Festival of the Arts Boca kicks off with Mancini and “Jaws,” and Art and Jazz brings music and revelry to Delray’s SET. Plus, Bob Dylan, Tim Meadows and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Art and Jazz
When: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: The SET, Northwest Third Avenue to Northwest Sixth Avenue, Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: downtowndelraybeach.com
The latest iteration of this cherished downtown Delray tradition returns with another nearly four-hour program of live music, live art, children’s activities and food and craft vendors—this time at the SET neighborhood. Two visual artists will be painting murals in real time, and there will four musical artists performing on two stages to satisfy sundry tastes. Award-winning jazz vocalist Yvette Norwood opens the Police Department stage at 5:30 p.m. with her trio, followed by blues act the Shaelyn Band at 7:15. Over at the Libby Wesley Plaza Stage, soul favorites JM and the Sweets will open things at 5:30 p.m., followed by a short performance by the Achievement Center Steppers at 7; the Mylon Shambles Quartet plays its eclectic jazz and blues from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of Festival of the Arts Boca
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $30-$115
Contact: 561/757-4762, festivalboca.org
Our hometown arts festival’s 18th year returns in March with another strong and diverse lineup of speakers and performers, a distinction that blurs in the form of Renée Fleming: The famed soprano will perform a soaring recital on Sunday, then return on Monday, March 4 for a “Music and the Mind” lecture on the connection between the arts and our mental health. Also on the docket for 2024 are eclectic multi-hyphenate Isaac Mizrahi with his solo cabaret show (March 9); a performance from Barcelona’s Flamenco Ballet (March 8); a reading from Richard Blanco, the poet who recited at Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration (March 7); and the Henry Mancini Orchestra, playing selections for its namesake’s 100th birthday on the Festival’s opening night, this Friday.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: Tim Meadows and Friends
When: 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $30-$40
Contact: 561/203-3742, thestudioatmiznerpark.com
Comedian Tim Meadows was a longtime staple on “Saturday Night Live,” with a residency on the sketch series from 1991 to 2000, on which he developed iconic characters such as the talk show hosts Leon Phelps (aka “The Ladies’ Man”) and Lionel Osbourne. Since departing the short-format comedy world, Meadows has enjoyed a fruitful career on the big screen, including three roles in the “Mean Girls” franchise and the recent Nicolas Cage satire “Dream Scenario.” But this appearance will find Meadows returning to his roots as a member of Chicago’s legendary Second City troupe. Joined by fellow quick-witted comics Matt Walsh, Brad Morris and Joe Canale, Meadows will field audience suggestions for a night of improv comedy. This means each performance will be totally different—ever more reason to stick around for multiple shows.
What: Bob Dylan
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $79.75 and up
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
If there’s ever a musical act that needs no introduction, it’s our favorite ornery Nobelist, now in his 82nd rotation around the sun. But spinning Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits a few times prior to his latest tour will prepare you little for the expected set list of largely deep cuts and material from his 39th studio album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. Dylan is in his fourth year of his sporadic world tour for this acclaimed release, universally regarded as one of the pinnacles of his career, so for those who have kept pace with Dylan’s evolution, the shows should herald a transcendent experience with the greatest songwriter in the history of the English language.
SATURDAY
What: Opening day of “Ellen Graham: [Unscripted]”
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach
Cost: $15-$18 museum admission
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
There’s a close-up of Gloria Swanson, penetrating eyes and a half-smile glistening behind a lace veil. And Andy Warhol, leaning awkwardly against a wall in his Factory, next to a giant stuffed dog that looks, possibly, more real than the artist himself. And Sharon Tate, barefoot in the forest, her hands across her chest, her dress covering them like a straitjacket, gazing directly into the camera—a doe lost in the woods. Photographer Ellen Graham, who photographed actors, authors, royals and what would later be termed influencers from the 1950s through the 2000s, had a way of cutting through her subjects’ pretenses. Her images, which appeared in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time and Newsweek, captured A-listers unawares, or at ease, or in sidelong glances, or shrouded in a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. Graham lives in New York but has worked often in Palm Beach, and is a significant supporter of the Norton Museum of Art, both financially and artistically: This retrospective includes 25 photographs she gifted to the museum, along with an array of loans.
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