A touring event celebrates and empowers women filmmakers, South Florida’s premier music festival returns, and Miami City Ballet goes Shakespearean. Plus, Island City Stage’s “Pageant,” We Were Promised Jetpacks and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Lunafest
When: 6 p.m.
Where: IPIC Theaters, 25 S.E. Fourth Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: $75
Contact: lunafest.org
An animated poem about life during the COVID quarantine, a tale of interspecies connection and immigrant life, and a documentary about the New Yorker’s first Black female cartoonist: These are just a sample of the eight short films constituting Lunafest, the annual, touring celebration of emerging women filmmakers. This year’s program is as diverse, multicultural and genre-blurring as ever, with each selection determined to inspire, challenge and move. The $75 ticket includes passed appetizers during an hour of pre-screening mingling, plus candy and popcorn during the movies, with dessert following. Proceeds from ticket purchases will benefit youth arts and mentorship programs in Delray Beach.
WEDNESDAY
What: We Were Promised Jetpacks
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: $20-$25
Contact: 561/832-9999, sub-culture.org/locations/respectable-street
Has it really been nine years since Scottish trio We Were Promised Jetpacks played South Florida? At least, that’s the last time I saw them, opening for fellow moody Scots Frightened Rabbit at Culture Room in October 2013. Time flies, and so have We Were Promised Jetpacks, who have continued to soar fairly high with their post-punk-inflected indie rock, defying the earthbound disappointment inherent in their name. The maturity of these intervening years has led to a riveting sonic evolution across five albums. They are less the Frightened Rabbit clones of 2013, and more a tight and exploratory group that links the alienated, late-‘70s sound Manchester sound of Joy Division with the equally propulsive intensity of the National. For $25, this concert is certainly a bargain.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “Pageant”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors
Cost: $50
Contact: 954/928-9800, islandcitystage.org
In a show being billed as “Miss America meets RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Island City Stage’s cheeky season opener features six contestants—all played by men in drag—vying for the title of “Miss Glamouresse.” (In true beauty-pageant form, “Glamouresse” is a fictional cosmetics brand.) The show’s creators, Bill Russell, Frank Kelly and Albert Evans, don’t so much skewer beauty pageants as celebrate their All-American kitsch, and as comedic storytellers, they pull from all regions of the country, with characters representing Miss Deep South, Miss West Coast, Miss Great Plains, Miss Bible Belt, Miss Industrial Northeast and Miss Texas. By the end, judges selected from the audience will choose the winner, ensuring that each performance is unique. A big, bold musical with a sequined heart, Island City Stage’s production stars Conor Walton, Michael Scott Ross, Matthew Buffalo, Christopher Calhoun, Marcus Davis, Kevin Veloz and Larry Buzzeo, and it runs through Nov. 20.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: III Points Miami
When: Starts at 3 p.m. Friday
Where: Mana Wynwood, 2217 N.W. Fifth Ave., Miami
Cost: $149-$449
Contact: iiipoints.com
South Florida’s most adventuresome music festival, III Points returns to its usual October slot following a couple years of pandemic disruptions, and once again presents a lineup of curated, cutting-edge and room-swelling indie, electronic, soul and rap artists. Headliners include Brooklyn legends LCD Soundsystem, which has been dominating dance floors (but seldom in South Florida) since 2002, the innovative DJ Porter Robinson; Grammy-winning Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía; and eclectic Australian DJ Flume. Exciting undercard acts include James Blake, Orbital, Bob Moses, Nina Kravitz, Tycho and Busta Rhymes, across six distinct stages supplemented by immersive audiovisual technology and large-scale, Insta-friendly murals.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Miami City Ballet: “Romeo and Juliet”
When: 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.
Where: Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Cost: $64-$124
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
An unimpeachable source material, a sweeping and iconic score, and innovative choreography from a modernist master: Miami City Ballet’s adventuresome season premiere has all the ingredients for a sterling night of performing arts. The composer is Sergei Prokofiev, who infused every moment with the convulsive drama and sprightly pageantry it deserves. The choreographer is South Africa’s late John Cranko, who imbued the story with intimate rendezvous and spectacular set pieces alike, among them a harvest festival that turns contentious as the show’s warring factions deploy produce as weapons, and a pas de deux with its title characters dancing in the moonlight. Much of the ballet’s power, of course, goes all the way back to Shakespeare, whose timeless and transcendent tragedy continues to expand and rend hearts.
SATURDAY
What: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Revolution Live, 100 S.W. Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $23
Contact: 954/449-1025, jointherevolution.net
If you’re still wincing over the recent announcement that NOFX would be dissolving in 2023, this Saturday’s show at Revolution should serve as a balm for the soul. A possibly bruising balm, if you find yourself in the middle of a slam-dancing pit, but a balm nonetheless. This supergroup, featuring NOFX’s Fat Mike on lead vocals, along with members of Lagwagon and Swingin’ Utters, only performs covers—familiar chestnuts from the annals of doo-wop, pop, easy-listening and classic-rock radio—but in the skate-punk style in which its musicians specialize. Trust us, you’ve never heard “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Sweet Caroline” or “Danny’s Song” sounding quite so urgent—or arguably so fun.
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