Music: For most of its 25-year existence, Fort Lauderdale’s Symphony of the Americas has presented summer programs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and abroad, particularly Panama, where conductor James Brooks-Bruzzese grew up. This weekend, it plays one of its final Summerfest concerts Saturday night at the Crest Theatre at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts. Musicians from the orchestra are joined by a Milan-based chamber ensemble called I Musici Estensi, and the combined group will be playing music by Verdi, Purcell, Piazzolla, Arensky, and an arrangement for flute of the last movement of the Dvořák Violin Concerto. Also scheduled are two new works by contemporary Italian composers: Piece for String Orchestra by Lorenzo Turchi-Floris, and Guido Galterio’s Remembering Naples. Tickets are $25 and $40 for VIP tickets, which includes a reception with the musicians after the concert. For more information, call the Crest at 243-7922, ext. 1.
Art: It’s not every day that a stroll through the museum ends with a chance to sit around and play with blocks, but the current summer exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art offers just that. Two architecture-based shows, Architecture in Detail: Works From the Museum Collection, and Block by Block: Inventing Amazing Architecture, take a close look at the built environment, first in photographs, paintings and drawings, and then in 10 large Lego models of a few of the world’s tallest buildings. Particularly striking are models of two works by Norman Foster: the Hearst building in New York, and the 30 St. Mary Axe building in London, which the Brits call “The Gherkin,” but which also is an astonishingly beautiful and daring structure. Look, too, in the Architecture in Detail exhibit for the photos by Andreas Feininger, who in the 1940s and 1950s took pictures of a gritty New York at work, huge and powerful, full of energy and strength. Both shows run through Oct. 20 at the museum in West Palm Beach. For more information, call 832-5196.
Film: Free classic movies. Have we got your attention now? All this month, the Humana Foundation is sponsoring free films at downtown Stuart’s Lyric Theatre. This weekend, for instance, you can catch a double feature of Hal Ashby’s 1972 odd couple comedy, Harold and Maude, and Frank Capra’s celebration of political idealism, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, from 1939. The former matches a teenager intent on offing himself (Bud Cort) with a 79-year-old free spirit who is high on life (Ruth Gordon). The latter brings Jimmy Stewart to the nation’s capital to fight the corrupt Congressmen all around him. For tickets, go to the Lyric box office, 59 S.W. Flagler Ave., (772) 286-7827. You are limited to four tickets per person and they are going fast.
Theater: Florida Stage audience members are still talking about the musical biography of Judy Garland, Beyond the Rainbow, which played Manalapan in 2006, and now those who go to The Theatre at Arts Garage understand why. Randy Beard makes the legendary, self-destructive singer’s life compelling by avoiding her final years, focusing instead of one of Garland’s many comeback triumphs, a “stay all night and sing ’em all” concert at Carnegie Hall. Even better than the script are the two performers who share the role of Garland — leather-lunged Jody Briskey and her younger alter ego, Norah Long. Continung only through Sunday, Aug. 11, with many performances already sold out. The Arts Garage in Delray Beach has a hit on its hands that you need to see, or re-see. Call (561) 450-6357.