TUESDAY
What: Opening night of the Blue Man Group
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $32-$86
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Forget little green men: The Blue Man Group is an alien invasion with genuine rhythm and soul. Conceived in Manhattan in 1987 by a trio of eccentric performance artists, The Blue Man Group has become cross-cultural icons, mounting productions off Broadway and on cruise ships, in Vegas and at Universal Studios Orlando, at opera houses and on “The Tonight Show.” Wherever they land, the basic formula remains the same: Three guys painted a bright cobalt and wearing bald caps, combining wordless comedy, percussive music and technological wizardry into a stage show with more moving parts than a mad scientist’s mousetrap. This brief West Palm Beach engagement continues the Group’s first national tour, a collection of newly conceived stunts and favorite numbers from its archive. Expect to see neon light shows, massive inflatables and drums that shoot sparks. The Blue Man Group performs through Sunday, Dec. 13.
THURSDAY
What: Loudon Wainwright III
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $39
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
It’s hard to imagine now, but when he was a young man, future folk legend Loudon Wainwright III sold his guitar to pay for—wait for it—yoga lessons in San Francisco. We’re pleased he ultimately decided to value arpeggios over downward dogs, because he’s enjoyed a 40-plus-year career in music that has lost none of its vibrancy. Seeing Bob Dylan at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival solidified his career change, and for a spell, he was one of the countless folksingers to earn the sobriquet “the new Dylan.” Indeed, he’s managed to channel the self-effacing humor and social commentary of the early Dylan recordings—his biggest hit is still the 1972 novelty hit “Dead Skunk”—with an autobiographical poignancy all his own. On the heels of his 70th birthday, the singer-songwriter and father of accomplished composer Rufus Wainwright and folk rocker Martha Wainwright will visit West Palm Beach to support his 23rd album, the critically acclaimed “Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet).”
What: Opening day of “Streetwise Revisited”
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cost: $5–$12
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
“Tiny” Erin Charles, the teenager depicted in Mary Ellen Mark’s 1983 photograph “Tiny, Halloween, Seattle, 1983” cuts a sullen portrait, her costume a black dress with gloves, a veil and a funereal frown. Tiny had few reasons to be happy at the time. She was a 13-year-old prostitute hooking for a better life: diamonds, furs, a horse farm, a baby of her own. She was one of the most enduring subjects to emerge from Mark’s “Streetwise” exhibition, which shed a rugged light on the panhandlers, pimps, drug dealers and other forgotten figures living on the fringes of the Pacific Northwest. Mark kept in touch with Tiny ever since, documenting her evolution through photographs, as the wayward teen became a mother of 10, five of whom were fathered by her husband, Will. Powered by Mark and Tiny’s decades of intimacy, “Streetwise Revisited” offers a powerful glimpse into intergenerational poverty, a topic whose branches encompass such issues as health care, mental health and child welfare. The exhibition doubles as a tribute to Mark, who passed away this May at age 75. It runs through March 20.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Songs for a New World”
Where: Next Level Black Box Studio Space, 7533 N. State Road 7, Parkland
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $28
Contact: 954/464-8249, marqueetheatercompany.com
Accomplished composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown is most known for the musicals he developed in the late ‘90s and into this century: The reverse-chronological breakup autopsy “The Last Five Years;” the riveting study of 20th century anti-Semitism, “Parade;” and his award-winning Broadway adaptation of “The Bridges of Madison County.” Fans looking to experience the genesis of his creativity, however, should flock to “Songs for a New World,” his first produced work, which debuted off-Broadway when he was just 25. Described by Brown as “neither a musical play nor revue” but instead a “very theatrical song cycle,” “Songs for a New World” features a cast of four actors playing a multitude of characters connected by a thematic thread: the “one moment” that can upend and disrupt a life. The nearly 20 songs—some bearing a Christmastime theme—are spread across two acts, with piano dominating the minimalistic but genre-hopping arrangements. Marquee Theatre Company, South Florida’s newest professional company, will produce this stripped-down show in its intimate Parkland black box, as the second show in its debut season. It runs through Dec. 20.
