Film: Major League Baseball culminates each season with the World Series, but to find the true global champion, you have to view the World Baseball Classic, a tournament among 16 national teams, held every four years. Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel chronicles the 2017 Classic where Israel was a surprise contender because of loophole by that country which says that anyone with Jewish roots could be considered an honorary Israeli citizen. So American ballplayers, often with tenuous ties to the religion, flew to Israel – usually for the first time ever – and a powerhouse team was born. At least as interesting as the games is the eye-opening impressions of the nation by the newly adopted players. At area theaters.
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks took a little risk by placing a musical – usually relegated to its summer menu – in its subscription season, but the move has paid off. It selected James Valcq and Fred Alley’s low-key, but countrified tuneful The Spitfire Grill, the tale of a female ex-con who settles down after prison in the town of Gilead, Wis., and becomes the catalyst for its rebirth. With a cast that features Ashley Rose, Elizabeth Dimon and Any Miller Brennan, plus accompaniment by the Lubbens, the show was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. And now the production has been extended to March 3. So what are you waiting for? Call 561-514-4042 for tickets.
Art: This weekend, it’s time to get out and take a look at art, beginning at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, which has two big shows under roof at the same time: The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show and the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show. Prepare for an overload of art objects that will take you a couple days to see in full. If you’d rather be outdoors, this is the weekend for Jupiter’s ArtiGras Festival, now in its 34th year and taking up downtown Abacoa with works by 300 different artists on display. Or, this might be the weekend to check out the newly reopened Norton Museum of Art, which is looking gorgeous in its Norman Foster remake. This Saturday is the annual Chinese New Year celebration (it’s the Year of the Pig, or the Boar, whichever you’d rather), and inside, there are a host of new exhibitions including watercolors from Ralph Norton’s collection.
Music: Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han end their weeklong residency at the Four Arts with an old-fashioned Schubertiade, a program devoted to the music of Franz Schubert; these events got started when Schubert himself was still alive and his friends wanted to celebrate his work. The program at 3 p.m. Sunday features the Piano Trio No. 2 and the much-beloved Trout Quintet, as well as two songs: one of them Die Forelle (the Trout), which was used for a quintet movement, and the other a Swedish folksong that Schubert borrowed for the slow movement of his trio. Finckel and Wu Han will be joined by the rising bassist Xavier Foley as well as violist Paul Neubauer and violinist Philip Setzer, Finckel’s longtime colleague in the Emerson String Quartet. This is likely to be epically good chamber music-making, and it’s not to be missed. Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org.