Tuesday
Stanley Tucci at Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 3 p.m.; free for members or $15 nonmembers for live telecast; 561/655-7227 orwww.fourarts.org
No specific topic is necessary for this guest, the most recognizable name on the Four Arts’ speaker schedule for 2013. One of Hollywood’s most in-demand character actors, Tucci has acted in more than 60 films in the past 27 years, including titles from John Huston, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes and Peter Jackson. He has also directed renowned independent films including the beloved “Big Night,” has been nominated for an Oscar, Emmy and Grammy, and is an avid foodie whose “Tucci Cookbook” was be released in October. I’ll be attending this lecture, so check back here on Wednesday for a recap.
Opening day of “Impressions of Interiors” at Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $18 adults, $3 to $10 children; 561/655-2833 orflaglermuseum.us
People were rarely present in the paintings of Walter Gay. After all, they would tend to get in the way of the background, which for Gay was almost always foreground. Furniture, draperies, tapestries, gilded walls, immaculate floors, capacious hallways – these were Gay’s muses. Referred in his New York Times obituary as the “dean of American artists in Paris,” the Massachusetts-born Gay absorbed the style of his French Impressionist forbears and adapted it for domestic interiors of 19th and 20th century society manses. This exhibition of sumptuous, enviable shots from the homes of yesteryear’s One Percent has been four years in the making and includes 69 paintings and works on paper, along with ancillary historical materials from 40 different collections. It runs through April 21.
Wednesday
Opening day of “IMPACT: 50 Years of the CFDA” at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; $15 adults, $12 seniors, $8 students; 561/392-2500 or www.bocamuseum.org
For the past half-century, the nonprofit trade organization known as the Council of Fashion Designers of America has been helping to raise the stature of America’s top fashion designers at home and abroad, and it currently encompasses some 400 members. The Boca Raton Museum of Art will honor this 50-year landmark by showing some of its members’ most extraordinary works. Each living designer chosen to participate in the exhibition, from Michael Kors and Bill Blass to Geoffrey Beene and Narciso Rodriguez, selected a single defining work or ensemble, resulting in an exhibition that charts the pulse of American fashion, then and now, in all its variety. The exhibit runs through April 21.
Thursday
Opening night of “The Whole Caboodle” at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center,201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $35 to $40; 866/811-4111 orwww.paradeproductions.org
Upstart Boca theater company Parade Productions, which premiered a year ago, returns with its much-awaited third production – a collection of seven short plays by South Florida’s most renowned playwright, Michael McKeever, compiled under the title “The Whole Caboodle.” The author, most recently, of the Carbonell Award-winning “Stuff,” about New York’s infamous hoarders, the Collier Brothers; and “Moscow,” his recent Carbonell nominee inspired by Chekhov’s “Three Sisters;” McKeever has proven to be equally adept in a short-play format, regularly turning in stellar work at South Florida’s annual 24 Hour Theatre Project. The seven plays have a decidedly cultural/historical bent, and will address such subjects as Abraham Lincoln, lesbianism, Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Temple Grandin at BankUnited Center at University of Miami, 1245 Dauer Drive, Coral Gables; 7 p.m.; free, but registration required; 305/442-4408 orwww.booksandbooks.com
One of the world’s foremost authorities on such diverse subjects as autism and animal welfare, Temple Grandin is an inspiration – a woman diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 whose slow development never stopped her from excelling academically and spearheading controversial initiatives. Famously portrayed by Claire Danes in an HBO original movie, Grandin was named by Time magazine as one of 2010’s 100 Most Influential People. As a proponent of neurodiversity, Grandin has expressed that she would not support a cure for the entire autism spectrum. This appears to be the subject of her lecture tonight, which is titled “Different Kinds of Minds.”
Friday
Opening night of “A Raisin in the Sun” at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m. (7 p.m. preshow party); $73.75; 561/514-4042 or www.palmbeachdramaworks.org
The New York Times stated that “A Raisin in the Sun,” which premiered on Broadway in 1959, “changed American theater forever.” Bringing the harsh realities of penurious African-Americans on Chicago’s South Side to the overwhelmingly white audiences of live theater, Lorraine Hansberry’s most-produced work broke theatrical color barriers. Exploring issues of racial discrimination in the housing market, the seven-character drama continues to resonate, with the 2012 Tony Winner “Clybourne Park” directly referencing its actions and conclusions. The show runs through March 3; aside from tonight’s opening, tickets are priced at $58.75.
Opening night of “Side Show” at Slow Burn Theatre Company at West Boca Performing Arts Center, 12811 W. Glades Road, Boca Raton; 8 p.m.; $35 adults, $30 seniors, $20 students; 866/811-4111 or www.slowburntheatre.org
As “Sweeney Todd,” “Xanadu” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” have attested, you never know what kind of bizarre narratives will reach Broadway – a place where risks are often rewarded, if only after the fact. “Side Show,” which debuted in 1997 to less-than-stellar audience numbers, is another example; it’s a Tony-nominated show whose cult status has only increased since its migration away from the Great White Way and onto friendlier confines of regional theaters like our own Slow Burn Theatre Company. Never one to shy away from ambitious musical material, Slow Burn’s “Side Show” is arguably its most anticipated production of the season, a musical based on the true story of conjoined twins and “circus freaks” Violet and Daisy Hilton. The cast of 16 includes Matthew Korinko, who recently was nominated for a Carbonell award, and Kaela Antolino and Courtney Poston, who will be literally joined at the hip as the conjoined twins.
Sunday
Dave Barry at Temple Judea, 5500 Granada Blvd., Coral Gables; 1:30 p.m.; $26.95 book purchase provides two tickets to this event; 305/442-4408 orwww.booksandbooks.com
If ever there was an ambassador to write about the crazy city of Miami, it’s Dave Barry, the South Florida humorist whose accounts of his home state and beyond have generated paroxysms of laughter that are positively injurious – Steven King, for instance, has said that he fell out of his chair laughing to Barry’s “Big Trouble.” In his latest book “Insane City” – his first solo adult novel in more than a decade – Barry is in top form, following a man’s tumultuous journey to Florida in the days before he’s set to marry a woman far out of his league. Par for the course, adventures ensue, among them confrontations with Russian gangsters, pimps, strippers, Haitian refugees and an 11-foot Burmese python. Very insane, and very Florida, indeed. Two tickets will be granted to those who purchase “Insane City” at Books and Books.
