NSU Art Museum opens a hall of mirrors, Sherlock Holmes gets a feminist refresh, and FAU opens a Sophia Loren retrospective. Plus, Herbie Hancock and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Peter Halley: “The Mirror Stage”
Where: NSU Art Museum, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $16 adults, $10 seniors
Contact: 954/525-5500, nsuartmuseum.org
Words are likely to fail when trying to describe Peter Halley’s “Mirror Stage,” a site-specific installation commissioned for NSU Art Museum. Such is the nature of experiential artwork: You just need to walk through the environment yourself. Suffice it to say that “The Mirror Stage” is likely to mesmerize and discombobulate in novel ways. Halley has a rich history in minimalist and Neo-Conceptual art, emerging in the 1980s East Village scene as one of its key figures through his embrace of vivid Day-Glo colors, immersive textures and a fascination with confined spaces. As its title teases, “The Mirror Stage” is constructed as a mirror universe of two almost-identical spaces divided by a wall, prompting spectators to move back and forth between two entrances to experience the installation in full. Halley’s trademark bright hues show up in neon-colored canvases on reflective vinyl-covered walls, blurring real and virtual spaces. The exhibition opened last weekend and runs through Jan. 12.
WEDNESDAY
What: Beginning of “Sophia Loren: A Retrospective”
Where: FAU’s Performing Arts Building, Room 101, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/297-0286, fauevents.com
With Sophia Loren’s 90th birthday less than two weeks away, FAU is celebrating the Italian actress’ storied career with a retrospective of her seminal work over the next two months, supplemented by introductions and Q&As with FAU graduate students. The series begins Wednesday with a screening of Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece “Two Women,” which earned Loren an Academy Award for Best Actress—making her the first person to win such an award for a foreign-language film. A shattering drama about the horrors of war, “Two Women” stars Loren as a mother and daughter who find both succor and horror when they flee a bomb-ravaged Rome during World War II. The series continues Sept. 25 with a screening of “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
FRIDAY
What: A Night With Zac Harmon and the Drive
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Arts Garage, 94 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: $40-$45
Contact: 561/450-6357, artsgarage.org
Like many second- and third-generation blues artists, William “Zac” Harmon was born into the genre often labeled “America’s classical music.” Hailing from the historic Farish Street district of Jackson, Mississippi—home of blues legend Elmore James—Harmon grew up in a musical household with a pianist mother and a harmonica-playing father who worked with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Ike and Tina Turner. Harmon initially made a name for himself as a back-of-house talent, writing songs for the O’Jays, the Whispers and other soul artists, and producing a Grammy-winning reggae album from Black Uhuru. When it came time for Harmon to strike out on his own, he combined his many musical interests and influences into his classically reverential but forward-looking sound, a cross-pollination of soul, gospel, and blues-rock fusion he’s been honing since his 2002 debut. More than 20 years in, Harmon is fully in stride, winning Soul Blues Album of the year at the annual Blues Music Awards in 2022, and making the cover of Blues Blast magazine this past March. See him at the intimate Arts Garage with his quartet, the Drive.
What: Herbie Hancock
Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $55 and up
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
In a career that has spanned more than 60 years, few artists have impacted as many genres as Herbie Hancock, one of the all-time titans of jazz piano who, like one of his classic cuts “Chameleon,” can easily change musical colors to fit his needs. As an integral part of Miles Davis’ seminal “Second Great Quintet” from 1964 to 1969, Hancock’s mellifluous piano runs and hard-bop precision helped develop the foundations for modern jazz, and as a bandleader in the 1970s, he helped pioneer funk through his fusion group the Headhunters. His 1981 electronic single “Rockit” is considered a touchstone for generations of hip-hop artists, and his Grammy-winning 1997 release River: The Joni Letters celebrated folk goddess Joni Mitchell. At 84, Hancock is still a warhorse on the keys, playing piano, synthesizer and even the Keytar, in his eclectic and invigorating concerts. For rock lovers looking for a gateway into jazz, this is it.
What: Opening night of “Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, APT 2B”
Where: Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St., Miami Lakes
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $25-$30
Contact: mainstreetplayers.com
The surnames are familiar, and so is the setting, in this riff on the timeless detective stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But playwright Kate Hamill’s modern-day, feminist re-imagining takes fun liberties with the Doyle mythos, from the characters’ genders to their steampunk-inspired clothing to their status as reticent crime-solvers in a post-pandemic Baker Street apartment. Slapstick humor and inventive fight scenes help drive Hamill’s script, which also serves as a vehicle to explore Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson’s emotional bond and confront issues involving the dark web economy and revenge porn—a zeitgeist-y update of Doyle’s Victorian-era milieu. This regional premiere, from director Sara Jarrell and Main Street Players, runs through Sept. 29.
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