Hipster “elevator music” in Fort Lauderdale, Van Gogh on the big screen in Boca, and world-premiere plays in Delray. Plus, Ringo Starr and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY
What: Screenings of “Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers”
Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 2 and 6 p.m.
Cost: $5 members, $10 nonmembers
Contact: 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org
If you missed the National Gallery in London’s landmark exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh works last fall—the largest Van Gogh show in the country’s history, and the definition of a blockbuster exhibit—you’re in luck. This documentary, part of the carefully crafted “Exhibition on Screen” series, captures its highlights in glorious high-definition. Supplemented by voice-over readings of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, “Poets & Lovers” focuses on the paintings he created in the south of France, representing his most fruitful and durable period as an artist. The movie endeavors to capture this most misunderstood of geniuses while reveling in his every inspired brush stroke.
FRIDAY
What: Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band
Where: Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $72.05 and up
Contact: 866/502-7529, casino.hardrock.com/hollywood
A paragon of perennial youth and optimism even at 84, the Beatles’ foremost radiator of joy returns for his latest All-Starr Band outing, a rock ‘n’ roll jamboree furnished, as always, with a little help from his friends. Starr is ostensibly touring behind this year’s countrified Look Up, his 21st solo album, but the material he’s playing on this jaunt is as eclectic as his bandmates—Toto’s Steve Lukather, Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart, and Men at Work’s Colin Hay among them. Thus, classics from Starr’s Fab Four and solo discographies share the stage with hits popularized by these artists as well, resulting in an ever-shifting jukebox of some 70 years of pop music history. Given Starr’s age, I’d recommend catching this revue if you’ve never seen him live, but something tells me he’ll still be sharing spotlights and peace signs 10 years from now.
SATURDAY
What: Rachel Frazin book signing
Where: Barnes & Noble, 1400 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 2 to 4 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/750-2134, barnesandnoble.com
Invisible, ubiquitous and toxic, particulates known as PFAS are everywhere in life—in our household conveniences, in our air, in our water, in ourselves. And now they’re the subject of an acclaimed new expose, Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America. Co-author Rachel Frazin is a native of Boca Raton who graduated from Delray’s Atlantic High School before landing a job at Washington, D.C.’s The Hill, where she reports on environmental issues. In Poisoning the Well, Frazin and her colleague, Sharon Udasin, visited regions of the U.S. where man-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have wrecked havoc on people’s health and livelihoods, and they also delve into the science behind the chemicals, government inaction in the face of their pervasive influence, and technological solutions that might be able to counter them. Frazin returns to her hometown for this reading and book signing.
What: Ginger Root
Where: Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $35.60
Contact: 954/564-1074, cultureroom.net
Few artists embrace a generic label such as “elevator music,” but irony and kitsch are baked into the singular sonic cake that is Ginger Root, the musical project of California native Cameron Lew. Lew has specifically embraced the term “aggressive elevator soul” to describe the lounge-y but arresting sound of Ginger Root, which seems to exist outside of whatever’s trending at any given time. Originally a solo project of Lew’s—he recorded and even mixed some of Ginger Root’s early music, all by himself, in his 2004 Honda Element—the group is now flushed out with a bassist and drummer, and by now the band would sit pleasingly in a playlist with Tame Impala and Toro Y Moi. Ginger Root shows are usually multimedia affairs, with an onstage videographer recording each concert for instantaneous projection. And the songs on their albums, such as the latest release Shinbangumi, are connected by a narrative scope that rewards close listening.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: Playhouse Playwrights’ Project Festival of New Plays
Where: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth St., Delray Beach
When: 2 to 5 p.m.
Cost: $20 per day
Contact: 561/272-1281, delraybeachplayhouse.com
This initiative, now in its sixth year, provides an indispensable forum for local playwrights to premiere one-acts plays produced on the Delray Beach Playhouse stage. The jam-packed afternoons each feature productions of six plays, offering theatergoers the opportunity to experience tomorrow’s potential hits in their most embryonic forms. On Saturday, the lineup includes Marilyn Goldstein’s “Diagnosis,” Susan Shafer’s “O’Keeffe’s Charcoals,” Jeff Perlman’s “Love After Love,” Lynn A. Kenneally’s “The Bridal Dress Appointment,” Todd Caster’s “Second Sight” and Al Giordano’s “Exit Interview.” Return on Sunday for Laura Ratto’s “American Dreaming,” Damian Hawkins’ “P-I-S-D,” Alan Goodman’s “Me-Ouch,” Maurice DiMino’s “The Weight of the Road,” Robert Wolfe’s “The Killer” and Joy Levien’s “Augie’s Test.”
For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.
