The Mizner Amphitheater transforms into a pumpkin patch, III Points brings together edgy music and pioneering thinkers in Miami, and a dystopian comedy offers kinky thrills in Fort Lauderdale. Plus, Art Garfunkel, “The Sound of Music,” “The Vagina Monologues” and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Opening night of “The Sound of Music”
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $30-$110
Cost: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Yes, the hills are alive with the sound of music, but were they ever not? Forget the “Night of the Living Dead” musical adaptation: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic is the ultimate zombie musical, constantly roaming city and country alike, insatiable and unkillable. It’s also very good, which its detractors—who might be as legion as its admirers—are loath to admit. “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Me,” Edelweiss,” the title song and other iconic numbers have become permanently stitched in the fabric of American cultural history, while the story’s anti-Nazi sentiment has, unfortunately, taken on new resonance in the 21st century. This Broadway tour, featuring new staging, runs through Oct. 22.
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
What: “The Vagina Monologues”
Where: Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, 3385 N.E. 188th St., Aventura
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $35-$45
Cost: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Playwright Eve Ensler’s provocatively titled solo show opened in 1996 as an instant women’s-empowerment classic, prompting New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood to dub it “probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade.” Since then, tours and regional productions of this influential play have rarely ceased. The diverse monologues, drawn from Ensler’s interviews of 200 women, are told from the perspectives of rape victims and feminist activists, sex workers and new mothers, addressing topics such as body image, gender double standards, menstruation, sex and female genital mutilation. Alternately harrowing, comic and insightful, most “Vagina Monologues” productions feature multiple performers, in this case acclaimed comedians Vicky Kuperman and Vanessa Hollingshead.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “Mad Cat Live!: Black Sabbath Vol. 4”
Where: The Gleason Room at Fillmore, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach
When: 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $15 general admission, $25 VIP table
Contact: 305/751-9550, madcattheatre.org
While casual Black Sabbath fans may be most familiar with the metal pioneers’ first two albums, Mad Cat Theatre Company tends to focus its theatrical concerts on more obscure, transitional and under-appreciated releases. To that end, and just in time for Halloween, the talented actor-musicians of Mad Cat will feature a performance of Black Sabbath’s fourth album, titled, imaginatively “Vol. 4.” It was originally intended to be called “Snowblind,” an all-too-overt reference to the mountains of coke the band members snorted during the debauched recording sessions. The influence of the white powder led the band to synthesize the heavy sound it became recognized for while opening up new sonic pathways, as evidenced on the neo-classical instruments and the spartan piano ballad “Changes.” Mad Cat will explore every nuance of this momentous album, in a limited production running through Sunday only.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “The Unknown Girl”
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth
When: 2 and 6:15 p.m.
Cost: $6-$9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
How many people can be responsible for a person’s accidental death? That’s the moral question at stake in this latest mystery from Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the master filmmakers behind “Two Days, One Night” and “Rosetta.” A kind, hardworking doctor, toiling in her office annex more than an hour after the clinic has closed, decides not to answer a buzz at the door. The next morning, the police inform her that the person seeking medical help was found dead shortly thereafter. Consumed by guilt, the physician plays amateur gumshoe and discovers potential suspects in every corner of Belgian society, including one of her patients. Shot in the Dardenne Brothers’ signature rigorous camera style, “The Unknown Girl” explores class and race disparities without didacticism. It runs through Oct. 19.
What: Opening night of “The Good Girl”
Where: Andrews Living Arts, 23 N.W. Fifth St., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $30
Contact: 866/811-4111, primalforces.com
Artistic director Keith Garsson, lately of the Theatre at Arts Garage, will bring his signature brand of hard-hitting, sexually provocative theatre back to its Fort Lauderdale roots. Playwright Emilie Collyer’s dystopian comedy “The Good Girl” is set in a future in which sex bots have largely supplanted human-on-human fornication. And when an artificially intelligent robot begins to develop ever more naturalistic human behaviors, a pair of its opportunistic helpers—its government-issued “madam” and a maintenance worker—develop a scheme that spirals the narrative into dark directions. Garsson will direct Amber Lynn Benson and Jovon Jacobs in this Southeastern premiere, which runs through Oct. 29.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: III Points Festival
Where: Mana Wynwood Convention Center, 318 N.W. 23rd St., Miami
When: Various show times
Cost: $125-$295
Contact: iiipoints.com
This fifth-annual Miami confab is more than a music festival, bringing together national and local “thinkers, dreamers and doers” for a diverse program of lectures, tech talks, gallery showcases and more. But the headlining bands remain the top draw of III Points, which welcomes Gorillaz, the electro-pop side project of Blur’s Damon Albarn; English indie-pop sensations The xx (pictured above); Seattle-based chamber-pop auteur Perfume Genius; numerous EDM and hip-hop headliners; and even an “audio installation” by the legendary Brian Eno. This is where the cool kids will be all weekend.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: Boca Raton Pumpkin Patch Festival
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 10 a.m.
Cost: $15
Contact: bocapumpkinpatch.com
Nothing says fall like the influx of pumpkins in markets, on lawns and decorating window displays. The seasonal squash plant also will be center stage at many attractions this weekend, as the Mizner Park Amphitheater transforms into a pumpkin patch. In addition to the opportunity to decorate pumpkins into edible works of art, kids can enjoy a cornstalk maze and carnival rides, and take photos in front of backdrops of autumn leaves. You can also design—and take home—a scarecrow, and choose from among 2,500 pumpkins. Sweet and savory pumpkin entrees can be purchased at a specialty food court, and guests 21 and up can imbibe at the Pumpkin Beer Bar.
SUNDAY
What: Art Garfunkel in Conversation
Where: Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus Auditorium, 300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami
When: 4 p.m.
Cost: $27.95 book purchase from Books & Books serves as entry for two
Contact: 305/442-4408, booksandbooks.com
Fans of folk music, nonfiction books, art cinema and especially the six-time Grammy-winning output of Simon and Garfunkel would be remiss in passing up the opportunity to meet the legendary duo’s more sensitive side up close and personal. Garfunkel, the curly-haired Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, will join Shelly Berg, dean of U.M.’s Frost School of Music, for a conversation about Garfunkel’s new memoir, What is it All But Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man. The book explores Garfunkel’s life before, during and after his S&G heyday, from paying a studio seven dollars to record a demo of their first song to acting in movies by Nicholas Roeg and Mike Nichols. Stick around, and you may even get him to sign the book.
