A Pandemic Favorite Returns

The Culture Edit, October 7th - 20th

Author

Susan Bannon
October 06, 2024

The first, pandemic-era iteration of Sunny’s Steakhouse at Lot 6 in Little River.

I don’t typically lead with restaurants - this is a cultural events newsletter, after all - but I’m making an exception this week for the return of Sunny’s Steakhouse! The old Sunny’s was technically a pop-up, serving perfectly seared steaks and cold oysters under a magical banyan tree during the pandemic. Since an outdoor restaurant in Miami only makes sense during a global health emergency, Sunny’s closed in 2022 to develop a permanent, indoor space, with a new courtyard around that same beautiful tree. The new Sunny’s menu brings back all the old hits, plus the pastas and cocktails from the recently-closed Jaguar Sun, so you can have your corn agnolotti with crab or Green Ghoul once again. It opened this past Wednesday, so I’d book yourself a table asap.

While we’re on restaurant news, The New York Times recently included two Miami restaurants in their nationwide 50 Best report: Walrus Rodeo (understood) and… La Camaronera? I guess it’s on me that I’ve lived here for seventeen years and never been to this Little Havana seafood institution for a pan con minuta. It’s now, belatedly, on my list.

Events? Right! This week brings us a lot of music, with a chamber concert at New World, a K-Pop band at the Bandshell, and Rock & Rhythm Weekend on the Plaza at the Arsht Center. Even the cinema is about music - an innovative documentary about Roxy Music founder Brian Eno at O Cinema on the beach. A little something for everyone!

Let’s get planning...

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Ongoing Theater

Carmen: Genesis of Fire

The Faena Theater presents Carmen: Genesis of Fire, an original cabaret production based on the (unfortunately) timeless tale of passion, jealousy, and murder. Spanish singer-songwriter Mimi Barber leads the evening as Master of Ceremonies, with performances that blend flamenco, cabaret, cirque nouveau, illusion, and percussive live music. Seating at the Faena is two-by-two, and tables can be upgraded with fancy bottle service, so this is definitely a date-night booking.

Thursday - Saturday 8pm, Faena Theater, $100-$300

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Nearby Eats & Drinks: Make it an all-Faena night, with dinner at Pao or Los Fuegos and drinks at Living Room or The Saxony Bar (or head to Broken Shaker for a change of scenery).

Tuesday, October 8th

An Evening with Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Arsht Center presents An Evening with Ta-Nehisi Coates, where the controversial journalist and essayist will discuss his new book, The Message. Coates’ 2015 book, Between the World and Me, was a gloves-off spotlight on racism that sent shockwaves through the blogosphere, and earned him a host of awards, including the National Book Award. Since then, his work has been celebrated and banned in this country, which is partly the subject of one of the three essays in The Message. For this new book, Coates traveled to three distinct locations to explore the clash between current lived experience and the narratives we hear and tell ourselves. *Be aware, the third location Coates visited was the West Bank and his writing on this subject is sure to cause controversy, yet again.

7pm, Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center, $50 (includes a copy of The Message)

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: Mignonette, Bunbury, ViceVersa | Drinks: Margot, Over Under

Also October 8th: 

Thursday, October 10th

Eno at O Cinema

Musical maverick Brian Eno co-founded Roxy Music, produced iconic albums for David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, and U2, and pioneered innovative technology for ambient music. In this first-of-its-kind documentary, presented by O Cinema, filmmaker Gary Hustwit uses a generative process that produces a different movie every time it’s screened, drawing from the artist’s staggering archive of interviews and unreleased music. Critics love this film, even if they’ve all seen a different one, calling it “pure joy” (New York Times) and an “endlessly inspiring creative manifesto” (AV Club).

7pm, O Cinema, $12.50

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Also on October 10th: 

  • The premiere of artist and filmmaker Luis Gispert’s first feature film, Cajita, screened outdoors at PAMM, followed by a Q&A with Gispert.

  • Rock & Rhythm weekend on the Plaza at the Arsht Center begins, with gospel & soul singer Stout.

