The Delray Affair returns to Atlantic Avenue, national tours of “Hamilton” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” open, and the Symphonia seeks Joseph Haydn. Plus, the Zombies and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Opening night of “Mrs. Doubtfire”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Broward Center for the Performing Arts,201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $39 and up
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
Nineties cultural chestnuts continue to find second lives on the Broadway stage, from the recent South Florida tour of “Jagged Little Pill” to the breezier “Mrs. Doubtfire.” The musical comedy adaptation, featuring 16 new songs from composer-lyricists Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, suffered from star-crossed timing in its March 2020 Broadway debut, bowing out due to COVID closures before its opening night, and ultimately running for just 83 performances after a timid reopening. Yet actor Rob McClure, tasked with filling Robin Williams’ incomparable shoes in the title role, earned a Tony nom for his performance—so the pressure is on for whoever dons the spectacles and nanny garb for this Broadway tour. It runs through April 21.
WEDNESDAY
What: Opening night of “Hamilton”
When: 2 and 8 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $59-$189
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Thanks to this cross-cultural phenomenon, young people across the country know more about a wonky 18th century statesman than they do most of the highest officeholders in the land. Such is the power of composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose ecstatic biography of Alexander Hamilton grafts contemporary musical vernaculars and color-conscious casting to what, in another creator’s hands, might have come off as a mothballed history lesson. The Grammy-, Pulitzer-, and 11-time Tony-winning musical is one of the Palm Beaches’ hottest tickets of the season, with some seating sections and performances selling out quickly. Don’t hesitate to order yours; you’ll want to be in the room where it happens. It runs through April 21.
THURSDAY
What: The Zombies
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $49.50 standing, $125 for seated VIP
Contact: 954/564-1074, cultureroom.net
One of countless British Invasion acts to emerge in the boom time of the early 1960s, the Zombies have enjoyed a surprisingly buoyant and fertile 21st century, outlasting most of their contemporaries. Still driven by founding keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent and singer Colin Blunstone, the group has endured its share of breakups in the past 60 years but has been a steady touring and recording presence since 2004, with its latest and seventh studio album—2023’s Different Game—earning wide acclaim. Its songs nestle nicely next to iconic psych-pop classics like “This Will Be Our Year,” “Time of the Season” and “She’s Not There” on the band’s current set lists, which also include surprising covers such as George Gershwin’s “Summertime.”
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Delray Affair
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/278-0424, delrayaffair.com
As is customary in the Delray Affair’s historic 62nd year, expect up to 400 artists and crafters from around the corner and around the world to attend the self-described “greatest art show under the sun.” And don’t just take the festival’s own verbiage as praise; it’s won 10 international awards, eight state awards, and has been ranked as one of the top 13 Best Art Festivals in America. The Affair offers everything from fine art to funky tchotchkes, from human-scaled sculptures to paintings the size of postage stamps. Sprawling across 10 city blocks along Atlantic Avenue, it’s a place to buy wildlife photography, abstract prints, colorful beachwear and local honey all in the same place. The Delray Affair is a social occasion as much as an art sale; new for 2024, the event will feature a Beer & Wine Garden with live music on the front lawn of Old School Square, supplemented by numerous on-site vendors. Downtown can be a hectic place during these two days, but special parking accommodations and public transportation options are plentiful; visit delrayaffair.com/maps for more.
SATURDAY
What: Boca Symphonia: Seeking Haydn
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River High School, 5100 Jog Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $35-$70
Contact: 561/376-3848, thesymphonia.org
Alastair Willis, principal conductor of the Boca Symphonia, has a flair for the dramatic—even sporting periwigs and other accouterments to better place audiences into the time periods when the giants of classical music lived and worked. And so, for the Symphonia’s final program of the 2023-2024 season, Willis will not only conduct the orchestra in a Joseph Haydn-themed program; he’ll also play the part, in full regalia, of Haydn’s musical assistant at Austria’s legendary Esterhazy Palace. Expect to learn much about a region and time period pivotal to the development of western music.
What: Opening night of “What’s Best For the Children”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Theatre Lab at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $35-$45
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
We all want what’s best for the children, but we disagree often on how to arrive there—and we can’t all be right. Adult meddling in the well-being of our young ones is at the heart of this world-premiere comedy by Idris Goodwin, a timely work whose central character, Whit Forsythe, has just been elected as the first Black chairman of his state’s school board committee. This means he’s on the front lines of what gets printed in (and, just as importantly, what’s omitted from) the state’s textbooks, as various and sundry characters attempt to influence his decisions. Goodwin has said that the more he explored the process of state-by-state textbook approval, the more he was “struck by the tragic absurdity of it all.” “What’s Best For the Children” is the playwright’s first start-to-finish comedy, one complemented by music and audience interaction. Theatre Lab’s world-premiere production runs through April 28.
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