Boca Black Box celebrates 10 years, thrash-metal pioneers play a rare SoFla concert, and a beloved Broadway staple opens in Delray. Plus, Ladytron and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “A Chorus Line”
Where: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth St., Delray Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $45
Contact: 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com
Before “meta” was a common trope in the entertainment world, “A Chorus Line” peeled back the curtain on the mechanics of musical theatre. Set on a barebones stage, with the audience seated as if witnessing an actual audition process, composer Marvin Hamlisch’s 1975 masterpiece chronicles, in almost real time, a demanding choreographer’s attempt to cast a chorus line for his latest show. This involves whittling an assembly of some 17 hungry and talented hopefuls down to eight. In the process, we discover the backstories of aspiring hoofers from a broad cross-section of modern life, from a seemingly ageless Chinese-American woman to a former strip club employee, an Italian-American caregiver for his ailing wife, and a gay Puerto Rican man who survived a troubled upbringing. The intermission-less musical spawned hits such as “One (Singular Sensation)” and generally requires a level of realistic acting more in line with traditional drama than the musical realm, a challenge the community-theater performers at Delray Beach Playhouse are eager to take on. The show runs through Sept. 15.
SATURDAY
What: Boca Black Box Anniversary Party
Where: Boca Black Box, 8221 Glades Road, Suite 10
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $250
Contact: 561/483-9036, bocablackbox.com
Boca Black Box has officially lasted 10 years—an accomplishment even in completely stable times, let alone ones interrupted by a pandemic that spelled doom for organizations larger than this one. It’s been the little-venue-that-could since the beginning, a West Boca cultural enclave off the beaten path, with a kitchen-sink approach to programming—a ‘60s rock legend one day, a modern tribute band the next, followed by a comedian, a magician, a musical, “micro wrestlers” and acrobatic cats. The theater is going all out to celebrate its anniversary, complete with an Italian buffet, an open bar, and live music from Jay Stollman & the Blue-Eyed Souls, whose danceable catalog of hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s includes Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, Joe Cocker and Sam Cooke.
What: Megadeth
Where: iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach
When: 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $18-$429
Contact: 561/795-8883, westpalmbeachamphitheatre.com
Guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine was a formative part of Metallica’s creation in 1981 but would be booted from the band prior to the release of its 1983 debut Kill ‘Em All—a setback that in hindsight feels like a gift: Mustaine promptly formed Megadeth, vowing to play louder and heavier than Metallica, and creating a combative relationship that, in purely musical terms, benefited both acts, which competed against each other for thrash-metal primacy. Of the two acts, Metallica is now as commercial as Hot Topic, and Megadeth remains the more underground metalhead’s rockers of choice, even if their records have sold upwards of 50 million copies. At this tour, marking the group’s first appearance in South Florida since 2011, expect to hear cuts dating way back to its 1983 debut all the way to 2022’s The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead! All That Remains and Mudvayne will open the show.
SUNDAY
What: Ryan Niemiller
Where: The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 6 p.m.
Cost: $30
Contact: 561/203-3742, thestudioatmiznerpark.com
One way to defuse ableist insults is to embrace them in your very persona. Hence the nickname comedian Ryan Niemiller has bestowed upon himself: The Cripple Threat of Comedy. Niemiller was born was a disability in both his arms, with both hands essentially nonfunctional—a misfortune in life but with many comic silver linings. Niemiller riffs on dating, job seeking and being accepted in a world of physical normies, with jokes that flip the script in clever ways: Hence this great two-liner that he served up on “America’s Got Talent,” where he made it to third place on Season 14: “I just flew in from Indiana, and boy, are my arms missing …. That’s United for ya!” Ultimately, disability or not, he’s just a hilarious guy, and the Studio at Mizner Park is fortunate to book him.
MONDAY, AUG. 26
What: Ladytron
Where: Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $35
Contact: cultureroom.net
Taking its cuts from 1980s synthpop but updating it with modern technologies and sensibilities, Ladytron are one of the jewels in the crown of contemporary electronic pop, releasing five albums in their original incarnation—beginning with 2001’s striking 604—and two recent works following a five-year hiatus, not a dud among them. The Liverpool act took its name from a song by Roxy Music, whose former bandmate, the electronic-music pioneer Brian Eno, returned the favor by calling Ladytron “the best of English pop music” in 2009. Listening to their shiny, retro-futuristic beats and sometimes-disturbing music videos, it makes equal sense to learn that the band once performed the 1982 “Tron” soundtrack in its entirety, and that it opened for Nine Inch Nails on a European tour, at the invitation of Trent Reznor.
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