of Irish Dance, and watch authentic Irish step dancing. Events last all day, so be sure to check the museum's online schedule. — Thea Applebaum Licht

All day Saturday, Please Touch Museum, Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, 4231 Avenue of the Republic. $19 general admission. 215-581-3181, www.pleasetouchmuseum.org

Newtown’s Irish Festival

This four-day festival features everything from live music to Irish step-dancing to face painting. For those of you who are Irish music fans, the festival is kicking off with a performance by The Galway Guild, a Philly-based band whose rock sound is rooted in traditional Celtic music. — Bethany Ao

Through Sunday, March 18, Green Parrot, 240 N. Sycamore St., Newtown, free, greenparrotrestaurant.com

Fado Irish Pub’s St. Patrick’s Day Party

Party all day at Fado Irish Pub, with tons of Guinness and Irish whiskey, as well as live music and rugby games. This party starts before most revelers are generally awake, so wear green and show up early with the rest of the rabble-rousers. — B.A.

7 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday, Fado Irish Pub, 1500 Locust St., $10 cover, fadoirishpub.com

Old City St. Patrick’s Day Bar Crawl

If you're looking for a good bar crawl to hit up on St. Patrick's Day, look no further. This Old City crawl features more than 10 bars, as well as plenty of drink specials and free cover for ticket holders. This year's participating bars include the Gaslight, National Mechanics, and Silence Dogood's Tavern. There's also plenty of live music and food specials to go around, if you so happen to get hungry. (It's a marathon, not a sprint.) –B.A.

Noon to 8 p.m., Saturday, the Gaslight (registration location), 120 Market St., $10 for early-bird tickets, $25 day of, eventbrite.com

Erin Express

No ride, no problem. Just take the Erin Express — a fleet of 10-plus buses that are set to run for three straight weekends in March, ending on St. Patrick's Day. The Erin Express shows up every 15 minutes to a dozen participating locations, including Smokey Joe's and Cavanaugh's Restaurant and Sports Bar. No reservations are needed — show up to one of the bars on the list found online and go from there. — B.A.

Saturdays, select locations throughout Philadelphia, free to ride the bus, pay as you go for food and drinks, erinexpress-philly.com

NIGHTLIFE

Publetters at Tattooed Mom

Join Tattooed Mom for a special edition of happy hour on Tuesday when the artsy dive hosts Publetters from 5 to 8 p.m. The event is designed to unleash your inner pen pal as you take advantage of complimentary stationary and stamps. Whether you want to say hello to a faraway friend or voice your thoughts to a notable politician (addresses of many will be on hand), an evening of writing awaits. Yards Brewery specials will be on tap, as will $1 meat and veggie tacos. — G.D.

5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Tattooed Mom, 503 South St., free admission and pay as you go for food and drink, 215-238-9880, tattooedmomphilly.com

Get Pegged Cabaret – Fringe Arts

Crude, lude, and hilarious, this cabaret performance is a show that defies labels and pushes boundaries. The show includes acting, comedy, costumes, and a whole lot of fun. This month's cabaret features Becca Blackwell, NYC-based actor, performer, and writer. — T.A.L.

10:30 p.m. Friday, FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Boulevard. $5 general admission, $30 table for two, $60 table for 4. 215-413-9006, http://fringearts.com.

MUSIC

Mick Cancer Weekend: Lux Lives with Sic Kidz, Dixy Blood

The Cramps were America's purest rock-and-roll band — a scuzzy, sexy, scary and occasionally kitschy rockabilly punk act fronted by the daring duo of Poison Ivy and Lux Interior, whose dirtball music simply breathed fire. Philly's Mick Cancer was a pal of Interior's and an acolyte of his trash-can aesthetic, so much so that when Lux passed in 2009, Cancer's Cramps-like Sic Kidz began hosting "Lux Lives" events around the late singer's death-date. The 2018 iteration of "Lux Lives" at South Philly's Connie's Ric Rac features Twin Gun, Snatch Attack, and Lesa Aldridge (the famed "muse of Memphis," who played the Nico role to Alex Chilton's Lou Reed-ish Big Star). The next day, at Collingswood Music record store and live music venue, Aldridge and Cancer (with a slightly-less-Crampsy Dixy Blood) do their best to do their dirtiest. Expect murder ballads and raucous punk from Blood's upcoming new album, Do Hillbilly Sheep Dream of Dixy Blood. Lux would approve. — A.D. Amorosi

