Rites of Spring

For Miami, March is the best of times and the worst of times. The weather is gorgeous, but we get weeks of Spring Break traffic (even if this year we traded crowds for checkpoints), leading up to the Ultra Music Festival, which brings 165,000 ecstatic EDM fans to downtown’s Bayfront Park starting Thursday. (There’s also a Heat game Thursday night. Who’s in charge around here?!)

Needless to say, if you’re planning on taking in a performance at the Arsht Center this weekend - like Miami City Ballet’s Spring Mix or Zoetic Stage’s Fiddler on the Roof - take the train or give yourself a lot of extra time.

Update on O Cinema vs. Miami Beach: after an international backlash, with over 600 filmmakers signing an open letter to the city in support of O Cinema, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner withdrew his proposal to evict the arthouse theater from city-owned property over its screening of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land - good timing for the annual Miami Film Festival, which starts next week.

Let’s get planning...

Ongoing Theater

Fiddler on the Roof

Zoetic Stage presents the Tony Award-winning classic musical Fiddler on the Roof in an innovative new production at the intimate Carnival Studio Theater. Exploring the themes of tradition and family in a changing, sometimes hostile world, Fiddler touches the heart with beloved songs like “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” Add in a cast of South Florida’s best actors, including the phenomenal 8-time Carbonell Award-winner Jeni Hacker, and you have a production not to be missed!

Performances through April 6th, Carnival Studio Theater at the Arsht Center, $66-$76

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: Bunbury, Mignonette, IKO Miami | The Corner, Night Swim

Thursday, March 27th

An Evening with Karen Russell

Books & Books is proud to present an evening with Karen Russell, Pulitzer Finalist and bestselling author of Swamplandia!, to discuss her new novel The Antidote, a dust bowl epic that tracks five characters whose fates become intertwined after a dust storm ravages their small Nebraska town. Russell will be in conversation with Patricia Engel, award-winning author of New York Times bestseller Infinite Country and Professor of Creative Writing at UM.

7pm, Books & Books Coral Gables, Free with RSVP

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Dojo Izakaya, Luca Osteria, Kojin 2.0 | Drinks: Sra. Martinez, Armstrong Jazz House

Also on March 27th:

• Grammy-winning guitarist, singer, and songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who has taken the blues world by storm in just a few short years, plays the Miami Beach Bandshell with his band, at 8pm.

• Preview night for Actors’ Playhouse’s new production of the hit Broadway musical Waitress, featuring gorgeous songs by Sara Bareilles, at 8pm. (See Sunday feature.)

Friday, March 28th

Summer, 1976 - Preview Night!

Gablestage presents the Florida premiere of David Auburn’s Summer, 1976, after its twice-extended run on Broadway in 2023. Set at a university during our nation’s centennial, the story follows an unlikely friendship between two women who followed different paths - a rule-breaking artist and a faculty wife - that find they both have growing disquiet about the compromises they had to make.

7:30pm, Gablestage, $40-$50

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Babette, Vinya Table, MIKA | Drinks: Bulla, Sospiro Wine Bar

Also on March 28th:

• Miami City Ballet presents the first performance of its annual Spring Mix program at Ziff Ballet Opera House at Arsht, at 7:30pm.

• Seraphic Fire, our stunningly-good vocal ensemble, presents Music of the Passion, a free concert of choral works of the Baroque and Renaissance periods, at Church of the Epiphany, at 7:30pm.

Saturday, March 29th

Miami City Ballet: Spring Mix

Long story ballets, like Giselle and Swan Lake, are audience favorites the world over, but I personally prefer Miami City Ballet’s eclectic “mix” programs that showcase their sparkling technique and athleticism on more contemporary work. Their Spring Mix this year brings us a company premiere of a work by today’s leading ballet maker, Alexei Ratmansky, set to Mussorgsky’s dramatic Pictures at an Exhibition against a backdrop of Kandinsky’s Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles. Performances Friday-Sunday.

7:30pm, Ziff Ballet Opera House at Adrienne Arsht Center, $55-$255

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: ViceVersa, Momento by Ikaro, IKO Miami | Drinks: Margot, Night Swim

Also on March 29th:

• ICA Miami presents a public talk by modern Japanese art specialist Namiko Kunimoto, discussing the work of Keiichi Tanaami currently on view at the museum, at 2pm.

• Spinello Projects celebrates the opening of Bernadette Despujols: Viva la Vida and Elizabeth Tremante: Too Bright, Too Dark, with an opening reception from 6-9pm.

• Baker Hall Gallery celebrates the opening of Windows, a group show of work by 13 artists from across the country, with an opening reception from 6-9pm.

• A free outdoor WALLCAST of Michael Tilson Thomas leading the New World Symphony in a performance of Beethoven’s sublime Fifth Symphony, at 8pm.

Sunday, March 30th

Waitress

Actors’ Playhouse continues its “Iconic Season” with Waitress, a heartwarming Broadway hit that makes its Florida regional premiere. The musical revolves around Jenna, a talented piemaker trapped in a loveless marriage, who finds solace and strength through her extraordinary baking skills. With a soulful score by Sara Bareilles, Waitress is a delectable treat that explores the empowering journey of a woman finding her own recipe for happiness.

3pm, Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theater, $65-$100

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Vinya Table, Zitz Sum, Sra. Martinez | Drinks: Maíz y Agave, Sospiro Wine Bar

Also on March 30th:

• The final performance of Miami City Ballet’s annual Spring Mix program at Ziff Ballet Opera House at Arsht, at 2pm.

