Alternative headliners rock out for Chipotle, footballers and chefs grill-off for charity, and “cuddly” vampires bring bite to Arts Garage. Plus, Mitski, Elle King, “Carmen” and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: Elle King
Where: Revolution Live, 100 Nugent Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $28.50 advance, $30 at door
Contact: 954/449-1025, jointherevolution.net
The daughter of comedian Rob Schneider, Elle King has come a long way since appearing in her father’s 1999 comedy “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.” With her raspy voice and soaring notes, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter is still reaping the benefits of her stratospheric debut album “Love Stuff,” whose lead single “Exes and Ohs”—a witty, hook-laden and sexually suggestive catalog of the men she’s loved and left—catapulted to No. 1 on the Hot Rock charts. See the tattooed megastar effortlessly weave country, rock and blues in this intimate venue.
SATURDAY
What: Everyday Green Festival
Where: Quiet Waters Park, 401 S. Powerline Road, Deerfield Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 954/357-5113, broward.org/parks
Earth Day may have passed months ago, but as this fall festival suggests, we should be thinking green every day. The fourth-annual event celebrates and promotes all things eco friendly, from sustainable food to earth-friendly home accouterments. Activities run the length of the festival, from a pre-fest “Rock the Waters” canoe race at 9 a.m. to raffles at 1:30 p.m. In between, enjoy a native plant sale, a “Create-an-Eco-Mural” session with an eco-artist, and a Pet Parade. All day, stock up on organic nosh at the Local Food Farm-to-Fork Fair and check out the myriad vendors of handmade gifts and art. The first 500 attendees receive a complimentary reusable shopping bag and a native tree.
What: John Offerdahl’s Broward Health Gridiron Grill-Off Food and Wine Festival
Where: Pompano Beach Amphitheater, 1801 N.E. Sixth St., Pompano Beach
When: 1 to 4 p.m.
Cost: $85 general, $200 for “Luxe Experience”
Contact: gridirongrilloff.com
We at Boca magazine love the fresh salads and sammies of Offerdahl’s, the mini restaurant chain founded by the former Miami Dolphins linebacker. So any event that bears the Offerdahl’s imprimatur already has us at hello—and the fact that 100 percent of its net proceeds benefit charitable recipients like 4KIDS of South Florida and Place of Hope only sweetens the deal. Food, charity and football take center stage in this seventh-annual favorite, in which 25 Dolphins legends pair up with top local chefs to cook dishes vying for Judges’ Choice and Fan Favorite awards. To find out what OJ McDuffie and Hard Rock Café chef Carlos Velez concoct, or the entrée Keith Sims and Café Vico’s Marco Vico whip up, you’ll just have to turn out for this great cause. Stick around for the cornhole competition, Sustainable Seafood Village, silent action, live entertainment and more.
What: Opening night of Florida Grand Opera’s “Carmen”
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 5:30 p.m.
Cost: $25-$229
Contact: 305/949-6722, fgo.org
It’s hard to imagine the outcry that met Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” in 1875. Its coterie of gypsies, peasants, smugglers and lower-class factory workers contrasted with the aristocratic milieus of most western operas. But “Carmen” was dirty, sexy and liberated, with a female title character that scandalized the populace by unapologetically choosing between two men: a naïve soldier and a glamorous toreador. Bizet died within months of its premiere and never witnessed its canonization. These days, according to Florida Grand Opera, no opera is more requested or anticipated. It runs through Nov. 19.
What: Chipotle Cultivate Festival
Where: Bayfront Park Amphitheater, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: Begins at 11 a.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: chipotlecultivate.com
Combine SunFest with the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, and you have some idea of what to expect from this celebration of nutritious cuisine and alternative music. Chipotle has been spreading awareness about the benefits of organic diets through its Cultivate festivals for the past six years, but this month marks its Miami debut. It features games, activities and exhibits; live demonstrations from such top local toques as Michael Schwarz, Richard Blais and Michelle Bernstein; and sets from alt-rockers Capital Cities, St. Lucia, Phases and more.
