Festival of the Arts opens its landmark 20th year, Miami City Ballet premieres a new work from a master choreographer, and two former secretaries of state debate in West Palm Beach. Plus, “Kim’s Convenience” and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Opening night of “Kim’s Convenience”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $40.25-$63.25
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Before it became a hit Netflix series for five seasons, “Kim’s Convenience” confined its heartfelt combination of charms and pathos only to the stage. Actor and playwright Ins Choi debuted his play of the same name at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, a logical premiere for a show set in a Korean-owned convenience store in that city’s Regent Park neighborhood. Drawing from his own background as one of countless Korean immigrants to Toronto in the 1980s, Choi conceived of a sundry shop not unlike Kim’s Grocer, the real-life establishment that employed him. Its operators, Mr. and Mrs. Kim, face pressures of gentrification and the looming development of a nearby Walmart as existential threats to the business, while dealing with more urgent drama closer to home—such as the Kims’ estranged son Jung, who may have stolen the family’s savings, and their daughter Janet, a naturalized Canadian with little interest in taking over the family business. This revival tours the Kravis in the wake of its TV adaptation’s critically acclaimed run, and it runs through March 8.
THURSDAY
What: “Capturing the American Presidency”
When: 4 p.m.
Where: University Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $35
Contact: 561/297-4784, fauevents.com
Doug Mills has long been a witness to history in America’s halls of power. As chief photographer for the Associated Press in Washington, and then as senior photographer in the New York Times’ Washington Bureau, Mills has photographed every president since Ronald Reagan, winning three Pulitzers in the process. His most iconic shots include the moment George W. Bush learned about the attacks on Sept. 11 to the assassination attempt against then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Penn.; the latter, which seemed to capture a bullet in flight toward Trump’s ear, was described by his newspaper’s photo analyst as a “one in a million shot.” Mills will discuss his career in this live symposium to accompany FAU Galleries’ exhibition of his work, which runs through March 29 at the Schmidt Center Gallery.
What: LeMieux Center Speakers: Secretary Mike Pompeo and Secretary John Kerry
When: 6:30 p.m.
Where: DeSantis Chapel at Palm Beach Atlantic University, 901 S. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach
Cost: Free with registration
Contact: 561/803-2000, pba.edu/event/lemieux-center-speaker-secretary-mike-pompeo-and-secretary-john-kerry
Contrary to the evidence presented on cable-news shout-fests and partisan social-media silos, civil discourse on vital issues of public policy still occurs at institutions that prioritize it. The 2026 LeMieux Speaker Series, an inaugural program launched by Palm Beach Atlantic University, aims to cut through the noise and embrace good-faith debate across political aisles. And with the U.S. and Iran seemingly teetering on a knife’s-edge of a potential conflict as we speak, the university’s selection to open the series with two former secretaries of state feels especially timely. Mike Pompeo served as Donald Trump’s secretary of state during his first term, circa 2018 to 2021, while John Kerry worked directly to limit Iran’s nuclear program under the Obama Administration from 2013 to 2017. Former Florida Sen. George LeMieux, who served in Congress from 2009 to 2011, will host and moderate the discussion.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of Festival of the Arts Boca
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $75-$175
Contact: 561/571-5270, festivalboca.org
“Legends, Luminaries and the Unexpected” is the tagline for next year’s Festival of the Arts Boca, an accurate pitch for the event’s landmark 20th-anniversary lineup of artists, entertainers, authors and thinkers. The fest opens Friday with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, a loose-knit collective that has accrued more than 2 billion YouTube views for its throwback renditions of contemporary pop tunes: Think the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” performed in Andrews Sisters-style three-part harmony, or U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” performed as a ‘60s-evoking soul classic. Other highlights include a screening of “Jurassic Park” with live orchestration (Saturday), the return of presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (Monday, March 2), virtuoso pianist Conrad Tao (March 6) and a finale from Broadway legend Patti LuPone (March 8).
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: Miami City Ballet: “Into the Magic City”
When: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $46-$156.50
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
This season marks a pivotal one for Miami City Ballet—it is the company’s first season under a new artistic director, Gonzalo Garcia, and it marks MCB’s 40th anniversary of bringing world-class dance to South Florida and beyond. To celebrate, this winter program nods both to the past and to the future, as well as to the city it calls home. It will feature George Balanchine’s 1935 masterpiece “Serenade,” the first full-length ballet he premiered after immigrating to the United States. The plotless ballet, with its famous blue tutus, is set to a sweeping Tchaikovsky serenade and serves as a meta reflection on the choreographic process itself. It will be followed by “Roses from the South, Three Waltzes for Toby,” a world-premiere work from Alexei Ratmansky—a love letter to Miami and MCB’s founder, Toby Lerner Ansin, that marries tradition with modernity.
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