Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks opens its new season by continuing to take the high road, giving its audience “theater to think about,” the triangular comedy Candida by the all-too-rarely produced in South Florida George Bernard Shaw. Kim Cozort stars in the title role, the wife of a “moralist and windbag” reverend, who attracts the romantic attentions of a young, blithering poet. So she has to choose between her comfortable, if unexciting life with Rev. Morell (John Leonard Thompson, who was so magnetic in last season’s American Buffalo) and the passionate, flighty Marchbanks (Will Connolly). That is the crux of the matter, but Shaw being Shaw, he slips in some tangential philosophizing along the way. Opening Friday evening, playing through Nov. 21. Call (561) 514-4042 for tickets.
Film: The best science fiction is a reflection of current society’s concerns, like novelist Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, adapted into an intelligent, if a bit credibility-stretching, tale of three young Brits who have been raised in a remote school with minimal contact with the outside world. In fact, as we soon learn, they are human clones, brought into the world specifically to have their organs harvested for the medical needs of others. Needless to say, their life expectancy is brief. The film is slowly-paced and emotionally muted, but the performances of Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley carry the story, particularly as it turns towards a downbeat love story. The direction by Mark Romanek is skilled and restrained, impressive when you consider that his previous major credit was One Hour Photo. This one is not going to be for mainstream tastes, but fans of the book are unlikely to be disappointed. In area theaters.
Art: The American sculptor Nick Cave has long been interested in the fiber arts, which he teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago. On Saturday, the Norton Museum of Art offers about 40 of Cave’s remarkable “soundsuits” in an exhibition that is open until Jan. 9. Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth is a multimedia exhibit that also features videos of the soundsuits in action. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12. Call 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.
The Boca Raton Museum of Art reopens Tuesday after months of renovation with three exhibits: Valerio Adami, featuring 23 paintings from the Italian pop artist’s career; Robert Cottingham: Twenty Ways to See a Star, offering 20 paintings by the American photorealist; Romanticism to Modernism: Graphic Masterpieces from Piranesi to Picasso, three centuries of fine prints by master artists (all through Jan. 9); and Latin American Art from the Museum’s Collection, 20 works by important 20th-century artists including Franceso Zuniga (through May 1). Call 392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org for more information.
The Flagler Museum opens its first exhibition of the season Tuesday with Mizner Mediterranean: The Origins of Palm Beach Style. It’s a look at drawings, photographs, ceramics and metalwork connected to the work of legendary South Florida architect Addison Mizner. Open through Jan. 2. For more information, call 561-655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.
And on Thursday, ailurophiles everywhere will want to head to the Cornell Museum of Art at Old School Square in Delray Beach for The Cat’s Meow, an exhibit (lasting through Feb. 27) of fine art photography and paintings of those beloved furry friends, the domestic cat. Call 243-7922 or visit www.oldschool.org for more information.
Music: The coming year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, who was just 50 when he succumbed to endocarditis. He’d just finished a couple important years as head of the New York Philharmonic and was looking forward to several more when his heart disease caught up to him. This weekend, Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music opens the new Wold Center of the Arts on the school’s Boca Raton campus with a real milestone, as the student orchestra gathers to play two performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, celebrated for its famous Adagietto movement, which Mahler wrote as a love letter to his wife Alma. And that’s not all: the orchestra will also accompany violinist Elmar Oliveira, now a Lynn faculty member, in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (in E minor, Op. 64), and all of it preceded by the Richard Strauss celebratory brass quintet miniature, Feirlicher Einzug der Ritter des Johanniterordens (Solemn Entrance of the Knights of St. John), written in 1909. Albert-George Schram conducts this concert, which marks a new stage in the life of Lynn’s conservatory and in the concert life of Palm Beach County in general. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets; $35-$50; call 237-9000 or visit www.lynn.edu/tickets.
Other classical events: The South Florida Symphony with Chee-Yun, violinist, at the Lincoln Theatre, Miami Beach (8 p.m. Saturday); the piano team of Duo Turgeon at Florida Atlantic University (7:30 p.m. Saturday); and pianist Valentina Lisitsa at the Boca Steinway Gallery (5 p.m. Sunday).
Rapper 50 Cent is the special guest this Saturday in Boca Raton for Think Pink Rocks, a concert to benefit breast cancer charities. Also on the program are contemporary stars such as Flo Rida, Shontelle, Melanie Fiona, Asher Roth and Ray J. Breast cancer awareness has become a much more prominent part of the charitable landscape, and this concert is likely to draw plenty of interest and money for the cause. 7 p.m., Mizner Park Amphitheatre. Tickets: $40. Call 1-888-711-9399 or visit www.thinkpinkrocks.com.
Other pop events: Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (Love Song) at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale (6:30 p.m. Monday); The Eagles, scheduled for tonight at the BankAtlantic Sunrise Center, have postponed their appearance to Wednesday, Oct. 27, because Don Henley is ill.
Dance: Sergei Prokofiev tried hardest of all to be a composer for the stage, particularly after his tragic and ill-advised return to the Soviet Union. But the ballet scores he wrote there are among his finest works, and on Saturday, the Palm Beach Gardens-based Florida Classical Ballet Theatre presents two performances of Cinderella, Prokofiev’s setting of the famous Mother Goose story. Colleen Smith’s company offers precision and charm in abundance, and this is likely to be an attractive start to the dance season. 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. Tickets: $22-$32. Call 207-5900 or visit www.fcbt.org.
Other dance events: Vladimir Issaev’s North Miami Beach company, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, mounts Stravinsky’s Petrouchka at the Broward Center (3 p.m. Sunday).