What: “Putting It Together”
Where: Broward Stage Door, 8036 W. Sample Road, Margate
When: 2 p.m.
Cost: $38-$42
Contact: 954/344-7765, stagedoortheatre.com
It’s been a year of Stephen Sondheim thus far in South Florida theaters, with local productions of “Passion” and “West Side Story” and Actors’ Playhouse’s regional premiere of “Sondheim on Sondheim,” which featured more than 45 of the master’s songs complemented by video of the man himself. But as any Sondheim freak knows, there’s never enough Sondheim—the songs last a lifetime or more, and each actor puts his or her distinctive spin on them. First performed in 1992, “Putting It Together” is a kind of sequel to the 1976 Sondheim revue “Side by Side by Sondheim”—only richer, because it contains material from the composer-lyricist’s artistically fertile period in the 1980s and early ‘90s. It also has a threadbare plot, which elevates it beyond the traditional revue: It’s set at a black-tie penthouse party, charting the romantic connections and disconnections among a disillusioned older couple and a bushy-tailed young couple. They express their feelings through more than 30 hits and obscurities from shows including “Company,” “Into the Woods,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Sweeney Todd.” Stage Door’s production runs through June 19.
THURSDAY
What: Dom Irrera
Where: Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $45-$65
Contact: 954/243-7922, oldschool.org
For a rambunctious teenager, growing up under the same roof as your Italian mother, grandmother, sister, uncles and cousins can provide fodder for one of two things: a decade in therapy or a residency at the local Chuckle Hut. Thankfully, Dom Irrera chose the latter, plumbing from his colorful life experience with his bustling extended family to launch a comedy career in the early ‘80s. He’s since become a stalwart road warrior at the most revered comedy clubs in North America, mixing pungent observations about life with self-deprecating confessionals. Minor roles on “Seinfeld”—where he played a notorious prop comic—and “King of Queens” followed, along with award-winning cable specials and podcasts. His friendly, easygoing delivery often clashes with material scabrous enough to make Tony Soprano wince, so consider this your warning: Expect a bluer, more scatological set than his PG-13 cameos on late-night talk shows. As far as therapy goes, Irrera’s comic muse serves that function, too; after all, he made 11 squiggly appearances, as himself, on Comedy Central’s cult cartoon “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.”
FRIDAY
What: Legends of the Old School 2
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $49.50
Contact: 561/393-7700, ticketmaster.com
Remember the ‘90s? Those quaint halcyon days of popular music when used-CD stores thrived, music videos still sold records, and conservative presidents fretted publicly about the menace of rap lyrics? The organizers of this event certainly remember those days, amassing some of the rap and hip-hop world’s trailblazing chart-toppers for a night of throwback jams. A sequel to last year’s inaugural gathering of influential rhymers, the Legends of Old School 2 features former New Edition trio Bell Biv Devoe (“Poison”), New York freestyle legend Lisa Lisa, gravelly voiced rapper Tone Loc, Rob Base (“It Takes Two”) and Kid n Play, the hip-hop duo who composed the “House Party” soundtracks. TKA, JJ Fad, 69 Boyz and DJ Laz complete this all-night retro rager. Dress appropriately—which is to say sunglasses after 8 p.m. and backwards Yankees caps are more than welcome.
What: Screening of “The Lost Boys”
Where: Movies of Lake Worth, 7380 Lake Worth Road, Lake Worth
When: 9:30 p.m.
Cost: $10
Contact: 561/968-4545, morbidmovies.com
Well before “True Blood” resurrected the grim carnality of the vampire mythos—and long before “Twilight” helped replace those mythos with tween romantic swooning—there was “The Lost Boys,” the 1987 Joel Shumacher cult hit that brought blood-sucking and wooden stakes to the cultural forefront. Following a pair of brothers who move with their divorcee mother into a California beach community that is apparently being overtaken by a vampire gang, “The Lost Boys” is chockablock with actors synonymous with Gen-X slack: among them both Coreys (Haim and Feldman), Jason Patric, Jamie Gertz and Keifer Sutherland at his best. Reflecting a time when video stores and comic book shops provided places of refuge for inquisitive adolescent minds, “The Lost Boys” is one of the defining films its generation, expertly mixing comedy and horror, making it one of the most accessible selections in Morbid Movies’ ongoing Palm Beach County Grindhouse Series. Attendees at this one-time-only screening will receive a raffle ticket with their purchase, with rare vampire-themed prizes up for grabs.