8 p.m. Friday, Connie's Ric Rac, 1132 S. 9th St. conniesricrac.com

8 p.m. Saturday, Collingswood Music, 9 Lincoln Avenue, Collingswood, N.J. $10. collingswoodmusic.com

Larry Kirwan

As the front man of the late, great Black 47, Larry Kirwan created a galvanic brand of Celtic rock that blended the cinematic street poetry of early Springsteen with the politicized punk fury of the Clash. The New York-based son of Wexford continues to draw on his heritage. He just released his own version of David Bowie's "Heroes," inspired by an '80s conversation with Bowie, who told him the song could have been about Belfast as well as Berlin.  And he also has this one-man show, "Ireland – A History in Song." It features some of his historical songs from Black 47, such as "James Connolly" and "The Big Fellah," as well as excerpts from his many plays and books. — Nick Cristiano

7:30 p.m. Friday, at the Zlock Performing Arts Center at Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown. $15 to $30. 215-968-8087.

Kelly Lee Owens

It's not the most common career path. Kelly Lee Owens used to be a nurse in a cancer ward. Now she's a breakout star as producer and songwriter in the world of indie electronic music. What that says about the healing power of music I'm not sure, but the London-based Welsh woman's self-titled debut album, which was one of the sleeper standouts of 2017, distinguishes itself through inventive song craft and a soothing, warmly human vibe that doesn't often come across on robotic techno recordings. With Carmen Villain and Beard-o-Bees. — Dan DeLuca

8 p.m. Saturday at the Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St. $12-$15.  bootandsaddlephilly.com. 267-639-4528.

Miguel

"It's plain to see a man's integrity by the way he treats those he does not need," Miguel sings on "Now," calling out "the CEO of the free world" on the most overtly political song on his fourth album, War & Leisure. There'll never be another Prince, but Miguel makes music that follows in the sexualized genre-splicing R&B-funk-rock tradition of his late great forebear, who he pays tribute to on the new album's "Pineapple Skies." And yes, that was him singing the award-winning "Remember Me," from Coco, with Natalia LaFourcade on this year's Oscar telecast. At the Fillmore, the opening acts are SiR and Nonchalant Savant, the stage name of Miguel's bother Jamaal Pimentel.  — D.D.

8 p.m. Tuesday at the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St. $95. fillmorephilly.com. 215-309-0150.

Lucius

Since Lucius released Wildewoman in 2013, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig have become go-to female backing vocalists for an impressively diverse array of artists, including Philly's the War on Drugs, John Legend, Mavis Staples, David Byrne, and Jeff Tweedy. Roger Waters employed them on his last album and as part of his current Us + Them world tour. For a worthy stopgap before their next full-length, Lucius took two days to record Nudes, an acoustic collection of three new songs, remakes of a few of their old songs and covers. Waters drops in for a rough-hewn version of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene," but don't expect him at Tuesday's sold-out First Unitarian Church Sanctuary show. — Steve Klinge

8 p.m. Tuesday, at the First Unitarian Church Sanctuary, 2125 Chestnut St. Sold out. 215-821-7575, r5productions.com.

Lee Ann Womack

Lee Ann Womack's late career moves have been stellar. After the crossover success she achieved with the wedding song megahit "I Hope You Dance" faded, the Texas native started inching back toward traditional country with 2005's There's More Where That Came From. She really hit her stride with 2014's The Way I'm Livin', and last year's deeply soulful The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone, which was produced by her husband Frank Liddell. With Sarah Allison Turner. — D.D.

8 p.m. Thursday at Sellersville Theater, 24 W. Temple Ave., Sellersville.  Sold out. 215-257-5808. st94.com.