If Your Reggaeton Doesn’t Work…

…Your Heart’s Just Not on the Island

MON 4/25

The hybrid of rap, reggae, and salsa known as reggaeton has been simmering in Puerto Rico for more than twenty years, but only recently has it percolated over into the mainstream. Beginning with New York rapper N.O.R.E.’s crossover hit “Oye Mi Canto,” the music that throbs with the passion of Ponce has found increasing American chart success. You know a genre has truly arrived when Billboard creates a category for it at an annual awards show. The 2005 Billboard Latin Music Awards will include a spankin’-new trophy for Reggaeton Album of the Year, and top acts Don Omar, Ivy Queen, Lunytunes, and Daddy Yankee will vie for the prize. To ignite Latin Music Week with some “Gasolina,” come to tonight’s official Billboard reggaeton showcas. Rudy Perez’s monthly concert series, North Beach Nights, co-presents this groove. See La Sinfonia, Queenie, and Locos por Juana, among other muy caliente performers at 7:00 at the North Beach Band Shell, 7275 Collins Ave., North Miami Beach. Admission is free. Call 305-865-4147, or visit www.gonorthbeach.com. –Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik

From Russia with Love

FRI 4/22

If you think of Anna Karenina as being written during Tolstoy’s “happy years,” you can begin to get a feel for one of his later works, Kreutzer Sonata. Though it was written in 1890, the themes of this tale eerily (or unfortunately) relate to the world we live in today. Kreutzer Sonata digs deep into the psychology of marriage while exploring elements of jealousy and betrayal, and questioning the evils of sex; what it reveals is shocking. See all of the emotion, controversy, and (gasp) crime presented by the White Orchard Theater tonight through May 8 at the FIU Mary Ann Wolfe Theater, 3000 NE 151st St., North Miami. Tickets cost $10 through $40. Call 305-331-1293, or visit www.whiteorchardtheater.com. — Becky Randel

Alma Mater Musical

Varsity Rhythm and Blues

THUR 4/21

The Roaring Twenties: when hooch was bootleg, gangsters had molls, and ladies cut their hems and hair very short. Yet the pop songs had such seemingly naive themes as “Button Up Your Overcoat” and “The Best Things in Life Are Free” — or were things really that simple? Good News! wraps up the season at the University of Miami’s Ring Theater (1312 Miller Dr., Coral Gables). This Prohibition era hit musical depicts the quaint shenanigans at the mythical Tait College during the famously wild decade. Don’t forget to ask grandpa if you can borrow his coonskin coat to do “The Varsity Drag” with. Showtime is 8:00 tonight, and the musical runs through April 30. Tickets cost $18 for Friday and Saturday nights; $16 for other performances. Call 305-284-3355, or visit www.miami.edu/ring for a complete schedule. –Margaret Griffis