New Cancer Order

The cancer cure is, of course, the holy grail of medicine, or a sort of Helen of Troy among doctors. Its pursuit is the subject of The Secret Order, a play by psychologist-cum-playwright Bob Wyward. It starts with a scientist in Michigan, Dr. William Shuway, who suddenly dredges up an…

Movie, Ice Cream, and Grass

The Las Olas Association is cooling off the summer heat with a nice event, “Movies Under the Stars.” Last year’s event brought people by the hundreds with lawn chairs, blankets, and pets in tow to the Riverside Hotel’s Great Lawn. Tonight is a showing of Fantastic Mr. Fox, the 2009…

Serenity Now

Like any sci-fi franchise worth its salt, Serenity has a movement of cult-like fans. They call themselves the Browncoats, and they will be out in force at Cinema Paradiso for a screening of the gritty, award-winning blockbuster film Firefly, based on a canceled Fox show. Whereas the crew of Enterprise…

Filthy, Filthy Comedy

Tracy Morgan, who needs no introduction as one of the stars of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, is bringing his act to West Palm Beach’s Improv Comedy Club and Dinner Theatre, a frequent stopover for celebrity funnymen. Warning: Morgan is in the business of unalloyed crudity. Deformities, crabs, and…

Stonewall All Over Again

On June 22, 1968, New York police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. It was the last straw for the gays, lesbian, and drag queens who had been put-upon for decades. This time, they fought back violently and won the first major victory for gay rights. Unless you count…

Godzilla and Family

Japan is indisputably quirky. To celebrate its culture in all its gorgeous kinks, the Morikami Museum, disappointingly, is currently not displaying room-sized canvases of manga tentacle porn. But it has unveiled the next best thing: a collection of kaiju. That word refers to the oversized monster suits that actors wore…

The Tiki Mecca

Of all the world’s sundry Tiki events, Fort Lauderdale’s Hukilau is one of the holiest. Tiki fanatics flock to it like pilgrims; it’s their biggest gathering on the East Coast. This year’s Hukilau will last for three days jam-packed with events. The gathering starts with a Tiki art show at…

Revenge of the Tiki

It could be the ultimate B-movie, but, alas, “Revenge of the Tiki” is a giant outdoor bash going down at the Monterey Club. In all, four bands are playing: the Kings of Hell, the Freakin Hott, the punkish No Class Action, and the Cadillac Bombers, with western swing and rockabilly…

Beautiful Burlesque

The women of Modernesque Burlesque will bitch you out and strip down. They are Florida’s gothic answer to the Pussycat Dolls: sassy, bodacious, sequined, and — as the night goes on — increasingly less clothed. Now their act is at Respectable Street, a dance club/café that revels in the unusual…

Sparrows in Floss and Gold Thread

China is the world’s oldest civilization, and its art dates back all the way to 10,000 B.C. And it has never had to go to the lengths that Western art has: The Chinese haven’t signed urinals or splattered canvases with elephant dung. But they have produced masterpieces, a selection of…

Growing Up Fey

MilkMilkLemonade is the kind of play you want to keep George Alan Rekers, the now-infamous anti-gay activist who made a career using Pavlovian punishment on effeminate boys to turn them straight, from seeing. Because MilkMilkLemonade is about a fifth-grade effeminate boy named Emory -— exactly the type Rekers would take…

Parthenon Photography

Between 1901 and 1912, an earl from England took it upon himself to move priceless sculptures from the Parthenon to London’s British Museum. Nowadays, that would probably be considered plunder — back then, it was called imperialism. The Greek government is still working — 200 years later — to get…

The Wedding Stumble

The British love a farce, and There Goes the Bride, an old play by Ray Cooney and John Chapman from the 1920s, is one of their best. It’s about the very bad experience of a man named Timothy Westerby. His daughter is getting married on the same day that he…

Let Them Eat 60 Tables of Food!

This year, Florida was rated the most dangerous state for pedestrians. Crosswalks here can be as treacherous as coal walks. But every once in a while, the pedestrians get to take back control. This year’s Las Olas Wine and Food Festival closes off much of downtown Fort Lauderdale so people…

Puppet Play

Jeff Dunham is America’s most famous redneck ventriloquist. But his more conservative fans might not adore him so much if they realized what his schtick really consists of: fisting male Islamicists and rubbing the stick of an illegal immigrant named José Jalapeño. We refer, of course, to Achmed the Terrorist…

Professionals of the World, Mingle!

The Hard Rock Seminole Casino wants to help the professional date, so it’s going to hook you up at the “Quest for Love Bash” at the Passion Nightclub. This is a call for “professionals,” a loosely defined category that will mingle under the Cupid-like supervision of South Florida matchmaker Marylin…

A Whirlwind of Beer, Coffee, and Art

Thursday, local bohemian hangout Brew Urban Café will spike art with coffee and beer and stir it all up with smooth music from a couple of DJs. “Dialect,” the shop’s monthly dance party/art exhibition, puts up-and-coming artists across South Florida in the limelight. There’s Jeff Dekal, a street artist and…

The Burning Ballroom From Hell

Dancing With the Stars pulled off a coup when it got Tom Delay, the former Texan Republican majority leader who was indicted for conspiracy, to compete with some butt-shaking cha-cha numbers — like an old gay man ecstatic over coming out of the closet. Unfortunately, Delay recently quit the show…

When Giant Polka Dots Were in Vogue

If you’re nostalgic for the free love of the 1960s and the disco of the 1970s, Coral Springs Museum of Art has got you covered. Every year, they put on the Great Art Fair, which is “Flower Power Rock” themed: meaning it’s a mélange of the two decades. Rick Shaw…

Dad Doesn’t Like Mr. Right

The Rising Action Theatre is billing its new play, The Sum of Us, in terms that could be bait for incest fetishists. According to the theater’s website, the play is “a love story… a love story about a widowed father and his gay son, who’s trying to find Mr. Right.”…

Learn to Act

Rising Action Theatre is a stage in a strip mall. But it’s got pizzazz. Off Oakland Park Boulevard, the little joint’s most recent production is a tripped-out remake of Reefer Madness, complete with baby-selling and bloody murder and hazy-green lighting. And last year, it staged Flora the Red Menace, which…

Kinky Reggae

Florida isn’t far from the Caribbean, but that’s easy to forget when the temperature drops to a frigid 55 degrees. The 2010 Reggae Fest is a happy reminder that we’re really in the tropics and that spring is here to replace a sleet-spurting winter. The two-day festival is also a…