TUESDAY
What: Bruce Springsteen
Where: BB&T Center, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $55-$150
Contact: 954/835-8000, thebbtcenter.com
The 35th anniversary celebration of the release of Bruce Springsteen’s epochal 1980 double-LP “The River,” which began last year with a four-disc boxed set full of outtakes, continues with this once-in-a-lifetime River Tour. “The River” marked a turning point for Springsteen, combining his penchant for joyous roof-raisers with the dark, lonely autopsies of marriages, families and individuals that would flourish on 1982’s “Nebraska.” The indefatigable Springsteen and his E Street Band will perform the eclectic 20-track album in its original chronological order, which means that a number of deep cuts that haven’t been played in decades will share a spotlight with the more familiar “Hungry Heart” and “Fade Away.” Since he’s Springsteen, he won’t end the concert there: Expect to hear another dozen or so tracks that change every night, from mega-hits to fan requests to decisions Springsteen makes on the spot.
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
What: Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency
Where: Kaye Auditorium at FAU Student Union, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 3:30 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday
Cost: $35 for both days, $20 for either day
Contact: 800/564-9539, fauevents.com
With eight major candidates still vying for the highest office in the land this primary season, FAU’s annual Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency arrives with a sense of zeitgeist-y urgency this year, with two days of expert speakers offering students and local residents rich insights into presidential affairs. At Wednesday afternoon’s keynote address, university professor and nationally syndicated radio host Brian Balogh (pictured) will present a lecture titled “Shopper in Chief: Presidential Leadership in America’s Consumer Republic.” And on Thursday, 15 academic scholars from across the country will offer presentations organized into three separate panels, and will conclude with questions from the audience.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “Lennon: Through a Glass Onion”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $40
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Australian actor-singer John R. Waters will peel back every layer of John Lennon’s personal and professional lives in this touching, song-filled theatrical tribute, which was nominated for a 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue. In the 90-minute performance, Waters will perform a diverse array of Lennon songs from his solo and Beatle careers, including “Norwegian Wood,” “Jealous Guy,” “Woman” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” supplemented with a live piano accompanist and spoken-word context. Sporting an accurate Liverpudlian accent, he’ll share stories from Lennon’s writings, in which John expresses love for Yoko Ono, envy for Bob Dylan’s hipster-capturing coolness, and admiration for Paul McCartney’s musicality, among other topics. The show runs through Feb. 28 at the Kravis’s Persson Hall.
What: Opening day of “Beatriz Santiago Munoz: A Universe of Fragile Mirrors”
Where: Perez Art Museum, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cost: $12-$16
Contact: 305/375-3000, pamm.org
The term “art cinema” only begins to describe the films and videos of Puerto Rican artist Munoz, whose visual experiments find common ground between documentary and fiction, film and theater, ethnography and performance art. Employing nonprofessional actors and spotlighting environmentally fragile milieus, Munoz’s films comment on subjects as complex as her approach, from an interview with a controversial Puerto Rican artist—interpreted through dance—to explorations of an anarchist collective in San Francisco and an indigenous burial ground in her native country. “A Universe of Fragile Mirrors” contains a new work, 2015’s “Marche Salomon,” and it runs through Nov. 13.
What: Opening night of “Passion”
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $50-$55
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
A homely, ailing woman manages to cast an unbreakable spell on a young soldier in war-torn 19th-century Italy in this operatic, Tony-winning work from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. The hauntingly complex chamber musical boasts all the themes of great theater—love, sex, obsession, illness, beauty, power and manipulation—from Zoetic Stage, the company that won a 2015 Carbonell Award for Best Musical for its production of Sondheim’s “Assassins.” The stellar cast includes Jeni Hacker, Amy Miller Brennan, Nicholas Richberg, Stephen G. Anthony and Clay Cartland, and with a docket of nearly 30 songs in one intermission-less act, they have their work cut out for them. The provocative musical runs through March 13.
FRIDAY
What: TEDx Boca Raton
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 5 to 10:30 p.m.
