Local bands battle it out in Mizner Park, a horror podcast brings Appalachian monsters to Fort Lauderdale, and a play charts a pivotal moment in gay-rights history. Plus, Lauryn Hill and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: Battle of the Bands
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/393-7810, myboca.us/2021/mizner-park-amphitheater
As is customary, the City of Boca Raton concludes its Summer in the City free music series with the annual Battle of the Bands, now in its fourth year. Eight emerging local bands will take the stage for short sets under the amphitheater floodlights, with one in each age bracket taking home the coveted first-place award as bestowed by the enthusiastic audience. In the Under 20 category, the youthful competition includes Midnight3, the Borin Brothers, Nothing Wrong With Wet Socks, and Unravel. Duking it out in the Over 20 category will be Ryan Cooper Band, 212 Degrees, Leave it to Us and Jass. In between acts, do save time to explore the on-site Young Entrepreneurs Market, featuring products and businesses originating from thinkers and makers ages 13 to 20.
SATURDAY
What: “Ladies Night Out!”
Where: Boca Black Box, 8221 Glades Road, Suite 10, Boca Raton
When: 7 and 9 p.m.
Cost: $48-$63
Contact: 561/483-9036, bocablackbox.com
Existential grapples with social anxiety normally are not comic catnip for the rest of us—unless the sufferer is as hilarious as Leah Rudick, who plumbs her own diagnosis to great effect in her debut comedy special, tellingly titled “Spiraling.” But the L.A.-based observational comic isn’t merely self-deprecating; she also punches up through her dead-on portrayals of recurring characters like “Wealthy Woman” and “Love Coach” that have turned Rudick into a sleeper sensation on social media. At this rare South Florida appearance, she’ll headline a night of all-female comedy at Boca’s busiest spot for standup.
What: Opening night of “The Temperamentals”
Where: Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $35
Contact: 954/678-1496, empirestage.com
Enticingly described in its 2010 off-Broadway run as “Mad Men meets Milk,” Jon Marans’ play “The Temperamentals” captures a moment in history, circa 1950, when the rubber of the grey flannel suit set met the road of the nascent gay-right movement. The central characters, Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich, fell in love while co-founding the influential Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT equality organization in the United States, during a time when homosexuality was still officially deemed, in psychiatric circles, as a mental disorder. Rooted in history but resonating with a righteous relevance, “The Temperamentals” follows the Mattachine founders’ formative championing of the case of Dale Jennings, a gay man entrapped for lewdness and vagrancy by the LAPD, as the pioneering advocates attempt to balance their passionate zealotry for the cause with a more (small-“c”) conservative approach to effecting change. Empire Stage’s production, directed by David Simson, runs through Aug. 25.
What: Old Gods of Appalachia: Unhallowed Grounds tour
Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $49.50
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
The region of Appalachia, with its history of cryptid sightings and other anomalous folklore, is a weird enough place as is. But it grows immeasurably stranger in the audio-verse of Steve Shell and Cam Collins, co-creators of Old Gods of Appalachia, a prize-winning podcast, launched in 2019, that’s set in an alternate Appalachia. Theirs is an area of familiar hills, hollers and accents, only with actual monsters rising up from a millennia-old slumber. The horror anthology series spans 70 elaborate episodes to date, complete with first-rate sound effects to generate a full-throated “theatre of the mind” experience; its mythology has even inspired a tabletop game. At this live presentation, professional actors and musicians will join Shell and Collins for a unique storytelling experience rooted in the traditions of a vintage radio play.
SUNDAY
What: Lauryn Hill & the Fugees
Where: iTHINK Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $32 and up
Contact: 561/795-8883, westpalmbeachamphitheatre.com
In 1998, Lauryn Hill released what is arguably the ultimate one-and-done studio album in music history: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill would hit No. 1 or No. 2 in many western countries, win album of the year at the Grammy Awards, and earn her the cover of Time magazine—with Hill becoming the first rapper to receive the honor. Years after its release, Hill became the victim of her own success, retreating into religion and isolation, but to the delight of millions (billions?), she’s back in full force to celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary. Fans will hear all their favorites from Miseducation (“Doo Wop,” “Ex-Factor,” “Everything is Everything”), as well as hits from Hill’s formative years with the Fugees (“Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song”), performed with original members Wyclef Jean and Pras Michael, plus much, much more, with the musicians’ chameleonic embrace of R&B, hip-hop and jazz idioms sharing center stage with the woman of the hour.
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