Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in Countdown to Zero.
Film: Robert Oppenheimer had a very good idea of what his Manhattan Project had unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945, but at the time, his team was all alone in having become “Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Today, an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons exist, and the makers of the powerful Countdown to Zero want you to understand how terrifying a prospect that is. Approved by the United Nations, the film features interviews with global political luminaries such as Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev, and a host of foreign policy experts, all of whom want the world to reduce its stockpile of these weapons to none. Director Lucy Walker makes a compelling case for how easy it is for dictator-captained rogue nations to obtain nuclear material, but eventually it all becomes a little hard to take, and crosses from timely warning into fearmongering. Still, it gives you plenty to think about. At area theaters.
Theater: Australian playwright Alma De Groen was inspired to write Wicked Sisters after reading about artificial intelligence and computers, which might seem a long way to go for a play about four middle-aged women who come together after the death of one of the women’s husbands, a scientific genius named Alec who has succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease. But De Groen’s play, which premiered in 2002 Down Under, is really all about evolution. Wicked Sisters gets its U.S. premiere this week in downtown Fort Lauderdale at the Women’s Theatre Project. Linda Bernhard, Elizabeth Dimon, Miki Edelman and Jude Parry star in this play, which is directed by Genie Croft. The show in the tiny Sixth Star Studio seats less than 50 people, so this is also about theater at its most intimate. The show, which opens tonight for a sold-out show, runs through Aug. 29. Tickets are $25, $15 for students. Call 866-811-4111 for more information.
Ramsey Lewis.(Photo by the Ravinia Festival)
Music: Ramsey Lewis celebrated his 75th birthday earlier this year, and the jazz piano titan also issued his first-ever album of entirely original compositions, Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey. This video on his Website talks about that process, and this coming Thursday, devotees of jazz piano can hear Lewis in a solo concert down in Coral Gables as the last concert in the Community Arts Program’s Summer Concert Series. Normally, he appears with his trio, so this is a good chance to hear this fine player build architectures all his own – if you can get a ticket. As of Friday, this concert at the Coral Gables Congregational Church was sold out. For appeals, call 305-448-7421.
Singer Jennifer Sheehan.We’re well into the dog days of August, but there’s still cabaret in town, and this week at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, singer Jennifer Sheehan is holding forth in the Royal Room. Sheehan’s a graduate of Juilliard who can count performances in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte among her achievements, but these days she’s exploring the depths of the Great American Songbook. She appears 8 p.m. today and Saturday; tickets are $45 for the show, and $90 for the show and dinner beforehand (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). Call 659-81o0 to make reservations.