What: Pink Talking Fish
Where: Revolution Live, 100 S.W. Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $21.50 advance, $34 day of show
Contact: 954/449-1025, jointherevolution.net
It sounds like the name of a lost Dr. Seuss book, but Pink Talking Fish is actually a hybridized tribute band honoring the music of three iconic acts: Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish. On paper, it makes little sense. Trey Anastasio’s goofy jam-band noodling, David Byrne’s ironic post-punk precision and Roger Waters’ transcendent classic-rock bombast don’t seem to share the same musical playgrounds, let alone sandboxes. But great live music doesn’t exist on paper, and this impeccably tight quartet is rising on the strength of its surprisingly effective mash-ups, whether it’s sandwiching Talking Heads’ “Making Flippy Floppy” and Phish’s “Piper” in between the intro and outro of Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” or discovering unlikely 20-minute medleys like the “Time/Ghost/Psycho Killer” performance at this year’s Wanee festival. Open-minded listeners will appreciate the band’s imaginative concoctions.
SATURDAY
What: Millencolin
Where: Revolution Live, 100 S.W. Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $20
Contact: 954/449-1025, jointherevolution.net
Founded in Orebro, Sweden in 1992, the punk quartet Millencolin is named for a skateboard trick called a “melancholy,” and there’s nothing sad about it. The band formed at the beginning of the second-wave punk renaissance, playing the kind of music that fellow-skateboarders loved—hard, fast, short and melodic, perfect for ollies, indy grabs and lip tricks at your favorite suburban skate ramp. Following in the sonic footsteps of acts like Pennywise, Bad Religion and Face to Face, Millencolin joined seminal punk label Epitaph in 1995, and within two years the band had a slot on the Warped Tour. While many rock groups from the era have disbanded, lost band members or faded into oblivion, Millencolin is still comprised of the four friends who began jamming together as teenagers. Though they’ve flirted with a more alt-rock sound in the 2000s, their latest album True Brew is seen by fans (and even the band themselves) as a vintage return to punk form, addressing sociopolitical issues across 13 inspired tracks, which have earned rave reviews from influential sources ranging from punknews.org to Rolling Stone. The band Success will open the show.
What: Tracy Morgan
Where: Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $40-$70
Contact: 800/745-3000, myhrl.com
If comedy is tragedy plus time, this “30 Rock” Emmy nominee has endured enough pain and hardship to inspire several lifetimes of material. Tracy Morgan’s father was a heroin addict who contracted AIDS from a needle and died at 39. A high-school dropout, Morgan sold crack cocaine on the streets near his housing project in Brooklyn, until the murder of his best friend prompted a vocational adjustment toward comedy. As an adult, he’s battled alcoholism and diabetes, and in the summer of 2014, he nearly died in a six-vehicle crash in New Jersey, breaking a femur, his nose and several ribs, and prompting a nearly yearlong stint in a rehabilitation center. Any of these events could break a man’s spirit, but Morgan’s funny bone remains more than intact, as he’ll display at his sardonically titled “Picking Up the Pieces” tour, his first jaunt since the traffic accident. If his pre-crash history is any indication, he’ll be an irrepressible powerhouse of theatrical movements, headline-ripped observations, and sex jokes bluer than a Smurf wedding.
What: “The Tin Woman”
Where: Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $58
Contact: 305/444-9293, actorsplayhouse.org
Normally, there would be nothing funny about a heart transplant, but expect plenty of laughs amid the depression, family dysfunction and survivor’s guilt of Sean Grennan’s play “The Tin Woman.” It’s about an acerbic young woman named Joy, who, when gifted with a new ticker, hopes to reconcile her existential unease by meeting the donor’s family. The heart came from an aspiring male photographer roughly Joy’s age. And it turns out the victim’s parents, Alice and Hank, have accepted his passing in opposing, and occasionally self-destructing, ways, while the donor’s sister, a woo-woo elementary school teacher, sees Joy’s correspondence as an opportunity to reconnect with her late brother and complete a “circle of life.” Amusing and poignant, the story is both a personal journey of acceptance and a guidebook for what to expect should an organ transplant arise—and it moves like a movie. Jennifer Christa Palmer, Laura Turnbull, Ken Clement, Lila Elam, Natalia Coego and Cliff Burgess star in this regional premiere, which runs through June 12.