  • Evening Serenade, a night of zarzuelas and classical arias, at Sanctuary of the Arts.

Friday, October 11th

K-Pop Band KARD at the Bandshell

The mission of the Miami Beach Bandshell is to bring the music of the world to the citizens of Miami, and if world music is your thing, you really should just check out their entire lineup. On this evening, the Bandshell presents co-ed K-Pop sensation KARD, a band replete with the stunning vocals and dance swagger that K-Pop is famous for. You don’t even need to worry about being trampled by tweens, because this concert is strictly 18+.

Neighborhood: North Beach

Also on October 11th: Rock & Rhythm weekend on the Plaza at the Arsht Center continues, with rock and soul band Alexa & the Old-Fashioneds.

Saturday, October 12th

Gold Dust Lounge on the Plaza

For the conclusion of its Rock & Rhythm weekend, the Arsht Center welcomes Miami’s own Gold Dust Lounge to the outdoor Thompson Plaza. The brainchild of local guitarist and composer Russell Mofsky, Gold Dust Lounge puts influences from movie scores to punk bands to cool lounge rock in a blender for a sound that’s always a good time. Arranged in a quartet featuring guitar, violin, bass, and drums, no two Gold Dust Lounge performances are alike.

7:30pm, Thompson Plaza at the Arsht Center, $20-$30

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: Mignonette, Bunbury, ViceVersa | Drinks: Night Swim, The Corner

Also on October 12th: 

  • Award-winning Flamenco artist Clarita Filgueiras performs Alma Flamenca, her showcase of traditional flamenco puro, at the Moss Center.

  • Neopolitan synth-pop trio Kolors and four other up-and-coming Italian bands bring “big Eurovision energy” to the Miami Beach Bandshell.

Sunday, October 13th

Chamber Music: Haydn & Borodin

Titus Underwood, Principal Oboe of the Nashville Symphony, joins the New World Symphony Fellows for a special afternoon of chamber music. Household names Haydn and Borodin get top billing, but in true New World style, there are also some exciting contemporary works on the program: Extra Fancy, a whimsical and rhythmically challenging concerto for winds by Viet Cuong, and Lee Hyla’s Dream of Innocent III, a piece with amplified cello that channels the art of the Late Middle Ages through the mind of Pope Innocent III.

2pm, New World Center, $15-$25

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Mister O1, Barceloneta, Sweet Liberty | Drinks: Water Lion at the Sagamore, Brother’s Keeper

Also on October 13th:

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.

Wednesday, October 16th

(LA) HORDE Film Exhibit at the Bass

It’s possible that three-person collective (LA) HORDE is the coolest thing happening in the dance world today. Since 2019, the trio have been artistic directors of the venerable Ballet National de Marseille, where it’s safe to say they’ve been shaking things up. In their spare time, they work on movement-centered film and video projects (like this insanely cool Singing in the Rain remix they choreographed for Burberry). One such project is Bondy, where (LA) HORDE invited the residents of Bondy, a suburb of Paris, to film themselves dancing, alone or together. They got into it! The Bass Museum will be screening Bondy beginning October 16th, marking (LA) HORDE’s first exhibition in the U.S.

Opening Reception 7-9pm (6-9pm for Members), The Bass Museum, Free

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Nearby Eats: Blue Ribbon Sushi, Sweet Liberty, The Café by Offsite (brand new and inside the Bass) | Drinks: Greystone Bar, Sweet Liberty

Thursday, October 17th

Morning // Mourning

MDC’s Live Arts Miami presents the South Florida premiere of Morning // Mourning, a critically-acclaimed experimental opera that takes us 1.6 billion years into Earth’s future. Inspired by The World Without Us, Alan Weisman’s 2007 bestseller about the likely effects of human depopulation, Morning // Mourning is set in a world in which all humans have disappeared. The cast of five “witnesses” sings and plays all of the music, guiding the audience through the changes on Earth as forests grow back, new species evolve, and the human-made world erodes away.

