Arts & Culture

Americans can’t seem to agree on much these days, but all must allow that these are tense, restless times. War, terrorism, a divided electorate, and a widespread debate about the nation’s purpose are everyday subjects on television, in newspapers, and at the local java joint, yet few contemporary plays and…

To playwright Christopher Durang, hell is psycho roommates screwing up your seaside holiday. That¹s the freakish situation in Betty’s Summer Vacation, a comedy of menace that is receiving a first-rate staging from Miami¹s Mad Cat Theatre Company. The tedious script — featuring rape, murder, and genital dismemberment — is intended as a critique of the moral depravity of popular culture. It has been overpraised (it won an Obie, among several other awards), but the production is so fiery and funny that most Mad Cat fans won¹t care. The Mad Catters bring their signature company style — a hip, humanizing element and a pedal-to-the-metal commitment — that makes up for the script¹s deficiencies. (Through August 14 at the Mad Cat Theatre Company at the Miami Light Project, 3000 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, 305-576-6377.) – Ronald Mangravite

There¹s typically so much going on at any given time at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach that it¹s easy to get swallowed up by the sprawling facility, which, after many expansions over the years, is now Florida¹s largest art museum. You can literally spend the better part of an afternoon taking in the current big shows, then wandering through the permanent collections, and still not see everything there is to see. All the more reason, then, to seek out such small pleasures as “American Seascapes: Artists at the Shore,” a tiny summer show tucked away in the Marcia and Alan Docter Gallery. A baker¹s dozen pieces are on display, culled from the thousand or so works that make up the museum¹s American collection. Seven are watercolors, with the remainder evenly split among oils, etchings, and gouaches. There are some well-known names here. The American impressionist Childe Hassam, currently the subject of a major retrospective at New York¹s Metropolitan Museum of Art, puts a 20th-century spin on a 15th-century Botticelli masterpiece with an etching called The Birth of Venus, Montauk (1922). And Cape Split, Maine (1941), a watercolor by Hassam¹s contemporary John Marin, is a turbulent interpretation of a rugged coastline that was one of Marin¹s frequent inspirations. Also especially noteworthy are two gouache paintings on paper by Jane Peterson: By the Water, an undated study in atmosphere featuring palm trees and a few figures, and Florida Landscape, a circa 1930s image using colors so bright they take on an almost hallucinogenic intensity. Both were painted along a stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway in the Palm Beach area, and both capture distinctly South Floridian moods. (Through August 31 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, 561-832-5196) — Michael Mills

THU 5 Perhaps the film Nickel and Dime should be called Francs et Euros, considering it comes from the land of beret-wearing fashionistas and overpriced café au laits. Regardless, the French film’s director, Patrick Gimenez, is here in the States to introduce his movie, which is about a guy who…

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris: The show brings to life the songs of a legendary songwriter, singer, actor, and filmmaker whose work spanned the 1950s and ’60s. Although Dutch-born, Brel’s career was born in Paris, and he wrote in English, French, and Dutch. This tribute…

“Steve McCurry: Photographs of Asia” — McCurry is best known for his haunting portrait of an Afghan girl taken for National Geographic during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. This small, excellent show puts that picture front and center. It also includes another 50 or so color shots by McCurry, who…

If Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker were alive today, they might meet up for drinks with Mr. Wicket at the Gulfstream Hotel’s poolside bar, get completely hobnobbed, and go play a few rounds of malletball. The sport was invented by Wicket (real name: Bob Alman), a 65-year-old self-described “intellectual outlaw”…

THU 29 If you’re looking for the doorway to another dimension, psychedelics are the best choice. But… psychedelic drugs or music? Why, music, of course. Indeed, the secrets of the mind’s inner workings are found in the music of Jerrods Door, which opens you up to a whole realm of…

What do Al Sharpton, O.J. Simpson, Donald Trump, and INXS have in common? They’ll all still have something resembling a life after their reality TV shows tank. You know reality programming is destined to go the way of the dodo when surreal spoofs like the Daily Mirror’s Quarantine attract 200…

THU 7/29 Godiva and Hershey’s and Pagans, oh my. This is no spring equinox festival. This Thursday, Pagan High Priestess (really, that’s her title!) Sophia Letourneau hosts a public chocolate ritual loosely connected with her earth-based religion as an excuse to celebrate her birthday with like-thinking people and plenty of…

SAT 7/31 Following a subpar 10-6 record last year and missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season, the Miami Dolphins hoped to change quite drastically. Offseason talk focused on getting better on both sides of the ball and getting back to the postseason in 2004. The roster saw 38…

FRI 7/30 Yusuf Malik Shabazz, also known as Da Profet, survives on a steady diet of books by Noam Chomsky and Eldridge Cleaver. So it’s no wonder he says, “I only wrote two poems about love.” Other than that, his works are “totally, strictly political social-conscious.” His biggest inspiration is…

SAT 7/31 Ask the average Joe Military why gays shouldn’t openly serve in the armed forces and his response will be something like this: “When I’m out there being shot at, I don’t want some dude checking out my package.” Uh-huh. ‘Cause that’s all them gays ever think about, right?…

The show’s title — “All You Can Eat: New Work by Sue Irion, Gavin Perry, and Mette Tommerup” — makes it sound like an aesthetic buffet of rich dishes for an art-hungry audience. But the exhibition, now at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, is far from a lavish…

The Water Coolers: Looking for a little something to while away a hot summer night? This refreshing, fast-paced musical revue about life in the corporate world is graced with an exceptionally gifted cast and stylish, inventive staging from Playhouse director David Arisco and choreographer Barbara Flaten. Cole Porter it’s not…

Respect: A Musical Journey of Women: This is a high energy, historical and hysterical look at women’s changes from 1900 to today as illustrated by popular song. Dorothy Marcic (writer/ narrator), who wrote a book on the subject, constructed this piece around her own experiences. Slide pictures sometimes add to…

The French sometimes bewilder us. For example, American conventional wisdom holds that when the French aren’t blowing up a McDonald’s or performing mime, they’re discussing Camus over buttery meals that seem to contain no calories, a metabolic sleight of hand invented by Robespierre but perfected in Vichy France by Gauloise-sucking…

THU 22 Once upon a time — 2003, actually — “destroyers of bulls” Jordan Lorow and Christopher Macfarlane “realized what they must do. They knew that they would need help; an army.” So they recruited Joseph Nay and Daniel Levie to play in their band, Lost, My Love? When they…

In case you haven’t heard — which would be quite unfortunate at this point — the carpet’s been pulled from this year’s Lollapalooza tour, causing its last legs to crumble under the weight of mounting costs. Apparently, the tour’s not profitable when the lineup is actually good (this year’s tour…