Cost: $30 students, $75 general admission
Contact: 561/251-7059, tedxbocaraton.com
The first-ever TED talk—a series of succinct lectures presented by smart people in the acronymic fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design—began as a one-off in 1984 in Silicon Valley, where presentations included a demonstration of the first Macintosh computer. Since 1990, it’s been an annual national conference of innovative thinkers whose lecturers have spanned from Bono to Bill Clinton. Beyond that, countless TEDx mini conferences, offering dynamic regional speakers in the spirit of the flagship brand, have sprung up around the world—some 15,000 and counting. Boca Raton’s version, founded in 2013 by self-proclaimed “TED groupie” Becky Woodbridge, centers on a theme of ingenuity, with 15 speakers ranging from artists to acupuncturists, entertainers to entrepreneurs, many from our hometown. Highlights of the program include Iranian-Canadian performance artist Amir Baradaran, Israeli drummer and YouTube sensation Meytal Cohen (pictured), transgender activist Gina Duncan and Boca Raton Tech Runway graduate Jan Bednar. Admission includes a dinner and after-party.
What: Opening day of “The Club”
Where: Living Room Theaters at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: Show times pending
Cost: $6.50-$9.50
Contact: 561/549-2600, fau.livingroomtheaters.com
In this recent Academy Award submission from Chile, the sky is always overcast and the air is perpetually besotted with fog around a low-slung, yellow-painted house in a seaside Chilean town. The weather creates an atmosphere of gloom that is perfectly suited to the house’s inhabitants: a group of Catholic priests separated from their families and communities, forever repenting for unspeakable sins and lorded over by a former nun with her own controversial backstory. Their remote quasi-prison life is soon disrupted, however, when one of their victims materializes like a specter and prompts a guilt-ridden new tenant to place a bullet in his own skull—thus according new attention to the ex-priest “club” by Church management, which dispatches an upstart Vatican emissary to question everyone and everything. A brutal, graphic film in its language and implications if not its visuals, this unflinchingly dark drama is intended as a black comedy, but few laughs escaped the pall during my viewing. “The Club” is more of a cryptic chamber thriller that may offend card-carrying Catholics. It humanizes its pedophiles while, like “Spotlight” before it, saving its polemical ire for the Church’s vast institutional corruption. The movie is also playing at O Cinema in Miami Beach and the Tower Theater in Miami.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Boca Raton Councours d’Elegance
Where: Boca Raton Resort and Club, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $500-$1,000
Contact: 954/537-1010, bocaratonconcours.com
If you haven’t brushed up on your undergrad French in a while, the term “Concours d’Elegance,” stands for “competition of elegance,” and it’s been around since the 17th century French aristrocracy. Back then, Parisians competed their immaculately presented horse-and-carriages against the transport of their well-heeled peers, and the tradition has continued through the centuries and evolved with the times, now focusing on vehicles with engines, several axles and bit more horsepower. These days, at least 15 “CDEs” occur globally, and Boca’s version, which celebrates its 10th annual engagement this weekend, is considered the fastest growing Concours, and the most lucrative supporter of a charity. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County will be the beneficiary of funds raised at the three-day transportation lover’s extravaganza, which includes Friday’s hangar party and showcase of spectacular cars, jets, boats, motorcylces and more at the Boca Raton Airport; Saturday’s gala dinner, auction and show at the Boca Resort, featuring a comedy set from car junkie Jay Leno; and Sunday’s Concours judging session and awards ceremony. To support this growing event and its important charity, visit its website for tickets and information.
SATURDAY
What: Dolphins Cancer Challenge VI Celebration Concert
Where: Sun Life Stadium parking lot, 347 Don Shula Drive, Miami Gardens
When: 2 p.m.
Cost: $50
Contact: 305/943-6799, dolphinscancerchallenge.com
For the past five years, cyclists from across South Florida have pedaled to points south in February, while raising invaluable dollars for cancer research in the process. Riders at their Saturday’s sixth-annual Dolphins Cancer Challenge will begin their routes in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Davie and Coral Gables, all of them ending at Sun Life Stadium. Since this inaugural fundraiser began in 2010, more than $11.5 million has been raised, including more than $2.8 million for this year alone. Whether or not you’re a rider, you can still support the cause for $50 by attending the 2 p.m. concert at the finish line with two of the biggest names in pop music from the Golden Age of the Lilith Fair tour: Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow (pictured). For riders, of course, concert admission is included—though after pedaling 20 to 100 miles, we don’t expect you to dance.
