IMPRESARIO: The Weekender — All About Mom
You’ve known her all your life, but you still don’t know what to get Mom for Mother’s Day. Here are three events worthy of your matriarch …
• Mom will gaze wantingly at the lean, mean bods of the Cirque du Soleil troupe, which just last night opened its KOOZA show under the big blue top at the normally decrepit and deserted corner of Broad and Washington. A good number of seats remain for tonight’s show. The rest of the weekend, it’s fairly sketchy. But doable. If you want a primer on KOOZA, check out this Q&A with Cirque’s acrobatic coach.
• And you thought your mom was pushy and fond of the guilt trip? She’s got nothin’ on Mama Rose. Mother of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, Mama Rose’s completely over-the-top stage mother shenanigans are chronicled in the fabulous musical Gypsy. Sure, you could haul Mom up to Broadway, where Patti LuPone turns in a terrific performance. But the much cheaper and more convenient option would be the version going up this weekend at the Academy of Music.
• Just in case you’re not up on the history of Klezmer music in Philadelphia, a Ukrainian fellow by the name of Joseph Hoffman was at the epicenter of it way back in the days when Klezmer was a big enough thing to have its own epicenter. Hoffman’s granddaughter, drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts, is still around, still playing Klezmer drums. And this Sunday at World Cafe Live, she teams up with her Klezmer-trumpet-playing daughter, Susan Watts (the two are pictured above), for a concert of music from a 1920s songbook that Joseph assembled. Even if you wouldn’t describe yourself as a Klezmer fan, Elaine is a hoot and her concerts with Susan are always fun and memorable, which seems to be exactly what the perfect Mother’s Day present should be.
