Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Week Ahead: May 24 to 30

Wednesday

Broadway Master Class with Keven Quillon at Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth; 5 to 7 p.m.; $50; 561/586-6410 orwww.lakeworthplayhouse.org

Aspiring Broadway performers looking to become the next Keven Quillon are welcome to join a workshop where they’ll receive lessons from the “Grease” and “Shrek: The Musical” star himself. Students age 9 to adulthood will learn choreography from “Shrek,” participate in an audition workshop and join a Q&A, where Quillon will share his secrets about how to succeed on the Great White Way.

Wednesday to Friday

JJ Grey at Bamboo Room, 25 South J Street, Lake Worth; 8:30 p.m.; $22 to $30; 561/585-2583 or www.bamboorm.com

This blues-rock vocalist and Jacksonville native plays South Florida regularly, usually with his band MOFRO, with whom he has released five albums. This time, local fans will have the unusual treat of seeing Grey perform solo, stripped-down acoustic versions of the soul, funk, r&b and Southern rock tunes from his full-band day job. Local bluesman Ben Prestage opens the Thursday show in one of the most notable shows the Bamboo Room has booked since reopening.

Thursday

“The Best Comic Standing” festival at New York Comedy Club, 8221 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 8:30 p.m.; $5; 561/470-6887 or www.nyccboca.com

As part of New York City’s first annual Stand Up 360 Comedy Festival, local comedy lovers have a chance to see a night of professional and amateur comedians duke it out on stages across the country. The winner of Thursday’s Boca competition will receive the opportunity to perform in the Big Apple alongside other regional winners, and the winner of the NYC show will be sent to a London comedy club on an all-expenses paid flight. Wonder if the winner will come up with some dynamite material about international air travel?

“Cocktails With Larry Miller” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $49; 954/462-0222 orwww.browardcenter.org

Larry Miller

You may not know the name, but you definitely recognize the face. Comedian Larry Miller has appeared in dozens of films, from “Pretty Woman” to “A Mighty Wind,” and his bald pate and deadpan wit have become staples at higher-end comedy clubs. For his appearance in Fort Lauderdale this week, Miller graduates from stand-up entertainer to one-man-show purveyor, riffing on marriage, children and drinking.

Vice City Takeover show at Propaganda, 6 South J Street, Lake Worth; 8 p.m.; cover TBA; 561/547-7273 or www.propagandalw.com

Lake Worth’s home for local indie rock and reggae transforms into a hip-hop enclave for this showcase, which features three Miami acts – LMS, Blood Type and DaVinnci & A.G. Lyonz – along with headliner Odyssey, of the Anchorage collective Indefinate Etticate. I’m not sure what’s newsier here; that we’re getting an Alaskan hip-hop star to play in South Florida or that there are such things as Alaskan hip-hop stars. The evening also includes two DJs and live painting by Mo Brenner and Justin Invi.

Friday

Opening night of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at New Theatre, 4120 Laguna St., Coral Gables; 8 p.m.; $35 to $40; 305/443-5909 or www.new-theatre.org

Continuing its mission of commingling new, untested premieres with oft-revived classics, New Theatre ends its season with the latter, Tennessee Williams’ hot-blooded exploration of a Southern belle in decline and the macho brute who sent her there. If New Theatre’s previous Williams revival – “The Glass Menagerie,” mounted a couple of seasons ago – is any indication, this is a theater that knows the playwright inside and out, capturing all of his subtleties. The show runs through June 12.

Armed Forces Night at the South Florida Science Museum, 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach; 6 to 10 p.m.; $10 adults, $6 children, free for members; 561/832-1988 or www.sfsm.org

The South Florida Science Museum stays open late to honor our troops this Memorial Day weekend. Local military officers will be on hand for a Q&A, and there will be a Color Guard presentation by the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps at 7 p.m. Children will have the opportunity to create models of military vehicles and design a special card to send to soldiers overseas. Apparently, there also will be a pig dissection, which has nothing to do with the armed forces but is far from an everyday activity.

Saturday

Bill Maher at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; starting at $30; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

For many, Bill Maher is a lone, equal-opportunity voice of sanity amid the head-scratching circus of politics, media and culture. For others, the HBO “Real Time” host is just another windbag with a microphone, spreading his leftist agenda to a stoned demographic. I have a clear bias here – I think Maher’s show is one of the best on television; it never ceases to be funny, and,

unlike most hours of CNN, I end up learning something each week. Look for more of the same in his stand-up act.

Face to Face at Revolution Live, 100 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale; $19; 954/727-0950 or www.jointherevolution.net

If you’re as old as I am and went through the same high-school punk phase I did, you may remember this SoCal quartet performing at the nightclub Ovation (R.I.P.) in Boynton Beach back in 2002, in support of what would be its last album before splitting up. Now, the catchy, hook-driven, Jawbreaker-influenced group is back together, supporting the new release “Laugh Now, Laugh Later.” I feel like I’ve outgrown this band, but its first three records remain unquestionable classics in the skate-punk genre.

 

 

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