FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “The Wonders”
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
What happens when big-city reality television encroaches on a family of secluded beekeepers in the Tuscan countryside? That’s one of the questions posed by “The Wonders,” the second feature by Italian writer-director Alice Rorhwacher. No stranger to coming-of-age narratives, Rohrwacher’s first film, “Corpo Celeste,” found her 13-year-old protagonist resettling in Southern Italy and struggling to integrate into the region’s morally questionable Catholic institutions. In the “The Wonders,” whose tone lands somewhere between fable and autobiography, Rohrwacher’s main character is also a young girl, the eldest daughter of an overcrowded farming family, who takes an interest in both the arrival of a reality show intent on broadcasting her family to the Italian public, and the mysterious new farmhand her father has hired. The film conveys adolescent wonder with effortless naturalism. If you can’t catch it in Boca, it also opens Friday at Lake Worth Playhouse.
What: Opening night of “A Very Kosher Christmas”
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
Good news for enthusiasts of homegrown theater: The second-floor, cabaret-style Black Box Studio at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts complex has become an incubator for brand-new theatrical productions as of this season. The series began in October with the zombie musical “The Rocking Dead,” and it continues with this holiday-themed musical comedy featuring tunes by Coral Springs native Barrett Shuler. “A Very Kosher Christmas” centers on a pair of siblings, Kody and Kara, who are anxious to return home for Christmas after spending a week with their eccentric Jewish aunt. But when inclement weather forces a cancelation of their flight, they’re forced to celebrate the season with their strange relatives, bad airport food, and a drunken Santa impersonator. The show, described as ideal for all ages, runs through Dec. 13.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: “Botanica”
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $39.50-$49.50
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, this acrobatic, spectacle-rich dance company founded by Moses Pendleton has simulated thematic tableaux ranging from baseball fields and arid deserts to the craters of the moon. For this tour, MOMIX will perform its acclaimed piece “Botanica,” which represents the dancers’ immersion into an ever-changing world of nature. Expect copious animal costumes, snakelike appendages and duets with dinosaur skeletons, as the performers transform into a myriad of flora and fauna. Along the way, a soundtrack ranging from birdsong to Vivaldi will usher in movements grounded in the changing of the seasons. MOMIX isn’t for everyone, but it remains the best modern dance company ever named after a milk supplement for veal calves.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: “The Nutcracker”
Where: Olympic Heights Performing Arts Theater, 20101 Lyons Road, Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $35
Contact: 561/995-0709, bocaballet.org
Adding a new flavor to the familiar taste of one of the most iconic and frequently produced ballets of all time is a tough nut to crack, but choreographer Dan Guin will attempt his own reimagining of “The Nutcracker” for his beloved company Boca Ballet Theatre. More than 100 dancers will bring to life Clara, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Nutcracker Prince and all the colorful supporting characters of the Tchaikovsky-scored classic, complete with dazzling costumes and elaborate sets—and with a special assist from two guest dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, Cassandra Trenary and Gray Davis.
SATURDAY
What: Opening night of “Daniel’s Husband”
Where: Levis JCC Sandler Center, 21050 95th Ave. S., Boca Raton
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $30-$40
Contact: 561/852-3241, levisjcc.org/theater
If you didn’t catch Michael McKeever’s world-premiere play “Daniel’s Husband” during its extended, sold-out run this past May at Fort Lauderdale’s Island City Stage, you missed one of the year’s finest shows. But regret not, because there is hope for you yet: Island City is re-mounting the production for four weekends with a little help from its friends at West Boca Theatre Company. This prescient play, one of the first (if not the first) to assess LGBT life in a post-marriage-equality world, follows Mitchell and Daniel, a longtime gay couple whose diametrically opposed views on marriage are put to the test when an unforeseen tragedy strikes. A dramedy about life, love and the legal system, “Daniel’s Husband” is arguably McKeever’s finest work to date, presenting a trenchant argument that is as personal as it is political, with all the humor and pathos we’ve come to expect from his deft pen. Most of the original cast returns for this encore production, with John Manzelli replacing the former lead actor, Antonio Amadeo. It runs through Dec. 20.
What: “The McCartney Years”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $15-$85
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
No matter what music trends come and go over the next handful of generations, chances are that rock ‘n’ roll lovers will still be debating which Beatle, John Lennon or Paul McCartney, contributed most to the band, the music world and the culture at large. In this three-hour tribute concert, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Yuri Pool certainly makes an argument for the latter, honoring McCartney in this note-for-note re-creation of the frontman’s 1976 Wings Over America live tour. His four-piece band will play the roles of Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCullough and Joe English, as they plow through an exhaustive set list that is sure to contain a generous amount of Wings hits and McCarthy-penned Fab Four classics from “Yesterday” and “Blackbird” to “Lady Madonna” and “The Long and Winding Road.”
What: Eddie Izzard
Where: Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $46.50-$87.25
Contact: 305/673-7300, livenation.com
“Where should we start the show tonight … human sacrifice!” That’s how Eddie Izzard, the flamboyant, fabulously dressed British comedian, began his 2013 comedy special “Force Majeure,” his 10th televised concert in 20 years. The material, as dark as anything George Carlin riffed about but delivered with the stream-of-conscious energy of Robin Williams, was typical of Izzard’s unconventional subject matter. Then, the show went in even stranger directions: The signing of the Magna Carta and the execution of King Charles I aren’t exactly universal topics of humor, but Izzard made them appear so, studding his material with surrealist flourishes and self-effacing pantomime. As known for his public tranvestism as much as his singular comedy, Izzard calls himself a “male lesbian,” while John Cleese once referred to him as “the lost Python”—high praise indeed. His “Force Majeure” tour continues with this South Beach appearance, where his eccentricities will feel right at home.
