Film: For those obsessing over growing old, Swedish director Felix Herngren serves up a puckish comedy, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, starring a renowned comic actor from his country, Robert Gustafsson, as a man who makes his escape from his nursing home just as he approaches his century mark. He does indeed slip out a window and relives his life in a series of amusing flashbacks. His various encounters with world leaders will make this film festival favorite bring to mind Forrest Gump, favorably so. Opening this weekend at Boca Raton’s Living Room Theaters.
Theater: The great jazz singer Billie Holiday, in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, is depicted returning in 1959 to a South Philly nightclub where she got her start, struggling to get through an evening’s performance in her drug and alcohol haze. At Palm Beach Dramaworks, Tracey Conyer Lee embodies the legendary vocalist, channeling her pain into a dozen or so musical numbers, accompanied by the expert musical direction of Brian P. Whitted as Holiday’s pianist Jimmy Powers, who coaxes and cajoles her onward. Playing through June 7. Tickets are $62, available by calling 561-514-4042.
Music: Seemingly overnight, the classical concert scene in Miami has gotten much more interesting. This afternoon, the fine pianist Sarah Cahill was playing Terry Riley at the Bakehouse, and in July, no less than Deborah Voigt joins Michael Rossi for his much-expanded (six weeks!) Miami Summer Music Festival. On Sunday, it’s the Amernet String Quartet at the Mainly Mozart Festival in Coral Gables, with a difficult and exceptional program of great works by Mozart (the Hunt Quartet, No. 17 in B-flat, K. 458) and Beethoven: His last string quartet, No. 16 in F, Op. 135. The group also will play Paysages, a too-rarely heard work by the too rarely-heard Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch. It’ll add some wonderful music to your long weekend; tickets for the 4 p.m. performance are only $20. Call 786-556-1715 or visit mainlymozart.com.
Dance: The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton has been training first-rate dancers since 1987; some of its better-known alumni include Bridgett Zehr and Marcelo Gomes. This weekend, it’s presenting its spring program, featuring works by Mark Godden (Miroirs), Martin Fredmann (A Little Love) and Marius Petipa (Paquita and The Sleeping Beauty). At a rehearsal last week, it was clear abundant dance talent was being fostered there, and the last performance Sunday afternoon will surely make worriers about the world of dance feel the art form is in safe hands. The last performance is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at Spanish River High School, tickets are $25-$30; call 997-2677 or visit www.harid.edu.