It’s a Wonderful Show
Fans of the perpetual holiday film favorite It’s a Wonderful Life should get a kick out of the Players Club of Swarthmore’s production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Running Nov. 27-29 and Dec. 3-6, 10-13, this inventive take on the Oscar-nominated 1946 classic reframes the movie as a radio show. A dozen performers enhance the original script’s dialogue, creating a variety of sound effects with everyday objects. $8-$15. 614 Fairview Ave., Swarthmore. Call (610) 328-4271 or visit pcstheater.org. —Adam Polaski
Sphinx Hijinks
If you’ve seen Night at the Museum, you might think you know what happens after the doors close at the end of the day. But do you? Find out firsthand at a 40 Winks with the Sphinx slumber party at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Kids ages 6-12 (along with a chaperone 21 or older) are invited to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime, after-hours adventure that includes a flashlight expedition and scavenger hunt through the museum’s ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman galleries, plus hands-on games and crafts. Then snuggle up for the night with the 12-ton, red granite Sphinx—the third largest in the world—surrounded by 3,200-year-old pillars from the palace of Pharaoh Merneptah, the son of Ramesses II. A light breakfast is provided in the morning. Monthly through June. $50; $45/museum members. 3260 South St. Call (215) 898-2680 or visit museum.upenn.edu. —Marilyn Odesser-Torpey
Nature’s Way
Shift gears this busy holiday season and take some time to savor the traveling sLowlife exhibit at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum thru Dec. 31. Time-lapse photos and films document the unseen lives of plants, flowers, seedlings, leaf cells, roots and more. They move; they groove; they grow; they respond with remarkable flexibility and grace to environmental changes, injury and aging. Listen as the sounds of bells and guitars echo through the show—part of an original composition created using scientific data from plant studies. Free. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Clifford Hach Gallery, 315 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. Call (215) 925-2222 or visit chemheritage.org. —Shannon Hallamyer
