8 pm: Music

The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the nation’s oldest and most venerable. On its first California visit in nine years, the orchestra and maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch will offer two programs. Friday’s music will be Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Henri Tomasi’s Trumpet Concerto and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. Sunday’s will be Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses, Weber’s Symphony No. 1 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. The concerts are sponsored by the Philharmonic Society.

* The Philadelphia Orchestra, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Also Sunday at 3 p.m. $20-$75. (714) 556-2787.

All day: Movies

Can baby boomer heartthrob Warren Beatty give today’s audience the 411 on hip-hop, politics and race relations in America? Well, he’s giving it his best shot in “Bulworth,” in which he stars, co-writes, directs and produces. He also gets jiggy with it, raps and rhymes with co-star Halle Berry.

* “Bulworth” opens Friday in general release.

8 pm: Pop Music

Cosmic troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore has gone through some bumpy times in the music business, but the tall Texan emerges from his major-label era with his exquisite voice and his sagebrush spirituality intact. Now a free agent, he’ll play solo acoustic shows on this Southland swing.

* Jimmie Dale Gilmore at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. $13.50. (714) 496-8927. Also Saturday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at McCabe’s, 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, $15. (310) 828-4403. Also Sunday at 7 p.m.

8 pm: Theater

Willkommen--to “Cabaret,” and the frenzied, dark and decadent Kit Kat Klub in pre-Nazi Berlin that’s at the center of this resonant John Kander-Fred Ebb musical about a city and an era on the eve of overwhelming social and political change.

* “Cabaret,” West Coast Ensemble, 522 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 5. $25; opening night, $30.

7:30 pm: Humor

The latest Writers Bloc literary event brings together a lineup of well-known humorists: Chris Buckley, Steve Martin, Bruce McCall and Wendy Wasserstein with moderator Harry Shearer for an evening that promises more than a few laughs.

* Writers Bloc, Writers Guild Theatre, 135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills. $15. (818) 789-TIXX.

8:30 pm: Dance

The full-evening movement-theater project “I Am Not You” finds students from the theater and dance departments at Cal State L.A. mixing speech and motion to explore facets of individual and cultural identity. Functioning as prime creator and director of the collaborative ensemble performance, Tim Miller re-explores his dance roots after becoming internationally known as a solo performance artist, the co-founder of Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, an outspoken gay activist, a member of the so-called NEA Four and an acclaimed author (the recently published memoir “Shirts and Skin”).

* “I Am Not You,” Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m. $12. (213) 660-8587.

FREEBIE: Caltech Glee Clubs and Chamber Orchestra, Ramo Auditorium, Pasadena, 8 p.m. (626) 395-4652.