Theater: Frequent patrons of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre already know of the remarkable talents of Matt Loehr (three-time Carbonell Award winner for Crazy for You, The Music Man and Hello, Dolly!), but this physically comic song-and-dance man has never been better showcased than in Me and My Girl, the Maltz’s latest production knockout. This British musical from 1937 follows the plight of a coarse Cockney bloke who suddenly learns he is the 14th Earl of Hareford. The conditions? He must become a gentleman and break up with his equally unrefined girlfriend. Ignore the dilemma, just go to enjoy Loehr’s pratfalls and gymnastic schtick, as well as his Gene Kelly graceful dance steps. Through Dec. 18. Call 561-575-2333 for tickets.
Film: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan has had legal difficulties getting his director’s cuts to theaters, but he establishes himself as a filmmaker to be reckoned with now with his latest effort, a powerful new character-driven drama, Manchester by the Sea, the tale of a responsibility-free custodian who suddenly inherits guardianship of his teenage nephew when his brother dies. The film was just named the year’s best by the National Board of Review, and Casey Affleck’s nuanced performance copped the award for best actor. As janitor Lee Chandler, he plays a man deeply conflicted about his abrupt parental role, a reaction that is easy to identify and empathize with. Affleck would appear to have a lock on an Oscar nomination, as does the film, and Michelle Williams is a felonious scene-stealer as his judgmental former wife. Opening this weekend at various area theaters.
Music: This is the weekend for two of the area’s symphonic ensembles to offer their first concerts of the season, and we start Sunday with The Symphonia Boca Raton, led this time around by former Florida Philharmonic skipper James Judd. Czech violinist Jan Mracek is the guest soloist in the Brahms Violin Concerto and the short Mazurek of Mracek’s countryman Antonin Dvořák. The program also includes the Egmont overture of Beethoven and the Fourth Symphony, the so-called Tragic, of the teenage Franz Schubert. The concert’s at 3 p.m. at the Roberts Theater at St. Andrew’s School (call 866-687-4201 or visit thesymphonia.org). If that isn’t enough Egmont for you, the Palm Beach Symphony opens its season Monday night at the Four Arts in Palm Beach with Beethoven’s full incidental music for Egmont, on a program with another early Schubert symphony, his Second. Music director Ramon Tebar leads the band in the 7:30 p.m. concert (call 655-7226 or visit palmbeachsymphony.org).
Opera: Florida Grand Opera opened its season last month with Georges Bizet’s Carmen, a box-office sure thing before getting down to its rarer operas later. And then came a surprise for its last two performances at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale: A new mezzo in the title role. She is Argentina-born, U.S.-trained Daniela Mack, and in February she’ll appear at the Metropolitan in a supporting role in Dvorak’s Rusalka, and this summer she sings Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina at the Santa Fe Opera. The word from her performance Thursday night is that she has all the makings of a first-rate Carmen, with a deep voice, sharp stage presence and excellent musicality. FGO’s production reverts to Bizet’s 1875 original opera-comique: with spoken dialogue between musical numbers instead of the Ernest Guiraud recitatives that were added after Bizet’s early death that same year. Here’s your chance to see an authentic rising star of the operatic stage, but you’ll have to catch her tonight. The curtain rises at 7:30; call 800-741-1010 or visit fgo.org.