Seafood and live music come to Mizner, Florida Grand Opera is not clowning around, and Theatre Lab gets down to its roots. Plus, portraits of Palm Beach titans and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY TO SUNDAY
What: “Rooted”
Where: Theatre Lab at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun.
Cost: $35-$45
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
The Florida premiere of this new work by playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer follows two sisters, Emery and Hazel, who have spent their entire 60-plus years in the same small town in upstate New York, with Emery spending much of her time blogging about the consciousness of plants. But when her favorite subject—her beloved tree Mabel—begins to accrue a religious/mystical import, these unassuming sisters become an unexpected internet sensation. “Rooted” is the second in a planned trilogy of Laufer plays, following “Be Here Now” (also produced at Theatre Lab), that deal with metaphysical subjects in our grounded reality. The production runs through Feb. 18.
THURSDAY AND SATURDAY
What: Florida Grand Opera: “I Pagliacci”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $28.50-$228
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
“The comedy is finished!” This much-celebrated closing line of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera “I Pagliacci” synthesizes its tricky blurring of genres. Though it deals with a commedia dell’arte theatre troupe in 19th century Italy—with the central character performing in the show-within-the-show as a clown—“I Pagliacci” is as dark and sorrowful as any operatic tragedy. At its core, the drama is deceptively simple: It’s a love quadrangle between Canio, head of the troupe; his wife, Nedda; Nedda’s paramour, Silvio; and Tonio, the classic “fool” archetype who is also in love with Nedda. The swirling romantic entanglements come to a head in the dazzling meta construction that is the second act, as they all break character within their play, culminating in a crime of passion. Florida Grand Opera will produce “I Pagliacci” for the first time in 15 years, with the three leads all making their FGO debuts.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “Reimagining Palm Beach”
Where: Cornell Art Museum, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
When: 6 to 9 p.m.
Cost: Free, but donations appreciated
Contact: 561/654-2220, downtowndelraybeach.com
Though born in Belgium and residing in New York, painter Serge Strosberg has long had a connection to the Palm Beaches, whose cultural venues have presented many of his most prominent exhibitions, from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach to Jupiter. He’s shown so often on our coast that he might as well be an honorary member of the region’s cognoscenti—and the ideal artist to, as this exhibition suggests, reimagine Palm Beach. Strosberg will focus his distinctive and eye-popping style—a hyperreal combination of expressionism and naturalism, often revolving around the leisure class—on the titans and eccentrics who helped transform swampland into an upscale playground. Solomon Spady, Henry Flagler and Addison Mizner are among the subjects of Strosberg’s fresh and reverent gaze. The exhibition will also deploy augmented reality to place spectators in the middle of various points of interest on Palm Beach island. The exhibition runs through May.
SATURDAY
What: South Florida Seafood and Music Festival
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: Noon to 9 p.m.
Cost: $25 advance, $30 at gate; $15 for children 10 and younger
Contact: sflaseafoodmusicfest.com
Top local restaurants, chefs and markets will be serving fresh-caught favorites at this much-anticipated festival, from Key West shrimp to Maine lobster to grilled fish tacos. But the event is about more than food; as its expanded name entails, there will be live music all day, interspersed with short DJ sets. Private Stock will perform classic rock hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s, Smokin’ Renegades will focus on the oeuvres of Styx and Boston, and Caribbean Chillers will close out the festival with a tribute to the late, great Jimmy Buffett. There will be food available for non-seafood enthusiasts as well, along with beer, wine and spirits; merchandise vendors; a petting zoo; a mobile cigar lounge; axe throwing; and a cornhole competition to support the Boca Raton Firefighters and Paramedic Benevolent Fund.
What: 50th Anniversary of “A Prairie Home Companion”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $39-$139
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
The very first live broadcast of the vintage-style variety show “A Prairie Home Companion,” in July 1974, attracted all of 12 audience members—mostly children. By 2015, as one of NPR’s flagship programs, it would reach 4 million listeners each week; attract the likes of Renee Fleming, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor to perform; inspire a major motion picture directed by Robert Altman; and welcome a voicemail message from a sitting president, in Barack Obama. Garrison Keillor, its longtime host and international emissary of “Minnesota nice,” shepherded the program until 2016, after which it fizzled under a new host and new name. But this year, Keillor is bringing the old gang back together for a celebratory tour featuring live music, his own standup comedy (focusing on the glories of turning 80) and news reports from his favorite imaginary small town, Lake Wobegon.
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