Wednesday
Opening night of “Company” at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; $35; 561/514-4042 orwww.palmbeachdramaworks.org
Palm Beach Dramaworks’ concert production of “Man of La Mancha,” which closed on July 28, proved that the theater world doesn’t need to slow down during the summer months. The show was a huge hit, won critical raves and even extended its run an additional week. Dramaworks’ artistic team is hoping for a similar success with its stripped-down “Company,” one of Stephen Sondheim’s most iconic Tony winners. Like “La Mancha,” it’s a concert production, meaning it’s not a full production, with the actors singing and reading from scripts in hand – but for a show like “Company,” which is already narratively disjointed and based on 11 one-act plays, the format seems appropriate. Nick Duckart, Katherine Amadeo, Wayne LeGette, Laura Hodos, Barry Tarallo and others will star in the musical that gave us “Side By Side By Side” and “Ladies Who Lunch.” It runs through Aug. 18.
Screening of “Sound City” at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 6 and 8:30 p.m.; $8; 561/243-7922 orwww.delraycenterforthearts.org
Of all the movies slated at this summer’s annual film program at the Delray Center for the Arts, “Sound City” is, to my eyes and my ears, the most exciting offering. For one, it’s the newest film on the docket, opening in limited release this past spring. And secondly, it has an electrifying subject matter: the titular recording studio in Van Nuys, California, that became a haven for rock musicians from the 1970s on through the first decade of the Aughts. Many of its proponents, including Neil Young, John Fogerty, Lars Ulrich, Trent Reznor and Lindsey Buckingham, are interviewed in the movie, which captures both the studio’s eminent rise and its unceremonious fall, amid a rapidly changing evolution from analog to digital. As always for this series, drinks will be available at a cash bar.
Thursday
Opening night of “Shorts Gone Wild” at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $30; 954/519-2533 or www.islandcitystage.com
Miami’s City Theatre likes to keep things short and sweet, having built up a venerable reputation for its annual “Summer Shorts” collection of one-acts. Fort Lauderdale’s Island City Stage likes to keep things situated in the realm of LGBT issues. Like superheroes joining forces, these two companies will combine their niche brands for this unique joint production, a shorts compilation with a gay slant. “Shorts Gone Wild” will feature six world premieres from five local playwrights commissioned specifically for this project, as well as an acclaimed national one-act from Paul Rudnick (“The Gay Agenda”) and a surprise play to be determined each night of the show’s run. This diverse collection includes everything from screwball comedies and quirky love stories to self-referential experiments and uncomfortable studies of friendships tested.
Adam Ant at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 7 p.m.; $25; 305/377-2277 or www.grandcentralmiami.com
English New Waver Adam Ant is the rock world’s irascible dandy, a bipolar impresario of fashion and fornication who thrived during MTV’s video heyday with such ’80s hits as “Stand and Deliver” and “Strip.” In recent years, he has emerged from a lengthy hibernation from the music world, marred by public bouts of violence attributed to his unstable mental state. But he’s rebounded like a champion, and last year’s long-awaited reunion tour, which visited Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek, proved to be an electrifying concert. He’s back tonight to support a ridiculously titled new album, “Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter,” his first since 1995.
Thursday and Friday
Tastemakers of Delray Beach in Downtown Delray Beach; 5 to 10 p.m.; $30; 561/243-1077 or www.downtowndelraybeach.com
Visitors looking to chow down on Atlantic Avenue are faced with a perpetual dilemma: Where to eat when every option is a world-class dining destination? For several years strong, Tastemakers of Delray Beach has been the solution for the indecisive diner, offering small bites and wine and cocktail pairings from 18 participating restaurants, all for the price of, in many cases, an entrée in just one of those award-winning restaurants. All the heavy hitters will be unveiling their favorites: The Office, Deck 84, Brule, Lemongrass, Vic & Angelo’s, Sundy House, DIG and many others. Whatever you do, don’t miss the house-made signature meatballs from Solita. The $30 ticket price gets you a “passport” for all the locations, available for purchase at each participating restaurant.
Thursday to Sunday
David Alan Grier at Fort Lauderdale Improv, 5700 Seminole Way, Hollywood; various show times; $20; 954/981-5653 or www.improvftl.com
Twenty years after the show’s peak, comedian David Alan Grier is still most known for his work on “In Living Color,” whose indelible characters – for Grier, they included a crotchety old man, a blues musician with limited talent and a flamboyant movie critic – still thrive on YouTube. What’s less known, perhaps, is that the chameleonic funnyman is also an esteemed dramatic actor who studied Shakespeare at Yale, earned a Tony nomination for playing Jackie Robinson on Broadway, and sang and danced toward another Tony nom, more recently, in “Porgy & Bess.” This weekend, this renaissance man will likely incorporate his eclectic range of talents; at his stand-up gigs, he’s been known to sing, explore political issues and draw from his personal life.
Saturday and Sunday
Alan Resnais retrospective at Bill Cosford Cinema at University of Miami, 5030 Brunson Drive, Coral Gables; 8 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday; $9 general admission, $7 seniors; 305/284-4861 or www.cosfordcinema.com
Filmmaker Alain Resnais was always the most beguiling artist of the great French New Wave movement that launched in the early 1960s. His most famous features, “Last Year at Marienbad” and “Hiroshima mon Amour,” broke cinematic ground with their bold, nonlinear narratives and poetic camera movements, and his short film “Night and Fog” is the most shattering movie ever made about the Holocaust. In addition to regular screenings of the 91-year-old auteur’s latest experimental work, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” the Cosford Cinema has been showcasing rare 35mm prints of some of his classic films. On Saturday, you can see 1977’s “Providence,” Resnais’ first English-language film, with John Gielgud as a drunken novelist who distorts his own family for literary gain. And on Sunday, don’t miss “Stavisky…,” the director’s 1974 biopic about the self-deluded, 1930s confidence man Alexandre Stavisky, played in the film by the great Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Sunday
“White Hot Summer” at Eissey Campus Theatre, 11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens; 3 p.m.; $20 to $25; 561/207-5900 or www.odance.org
If you want to start exploring South Florida’s cutting-edge dance community, there’s no better place to start than this co-production from Reach Dance Company and O Dance, two of our region’s most powerful purveyors of eclectic dance styles. Reach focuses chiefly on jazz dance but crosses over into ballet, funk, modern and ethnic dances; and O Dance similarly explores ballet under a broad umbrella of theatrical disciplines, aiming to push choreographic envelopes. This performance will premiere new works by five local choreographers, including the artistic directors of Reach and O, as well as “Ballet’s Child,” a new collaborative work from choreographer Donna Murray and poet/writer Lani Scozzari.
