A-list headliners bring rock, pop and EDM to SunFest, Theatre Lab mounts a hyperlocal world premiere, and the Delray Historical Society goes back to the garden. Plus, Mastodon, “Mean Girls” and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Opening night of “Mean Girls”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $35 and up
Contact: 954/461-0222, browardcenter.org
The 2004 cult comedy, about a naïve, African-raised teenager who moves to Chicago and clashes with her new school’s reign of “Plastics,” receives its latest musical-theatre reboot courtesy of Broadway in Fort Lauderdale. Eighteen songs transform a 97-minute film into a two-and-a-half-hour stage spectacle, but the film’s story, and its charms, remain intact, with Tina Fey herself penning its punchy and much-praised dialogue. Closing the Broward Center’s Broadway touring season, “Mean Girls” runs through Sunday only.
THURSDAY
What: Mastodon and Gojira
When: 6:30 p.m.
Where: Sunset Cove Amphitheater, 20405 Amphitheater Circle, Boca Raton
Cost: $63 and up
Contact: 561/488-8069, axs.com/events
The list of postmillennial heavy metal bands that have achieved major-label bona fides and global fame is a small one indeed; the head-banging genre has toiled largely underground since its 1980s apex. But Mastodon’s intricate and muscular musicianship, fantasy-forward lyrics, psychedelic leanings and general sense of exuberance have propelled them to the top of their pack. The group has been making joyously loud but melodic hard rock since 2000 and is touring behind its latest and ninth album, 2021’s Hushed and Grim, which earned the No. 1 slot on Sputnikmusic’s best releases of that year. Making a rare South Florida appearance, the group is co-headlining this ear-expanding tour with French speed-metal act Gojira, named after the original Japanese “Godzilla” franchise, and slaying just as hard as its namesake beast.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Blue: A Rhapsody in Blubber”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Theatre Lab at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $25
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
Core to the mission of Theatre Lab, the resident professional theatre of FAU, is to lend its first-rate talent and resources to the advancement of new work—in this case, new work that hits very close to home. “Blue: A Rhapsody in Blubber” is written by FAU Associate Professor Lynn McNutt, and the two-week run marks its debut as a developmental workshop production. McNutt, a 25-year theatre veteran, also stars in her own solo play, a triptych of stories that meditate on themes that connect the human and animal worlds, among them grief, connection and healing. The narratives focus on a baby blue whale in search of its mother, a middle-aged woman dealing with the stresses of caregiving, and an elderly man facing a future of solitude for the first time in his life. “Blue: A Rhapsody in Blubber” runs through May 14.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: SunFest
When: Starts at 5:45 p.m. Friday, 1:15 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Downtown West Palm Beach, by the waterfront
Cost: $90 one-day, $170 three-day
Contact: 800/786-3378, sunfest.com
At once scaled-back and beefed up, SunFest made some adjustments on the abacus this year, jettisoning one of its days as well as its supplementary art fair, and investing the funds instead on A-list headliners. These include the Killers, the exciting Las Vegas electro-rockers whose arena-size bombast and trunkful of enormous hits will close the festival on Sunday. Saturday’s headliner is Jack Johnson, top purveyor of feel-good folk pop that’s tailor-made for Florida’s sunshine and ocean breezes. On Friday, EDM duo the Chainsmokers will get the party started on the main stage. The second-tier acts are no slouches either: Headlining the secondary stage are veteran rapper Flo Rida on Friday, young rapper A Boogie Wit da Hoodie on Saturday and reggae rockers 311 on Sunday. Visit sunfest.com for the entire lineup and schedule.
SATURDAY
What: Opening day of “Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diary of Takuichi Fuji”
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach
Cost: $9-$15
Contact: 561/495-0233, morikami.org
It is the artist’s responsibility to create, even in—especially in—times of existential strife. Takuichi Fuji was a living embodiment of this urge to portray life as he saw it, in all of its historical ugliness. Fuji, a Japanese American, was 50 years old and living in Seattle when World War II broke out between the U.S. and his native country. He became one of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in detention camps, first in Washington and later in Idaho. All the while, he never stopped making art, keeping a diary and supplementing it with illustrations, to the tune of more than 250 ink drawings and more than 130 paintings. An artist of innate skill and boundless compassion, Fuji wrote and painted like a historian, capturing detailed visions of the camps and the daily routines of his fellow-inmates that were never seen until the publication of the 2017 book The Hope of Another Spring. This traveling exhibition celebrates his legacy while shedding light on this shameful period of America’s past. It runs through Oct. 6.
What: “Twilight in the Garden” fundraiser
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Delray Beach Historical Society, 3 N.E. First St., Delray Beach
Cost: $150
Contact: 561/274-9578, delraybeachhistory.org
Now in its third iteration, the Delray Beach Historical Society’s premier annual fundraiser is one of the nonprofit’s most vital—and certainly its most enjoyable—methods of supporting its educational programming and preserving its archives. Attendees meander through the dusky pathways of its heritage gardens while enjoying food samples and curated cocktails from Delray restaurants—including Brule’ Bistro, Dada, City Oyster, Elisabetta’s, Jimmy’s Bistro, Ceasar’s BBQ, Caffe Luna Rosa, Farmer’s Table, Warren Delray, Two Fat Cookies, Deke’s and Hopportunities. Ticket buyers can also support the Society by bidding on items in a silent auction. Live music on the north lawn, and access to the Society’s two current historical exhibitions, round out the experience.
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