TUESDAY
What: Michael Hayden
Where: Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach
When: 3 p.m.
Cost: Free for members, $35 nonmembers
Contact: 561/655-7226, fourarts.org
When it booked former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden as part of its lecture series many moons ago, the Society of the Four Arts couldn’t have predicted just how newsworthy his appearance would be. In his recent media rounds for his new book Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, Hayden has made the bold claim that generals in a Trump Presidency might break rank and reject their Commander-in-Chief’s orders, should those orders break with Geneva Conventions. His book itself is filled with assertions no less controversial, calling the NSA under Bill Clinton “brain dead” and in shambles just as al Qaeda began plotting the 9-11 attacks. There is no better time than now for the astute audience at the Four Arts to listen to the retired four-star general speak on “A Troubled World,” and engage this provocative intelligence warrior in a spirited Q&A. A book signing will follow in the Four Arts King Library.
What: Meccore String Quartet
Where: Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $70
Contact: 561/655-2833, flaglermuseum.us
This alternately playful and sober Polish quartet has “strung” together an impressive resume in just nine years of existence. Since 2007, the award-winning quartet has performed at such rites of passage at the Budapest Spring Festival, Festival Radio France Montpellier and the National Philharmonic Warsaw. It even became the first-ever Polish string quartet to perform during the ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the German Bundestag. This tour, with its rare Palm Beach engagement, arrives on the heels of a celebrated 2015 American jaunt that saw the group sell out of its debut CD and perform celebrated interpretations of three vastly different musical periods. Tuesday’s performance will show off the group’s range and its immaculate technique on Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, Haydn’s String Quartet in C major, and Sibelius’ String Quartet in D minor.
TUESDAY TO SATURDAY
What: Kultur Festival
Where: FAU’s Wimberly Library, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: Various show times
Cost: Varies per event
Contact: 800/564-9539, fauevents.com
FAU’s celebration of all things Jewish and cultural concludes its eighth eclectic year this week. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, audiences are invited to “Laugh Your Tuchas Off” with Avi Liberman (pictured), a standup comedian from Israel who has proven to be a crossover success at American comedy clubs from coast to coast. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, the Klezmer Company Orchestra’s Aaron Kula, no stranger to discovering disparate musical connections, will lecture on the secret musical relationship between African-Americans and Jews in his multimedia presentation “Yiddish, Blues, Blacks & Jews.” At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, opera singer Anthony Merdechai Tzvi Russell will perform a soulful set of Yiddish opera music; at 2 p.m. Friday, Columbia University’s Miriam Hoffman will discuss her extensive background in Yiddish theater; and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the fest concludes with a set by the Brian Potts Vibraphone Quartet, which will feature new arrangements of Israeli, Russian, Hungarian and Chassidic melodies.
THURSDAY
What: Beau Davidson
Where: VA Medical Center, 7035 N. Military Trail, Riviera Beach
When: 11 a.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/422-8262
Music has been a part of Beau Davidson’s life almost since birth: The Memphis prodigy learned piano at 4, picked up popular music by year, and turned heads as a finalist for his city’s Mid-South Fair Youth Talent contest—the same event that spawned the careers of Elvis Presley and Justin Timberlake. Now 34, Davidson is an Emmy-nominated country-music heartthrob, occasional actor and political activist who has emerged as a prominent advocate for veterans’ issues. He often performs his inspirational, patriotic music for nonprofit organizations ranging from the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to the Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee, and his performance in West Palm Beach is no exception: This “mini concert” will raise awareness of issues facing veterans.
FRIDAY
What: Roger McGuinn
Where: Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $57-$77
Contact: 561/243-7922, oldschoolsquare.org
Not many musicians are influential enough to lend their names to an instrument, but Roger McGuinn isn’t most musicians. The C.F. Martin guitar company’s HD7 Roger McGuinn Signature Edition, which purports to capture his ultra-compressed “jingle-jangle” guitar sound, is a testament to this singer-songwriter’s decades of artistry. McGuinn has been active in the music business for 60 years, ever since he discovered a recording of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” After climbing the studio ladder as a sideman for Judy Collins and other folksingers—and working as a Brill Building songwriter-for-hire for $35 a week—McGuinn formed The Byrds, whose fusion of folk, rock, jazz and country helped create the genre we now call Americana. Songs like “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” “Eight Miles High” and “Mr. Spaceman” have become the standards of their generation, and at 73, McGuinn still captures their harmonic, youthful spirit in his solo shows. The hefty ticket price for McGuinn’s concerts is rewarded in his generous set lists, which often exceed 30 songs and include covers by like-minded influencers from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell and Tom Petty.
What: Opening night of “Fifty Shades of Hillary”
Where: Coral Springs Center for the Arts, 2855 Coral Springs Drive
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $39.22
Contact: 954/344-5990, coralspringscenterforthearts.com
Surely, in the august and dignified electoral process of our cherished democratic republic, a candidate’s sex life is completely off-limits, right? Hold your guffaws, please—or, better yet, save them for this timely world-premiere musical comedy from Coral Springs’ own Punchline Theatre Company. “Fifty Shades of Hillary” promises a look at the likely Democratic presidential nominee “like you’ve never seen her before,” imagining bedroom proclivities replete with whips, handcuffs and S&M fantasies. In between, the former Secretary of State will share life stories from her Arkansas origins through her eight years as First Lady and her role in the Benghazi tragedy. It likely won’t sway anybody’s vote one way or another in advance of Florida’s primary, but it’ll provide more even humor to an already knee-slapping campaign season. It runs through April 3.
What: Opening night of “A Violet Hour: A Modern Medea”
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $30
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Scorned women have been unleashing hell on their perpetrators for decades on the Silver Screen, from “Carrie” to “Fatal Attraction” to “Kill Bill.” But Sissy Spacek’s telekinetic teenager and Uma Thurman’s grave-escaping assassin have nothing on the original female avenger, Euripides’ Medea, a spurned barbarian whose reaction to her husband’s new trophy wife climaxes in a bloodbath worthy of Tarantino himself. “Medea” shocked and offended audiences when it premiered in Greece in 431 BCE, and it’s lost none of its ability to provoke in the centuries since. World-class directors have helmed stage and screen adaptations, with the Broward Center’s own Outre Theatre Company joining the ranks with this modern-day interpretation of the ancient tragedy. Outre’s managing director, Sabrina Lynn Gore, will play the title character, and she hopes to infuse the part with fresh complexity. “We are not simply focusing on the ‘scorned woman out for revenge’ story,” she says. “There are a lot of underlying politics within the story that will be more prominent. We want to examine all the nuances and facets of the story that really make her final decision more complicated and powerful.” The show runs through March 27.
SATURDAY
What: Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson
Where: Congregation B’nai Israel, 2200 Yamato Road, Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $36-$150
Contact: 561/241-8118, cbiboca.org
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Josh Nelson and fellow musician Neshama Carlebach have been called the “prince and princess of Jewish music” for good reason. They are each formidable crossover talents on their own, with Carlebach following in the footsteps of her famous rabbi father, Shlomo Carlebach, with a sound that combines pop, gospel and Broadway; and Nelson bringing his classical training to a musical palette that includes rock, jazz and world music. Together, they form a uniquely multicultural duo that speaks to the broad appeal of Judaism, and their shows capture the singular uplift of their very different Jewish journeys. This will be Nelson and Carlebach’s only public show in South Florida, the first in our area since the Mizner Park Israel Fest last May.
