Courtney Love rocks the Arsht, Truman Capote holds court at Dramaworks, and Christmas comes to the Flagler Museum. Plus, Art Basel, Stanley Clarke, “The Who’s Tommy” and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Opening night of “Kansas City Choir Boy”
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $85
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
The main draw of this hour-long rock musical—and the reason for that $85 ticket—isn’t the plot, which is a rather conventional boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl pine session. It’s the remarkable cast: Courtney Love, yes, that Courtney Love, of rock and roll fame/infamy, stars in the production alongside its composer-lyricist, Todd Almond. The latter plays a rudderless composer seeking inspiration, and perhaps finding it, when a news bulletin early in the play triggers memories of a girlfriend who went missing. That would be Love, whose vocal abilities haven’t waned a note since her days fronting Hole. The story, which borrows themes from ancient mythology, plays out in flashback and is told entirely through music, which ranges from electronic dance music to acoustic balladry. And it all goes down in the Carnival Studio Theatre, the Arsht Center’s most intimate of spaces. “Kansas City Choir Boy” runs through Dec. 11; get your tickets while you still can.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “The Who’s Tommy”
Where: Showtime Performing Arts, 503 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $20-$40
Contact: 954/300-2149, outretheatrecompany.com
From a story originally conceived as a double-album by The Who in 1969, Pete Townshend helped elevate “Tommy” into a stage musical in the early ‘90s, which dramatizes the band’s iconic story about a deaf, dumb and mute child who becomes a pinball wizard to deal with his traumatic childhood. Featuring 20 scenes and more than 30 Who songs, it continues Outre Theatre Company’s ambitious return to Boca Raton. Mike Westrich leads an all-star cast in this regional production, which runs through Dec. 18.
THURSDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Art Basel Miami Beach
Where: Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach
Cost: $34-$115
Contact: artbasel.com
Well, this one certainly crept up on us. Yes, it’s Basel weekend already, so South Florida’s art lovers have likely mapped out their schedule of hobnobbing with celebrities and cultural cognoscenti for a few days of state-of-the-art-world surveying. But if you’re still in tryptophan hangover, listen up: The heart of Miami Basel is once again the Convention Center, where 269 galleries from five continents will showcase a stunning array of work, from historical masterpieces to contemporary and emerging art, in media ranging from paintings and sculptures to installations, photography and film. Of course, festivities aren’t limited to the central location: During Art Miami Week, dozens of satellite fairs will sprout up all around the county’s hippest districts, and there will be music aplenty at the city’s clubs, mostly of the electronic persuasion. If you’re not into art, nightclubbing or hair-pulling traffic nightmares, it’s probably best not to venture south of the 954 for the next few days.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Tru”
Rob Donohoe as Truman Capote (Tru, 2016)
Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $81 ($66 for future performances)
Contact: 561/514-4042, palmbeachdramaworks.org
The title of this 1989 play isn’t a misprint: It’s the diminutive for Truman Capote, the masterful and eccentric writer, who shares a stage with no one but himself and a copious amount of pills, vodka, cocaine and chocolate truffles for a couple of saucy hours. Jay Presson Allen’s workhorse of a play finds Capote reminiscing about his life and rollercoaster career during one of its seemingly endless valleys—a week before Christmas 1975, In Cold Blood far in his rearview mirror, reeling after a published excerpt of his score-settling roman a clef “Answered Prayers.” Lonely and alienated, Presson’s version of Capote still retains much of his acid wit, in a play that is designed as much for Tru newbies as longtime admirers. As much as anything else, “Tru” is an extraordinary actor’s exercise. In Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production, Rob Donohoe, who received a pair of Carbonell nominations this past year, will transform into the turbulent wordsmith. The play runs through Jan. 1.
SATURDAY
What: Second Annual Willy T. Willard Memorial Fundraiser
Where: Church on the Hill Congregational, 251 S.W. Fourth Ave., Boca Raton
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: willytwillardmemorialfund.com
Ever think about expanding your spiritual horizons but don’t know where to start? Begin to get enlightened for a great cause at this eclectic spiritual fair benefiting the Willy T. Willard Memorial Fund. Running in two rooms, the event includes spirit card readings, a Reiki circle meditation, sound healing, two sessions of chair yoga, qigong energetic healing, a wellness lecture/workshop and an “Archangel Board” talking-board instruction session with local resident and board inventor Dr. Yafi Yair. Bring the kids for face painting and arts and crafts activities, and leave time to visit the more than 30 vendors, including local artists and small businesses. The free event runs on donations and raffle ticket/silent auction funds, which provide financial support to bereaved parents. Visit the fund’s website for a complete breakdown of events.
What: Opening day of “When Modern Was Contemporary: Selections From the Roy R. Neuberger Collection”
Where: Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m.
Cost: $5 guests, free for Four Arts members
Contact: 561/655-7226, fourarts.org
Wherever modern art was happening in the movement’s earliest incarnations, Roy R. Neuberger was there. Noticing that the 20th century modern-art nexus was beginning to shift from Paris to New York, the generous American collector Neuberger ended his five-year residency in France to follow the zeitgeist. On his entry-level Wall Street Job, he was able to purchase works by then-emerging figures in the modern art movement, insisting on buying working artists as way to support their endeavors. Many of these now-iconic names will fill the walls of the Society of the Four Arts beginning this weekend, in a sizable celebration of Neuberger and his prescient taste in art: Expect to see Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Adolph Gottlieb and many more. The show runs through Jan. 29.
SUNDAY
What: Christmas at Whitehall
Where: Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach
When: Starting at 2 p.m.
Cost: Free with museum admission; $10-$28 for lecture
Contact: 561/655-2833, flaglermuseum.us
Henry Flagler’s youngest descendants will light the 16-foot tree in his namesake museum’s Grand Hall, in this traditional Gilded Age throwback that also includes an afternoon of organ and piano music and holiday caroling. A lively lecture by Alex Palmer about the colorful history of letter-writing to Santa—and a fraudulent “Santa Claus Association” in New York that attempted to answer them—kicks off the festivities at 2 p.m.
What: Stanley Clarke
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $39.50-$60
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Legend has it that as a schoolboy, Stanley Clarke arrived late to music class, selecting the acoustic bass because it was one of the few instruments that wasn’t already picked. Fate worked in his favor: Over a diverse 40-year career, this jazz fusionist has become the foremost virtuoso of this undervalued instrument as a soloist, bandleader and sideman whose collaborators have ranged from Al Jarreau to Michael Jackson to Beck.
