It’s all rainbows in West Palm Beach, GableStage salutes a vital American playwright, and the Commodores bring down the (brick) house at the Kravis. Plus, Lydia Lunch and more in your week ahead.
SATURDAY
What: RAINBOWpalooza
Where: The Square, 700 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Cost: Free, with some all-access passes for $20-$100
Contact: 561/366-1000, thesquarewestpalm.com
This marks the first year at West Palm Beach’s downtown hub for RAINBOWpalooza, a “Family Festival of Kindness” produced by Rhythm & Hues, one of the Palm Beaches’ preeminent centers for children’s creativity and entertainment. It includes a day of live music, “enchanting” performances, art projects and interactive games for children of all ages. The shops and restaurants in the Square will also provide special opportunities and/or experiences for visitors. While it is free for all to attend, those interested in participating in all of the perks should purchase an activity bracelet (minimum $20). There is also a VIP pop-up lounge ($100 for all-day access) where parents can enjoy complimentary beverages, music and “special enhancements.” All proceeds from RAINBOWpalooza will benefit Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
What: Opening day of “Axiom”
Where: Cinema Paradiso, 2008 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
When: 4 p.m.
Cost: $10-$12
Contact: 954/342-9137, fliff.com
This sophomore feature from German director Jöns Jönsson centers on Julius, a charismatic museum attendant who is also something of an architect, philosopher and all-around Renaissance man of aristocratic stock. He seems to a big winner in the gene pool lottery, and he’s recently met a romantic partner who, at first, doesn’t ask too many questions. But when he invites his colleagues on a sailing trip on his family’s vessel, the narrative he’s built around himself begins to unravel. This psychological thriller is still mostly an underrated gem that has not yet received wide distribution, but early reviews have been uniformly positive, and this week of screenings in Hollywood is great opportunity to discover it.
What: The Commodores
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $29-$129
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
The members of this seminal funk and soul band met mostly as freshmen at the Tuskegee Institute in 1968, forming the Commodores from the ashes of two former student groups, and enjoying the sort of creative kismet that comes along once in a generation or so. Original member Lionel Richie has, of course, gone his own enormously successful way as a solo artist and no longer performs in the Commodores, but founding multi-instrumentalist and choreographer William King still leads the band along with early member and drummer Walter Orange, the lead singer on the group’s titanic hits “Brick House” and “Nightshift.” Expect to hear these and other tunes that alternate between rousing dance-alongs and swaying ballads, among them “Easy,” “Still,” “Slippery When Wet” and “Three Times a Lady.”
What: Opening night of “How I Learned What I Learned”
Where: GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $60
Contact: 305/445-1119, gablestage.org
It’s a great time to reassess the legacy of August Wilson, considered by many to be the most important American playwright of the 20th century. Last month saw the release of a voluminous new biography, August Wilson: A Life, and this weekend GableStage will open the professional regional premiere of “How I Learned What I Learned,” a solo tour de force about Wilson’s rise from writing poetry in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, through his personal travails, and onto his success on the stage, which included his celebrated 10-play Pittsburgh cycle about the African-American experience (“Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” are among them). Melvin Huffnagle will portray Wilson as a gregarious raconteur in a play that has been singled out for its humor and complexity alike. Carey Brianna Hart directs the production, which runs through Oct. 22.
SUNDAY
What: Lydia Lunch Retrovirus
Where: The Ground, 34 N.E. 11th St., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $14.88
Contact: 305/375-0001, thegroundmiami.com
As a teenager in the late 1970s, Lydia Lunch escaped an abusive household to arrive in New York on a Greyhound bus with a suitcase and $200. Not long after she arrived, she formed Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, a seminal noise band playing a darker, more abrasive splinter of punk. All these decades later, Lunch describes music as an “exorcism,” and her songs, whether during those formative years as a “No Wave” performer in New York or under her current outfit Retrovirus, are dissonant to say the least; it’s telling that next month she’s headlining an event in California called the Displeasure Festival. But fans tuned to her singular wavelength have waited a long time for this rare Florida tour with a living legend, which should reward staying up late on a Sunday night. Donzii will open the show.
For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.
