february 20
The Colored Museum: Florida International University's theater department presents George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum as part of the school's Black History Month celebration. The award-winning play, which premiered in 1986, is a double-edged spoof of black and white America. Tickets cost ten dollars. Performances run today through Sunday and February 27 through March 2 at the Studio Theatre in the new Wertheim Performing Arts Center (11200 SW Eighth St.), at 8:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:00 p.m. for the Sunday matinee. Call 348-3789.
AIDS Walk Party Weekend/Dance for Life: AIDS Walk Miami doesn't step off just yet (see Sunday), but several local clubs are hosting parties to benefit the AIDS service organization Health Crisis Network. Punch 59 improv troupe presents an evening of comedy at the EDGE/Theatre (405 Espanola Way, Miami Beach; 531-6083), beginning at 9:00 p.m. At 10:00 p.m. Groove Jet (323 23rd St., Miami Beach; 532-2002) presents "Groove Girl Does Havana," with Afro-Cuban music by Khadir. Admission to each event is ten dollars. Tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. the Warsaw Ballroom (1450 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 531-4555) hosts Dance for Life, with DJs Carlos Pertuz of New York and Eddie X from Los Angeles, plus local DJ David Padilla and drag divas Kitty Meow and Daisy Deadpetals. On Saturday between 9:00 p.m. and midnight at Bash (655 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 538-2274), AIDS Walk Miami grand marshals Antonio Sabato, Jr., Ellen Crawford, and Mike Genovese will be on hand for a VIP party. Admission to each event is $15. Also on Saturday between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, Bermuda Bar (3509 NE 163rd St., North Miami Beach; 945-0196) donates proceeds from its ten-dollar cover and Bacardi drink sales to HCN. And Sunday at Liquid (1439 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 532-9154), your walk credential gets you in free between 11:00 p.m. and midnight. Call 751-7775.
Tuen: Local rock trio Tuen recently celebrated the release of its long-awaited first CD, Reservation of Love, a collection of country-laced rockers and emotional ballads tinged with Eighties new-wave sensibilities. Tonight at Rose's Bar & Music Lounge (754 Washington Ave., Miami Beach), the band tops a bill featuring Clark Nova, Speed McQueen, and Earth to Betsy. Admission is five dollars. Showtime is 11:00 p.m. Call 532-0228.
friday
february 21
Miami City Ballet: Last July at the Olympics Arts Festival in Atlanta, Miami City Ballet presented a program featuring four works that best represent the company's style. MCB repeats this program tonight at 8:00 p.m. and tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale), offering a tasty sampler of the company's best work. First up are two pieces by resident choreographer Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros: the elegant D Symphonies and the sleek Nous Sommes. Rounding out the program are two works by the company's favorite choreographer, George Balanchine: the romantic Four Temperaments and the energetic Western Symphony. Tickets range in price from $17 to $46. Call 532-7713.
Florida WestFair: Get a taste of the wild, wild West during this ten-day festival at the Davie Covered Arena and Bergeron Fairgrounds (6501 Orange Dr., Davie) through March 2. WestFair kicks off tonight with a concert featuring Tracy Lawrence and Sammy Kershaw at 8:00 p.m. Tomorrow the fun continues with a parade at 10:00 a.m., a motorcycle show at 1:00 p.m., and rodeo events at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. Festivities continue with rodeos on Sunday and March 1 and 2 at 2:00 p.m. and February 28 at 8:00 p.m, wrestling and a line-dancing competition on Monday at 7:30 p.m, monster truck shows on Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00 p.m, and a concert featuring Neal McCoy and Patty Loveless on March 1 at 8:00 p.m. Throughout the week festgoers can enjoy carnival rides, a petting zoo, and agricultural exhibitions. Admission is four dollars (two dollars for kids ages five to twelve), on Friday through Sunday; one dollar on weekdays; seventeen dollars for concerts; and twelve dollars (five for kids) for rodeo and monster truck events. Festival hours are Monday through Friday from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. on March 2). Call 954-791-WEST.
The Jazz Club: Actors Adriane Lenox and David Beach star in John Nassivera's play opening tonight at the Coconut Grove Playhouse (3500 Main Hwy, Coconut Grove). Set in Harlem in the early Forties, The Jazz Club follows the friendship between a wealthy English pianist and a black streetwise singer and their mutual love of jazz. Tickets cost $22 and $27. Performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m., with matinees at 2:00 on Sunday and selected Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons through April 13. Call 442-4000.
DanceAfrica/Miami Festival: Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus Cultura Del Lobo Performing Arts Series presents an evening of exuberant dance inherited from African culture tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). The theme of this year's program is women of the African diaspora, with performances by New York City's spiritual Urban Bush Women, the Philadelphia-based, breakdance-inspired Rennie Harris PureMovement, South African tribal troupe Soweto Street Beat Dance Company, and Brazil's traditional Bale Folclorico da Bahia. Tickets range in price from $10 to $50. Call 673-7300.
The Colored Museum: See Thursday.
