Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Week Ahead: Dec. 4 to 10

Thursday to Saturday

Rennie Harris Puremovement at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $28; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

In arguably the Kravis Center’s hippest, most streetwise dance booking to date, Guggenheim fellow and Philadelphia native Rennie Harris brings his Puremovement dance collective to the Rinker Playhouse for a hip-hop dance theater production. Hip-hop dancing, which has become a popular attraction on shows like “So You Think You Can Dance,” will be expressed in its myriad forms, from popping and locking to House, B-boying and poetry. Puremovement, whose productions have sold out in locations as diverse as Paris, Italy, Helsinki and Washington, D.C., arrives at the Kravis as part of the Center’s “P.E.A.K.” – “Provocative Entertainment at Kravis” – series.

Thursday to Sunday

11th Annual Art Basel Miami Beach at Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach; noon to 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday; $24 to $90; 305/674-1040 or miamibeach.artbasel.com

If you’re an art lover, you know the drill. For four days in December, every year, Miami becomes the most important art city in the country, with collectors, critics, aficionados, celebrities and musicians converging to enjoy the work of more than 2,000 artists from 260-plus galleries around the world. And it doesn’t end there: Every art-housing space in the tri-county area saves its best material for this weekend, and Miami’s nightclubs will be filled with intimate concerts by top-tier bands.

Thursday and Saturday

“La Boheme” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Saturday; $60 to $200; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

Contrary to popular belief, the word “bohemian” did not derive from Puccini’s opera “La Boheme.” But this endlessly produced work remains the benchmark expression of bohemianism in all of the performing arts. Exploring youthful love in Paris in the mid 19th century, “La Boheme” features a poet, painter, singer, musician, philosopher and seamstress, struggling to find themselves and each other in a period of bustling, romantic creativity. Audiences of today are probably more familiar with “Rent,” Jonathan Larsen’s 1996 musical remake of “La Boheme,” than they are the original, so this production by Florida Grand Opera presents a golden opportunity to enjoy those glorious arias for the first time. Ramon Tebar will conduct Ailyn Perez, Arturo-Chacon-Cruz, Brittany Ann Renee Robinson and more.

Friday to Sunday

The Icebook at FAU Library’s Jaffe Center for the Book Arts, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday; $15; 561/297-0455 or www.jaffecollection.org

Billed as “possibly the smallest live performance in the world,” The Icebook is a revolutionary art project from British artists Davy and Kristin McGuire. Combining literature, cinema and theater, the artists enact an epic fairy tale on the miniature scale of a pop-up book, turning the pages to create a three-dimensional narrative with paper and light. Get your tickets now; each entrancing, 50-minute performance only can be viewed by a dozen people at a time.

Friday

Opening night of “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $30 to $40; 561/450-6357 or www.artsgarage.org

After two successful productions of musicals, The Theatre at Arts Garage will present its first play starting this weekend, and it looks to be quite the edgy, comic shocker. Named after Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction (from “The Winter’s Tale”), “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” opens in a rustic cabin in the middle of the woods, where a man is tied to a chair and surrounded by honey and venison, to attract the woods’ ursine dwellers. We don’t wait long to discover why he’s there – his girlfriend, along with her stripper friend (and aspiring classical actress!) “Peaches,” has planned this revenge plot as a response to the emotional, mental and physical abuse he has laid upon her over the years. This rather untested play, written by Lauren Gunderson, is just the sort of work that Arts Garage Artistic Director Lou Tyrrell used to slate for Florida Stage, and I’m happy to see he’s continuing to take on relatively new works. The play runs through Dec. 30.

Daniel Johnston at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 9 p.m.; $20; 305/377-2277 or www.grandcentralmiamibeach.com

Austin-based singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston typifies a phrase that I hate: “He’s not for everyone,” as if there’s something admirable about pandering to the masses to reach every audience member possible. No, Johnston is and always will be a cult icon whose singing and piano, guitar and percussion-playing will never top any list of America’s most talented. But I’ll take his crude, impossibly high-pitched, lo-fi and strangely beautiful tunes over cookie-cutter polish any day. A performer whose dramatic back story is tied directly to his musicality – he suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, conditions which have nearly gotten him killed – Johnston’s naïve instability has contributed greatly to songs that, frankly, no other mind could come up with. Tonight marks the 51-year-old Johnston’s long-awaited Miami debut, and the concert will be accompanied by an installation of his colorful, comic and occasionally disturbing cartoon artwork.

Saturday and Sunday

“[title of show]” at Showtime Performing Arts Theatre, 503 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Suite 73, Boca Raton; 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; 561/394-2626 orwww.showtimeboca.com

Like movies about the making of movies and books about the writing of books, plays about the making of plays can run the gamut from beautifully inspired to lazily myopic. “[title of show],” probably the only Broadway musical in history to feature brackets in its title, is one of the theatre’s best examples of self-reflexive meta comedy, a musical set around the making of a musical wherein the characters bear the names of the show’s actual creators. This might sound overly dense and layered, but it’s really a lot of fun, filled with inside-theater jokes, witty songwriting and endearing choreography. “[title of show]” has become a regional theater staple at home and abroad, recently finishing up a run in Taiwan. This production, which is Showtime’s only production of the year, stars Clay Cartland, Krissi Johnson, Noah Levine, Sara Greenberg and Evan Ferrer, and it runs through Dec. 16.

Sunday

U.S. Holocaust Museum’s 20th Anniversary Tour at Marriott at Boca Center, 5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; free but registration required; 561/392-4600 or www.USHMM.org/neveragain

Keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive for the past two decades, the U.S. Holocaust Museum will take its awareness-raising programs and historical preservation efforts to Boca Raton for the first time. The tour will include noted speakers discussing how and why the Holocaust happened and other topics; interactive workshops; the ability to view films and photographs rarely seen outside the Holocaust Museum’s walls; and children’s workshops. Informative staff members will be there every step of the way to guide audiences through this one-of-a-kind opportunity.

“The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses” at Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 8 p.m.; starting at $35; 305/949-6722 orwww.arshtcenter.org

There was a time when video gamers and classical music enthusiasts were completely different audiences. Not anymore—video games have matured into sophisticated adult products, and classical music has spread to a younger, hipper demographic. “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses,” reflects this cultural merge. It’s the first video game-themed concert to showcase a complete four-movement symphony and chorus, performed in front of videos projecting iconic images from the Zelda franchise, a Nintendo cash cow that has sold more than 62 million copies.

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