Boca Basel promises a roaring good time, Miami City Ballet pirouettes on Miami Beach, and a new play unveils the dark side of a tech entrepreneur. Plus, Riptide Music Festival, a landmark Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY
What: Boca Basel
Where: Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society, 1301 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 6 to 9 p.m.
Cost: $45
Contact: bocabasel.com
Two weeks before Art Basel takes over the Miami Beach Convention Center—and, actually, the entirety of Miami-Dade County—Boca magazine is throwing its own art-filled spinoff. Now entering its fifth year as this magazine’s signature event, Boca Basel promises a beastly good time thanks to its host venue, the Palm Beach Zoo, which features more than 500 animals, from koalas to jaguars to otters. A curated lineup of artists will showcase their work on the zoo grounds, among them Tracy Guiteau, Laura Chirino, Stacey Mandell, Katie Herman and Tiffany Beasi. Vendors including Republic National Distributing Company and restaurants such as NYY Steak, Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar, Caesar’s Famous Ribs and Proper Ice Cream will keep attendees sated during the event, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit Palm Beach Zoo.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern”
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
In an early ‘20s photograph by Alfred Stiglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, then living in New York, appears as a vision out of “The Seventh Seal”—a shroud of taciturn black juxtaposed against an off-white backdrop. In the artist’s later years in New Mexico, she’s clad in an equally spartan, if more stylish, kimono, borrowing from the colors of the American Southwest. These are just two of the revealing works in “Living Modern,” a landmark touring exhibition that pairs O’Keeffe’s beguiling paintings with images of the artist and examples of her apparel—which helped generate an enduring mystique around her life and work. As part of Friday’s free Art After Dark programming, the exhibition’s curator, Wanda M. Corn, will present a lecture about the exhibit at 6 p.m.; at 7:30 p.m., Palm Beach Opera will perform a concert with songs from O’Keeffe’s era and her own Santa Fe home.
What: Opening night of “Frankie”
Where: Living Room Theaters at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: Show times pending
Cost: $7.50-$10.50
Contact: 561/549-2600, fau.livingroomtheaters.com
Independent writer-director Ira Sachs makes the sort of contemplative, intimate ensemble family dramedies that James L. Brooks and Woody Allen use to film at their peaks—and which rarely open in theaters in the blockbuster-baiting 21st century box office. “Frankie,” Sachs’ follow-up to 2016’s “Little Men,” appears to be no exception, a movie about complicated family dynamics set on Portugal’s breathtaking resort town of Sintra. It’s here, framed against impossibly lush countryside and million-dollar sunsets, that matriarch Frankie (Isabelle Huppert, earning many hosannas for her performance) has assembled three generations of her family for a rustic and mysterious gathering, unaware of the micro-dramas that will unfold over the course of a single day. The all-star cast also includes Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Jeremie Renier and Greg Kinnear.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: Riptide Music Festival
Where: Fort Lauderdale Beach, 1100 Seabreeze Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
When: Beginning at 11 a.m. each day
Cost: $35-$199
Contact: riptidefest.com
Fort Lauderdale’s signature toes-in-the-sand alternative rock festival returns with another first-rate lineup that glances back at the genre’s ‘90s forbears while trumpeting the artists of the future. This means legacy acts like proto-grunge legends Soul Asylum, anthemic ska journeymen Reel Big Fish, and emo crossover hit-makers Jimmy Eat World will share stages with beat-driven rap-rocker K-Flay and emergent British indie rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen. The Killers and The 1975, alt-rock giants who blend synthesizers and guitars, headline, and the festival also includes a fashion runway, art exhibition and culinary component. Visit bocamag.com on Wednesday for our interview with Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner.
What: Ballet on the Beach
Where: Colony Theater, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $35
Contact: 305/929-7010, miamicityballet.org
Separate from Miami City Ballet’s four-program season at the Arsht, this brisker event on Miami Beach’s favorite art-deco theater can be approached as dance tapas for the uninitiated, condensing some of the season’s most accessible works into a bite-sized, hour-long production. “Ballet on the Beach” features the playful pas de deux from Justin Peck’s “Rodeo;” Christopher Wheeldon’s haunting “This Bitter Earth,” with an innovative soundtrack of the Dinah Washington title tune remixed with Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight;” and Twyla Tharp’s masterful “Nine Sinatra Songs,” with dancers in Oscar De La Renta attire moving to classics from Ol’ Blue Eyes. Each ticket includes a pre-show glass of Presseco, and each performance concludes with a post-show Q&A.
SUNDAY
What: Opening weekend of “Watson”
Where: GableStage, 1300 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables
When: 2 and 7 p.m.
Cost: $50-$60
Contact: 866/811-4111, gablestage.org
As the chairman and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM) from 1914 to 1956, Thomas J. Watson is the godfather of modern computing, a man whose technological legacy is incalculable. But Watson had a dark side: His innovations would prove to be a useful tool for the Nazis, with his pre-computer punch-card technology allowing Hitler’s regime to identify Jews by name and location. Though Watson would later renounce his company’s contributions to the Holocaust—and the Order of the German Eagle he was awarded in 1937, becoming the first American to receive this “honor”—it was obviously too little, too late. This world-premiere play, penned by South Florida mystery novelist James Grippando and developed for the stage by GableStage Artistic Director Joseph Adler, opens the company’s season with a complex portrait of this titan of industry. “Watson” runs through Dec. 22.