What: Mitski
Where: Gramps, 176 N.W. 24th St., Miami
When: 9 p.m.
Cost: $12-$15
Contact: gramps.com
The biracial singer-songwriter Mitski describes her identity as “half Japanese, half American, but not fully either,” a fluid sensibility that continues to inform this SUNY Purchase music graduate’s confessional, beguiling, intensely affecting music. The 26-year-old sensation released a pair of independent albums in the Aughts before breaking through with 2014’s beautiful and noisy “Bury Me at Makeout Creek,” and officially cementing her hipster cred with this year’s “Puberty 2,” an album that you’ll see on copious Best of the Year roundups next month. Some songs are fiery, noisy spasms of frustrated id; others suggest the slow-burning, art-folk ballads of St. Vincent. Still others channel the deadpan, self-questioning feminist wit of early Liz Phair and Helium, and while performing live, her voice can adopt the measured ululations of Alanis Morrissette at her most impassioned. There is much spectacle in both her stage performances—watch her NPR Tiny Desk concert, in which she howls directly into her anthropomorphized guitar strings—and her innovative music videos, like her sexy, cerebral and vulnerable concept for “Your Best American Girl.” I know Wynwood is a schlep, and Mitski might not take the stage until 10:30 or 11 p.m., but make the effort: This is likely to be one South Florida’s best shows of the year.
SUNDAY
What: Opening night of “Cuddles”
Where: Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach
When: 2 p.m.
Cost: $40
Contact: 561/450-6357, artsgarage.org
OK, so you’re over the whole vampire thing, and frankly, so are we. “Twilight” and “True Blood” were so early-2000s, and by the time hordes of blood-sucking coffin-dwellers were being bludgeoned by Abraham Lincoln, you could consider the vampire shark jumped. But British playwright Joseph Wilde’s “Cuddles” is no ordinary example of sex-and-gore vampire schlock. It’s a psychologically disturbing character study and anti-fairytale that touches on themes of sacrifice, family bonding, overprotection and self-determination. Most older sisters look after their inexperienced kin, but not like the siblings in Wilde’s phantasmagoric drama: The younger Eve is a teenage vampire timelessly stunted with an adolescent mind, and she resides in a squalid, blood-spattered dungeon, trapped from sunlight and prying eyes by the elder Tabby, who opens her veins to feed Eve. By day, Tabby works in the corporate rat race, whose cutthroat implications parallel a vampire’s need to suck the world dry. A scary, satirical and mordantly funny look at contemporary consumerism, “Cuddles” is biting in more ways than one. Preview begin Sunday, and the show runs through Dec. 3.
What: Opening day of Miami Book Fair
Where: Chapman Conference Center at Miami-Dade College, 300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami
When: Starts at 4 p.m.
Cost: Sometimes free; ticketed events vary
Contact: 305/237-3258, miamibookfair.com
With its stellar lineup of both marquee guests and established and emerging authors of all genres, the Miami Book Fair proves once again that it’s not difficult to lure celebrity authors, politicos, thinkers and comedians to the temperate climes of South Florida in November. Jorge Ramos, the celebrated Univision journalist, will kick off the festival at 4 p.m. Sunday with a free Spanish-language presentation with live English translation. He’ll be followed, in Miami-Dade College’s Auditorium, by best-selling children’s author Eoin Colfer at 5 p.m., discussing, among other things, his latest Marvel-inspired young-adult novel, Iron Man: The Gauntlet. At 6 p.m., back at the Chapman, festivities continue with one of the fest’s biggest draws: “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah, one of South Africa’s favorite sons, who will discuss his memoir Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. This event is $40, and tickets include a copy of the book. The hits keep coming on Monday, Nov. 14, with $15 ticketed events from political analyst James Carville and renaissance performer Alan Cumming.
