A sitcom star wears his cabaret hat, a mystery board game becomes an interactive musical, and veteran indie rockers tour West Palm. Plus, Tiffany Haddish and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Opening night of “Clue”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $41-$91
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Every spectator is their own Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot—or maybe Benoit Blanc—in this spirited and cheeky adaptation of the 1985 movie of the same name, which is itself, of course, inspired by the Hasbro board game. When the Lord of a manor winds up dead at the end of Act I, any of the six colorful guests could be the murderer: Elitist intellectual Prof. Plum, second-rate Vegas entertainer Miss Scarlet, the militant Col. Mustard, the celebrity doyenne Mrs. Peacock, the overworked and scullery-haunting Mrs. White and the Wall Street maven Mr. Green. Armed with randomly selected cards unknown to the actors, the audience ends up deciding the killer, their weapon and where the homicide took place, and with 216 possibilities, every show’s climax is different. And the show is a musical, because why not? The Broadway tour runs through Saturday.
TUESDAY TO THURSDAY
What: Tony Danza: Standards and Stories
When: 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Where: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: $95
Contact: 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com
As Tony Danza revealed to a CBS interviewer last year, “One day I decided, I’m going to be a song-and-dance man”—skills that weren’t necessarily required in his day job as an Emmy-nominated actor on iconic sitcoms like “Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss?” Danza was quick to realize that transforming into a cabaret star wasn’t an overnight learning curve. After the first performance, Danza’s assistant called his act “almost not embarrassing.” By now, however, the longtime entertainer has perfected the craft to a science. In “Standards and Stories,” which he has performed at such nightlife paragons as 54 Below and Café Carlyle, Danza lends a Sinatraesque tone to such Songbook staples as “Angel Eyes,” “Love Potion Number 9” and “Love is Here to Stay,” while also tap-dancing, playing the ukulele and sharing amusing anecdotes from his life.
WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY
What: screenings of “All We Imagine As Light”
When: 2 p.m. Wed.; 6 p.m. Fri.; 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Sat.; 2 and 4 p.m. Sun.
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse Stonzek Theatre, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
Cost: $6-$9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
Bollywood may be a multibillion-dollar industry synonymous with Indian cinema, but the country has a rich tradition of smaller independent films that jettison Bollywood’s lavish budgets. The debut fiction feature from director Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine As Light,” is one such gem, a rich humanist drama in the lineage of Indian auteurs like Satyajit Ray. Driven more by character than plot, it follows a pair of nurses living together in Mumbai. One of whom is stuck in an arranged marriage to an absent husband living in Germany; the other is having a clandestine affair with the Muslim man she loves. Neither solution seems tenable, but beyond these central characters, “All We Imagine as Light” hums with life in the voluminous city, touching upon issues of loneliness, cost of living, gentrification and alienation in the modern world. It’s easily one of last year’s best films, and it’s great to see it finally receive a limited South Florida release.
FRIDAY
What: Slothrust
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: $20
Contact: facebook.com/events/1539087896980725
Never think that a formal musical education won’t help you become a better rock musician. Boston’s Slothrust is a perfect example. Singer and guitarist Leah Wellbaum and drummer Will Gorin emerged from backgrounds in classical, jazz and blues to form this enduring underground duo (they’ve welcomed, and shed, two bassists over the years). Their sound is straight-ahead rock the way it used to be played, before electronics began to play increasingly larger roles in indie music. As the songwriter and seemingly central architect of the band, Wellbaum is both a wry poet and a monster on the axe, and comparisons to acts like Garbage, Helium and Liz Phair are both apt and not quite accurate in capturing Slothrust’s sonic kismet. Five albums into a career largely on the margins, it’s inconceivable why the band isn’t more famous than it is.
SATURDAY
What: Tiffany Haddish
When: 7 p.m.
Where: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $45
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
“Funny and Fearless” is the name of Haddish’s current standup tour, words that accurately describe her traumatic life and the role comedy has played in transcending it. Haddish grew up among a series of escalating tragedies. Her father abandoned her family when she was 3 years old; she became the primary caregiver for said family after her mother survived a murder attempt and suffered severe brain damage; Haddish lived for a stint in foster care, was raped at the age of 17, and endured a bout of homelessness after high school. Enrolling in the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp—part of an ultimatum enforced by a social worker in 1997—led to comedy literally saving her life, as Haddish has told it. These days, she’s an A-lister, earning universal acclaim for her role in “Girls Trip,” becoming the second Black woman to win a Grammy Award for Outstanding Comedy Album, and becoming the first Black female comic to host “Saturday Night Live.” Haddish holds nothing back in her confessional standup sets, so buckle up.
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