A Neil Diamond musical opens at the Kravis, the Delray Affair returns for its 64th year, and The Symphonia transports concertgoers to 18th century Vienna. Plus, the Tortuga Music Festival and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Opening night of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $86.25-$201.25
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Neil Diamond is having a moment. The recent Christmas Day release Song Sung Blue, about the Neil tribute act Lightning & Thunder, grossed $58 million at the box office and earned nominations at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Now, the Kravis is hosting A Beautiful Noise, a jukebox musical of Diamond’s life and work that premiered on Broadway in 2022. Book writer Anthony McCarten, who scripted Bohemian Rhapsody and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, knows his way about a solidly structured bio-show, and he frames A Beautiful Noise as a series of therapy sessions for the aging and struggling Diamond, putting him on the proverbial couch at the direction of his third wife. When his therapist reads his own words back to him from a secondhand copy of The Complete Lyrics of Neil Diamond, the composer’s past rushes back to him, and the show explores how an aspiring singer from Brooklyn rose through the ranks of the Brill Building and survived a near-crushing drama with a mob-affiliated record label to ultimately sell 140 million albums. The touring production, whose songs include “America,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” and, of course, the boozy singalong “Sweet Caroline,” runs through Sunday.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Delray Affair
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sun.
Where: Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: delrayaffair.com
Still the city’s signature arts event some 64 years after its first incarnation, the Delray Affair thrives on two central facets: its sprawl and its variety. To the former, the art fair spreads across seven city blocks, with tents lined up to the nines, stretching on seemingly into infinity. But the latter is perhaps what brings audiences back to the event year after year—the unexpected treasures of art and craft, painting and sculpture, abstract and figurative, budget-friendly and extravagant, stamp-sized and nearly room-sized. Artists from around the world and around the block alight on Atlantic Avenue for the three-day event. Like Delray itself, much of their inventory is whimsical, coastal, and distinctive. Outside of the art—and the opportunity to chat with its creators about their process and inspirations—the Affair offers copious food and drink vendors, live demonstrations, workshops, interactive experiences, and photo ops. For those driving to the festivities, save the hassle and take advantage of the free offsite parking and shuttle service at the Palm Beach County Administrative Complex.
What: Tortuga Music Festival
When: Music starts at 1:05 p.m. each day
Where: Fort Lauderdale Beach, 1100 Seabreeze Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $365 and up for three-day passes
Contact: tortugamusicfestival.com
If SunFest seems to have sunset, then Tortuga’s increasingly eclectic lineups have helped make up for its absence. Headliners for the 13th-annual festival don’t get much bigger than Post Malone, the rapper whose cross-pollinating approach to genre has led to album sales topping 150 million—with nine diamond-certified songs to his name, second only to Drake in that pantheon. While country music continues to dominate Tortuga—the other top-line acts include Riley Green and Kenny Chesney—surprises abound in the undercard. N.W.A. alum Ice Cube, feel-good rockers G. Love & Special Sauce, and jocular rapper Afroman—who sort-of ran for president in 2024 on a pro-weed platform—lend diversity to the lineup while retaining its beach-party ambiance. Twangy traditionalist Dwight Yoakam, Americana siren Amanda Shires, and soaring adult-contemporary rockers The Fray are among the nearly 40 other artists on this upbeat docket.
SATURDAY
What: Opening night of INFERNA
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Theatre Lab at Studio One Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $60 ($35-$45 for later dates)
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
The second in a trilogy from playwright Joanna Castle Miller, INFERNA follows CONVERSA in Theatre Lab’s ’25-‘26 season, but you needn’t have seen the prior play to enjoy this one. But like CONVERSA, which was inspired by Castle’s complicated relationship to Judaism, this intimate play’s themes and characters hit close to home. It’s set on a mostly empty theater stage, where Castle Miller plays a young playwright who, with the help of a male actor, plumbs the childhood experiences that shaped her faith and career, from church activities to school plays. Castle Miller and her scene partner embark on a series of comedic reenactments, stories from their past, and musical performances that shed new light on the various scripts that Castle Miller’s character was expected to follow, ultimately discovering sobering insights about the mentors of her youth. The production runs through April 26.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: The Symphonia: “Vienna’s Riches”
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $58-$95
Contact: 954/510-5826, thestudioatmiznerpark.com
Vienna’s riches, indeed: No city left a more substantial mark on classical music than the former capital of the Austrian Empire. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, the Strausses, Gustav Mahler, and many more composed masterpieces in this dominant seat of 18th and 19th century culture. In this season-closing performance from The Symphonia, Artistic Director Alastair Willis will conduct a program that includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D major, aka the “Haffer Symphony,” a masterwork in four movements commissioned by a prominent Salzburg family. But given that the concert is part of The Symphonia’s “New Directions” series, there is more to this immersive performance than orchestral music: Willis typically dresses in costumes evoking this pivotal time period and addresses the audience, expounding on Vienna’s place in classical music history.
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