SATURDAY
What: No Snow Ball
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 5 p.m.
Cost: $25-$100
Contact: 888/929-7849, wrmf.com
Back in the late ‘90s, the five singles off Third Eye Blind’s self-titled debut album were everywhere—pop stations, rock stations, restaurants, supermarkets, the repertories of cover bands nationwide, and probably your CD collection, with no song more ubiquitous than the infectious “Semi-Charmed Life.” But in the Aughts, Third Eye Blind dropped off the pop-music map, losing original members and releasing a pair of solid, mature but largely unheard albums. Attention has begun to return back to 3EB with this year’s release of its fifth—and apparently final—album, “Dopamine.” Expect to hear songs from this and plenty of back-catalog hits as 3EB performs at this annual concert organized by local pop station WRMF. Adam Lambert, the best-selling “American Idol” finalist and official Freddie Mercury protégé, will co-headline, and local acts Meresha, Chemradery and The Value Meal Killah & the Snack Park will round out the eclectic undercard.
What: Ugly Holiday Sweater Crawl
Where: Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach
When: 2 to 9 p.m.
Cost: $30
Contact: 561/837-8066, uglysweatercrawlwpb.com
If you enjoyed the outrageous new Christmas movie “The Night Before,” here’s your chance to relive at least one element of the over-the-top buddy flick: a barhopping jaunt dressed in the worst Christmas sweater you can find. Attendees of this inaugural event are asked to don the ugliest sweater they can extract from the mothballed corners of their closets—Santa suits and elf couture are acceptable too—and show up at the corner of Clematis Street and South Dixie Highway between 2 and 6 p.m. on Saturday. There, for the $30 admission fee (and a new, unwrapped toy, which will be donated to Toys for Tots), they’ll receive tickets for four free drinks, which can be picked up at the 11 participating bars, from Longboard’s and Grease Burger Bar to O’Shea’s and Duffy’s. Admission also includes special drink tastings and some “holiday swag.”
What: Amy Schumer
Where: BB&T Center, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $29.50-$150
Contact: 954/835-8000, thebbtcenter.com
The Year of Amy Schumer continues. In 2015, the Manhattan comedian has already enjoyed the following accolades: Her excoriating, relentlessly edgy Comedy Central series, “Inside Amy Schumer,” won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. Her first leading role in a movie, “Trainwreck,” was a runaway hit. She was photographed in the flesh by none other than Annie Liebovitz, and she pleasured an android on the cover of GQ. She debuted a comedy special on HBO, described as “Amy Schumer does an hour of stand-up about getting drunk and having sex,” and she co-headlined a nationally touring comedy festival over the summer. Lately, this raucous personification of the modern female id has even used her power to influence policy by appearing with her cousin, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, to rally against gun violence in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in California. Time should quite honestly consider Schumer its Person of the Year. Did we mention she’s just a really good comic? See her in her purest element this weekend.
MONDAY, DEC. 14
What: “A John Waters Christmas”
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $45-$65
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
For cult filmmaker John Waters, sobriquets like the Pope of Trash and the Prince of Puke are not insults. They are compliments he’s earned over a 51-year career of cultural transgression. His filmography is a dirty laundry list of subversive themes and sundry characters. In notorious 1970s titles like “Mondo Trasho,” “Pink Flamingos” and “Desperate Living,” sexual hedonists, foot festishists, lesbian wrestlers and deviant cannibals engage in all manner of unprintable behavior, all shot in his hometown of Baltimore. These days Waters is an elder statesman of trash, a 69-year-old provocateur whose career has shifted away from movies and toward other pursuits, like painting, writing and especially performing one-man shows. For years, this unlikely spokesman for yuletide cheer has been touring his live Christmas special—promising to “put the X in X-mas”—and it’s finally coming to South Florida next week. Topics will include his love of yuletide disaster stories, his evangelical worship of Santa Claus, and his twisted urge to remake his trashy films into seasonal classics.
