Music: The Master Chorale of South Florida began life as the chorus for the Florida Philharmonic, providing massed vocal heft when it was time for the Beethoven Ninth Symphony or Belshazzar’s Feast. The orchestra dissolved 10 years ago, but the chorus has continued, and in that decade it’s had three different directors. Now it’s on its fourth, young Brett Karlin of Boca Raton, who promises to bring fresh energy and a different programming protocol to the community chorus. You can hear what that’s all about tonight at the Wold Performing Arts Center in Boca Raton, when the chorale presents an evening dedicated to St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, whose feast day was Friday. Karlin, accompanied by The Symphonia of Boca Raton, has programmed the Cecilia Mass of Haydn, Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day and the Ode to St. Cecilia of Henry Purcell. If you miss it, you can catch it again at 4 p.m. Sunday in Coral Gables at First United Methodist Church. Tonight’s concert is at 8, and tickets are $30. Call 954-418-6232 or visit masterchoraleofsouthflorida.com.
Film: In the course of making an upbeat documentary about Tour de France cyclist Lance Armstrong, award-winning director Alex Gibney drastically switched gears when his subject finally admitted to lying to race organizers, the media, fans and the world about taking performance-enhancing drugs. Thus was born The Armstrong Lie, which covers the rise and fall of the most famous athlete ever in competitive cycling. Gibney (Oscar winner for Taxi to the Dark Side) also puts himself into the film, interrogating Armstrong about the brazen untruths he had made during the early filming. In addition, Gibney gets some exciting footage of Armstrong’s races, which prevent The Armstrong Lie from being a static, talking-heads movie. opening this weekend at Regal Delray and Regal Shadowood theaters.
Theater: Procrastinators, be forewarned. This is the final weekend of The Longing and the Short of It at The Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach. It is a jazz-tinged song cycle by emerging composer-lyricist Daniel Maté, whose way with melody and wit-laced lyrics chart the efforts of a multitude of characters to connect and forge relationships in our challenging contemporary times. Elizabeth Dimon is a standout in the cast of six, perhaps because she gets such sly solos as Starting S— with You. Chances are you will identify with many of these characters, or at least feel smugly superior to them. Continuing through Sunday. Tickets: $30-$45. Call: (561) 450-6357.
Art: When Elvis Presley went mainstream in the late 1950s, he made good use of the explosively growing medium of television, making his first nationwide TV appearance on Ed Sullivan’s show, which ran on CBS from 1949 to 1971. As Presley became an iconic star, various photographers from CBS took photos of the man from Tupelo, and 35 of the large-format candids can now be seen on exhibit at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts in a show called Elvis: Grace & Grit. Fans of the King will want to see these photos, of course, and others more interested in photography will have much to think about in how our popular culture has disseminated images of its icons. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Thursday until 8 p.m.; Sunday, 1-4:30 p.m. Admission is $8. Call 561-243-7922 for more information.