— Monica Peters
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 5201 Parkside Ave., Fairmount Park. Event is free. Rain date is Sunday. For information, go to www. manncenter.org.
Music
Darius Rucker. The leader of Hootie and the Blowfish is the first to admit he’s had one of pop music’s most unusual — though to him, hardly unexpected — second acts. After working with the band he formed with three college buddies that reached megastardom in the 1990s, the 46-year-old South Carolina native switched gears four years ago to launch a solo career in country music. His distinctive, soulful baritone has proven an ideal fit for the genre’s emotive, often plaintive, storytelling. Rucker’s 2008 country debut, the platinum-selling Learn to Live, raced up the charts; its first single, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” made Rucker the first African American to chart a No. 1 country hit since Charley Pride more than 25 years earlier. Two more chart-topping singles followed, and the record went on to earn Rucker the Country Music Association’s New Artist Award. Onstage, Rucker is backed by a five-member band of what he describes as “true Nashville cats … who play their butts off.”
— Nicole Pensiero
With Thompson Square opening for Lady Antebellum at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden. Tickets: $25, $39.75, $59.75. Information: 800-745-3000, www.livenation.com.
Film
New this week:The Dictator(sssd) Sacha Baron Cohen goes deep — and deeply funny — into character as a North African despot who doesn’t think twice about ordering up the deaths of those who disagree with him. Leading a life of extravagant seclusion and power, Aladeen meets a militant vegan from Brooklyn (Anna Faris) and experiences a disorienting change of heart. R (sex, nudity, profanity, cartoon violence, adult themes).
— Steven Rea
