Palm Beach Dramaworks strikes a Faustian bargain, tomorrow’s classical phenoms perform at the Kravis, and a documentary explores John Lennon’s final decade. Plus, Pink Talking Fish and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Young Concert Artists on Tour
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $46.01
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Classical music’s stars of tomorrow often earn their first recognition thanks to the nonprofit Young Concert Artists (YCA), a management company that signs only the crème de la crème of soloists and ensemble players. Myriad household names are alumni of YCA, including pianists Emanuel Ax and Jeremy Denk, violinist Randall Goosby and vocalist Dawn Upshaw. This diverse program features YCA graduate Toby Appel in the viola chair alongside a quartet of emerging talents: violinists Risa Hokamura and Oliver Neubauer, and cellists James Baik and Benett Tsai. Their chamber-music repertory for the evening includes Jose Elizondo’s “Latin American Dances,” Ernst Von Dohnanyi’s “Serenade for String Trio in C Major” and Franz Schubert’s “String Quintet in C Major.”
What: The Fab Four
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $53.10-$70.80
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
This California-born act regularly ranks alongside the Broadway production “Rain” as among the most accurate Beatles tributes, a testament to the careful study and immaculate execution of founders Ron McNeil and Ardavan Sarraf—impersonators of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, respectively, dating from before they formed the Fab Four in 1997. Since then, the group has expanded its membership and its British Invasion clout: The Fab Four has opened for the Who and played Monkees songs with Micky Dolenz. For this jaunt, the group is celebrating the Beatles’ 1965 release “Help!,” one of many turning points for the band, whose expanded instrumental palette and forward-thinking songcraft earned it an Album of the Year nomination at the following year’s Grammys—the first rock album to be recognized in this top category. The Fab Four will play highlights from “Help!,” followed by a post-intermission set of tunes spanning the group’s career.
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
What: Screenings of “Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Savor Cinema, 503 S.E. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $12 adults, $10 students/seniors
Contact: 954/525-3456, fliff.com
Speaking of the Fab Four, this documentary looks like manna for Beatlemaniacs, charting the tumultuous final decade of John Lennon’s life, from the breakup of the Beatles to his 1980 assassination. Buttressed by never-before-seen images and video, “Borrowed Time” explores Lennon and Yoko Ono’s complete origin story, their peace activism, the albums Lennon made in the 1970s and a planned 1981 tour that was projected to be one of the most important and profitable international outings in music history. Apple Records CEO Tony Bramwell and guitarist Earl Slick are among the new interviewees in this hefty, 134-minute doc from the U.K.’s Alan G. Parker, whose previous docs include “Rebel Truce—The History of the Clash” and “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond.”
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “The Seafarer”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: $115 (includes reception at 6:30 p.m.; tickets for later dates are $95)
Contact: 561/514-4042, palmbeachdramaworks.org
The Faustian myth is one of the most durable in all of literature and art, having first appeared in a chapbook in 1857. It is most famously associated with blues guitarist Robert Johnson, who claimed to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical skill. Conor McPherson’s acclaimed 2006 drama “The Seafarer” plays into this Mephistophelian mythos, this time through an authentic Irish brogue. It’s set on Christmas Eve in a coastal suburb north of Dublin, where prodigal son Sharky Harkin has returned after falling on hard times. A recovering alcoholic settling into his role as caregiver for his disabled and irritable brother, Sharky has to contend not only with a hard-drinking atmosphere but with a ghost from his past, metaphorically and literally, in the form of a mysterious Mr. Lockhart. As we learn through McPherson’s patented cocktail of working-class and magical-realist language, Sharky once won his freedom in a poker game against Mr. Lockhart, and the latter his return for revenge. But at what savage cost? See this sure-to-be-riveting production to find out. It runs through Dec. 28.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: Pink Talking Fish
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Funky Biscuit, 303 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
Cost: $40-$50 (standing room only)
Contact: 561/395-2929, funkybiscuit.com
Its name may evoke a lost Dr. Seuss book, but Pink Talking Fish is actually a hybridized tribute band honoring the music of three iconic acts: Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish. On paper, it makes little sense. Trey Anastasio’s goofy jam-band noodling, David Byrne’s ironic post-punk precision and Roger Waters’ transcendent classic-rock bombast don’t seem to share the same musical sandboxes. But great live music doesn’t exist on paper, and this impeccably tight quartet is rising on the strength of its surprisingly effective mash-ups, whether it’s sandwiching Phish’s “Guyute” between two “Pig” tracks from Pink Floyd’s Animals or discovering unlikely 20-minute medleys combining “Time,” “Ghost” and “Psycho Killer.” It takes a big-eared listener to love all three of Pink Talking Fish’s tributees, but their combiners’ imaginative concoctions make the bands sound like kindred spirits.
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