A Mizner Park arts festival celebrates its 39th year, a Grateful Dead interpreter creates single-guitar symphonies, and the “Fast Food Nation” author provides some thought for food. Plus, Neko Case and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Eric Schlosser
When: 5:30 p.m.
Where: Society of the Four Arts Dixon Education Building, 240 Cocoanut Row, Palm Beach
Cost: $20
Contact: 561/655-7226, fourarts.org
Twenty-five years ago, investigative reporter Eric Schlosser published “Fast Food Nation,” still the definitive deep dive into the questionable, or worse, practices of cheap, industrialized Big Food. The book, which has sold 1.4 million copies and was just reissued in an anniversary edition with a new afterward, established Schlosser as an outspoken expert on the intersection of nutrition and commerce. In this appearance, organized through Society of the Four Arts’ youth-targeted Contemporaries programming, Schlosser will lecture on “How to Make America Healthy.” What does he feel about the similar named Make America Healthy Again movement spearheaded by controversial Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and what does Schlosser have to say about the data on ultra-processed foods, an area largely unexplored in “Fast Food Nation?” Attend this rare appearance to find out.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Strictly Murder”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth St., Delray Beach
Cost: $45
Contact: 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com
As plays go, “The Mousetrap” still gets all the attention, but not every genteel British murder mystery sprung from the mind of Agatha Christie. Brian Clemens, an English screenwriter and television producer who claimed to have been related to Mark Twain, penned his share of lurid tales for the stage and screen, many of which pivot in that perennial genre trope, the discovery of a corpse. His works include “An Honourable Murder,” “Murder Weapon” and the jovially titled “Anybody for Murder?” Premiering in 2006, “Strictly Murder” is Clemens’ penultimate play, a tale of cons and double-cons set in 1939 France just before the outbreak of World War II. An English couple, Peter and Suzy, are enjoying a life of ease in their Provence country house until a revelation of Peter’s real identity upsets their idyllic reprieve. He may even be a killer on the run, suddenly in the crosshairs of a determined Scotland Yard detective. These are only the opening moves in this mysterious cat-and-mouse game, which, in one critic’s appraisal, “grips you by the throat from start to finish.” Delray Beach Playhouse’s production runs through Feb. 22.
What: John Kadlecik Solo Acousti’Lectric
When: 9 p.m.
Where: Funky Biscuit, 303 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
Cost: $39.24 (standing room only)
Contact: 561/395-2929, funkybiscuit.com
A foremost interpreter of the Grateful Dead, guitarist John Kadlecik co-founded Dark Star Orchestra, whose band of improvisers, armed with amp rigs and equipment to capture the nuance of the Dead’s 1970s sound, is recognized as the preeminent tribute to San Francisco’s finest. Kadlecik has even played with Dead members themselves, including the late Bob Weir and Phil Lesh in Further, a Dead-adjacent spinoff project. These days, the Washington, D.C.-based musician is touring a solo act, but that doesn’t mean a stripped-down sound. Deploying loopers, Kadlecik creates a symphony of sounds, including bass, drum and piano, from a single electric guitar, honoring the improvisational spirit of the early jam band era without all the warm bodies.
SATURDAY
What: Neko Case
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Midline Miami, 2221 N.W. Miami Court, Miami
Cost: $56.78-$62.84
Contact: midlinemiami.com
In the nearly 30 years since Americana siren Neko Case recorded her debut album in 1997, she has never played a concert in South Florida—until now. Such are the vagaries of too many tour itineraries: We’re just not a convenient stop. The reception for her long-awaited debut, then, is sure to be rhapsodic, as she plays music from a career that began in the echoes of traditional country music—her first album earned comparisons to Patsy Cline and Wanda Jackson—to experimental art rock and jazz-inflected balladry. Her records continue to defy easy categorization, but all are anchored by her instantly recognizable contralto voice, which has been colorfully likened to a flamethrower, a 120-mph fastball and a tornado. We can’t wait to see the storm she kicks up in her first performance in the Magic City.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: 39th-annual Art Festival
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Mizner Park, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org
This art fair—the only art festival granted the full breadth of Mizner Park—has been a winter tradition in the Palm Beaches for nearly 40 years, but only recently did it achieve a fresh feather in its cap: national recognition as one of the top 200 Fine Art Festivals in the U.S., a distinction it has earned since 2024. Choose the latest art piece for your home, garden or office from among 170 artists selected nationwide for their quality work spanning mediums including ceramics, wood, fiber, glass, drawing, painting, mixed media, jewelry, photography and sculpture. Live music and children’s activities supplement the experience. While you’re there, check out “In the House of Shadows, Flowers Bloom,” a new public installation from Miami artist TYPOE, that will be unveiled this Wednesday evening at the entrance to the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
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