An edgy theatre reimagines Shakespeare’s problem play, Miami City Ballet returns to joy, and Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens welcomes an artist in residence. Plus, Pat Metheny and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Pat Metheny
Where: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $110 and up (verified resale tickets only)
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
The reigning lion of jazz guitar—with the distinctively leonine locks to prove it—Pat Metheny has earned the respect to pretty much do whatever he wants, and those desires are never predictable from album to album. And so, off the heels of the hard bop-style jazz trio of his 2019 Side-Eye album and tour, his latest and 53rd LP, Dream Box, finds Metheny performing spare and unaccompanied solo compositions, though in a mode no less exploratory than his fans have come to expect. “I have almost no memory of having recorded most of them,” Metheny wrote, in the liner notes. “They just kind of showed up.” This tour will feature many of these dreamlike one-man excursions along with new arrangements from his back catalog—and maybe even a Beatles cover or two.
WEDNESDAY
What: Opening day of “Savage Garden”
Where: Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, 253 Barcelona Road, West Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost: $10 seniors, $15 general admission
Contact: 561/832-5328, ansg.org
Multihyphenate Spanish celebrity Jordi Molla may be most known, in Europe and the Americas, as an actor: He has appeared in more than 70 features, from Pedro Almodovar’s “The Flower of My Secret” to “Bad Boys II,” and has been thrice nominated for Best Actor at Spain’s Goya Awards. But the talented Barcelonian is also a self-taught painter whose approach encompasses a wide range of styles, from abstract to hyperreal, and often with a generous application of color. Some of his pieces are rich homages to the artists who influenced him, and some have taken years to complete. This spring, he has the honor of being Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens’ Artist in Residence, and to showcase his works as part of the “Savage Garden” exhibition, which runs through June.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “You Can Call Me Bill”
Where: Movies of Lake Worth, 7380 Lake Worth Road, Lake Worth Beach
When: 4:30 and 7 p.m.
Cost: $6
Contact: 561/968-4545, moviesofdelray.com
Released on what will be William Shatner’s 93rd birthday, the crowd-funded documentary “You Can Call Me Bill” is a long time coming for fans of the spacefaring actor. Shatner has turned down many requests over the decades but was sufficiently seduced by the passions of director Alexandre O. Philippe and his team—and by their commitment to finance the film through fan contributions—that he agreed to extensive interviews about his remarkable life on and off screens large and small. Buttressed by clips from “The Twilight Zone” to “Star Trek” and beyond, “You Can Call Me Bill” boldly goes into the actor’s personal motivations and psyche, getting into the existential nitty-gritty about topics ranging from his acting to his recent journey into space.
What: Opening night of “The Taming of the Shrew”
Where: Abdo New River Room at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $45 general admission, $25 students
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
“The Taming of the Shrew,” arguably Shakespeare’s most problematic play, seems on paper to be difficult to defend these days—which speaks to exactly why Thinking Cap Theatre, a company rich in scholarship and feminist bona fides, would want to reimagine it. Dramatizing the opportunistic Petruchio’s courtship—and casual torture of—the titular “shrew,” Katherina, the comedy has been hotly debated for centuries, with its normally sanctified author roasted as a misogynist for a story that seems to support the idea that headstrong women just need a little obedience training to fall in line. Director Nicole Stodard’s adaptation will feature gender-switching casting and directorial choices that reportedly evolve “in real time to explore our shifting perceptions of what’s playable, offensive or funny.” If there’s a “proper” way to produce “The Taming of the Shrew” in 2024, this sounds like it. It runs through April 3.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
What: Miami City Ballet: Spring Mix III
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $25-$229
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
The tri-county area’s most celebrated dance company continues with its third program of the 2023/2024 calendar, once again themed after the season in which it is presented. Furthermore, each program is divided between innovation and tradition, with new and recent works sharing stages with classics from the George Balanchine canon. The centerpiece of the Spring Mix is Balanchine’s “Agon,” a demandingly athletic work inspired by selections from a 17th century French dance manual, and set to a majestic and intense Igor Stravinsky score. The program also features choreographer Alonzo King’s “Following the Subtle Current Upstream,” which King describes as “a piece about how we return to joy,” and a world premiere from Brazilian-born Miami choreographer Ricardo Amarante.
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