Tuesday
Peter Murphy at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 7 p.m.; $28 to $60; 305/377-2277 or www.grandcentralmiami.com
It hasn’t been the greatest of years so far for Peter Murphy, one of the reigning kings of gothic New Wave music. Just over a month ago, Murphy was charged for three misdemeanor accounts in California, including driving under the influence, possessing methamphetamine, and hitting a vehicle and than taking off. Clearly, former Bauhaus frontmen are not above the law, but Murphy’s tour will commence anyway, and there’s no better way for him to release his legal stress than onstage. Murphy appears in South Florida a lot, but this show is special: It will be composed entirely of Bauhaus tunes, culled from the legendary band’s 35-year career.
Wednesday
“Mud” at Cinemark Palace 20, 3200 Airport Boca Raton; various show times; 800/326-3264 or www.cinemark.com
The appropriately titled new swamp drama “Mud” has been receiving a lot of buzz for its lead performance by Matthew McConaughey, and for good reason. The film, which opened this past Friday in South Florida, provides one of the actor’s gnarliest, earthiest roles yet, as an unkempt fugitive living on a boat in a tree, waiting for the right opportunity to win back his girl (Reese Witherspoon), some time after killing her lover. There’s more to his story than he’s willing to tell, but he finds a naïve accomplice in 14-year-old Ellis (Tye Sheridan), a local boy from a troubled family who comes of age over the film’s two hours and 27 minutes. With great, muddy photography and performances best imbibed in widescreen close-ups, this is an intimate epic well worth seeing on the big screen. You can also catch it at Regal Shadowood, iPic at Mizner Park, and other area theaters.
Wednesday and Thursday
Grand opening of Jazziz Nightlife, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7 and 9 p.m.; $55 to $85; 561/300-0732 or www.jazziznightlife.com
Three cheers for Jazziz Nightlife: Mizner Park finally has a jazz club. And it’s a club with quite a pedigree at that: Relocated from its old stomping ground at Seminole Paradise in Hollywood, Jazziz Nightlife is the live-music extension of the influential Jazziz magazine, the world’s largest-circulation jazz magazine. Founder Michael Fagien worked with Charlie Siemon to bring Jazziz to Mizner Park, and the new space offers indoor and outdoor dining, daily live jazz, weekly concerts from nationally recognized recording artists and annual music festivals. It has been soft-open for some time, but this week, you can celebrate the grand opening with Molly Ringwald, the Gen-X Silver Screen goddess turned author and cabaret singer, who will perform selections from her debut CD of Songbook classics, “Expect Sometimes.”
Wednesday to Sunday
SunFest in downtown West Palm Beach; various start times; $30 to $69; 800/786-3378 or www.sunfest.com
South Florida’s most eclectic music festival returns for another unimpeachably solid lineup of bands traversing pop, rock, jazz and other acts spanning the past 40 years of music. Headliners include Top 40 hit-makers Train; the rejuvenated Smashing Pumpkins, fresh off shooting a New York concert in 3-D; last year’s “American Idol” winner, Phillip Phillips; reggae legend Jimmy Cliff; veteran blues rockers The Black Crowes; the paint-splattered electronic dance party Life in Color; and classic rockers Cheap Trick. Visit the waterfront locale for fine arts and crafts from Friday to Sunday, and stick around for closing night fireworks at 9 p.m. Sunday.
Thursday to Sunday
“La Traviata” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; various show times; $60 to $200; 954/462-0222 orwww.browardcenter.org
In what has become his most famous letter, Giuseppe Verdi wrote to a friend after the opening night of his opera “La Traviata” in 1853 that, “’La Traviata’ last night was a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers’? Time will tell.” First of all, considering the ever-inflating 21st century ego, an artist showing such vulnerability and self-questioning these days is rare. But secondly, the notion that “La Traviata” is a failure borders on blasphemy; time has indeed shown that the fault was definitely not Verdi’s. The story, about a damaged young courtesan suffering from “consumption” who falls in love with a passionate young suitor in decadent 19th century Paris has become one of the world’s most-beloved operatic dramas. This production, courtesy of Florida Grand Opera, received much praise in its Miami debut earlier this year.
Friday
TEDx at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; $100 general admission, $75 for enrolled college students; 561/243-7922 or www.tedxdelraybeach.com
The TED conference – which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design – began in Monterey, Calif., in 1990 but has become a global phenomenon, with speakers in various fields disseminating ideas, opening dialogues and expanding world views and technological innovation. Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Richard Dawkins have spoken at the conferences, which have collectively earned more than one billion online views worldwide. So it’s a pretty big deal that Delray Beach has launched its own independent “TEDx” conference under license from TED global. The all-day event will feature 23 speakers influencing Palm Beach County and beyond, including opera star Cynthia Makris, middle-school entrepreneur Rebecca Zerbo, NFL running back Ricky Williams, and best-selling author and actor Frank McKinney. Tickets are hard to come by for this event, and require filling out an application on the TEDx website – but I’m sure the results will be well worth the effort.
Opening day of “Souls of Our Shoes” at FAU’s Wimberly Library, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free; 561/297-3770 or www.fau.edu/library
During the spring 2012 semester, FAU junior Maria Mor embarked on a unique project that was equal parts sociological inquiry and photography exhibition. Working from the theory that people’s footwear is a window into their souls – or, as she put it in her initial artist statement, an “archive for people’s personalities” – Mor stalked the shoes of FAU students and faculty for a solid month, interviewing her subjects and exploring their brains as well as their decisions for crocs over loafers, high heels over running shoes. The result is the much-anticipated exhibit “The Souls of Our Shoes.” The show is scheduled to run through September, but it may be worth checking out on Sunday, May 5, when the FAU Library will celebrate the 92nd birthday of Jaffe Center for the Book Arts founder Arthur Jaffe with an ice cream social, screenings of silent films and “printshop high jinks.”
Saturday
“The Intergalactic Nemesis” at Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7 p.m.; starting at $10; 561/832-7469 orwww.kravis.org
“The Intergalactic Nemesis” has been called “something you must see if you’re a fan of awesome.” Probably the single nerdiest event on the Kravis Center’s seasonal lineup, “The Intergalactic Nemesis” is a science-fiction epic told in a retro style: It began as a radio play, morphed into a graphic novel and has now been adapted into a stage show combining both of these previous incarnations. Actors speak their gravitas-laden lines in front of old-timey microphones while comic-book images spring up on a projection screen behind them and a foley effects guy works the incredible sound design with a handful of basic objects. The narrative, if it even matters, takes place in 1933, where a Pulitzer-winning reporter, a research assistant and a librarian trek from Europe to North Africa to the Robot Planet to Imperial Zygon to battle an invading force of interstellar sludge-monsters.
