Heartland rockers bring a dreamy, groovy sound to Revolution Live, and an FAU play explores the complicated lives of a contemporary girls’ soccer team. Plus, new work by a major South African artist, and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “The Good House”
When: Show times pending
Where: Living Room Theaters at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $9-$12
Contact: 561/549-2600, fau.livingroomtheaters.com
“The Good House” is the sort of film that doesn’t get made much anymore, and that seldom opens in movie theaters: a mature, ripped-from-life tale of flawed grown-ups trying to find happiness. Sigourney Weaver, in a much-praised performance, plays New England Realtor Hildy Good, a dedicated neighbor, mother and grandmother whose alcohol addiction has mostly been kept under wraps—until a renewed relationship with an old flame (played by Kevin Kline) forces her to confront her condition. It sounds dramatic, and it is, but judging by the trailer, the movie counterweights this heavy premise with plenty of humor and lots of heart. “The Good House” runs at least through Oct. 6.
What: Opening day of “William Kentridge: Ursonate”
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: NSU Art Museum, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $5-$12
Contact: 954/525-5500, nsuartmuseum.org
A multihyphenate artist to the extreme, South Africa’s William Kentridge’s oeuvre encompasses drawing, writing, film, performance, music and theatre, all of which speak to his desire to explore politics, science, literature and history through appropriate and sundry mediums. His installation “Ursonate” is a prime example of his multimedia approach. It consists of two immersive projections: In one, accompanied by an opera singer and percussionist, the artist gesticulates the sounds from Dada artist Kurt Schwitters’ legendary sound poem “Ursonate,” which consists of an invented nonsense language; the second, concurrent video features animated calligraphic images, drawn by Kentridge, that play off concepts in the first video. The videos begin every half-hour, on the hour, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The exhibition is timed to coincide with a production of Kentridge’s opera “The Head & the Load” at the Arsht Center in Miami from Dec. 1-3. “Ursonate” runs at the Museum all the way until April 16, 2023.
What: Opening night of “The Wolves”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Studio One Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $18-$25
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
Sarah DeLappe’s beastily titled play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017. The Wolves are a youth soccer team comprised of nine American girls of varying ethnic and socioeconomic statuses, and DeLappe’s naturalistic coming-of-age dramedy follows their interactions, friendships, tragedies and conflicts over the course of a momentous season. Unlike plays that favor a kind of broad theatricality, “The Wolves” has the feel of eavesdropping on an actual soccer field, observing characters that could be your friends and neighbors, and following dialogue that resonates with the way real people talk. This FAU student production runs through Oct. 9.
What: Opening night of “Fun Home”
When: 7:30 p.m. reception, 8 p.m. curtain
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
Cost: $46
Contact: 561/586-6410, lakeworthplayhouse.org
The “Fun Home” of the title of Alison Bechdel’s extraordinary memoir-turned-musical is short for “funeral home;” she grew up in such a typically solemn place, in a business operated by her father. Growing accustomed to mortality at a young age would benefit Bechdel later in life, as this tragicomic masterpiece of love and death explores. In the show, actors play Bechdel at three stages of her life: As a young girl, as a college student discovering her lesbianism, and as an adult memoirist reflecting on these formative times. Lyricist Lisa Kron and composer Jeanine Tesori weave these temporal strands together in a sad, funny and exhilarating tapestry of modern life that would break ground as the first Broadway musical with a lesbian protagonist, and would go on to win five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2015. This community-theatre production from Lake Worth Playhouse runs through Oct. 16.
MONDAY, OCT. 3
What: The War on Drugs
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Revolution Live, 100 S.W. Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $45.50-$48
Contact: 954/449-1025, jointherevolution.net
Anyone who believes the era of outsized, anthemic rock personalities like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan has waned has not heard the music of the War on Drugs. The expansive, Philadelphia-based septet led by the poetically inclined singer-songwriter Adam Granduciel specializes in indie rock rooted in classic-rock progenitors, alternately channeling both of the aforementioned giants in their primacy. Whether through the immersive bath of synthesizers or the infectious churn of psychedelic guitars, the War on Drugs’ heartland rock has grown in intricacy and elegance across its five studio albums, leading up to 2017’s Grammy-winning A Deeper Understanding and 2021’s magisterial I Don’t Live Here Anymore, which took three years to write and record. A midsize club like Revolution Live can hardly contain Granduciel’s ideas—or his grooves.
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