Theater: Many of Palm Beach County’s professional theaters are idle this summer, but the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has a few special events, like this Saturday night’s talent competition, called — what else? — Palm Beach Idols. For the eighth annual event, some 90 locals of all ages who are convinced they have talent auditioned, but only 25 of them have made the cut to perform and vie for cash prizes and the Idol title. Tickets are $25, with proceeds going to the Maltz’s Theatre Guild, a volunteer service organization. Celebrity judges, largely from the media, will winnow the field down to three in each category — youth, teen and adult — but the ultimate winners are chosen by the audience. Call (561) 575-2223 for tickets.
Film: OK, I may be biased towards documentaries about the woeful state of print journalism in the face of new media, but I still contend that Page One: Inside the New York Times is engrossing viewing for anyone curious about the phenomenon of the incredible shrinking daily newspaper. Director Andrew Rossi takes a scattershot approach to his subject, but each of the pieces manage to be interesting, particularly when he focuses on gregarious columnist David Carr who is far outside the profile of a button-down Times newsroom employee. Page One has no answers to the woeful state of journalism these days, but it dredges up a lot of the questions in a thoughtful way. Opening Friday at FAU’s Living Room Theater in Boca Raton.
Music: The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, which begins tonight, isn’t the only hot-month classical series celebrating its 20th season in South Florida. The other is Summerfest, the monthlong concert series presented by the Fort Lauderdale-based Symphony of the Americas. This year, the chamber group is teaming with the Remenyi Chamber Orchestra of Hungary in a program that recalls the 19th-century violin virtuoso, Eduard Remenyi (1830-1898) for whom it was named. Remenyi had a big career, but he’s best known for the accompanist he chose for one of his first major tours in 1853, a young pianist from Hamburg named Johannes Brahms. The well-known Hungarian-born violinist Laszlo Pap, a longtime resident of South Florida and a former member of the Florida Philharmonic and the Delray String Quartet, is the soloist in music such as the Meditation from Massenet’s Thais, Vitali’s durable Chaconne, and concerti and divertimenti by Vivaldi, Boccherini, Mozart and the Hungarian composer Leo Weiner.
The groups, led by James Brooks-Bruzzese, will be playing 11 area concerts in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, plus a single stop in Vero Beach, and also do residencies in Panama (July 10-17) and Ecuador (July 28-Aug. 1). They begin tonight with an 8 p.m. concert at the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale, and admission is free (though not for all concerts in the series). Call 954-335-7002 for more information.
The Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez makes her return Saturday night to the Piano Lovers series in Boca Raton with a program of music by Mozart (one of the sonatas and the fantasies), Chopin (the Barcarolle, Op. 60, and the Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49) and Albeniz (selections from Iberia). Perez, based in New York, has a long and impressive resume that includes studies at the Royal College of Music in London, performances all over Europe and the Americas in major venues, and a collaboration with Joshua Bell on his At Home With Friends album. Here she is, caught in the middle of Lavapies, from Book 3 of Iberia. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton; tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Call 929-6633 for more information.