AIDS Walk Party Weekend/Dance for Life: See Thursday.
saturday
february 22
Beast and Baker Rock the Road: Those lovable loons the Beast and Baker wreak havoc on Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) with yet another evening of musical mayhem. Psychedelic space rockers Al's Not Well celebrate the release of their first CD Glitter, with fellow locals Omar Stang, the Psychonauts, the Kind, Trophy Wife, Maria, Y, the Avenging Lawnmowers of Justice, and Reckless Lester & the Tumbleweeds. On the patio, a South Florida women composers' spotlight features Diane Ward, Valerie Caracapa, Rose Guillot, Linda Graham, and Gigi DeNisco. Admission is seven dollars. Showtime is 10:00 p.m. Call 374-1198.
Walk-n-Roll-a-Thon: Put on your walking shoes this weekend as South Pointe Park (1 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach) hosts two fundraising events. Tomorrow AIDS Walk Miami rolls out (see next item), but today at 8:30 a.m., Olympic track legend Bob Beamon leads the eighth annual 5K Walk-n-Roll-a-Thon to benefit the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the Buoniconti Fund. All proceeds of this walk, run, wheelchair roll, and in-line skate event go to scientific research and to raise awareness of paralysis resulting from spinal cord injuries. Registration is $20. Call 243-6001.
The Colored Museum: See Thursday.
AIDS Walk Party Weekend/Dance for Life: See Thursday.
Florida WestFair: See Friday.
Miami City Ballet: See Friday.
sunday
february 23
AIDS Walk Miami: The pavement at South Pointe Park (1 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach) might still be hot from yesterday's Walk-n-Roll-a-Thon (see previous item), but that shouldn't stop more than 25,000 walkers from joining grand marshals Antonio Sabato, Jr. (that hunk from Wolverine, Melrose Place, and the new Calvin Klein ads) and ER cast members and real-life spouses Ellen Crawford and Mike Genovese in the ninth annual AIDS Walk Miami. Participants are asked to raise at least $10 in pledges (last year walkers raised an average of $107 each). All proceeds benefit the Health Crisis Network, South Florida's primary HIV/AIDS service provider. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. Call 757-4444 for pledge sheets and information.
Leslie Abramson: Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Leslie Abramson has played a role in some of the most highly publicized cases of the last decade. She has twice been voted Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association, and her flamboyant, street-smart attitude has made her one of the more controversial and colorful figures in late twentieth-century American law. Recently Abramson published The Defense Is Ready, in which she shares stories from her cases, including the Menendez brothers and the Bob's Big Boy murder trials, as well as her observations on the O.J. Simpson murder trial, for which she was a regularly featured commentator on ABC's Nightline. Abramson discusses her career and cases tonight at 8:00 p.m. at Books & Books (296 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables). Admission is free. Call 442-4408.
The Colored Museum: See Thursday.
AIDS Walk Party Weekend/Dance for Life: See Thursday.
Florida WestFair: See Friday.
monday
february 24
Shipwreck: Set a course for adventure as the Miami Museum of Science (3280 S. Miami Ave.) offers a close encounter with sunken treasure in the interactive exhibition "Shipwreck! Spanish Galleons and the Search for Sunken Treasure," on view through June 15. Visitors will follow the ill-fated voyage of the Santa Margarita, a galleon sunk by a hurricane in 1622 two days after leaving the port of Havana. The ship's remains were recently retrieved after 350 years on the ocean floor. Visitors will not only learn about seventeenth-century navigation but about the current technology that allows scientists to study the wreck's delicate artifacts. Admission is six dollars for adults, four dollars for kids ages three to twelve. Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily. Call 854-4247.
Florida WestFair: See Friday.
tuesday
february 25
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio proves he's all grown up when he takes the stage in the Broadway Series' presentation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, opening tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Macchio stars as J. Pierrepont Finch, a wily window washer who climbs the corporate ladder from mailroom to boardroom of a giant company. This Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning 1961 musical comedy was created as a humorous indictment of corporate America by Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows, the same team that wrote Guys and Dolls, and was recently revived in New York to rave reviews. Tickets range in price from $31 to $46. Performances run through March 2 at 8:00 p.m., with a Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m. Call 673-7300.
Larry Pomilio: Sticky Fingers (Mayfair, 3399 Virginia St., Coconut Grove) kicks off its Live Jazz Tuesdays series tonight at 8:30 p.m. with a CD-release party for saxman Larry Pomilio's latest offering, With Respect. On the disc Pomilio explores the many moods of jazz, from the traditional to the avant-garde, highlighting the talents of pianist David Siegel, bassist Jim Kessler, vocalist Nicole Yarling, and drummer John Yarling, who will perform with Pomilio tonight. Admission is $29 and includes a four-course dinner. Call 461-3313.
Florida WestFair: See Friday.
Shipwreck: See Monday.
wednesday
february 26
An Evening of Choral Music: The University of Miami Chorale presents a program of celebrated twentieth-century choral music tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Gusman Concert Hall (1314 Miller Dr., Coral Gables). Conductor Jo-Michael Scheibe leads the chorus to perform two newly commissioned words by Rene Clausen and Eric Whitacre, plus works by Bernstein, Reich, Lindberg, Hopkins, Wilberg, Fissinger, and many others. The chorale will perform selections from this concert next week at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in San Diego. Admission is ten dollars (proceeds will help defer trip expenses). Call 284-4162.
Florida WestFair: See Friday.
Shipwreck: See Monday.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: See Tuesday.
