8:15pm / Pop Music

The last time Mexican superstar Juan Gabriel performed in the area, it was at a rodeo, with a raucous banda ensemble. Now the top-selling Latin pop star of all time is back, for a Mother’s Day performance at the Anaheim Convention Center. Expect lush orchestrations of Gabriel’s most beloved ballads, fabulous costume changes and an overall loving performance from the onetime orphan who has said he long ago forgave his own mother for abandoning him.

* Juan Gabriel, Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8:15 p.m. $50 and up. (562) 695-0503.

7pm / Benefit

Wayne Brady, star of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,’ hosts an evening of music and comedy, featuring Sheila E., recording artist Cherokee and the improv troupe Houseful of Honkeys. Proceeds from the Wayne Brady and Friends Benefit, which also includes a silent auction, will go to the Healing Fund, a charity in Denver that is helping those affected by the killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

* Wayne Brady and Friends Benefit, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, 6525 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 7-10 p.m. $25. (310) 247-8164.

7pm / Theater

Every day is Mother’s Day in “The House of Bernarda Alba,” but that’s not good news to the five love-starved sisters who live under Mama’s iron thumb in this dark drama by Federico Garcia Lorca. To make matters worse, emotions explode with the eldest’s betrothal. The Deaf West Theatre Company production cast is headed by Phyllis Frelich, Linda Bove and Freda Norman and directed by Larry Arrick.

* “The House of Bernarda Alba,” Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City. 7 p.m. Regular schedule: Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Through June 13. $12-$20. (818) 762-2773; (818) 762-2782 (TTY).

8pm / Pop Music

Phife is one of those rappers whose songs you seem to know without ever bothering to learn his name. Why is that? Since the days when he founded the group A Tribe Called Quest, it has been that way for Phife (real name Malik Taylor), a middle-class Queens kid who now runs his own record label. He’ll be sharing the stage at the Palace with fellow rap acts Defari and Xzibit.

* Phife, the Palace, 1735 N. Vine St., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. (323) 467-4571.

1pm / Workshop

Flowers? Candy? Hardly original Mother’s Day gifts. So instead take Mom to the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, where master kente weavers Samuel and Bempa Cophie will be showing participants how to make a kente flower bouquet during a free workshop.

* “Fit for a Queen: A Kente Mother’s Day Celebration,” at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA campus. 1-3 p.m. Free. (310) 825-8655.

6pm / Theater

Maripat Donovan is the omniscient, authoritarian “Sister” teaching students (the audience) an adult catechism class in her raucous off-Broadway hit solo comedy, “Late Nite Catechism,” written with Vicki Quade.

* “Late Nite Catechism,” Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. 6 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends June 6. $32 to $37. (213) 365-3500.

Freebies:

“Public Notice: Art & Activist Posters, 1951-1997,” an exhibition of 400 rare posters, opens at the Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena. Noon. (626) 396-2244.

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The Rio Hondo Symphony plays music by Beethoven, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff and Glazunov at Whittier High School Auditorium, 12417 E. Philadelphia St., Whittier. 3 p.m. (562) 947-5907.