Taylor Genovese, left, and James Gooden in Top Hat Theatre Club's production of "The Nerd."

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Theater

Perhaps the silliest play ever written — and one of the most fun, we might add — is onstage now at the Top Hat Theatre Club.

Larry Shue's "The Nerd" is about a rather uptight guy, Willum, whose life seems in perfect order.

Then the doorbell rings one day and it's Rick Steadman, who insists Willum saved his life in the Army. Trouble is, Rick is perhaps the biggest social misfit of all time. And he turns Willum's world upside down.

The play previews at 7:30 tonight and opens at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 16. Tickets are $12 for previews, $18 for regular performances, with discounts available. The theater is at 3110 E. Fort Lowell Road; 326-6800.

Classical music

The University of Arizona Philharmonic Orchestra is a springboard for the UA's advanced Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

Its members include music majors and minors and non-music students, performing a cross-section of the orchestral repertoire in four concerts each year.

It is not as polished as the Arizona Symphony Orchestra, but it takes just as many chances. Under the baton of Charles Bontrager, this ensemble is strong and capable of tackling challenging repertoire, as it will at its opening concert next Friday when it performs Haydn's Symphony No. 88 in G major.

It is not an especially taxing symphony, but it's among Haydn's more popular works. It is on a program that includes Frederick Delius' "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" and the first Orchestral Suite from Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen."

UA conducting fellow Jackson Warren, one of two inaugural fellows of the new James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting, will lead the ensemble in those works.

Bontrager will open the program with Handel's "Overture: Music for the Royal Fireworks."

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at Crowder Hall, North Park Avenue and East Speedway. Admission is free; 621-2998.

World music

The German American Club of Tucson is offering its own take on Oktoberfest at its annual celebration Saturday at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, 3445 N. Dodge Blvd.

Aside from food and games, there will be music and plenty of it, polkas and traditional German tunes provided by longtime accordion player and Arizona resident Norm Siess.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and dinner is served at 6. The entertainment begins at 7. Tickets are $8, with discounts available. Food costs extra. For more information or to make meal reservations, call 546-6663.