Theater: With the comic strip musical Annie, director Mark Martino does not pull off the sort of new look reconceiving that he did with The Music Man at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre a couple of seasons ago, but he renders the show with plenty of heart and pizzazz. He doubles as the musical’s choreographer and stops the show twice with a raucous, bump-and-grind Easy Street and a high-kicking orphan chorus line on Fully Dressed. As alcoholic orphanage matron Miss Hannigan, he has the comic services of Vicki Lewis, who chews the scenery with relish. And expect to fall for 10-year-old Clara Young as the big-voiced redheaded title character, topped only by Macy the rescue dog as Annie’s beloved pooch Sandy. Tickets range from $52 to $79, for the remainder of the run at the Maltz through Sunday, Dec. 22. Call (561) 575-2223 to snag a few.
Film: This is shaping up to be the year of the seniors at the movies, led by Oscar nomination-worthy performances by two 77-year-olds, Robert Redford (All Is Lost) and Bruce Dern (Nebraska). Now they are topped by 78-year-old Dame Judi Dench in the title role of Philomena, a poor, not very bright Irish woman who — 50 years ago — was forced to give up her out-of-wedlock son by convent nuns who ran an adoption mill for well-off Americans. Philomena becomes obsessed with learning about her son’s subsequent history, so she teams up with a cynical journalist (Steve Coogan, who also wrote the screenplay and co-produced the film). Their search takes them to the States and we become involved in Philomena’s quest by seeing it through Dench’s eyes. In area theaters now.
Music: Want to get into the Christmas spirit and help out some deserving musicians? The answer at this time of year has always been the Gingerbread Holiday Concert at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. For the 11th year, the Lynn Philharmonia will descend on the resort’s Great Hall and perform a program of holiday classics to a child-heavy audience. Proceeds from the Sunday afternoon concert go to benefit the students of the Lynn conservatory. Tickets for the 3 p.m. show are $35; call 561-237-9000 or visit www.lynn.edu.
If you’d rather have your Christmas with a little singing, Sunday also brings a Christmas concert by the Symphony of the Americas, joined by the choir of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, led by Robin McEachern. In addition to seasonal favorites like O Holy Night, Feliz Navidad and The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy, James Brooks-Bruzzese will lead the orchestra in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride; the forces will also team up for music by Mozart (Gloria from the Missa Brevis, K. 258), Bernstein (a movement from the Chichester Psalms) and John Rutter (Magnificat). The concert begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and is repeated at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets range from $50-$75; call 954-335-7002 or visit www.symphonyoftheamericas.org.