Wednesday
Nine Inch Nails at The BB&T Center, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise; 7:30 p.m.; $92; 954/835-8000, www.thebbtcenter.com
For years, mostly in the ‘90s, Nine Inch Nails became shorthand for the sort of angry, profane, establishment-upending music that caused parents to fret when it pulsated from their offsprings’ stereos. Intentionally or not, it’s a stigma that Trent Reznor has helped to shed as his largely solo project entered the new millennium – along with such reductive genre descriptors as “heavy metal.” Nine Inch Nails’ ominous, electronically driven music is its own genre, closer to art rock than pop music – The New Yorker called it “vehement, brainy, obstinate, and modernist” in a 2012 profile of Reznor, who has accrued two Grammy Awards. Years after inching conspicuously toward mainstream acceptance with his fragile, beautiful Oscar-winning score for “The Social Network,” Reznor is touring behind the terrific “Hesitation Marks,” his first Nine Inch Nails album since 2009.
Thursday
Opening day of Fort Lauderdale Boat Show at various East Fort Lauderdale locations; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; $20 to $38; 954/764-7642 orwww.showmanagement.com
There will be plenty of ships ahoy this long Halloween weekend and even into next week for the sprawling, five-day Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, the 54thannual (and usually traffic-clogging) nautical showcase along Fort Lauderdale beach and marina. This year, the fair will spread across six locations and a staggering 3 million square feet of space, with the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center acting as grand central for marine displays: runabouts, sportfishers, high performance boats, cabin cruisers, skiffs, express cruisers, yachts, bowriders, catamarans and more will be showcased; elsewhere, guests can attend seminars, view exotic car shows, move their sea legs to live music daily, and attend gala dinners. Visit the website for the full schedule of events and pricing.
Friday
Opening night of “The Longing and the Short of It” at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach; 7:30 p.m.; 561/450-6357 or www.artsgarage.org
Emerging musical-theater lyricist Daniel Mate (pictured) kicks off the first of two shows in Delray Beach courtesy of The Theatre at Arts Garage (the second, a musical inspired by Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” will run next April). “The Longing and the Short It” employs the durable theatrical device of a song cycle to chart the paths of a variety of characters, all struggling for love and acceptance in a multitude of ways, and played by six chameleonic actors. The theater’s artistic director, Lou Tyrrell, is especially excited to grant Mate this platform in Delray Beach, telling me last month that, “I think Daniel is going to take his place as an American storyteller alongside Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Jonathan Larsen – some of our smartest, best composer/lyricists.” “The Longing and the Short of It” runs through Nov. 24.
So You Think You Can Dance! at James L. Knight Center, 400 S.E. Second Ave., Miami; 8 p.m.; $39.50 to $69.50; 305/416-5970 or www.jklc.com
It was another banner year for “So You Think You Can Dance!,” the Fox reality show that celebrated its 10th season this past summer. Hip-hopper Fik-Shun and jazz dancer Amy, front-runners from the beginning of the season, took home the bragging rights and cash prizes that come with being voted America’s Favorite Male and Female Dancers, on the strength of a string of energetic, high-concept routines. For the annual tour, they’ll be joined by the rest of the Top Ten, who will perform solos, group numbers and duets from the past year as well as new material choreographed specifically for the live show. As always, expect a breathtaking goulash of styles, from hip-hop and Bollywood to ballroom and Broadway.
Saturday
Opening night of “Much Ado About Nothing” at Outre Theatre Company at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 8 p.m.; 954/300-2149 or outretheatrecompany.com
It’s been a good year for “Much Ado About Nothing,” one of the Shakespeare’s finest evocations of cupid’s vagaries. This past spring, the Bard’s 16th century comedy – about mistaken identities and opposites attracting and on a palatial estate – saw a winning, modern-day film adaptation from Joss Whedon, which helped relate the story to a younger audience. Outre Theatre Company’s production will likewise retain Shakespeare’s beautiful prose in an updated setting: Venice, California, in all of its sun-dappled vanity. Look out for the play’s police officers – already a comic centerpiece of the show – to be riding Segways along the beach in Outre’s version. It runs through Nov. 17.
Scarecrow Festival and Contest at Johnson History Museum, 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; $10; 561/832-4164 orwww.historicalsocietypbc.org
The weather may not feel like it yet, but believe it not, this is fall on South Florida – and with autumn’s arrival comes one of Palm Beach County’s newest seasonal traditions, the fourth annual Scarecrow Festival. The event’s organizers at the Palm Beach County Historical Society have promised “more space and a renewed sense of energy” for this year’s event, which includes the now-traditional scarecrow design contest and plenty of additional time-traveling festivities. Live music from the Short Straw Pickers – a band destined to play scarecrow fests if ever there was one – will provide the soundtrack for an afternoon of corn shucking, hayrides, pie-eating, a bake sale, an agricultural display, arts and crafts activities and plenty of nosh.
Day of the Dead Celebration at FAT Village Arts District at Northwest Fifth Street in Fort Lauderdale; 1 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.; free with occasional event charges;www.dayofthedeadflorida.com
In four short years, it has become one of South Florida’s cultural phenomena, not to mention an opportunity to dress up in skeletal garb just two days after Halloween. Launched in 2010 by puppeteer and Fort Lauderdale business owner Jim Hammond, the Day of the Dead celebration has grown from a crowd of 750 participants in its inaugural presentation to a maximum capacity of 6,700 attendees last year for its daylong slate of activities. The centerpiece, as it is every year, is the skeleton procession of giant puppets and costumed marchers, gathered together in a multicultural celebration honoring those who passed on to the other side in the past year, an event rooted in Aztec and Mayan mythology. As the years have gone by, the event has expanded to become so much more: This fourth annual installment will include an indie craft fair, live music from four local bands, Mexican wrestling, a dance production, an artist’s “cemetery,” a body art competition, food trucks, children’s activities and street theater. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Magician Bill Blagg at Parker Playhouse, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $25.50 to $35.50; 954/462-0222 or www.parkerplayhouse.com
When Bill Blagg has been asked in interviews “Why magic?,” he responds, “because I’m too lazy to tell a joke.” It’s self-effacing, but not entirely true: Blagg is frequently funny onstage, both in his asides and in the nature of his illusion-filled magic show, which acts to bend time and space as we know it: After all, his tagline is “changing reality one city at a time.” Blagg, who has been practicing magic since he was 5 years old, brings nearly 20 years of experience to his eclectic and polished stage shows, which include timeless chestnuts like slicing audience members in half as well as such impressive stunts as levitation and gravity-defying rides on literal magic carpets.
