The Koresh Dance Company in action.Dance: Tonight at the Kravis Center, two local dance leaders, Maria Konrad and Jerry Opdenaker, will be joined by the Koresh Dance Company of Philadelphia for an evening of new work called Inside Out. Two Florida premieres by Roni Koresh, and world premieres from Konrad (who runs Reach Dance Co.) and Opdenaker (who runs O Dance), teaming here with Sarah Walston of Florida Dance Theatre of Lakeland, will be on the program; also, Melissa Rector of the Koresh troupe will offer a new piece featuring performers from Palm Beach Gardens’s Florida Dance Intensive. For years now, Konrad and Opdenaker have been quietly and steadily creating new dance and teaching new dancers, and fans of contemporary dance will want to be in the house for this evening. The show starts tonight at 7; tickets are $20. Call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org.
Christina Broom and Gladys Ramirez in Shorts Gone Wild 4.Theater: Sure, the current Trump-Clinton presidential insultfest is a national embarrassment, but it is also a gift to comedy writers of all stripes. City Island Stage and City Theatre are seizing the moment with its fourth annual Shorts Gone Wild, now on at the former’s playhouse in Wilton Manors. Seven area playwrights have written up-to-the minute sketches, performed by an energetic, anything-for-a-laugh cast of six, with an emphasis on what the divisive campaign is doing to the gay and lesbian community. A couple of the best are by Carbonell Award-laden Michael McKeever — Does this guy ever take a rest? — who imagines the break-up of a gay and a lesbian couple on opposite sides of the political fence and a near-monologue of a gay man explaining to the Republican Party why he has to divorce himself from the GOP. Continuing through Aug. 28. Call 954-519-2533.
Duffy Jackson.Music: Duffy Jackson became a jazzman at the feet of his father Chubby, a great jazz bassist, and went on to play with Count Basie and other luminaries. He’s been a beloved member of the Nashville musical community for some time now, and tonight he’s at Arts Garage in Delray Beach for a tribute to the man from Red Bank with whom he played. Jackson’s hard-driving style was a good fit for Basie’s Kansas City style, and seeing him gives you a chance to enjoy a living link to some of the country’s finest jazz traditions. The concert starts at 8 p.m., tickets are $30-$45. Call 450-6357 or visit www.artsgarage.org.
Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins.Film: Can we agree among ourselves that Meryl Streep can do just about anything as an actress? But until now, she has not been asked to sing badly. She has already demonstrated her vocal skills in such films as Into the Woods and Mamma Mia!, but as tone-deaf socialite Florence Foster Jenkins — in the movie of the same name — she must be eager but clueless about some of the great arias of opera. Jenkins was a real person and this Stephen Frears-directed movie gets the facts of her curious acclaim in the music world mostly right. She used her money to make recordings and to rent Carnegie Hall for a solo concert, and Streep shows how ill-equipped she is for either task and how self-deluded she was about her talent level. Hugh Grant gives his best performance in a long time as her enabler husband and Simon Helberg (of TV’s Big Bang Theory) is very amusing as Florence’s piano accompanist, embarrassed at the thought of being seen with her on the concert stage. Do not be surprised if Streep notches her 20th Oscar nomination for this trifle.