Happening NEXT Week:

Because maybe your friends are busy this week. Or you're busy this week. Or this week just seems too soon to pull your act together and make a plan.

Thursday, April 3rd

Miami Film Festival - Opening Night!

Our own little slice of Sundance, the Miami Film Festival has been showcasing the work of the world’s best emerging and established filmmakers since 1984. As usual, this year's festival will bring directors and actors to town to present their work and award cash prizes for competition categories. Over 195 films from all over the world have been selected for our viewing pleasure, so take a look at the full calendar and see what you'd like to check out. Tickets for the opening and closing night parties sell like lighting, so you’ll want to book those asap. A special treat this year: the opening and closing screenings will take place in the historic Olympia Theater downtown, which has been mostly dark for years.

Various locations, $15.50 General Screenings, $34 Opening & Closing Screenings, $130 Opening & Closing Parties

Olympia Theater Nearby Eats: Mr. Omakase, Tâm Tâm, NIU Kitchen | Drinks: Lost Boy Dry Goods, Over Under, Margot

Friday, April 4th

An Evening with Colum McCann

Books & Books joins forces with the Miami Book Fair and the Consulate General of Ireland to present An Evening with Colum McCann, internationally bestselling author and recipient of the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin. McCann will be discussing his new novel, Twist, which follows an Irish journalist drawn into the lives of people he’s profiling on deep sea fiberoptic repair missions.

7pm, Books & Books Coral Gables, $28 (includes book copy)

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Zitz Sum, Sra. Martinez, Babette | Drinks: Bay 13 Brewery, Cebada Rooftop

Saturday, April 5th

Birthright

Miami New Drama presents Birthright, the world premiere of a new play by renowned playwright Jonathan Specter (whose play Eureka Day was a hit on Broadway this past fall). The play begins in 2006, as a group of young American Jews meet on a Birthright Israel trip, and become fast friends. The next twenty years, right up through the Oct. 7th attack and beyond, tear them apart and bring them together, as they wrestle with the question of how to live as a Jew in America.

7:30pm, Colony Theatre, $47-$77

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Uchiko, Lucali, Paya | Drinks: Brother’s Keeper, Barceloneta

Also on April 5th:

• The South Beach Chamber Ensemble plays works by Fanny Mendelssohn and Rebecca Clarke at All Soul’s Episcopal Church on the Beach, at 3:30pm.

• Locust Projects and artist Wendy Wischer celebrate the last day of Wischer’s Open Water sound and video installation with a guided water meditation and sound healing session, at 4pm and 5pm.

• Award-winning Russian pianist Sergey Belyavsky performs a program of piano masterworks as part of the Miami International Piano Festival at the Wolfsonian Museum, at 7:30pm.

Sunday, April 6th

Chantae E. Wright: It Wasn’t a Dream, It Was a Flood

Pan American Art Projects presents It Wasn’t a Dream, It Was a Flood, a solo show of new multimedia works by Miami-based artist Chantae E. Wright. Wright’s photographic portraits, layered with acrylic, spray paint, and marker, explore how personal and cultural floods shape who we are and how we navigate the world. Opening alongside this exhibition at PAAP will be Pétits, a group show of small scale works by women artists.

11am-4pm, Pan American Art Projects (Little River), Free

Neighborhood: Little River

Nearby Eats: Ensenada, Sunny’s, Phuc Yea  | Drinks: Bar Kaiju, Magie

Also on April 6th:

• Mindy Solomon Gallery celebrates the opening of three new exhibitions, including a solo show of new paintings by LA artist Brittany Fanning, with a reception from 11am-4pm.

• The South Beach Chamber Ensemble plays works by Fanny Mendelssohn and Rebecca Clarke at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in the Gables, at 2pm.

• Award-winning pianist Luis Urbina plays a program of Schumann and Prokofiev as part of the Miami International Piano Festival at the Wolfsonian Museum, at 7:30pm.

Planning Ahead:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those new restaurants you want to try book up. Here are a couple of upcoming events to get on your calendar now…

Friday, April 11th

Arturo Sandoval at Knight

The Arsht Center is proud to present Cuban jazz legend Arturo Sandoval, live at Knight Concert Hall for one night only. A famed collaborator with Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval has performed with music icons from Frank Sinatra to Alicia Keys, and has won 10 Grammy awards, 6 Billboard Music awards, and an Emmy for his score for the HBO movie about his life, For Love or Country, starring Andy Garcia.

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht Center, $40-$130

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: Mignonette, Miami Slice, IKO Miami | Drinks: The Corner, ViceVersa

Saturday, April 12th

Florida Grand Opera: Carmen - Gala Opening Night

Florida Grand Opera closes out its 2024-25 season with Bizet’s Carmen, in a new imagining of the story directed by Maria Cordero. Set in 1937, Cordero’s version finds Carmen leading a band of freedom fighters in Franco’s Spain. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of the Carmen story, which is just straight-up femicide immortalized as a “crime of passion,” but Bizet’s undeniably gorgeous score, packed with famous arias like “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera),” carries the day. And who knows? Maybe in Cordero’s version, she comes out on top. Sung in French, with English and Spanish projected subtitles.

7pm, Ziff Ballet Opera House at Arsht, $27-$260

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats (suitable for your ballgown): Klaw, Casadonna, Brasserie Laurel | Drinks: ViceVersa, Klaw rooftop

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