7:30pm, The ArtLab at MDC Wolfson, $35

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on October 17th: 

  • British comedian Sindhu Vee brings her hilarious stand-up hour to Miami Theater Center for one night only.

  • David Castillo unveils Pepe Mar: My First 25,000 Years on Earth, an exhibition of new large-scale collages by the Miami artist, with a reception from 6-8pm.

  • The Arsht Center hosts disco funk band Raspberry Pie for Live on the Plaza.

Friday, October 18th

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Miami City Ballet opens its 2024-25 season with this blockbuster production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A retelling of the classic Shakespeare rom-com, the action has been relocated from an enchanted forest to our South Florida waterways, featuring dazzling “underwater” sets and costumes by Miami-born artist Michele Oka Doner (you’ve walked over her graceful bronze inlays of sea life at MIA countless times) and dramatic direction by Miami-born playwright and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight, Choir Boy). Six vocalists will join the top-notch MCB orchestra to perform Mendelssohn’s glorious music.

7:30pm Fri. & Sat., 2pm Sat. & Sun., Ziff Ballet Opera House, $35

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on October 18th: 

Saturday, October 19th

The Seven Deadly Sins

Opera director Yuval Sharon joins the New World Symphony for a production of The Seven Deadly Sins, a “sung ballet” and the last work by legendary collaborators Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, created as Nazi’s were taking control of Berlin. Also on the program will be The Kaiser of Atlantis, written by composer Viktor Ullmann and poet Peter Kien when they were prisoners in the Nazi propaganda camp Terezín. This concert is part of “Resonance of Remembrance,” NWS’s series commemorating the 80th anniversary of end of WWII and the Holocaust. Saturday’s performance will also be projected for a free WALLCAST concert in adjacent Soundscape park.

7:30pm, New World Center, $40-$175 or free outdoor WALLCAST

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Casa Tua, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Paya | Drinks: Water Lion at the Sagamore, Abbey Brewing Co.

Also on October 19th:

Sunday, October 20th

Concerto Night: Miami International Piano Festival

The Miami International Piano Festival opens its “Classical Sundays at Five” series with a with a special “concerto evening” at the Aventura Cultural Center, under the leadership of Igor Gruppman, former concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Three celebrated pianists - Vyacheslav Gryasnov of Russia, Albert Cano Smit of Spain, and Florian Noack of Belgium (pictured) - will perform piano concertos by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Hummel.

5pm, Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, $45-$55

Neighborhood: Aventura

Also on October 20th: final performances of New World Symphony’s The Seven Deadly Sins and Miami City Ballet’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Planning Ahead:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those new restaurants you want to try book up. For the ultimate plan-ahead guide, you have my complete Highlights of the Fall Season, but if that’s too much trouble, you can just plan for these two…

October 24th - November 10th

The Pillowman

To open the Arsht Center’s Theater Up Close series, Zoetic Stage presents The Pillowman, a truly scary play by Martin McDonagh, the award-winning writer-director of The Banshees of Inisherin and In Bruges. The plot centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state, who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories - stories that just happen to echo a series of actual child murders in his town. This Olivier- and Tony-award winning play is NOT for children and designated 18+.

7:30 evenings, 2:30 matinees, Carnival Studio Theater at the Arsht, $56-$61

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

October 25th - 26th

Nu Deco Lounge: Symphony of Rock

Nu Deco Ensemble, Miami’s genre-bending contemporary orchestra, returns to the Citadel cabaret space for its intimate - and very popular - Nu Deco Lounge series. To kick off the season, the orchestra takes on the music of rock legends Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Queen, and Fleetwood Mac. I foresee a lot of crowd sing-a-longs with this one! (If you’ve never experienced one of these concerts, they are very high energy, with a lot of audience participation.) Note that general admission prices are for standing-room only. If you want a seat on the floor or the balcony, you’ll need a VIP ticket.

7pm & 9:30pm both nights, the Citadel lounge, $45 or $85 VIP

Neighborhood: Little River

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