The durable Oklahoma oil hand-turned country singer Toby Keith is in town tonight at the Cruzan Amphitheatre, with the rising Brantley Gilbert as his opener. Keith’s Live in Overdrive tour should be extra-charged this week because of the ongoing attacks on the various U.S. embassies in Middle East hotspots after the Sept. 11 anniversary, one of which claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three of his colleagues. Surely the night will not end without Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue. Doors open at 7 p.m.; tickets (through Ticketmaster/Live Nation) run from $48 to $83.
Live in South Florida a while, and you realize how deep the area’s talent bench is when it comes to classical music. A good case in point is the Bergonzi Quartet, which has for years been the quartet in residence at the University of Miami. This year, the foursome celebrates its 20th anniversary, and on Sunday afternoon they get the UM musical season going with a program of music by Hugo Wolf (Italian Serenade), Ravel (the String Quartet) and George Gershwin. Glenn Basham has arranged the Three Preludes for string quartet, and the pianist Tian Ying joins the quartet for a piano quartet version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, arranged by Patricia Rudisill. The concert starts at 3 p.m. at Gusman Hall, and tickets are $15. Call 305-284-2438 for more information.
If you’re not able to head down to Miami for the Bergonzi, perhaps you can make it Pompano Beach tonight for a concert at the Pink Church by the Lynn University Wind Ensemble. Lynn’s concert schedule has been upended by the school’s hosting next month of the third presidential debate, so some of the concerts that would ordinarily have taken place at the Wold Performing Arts Center are happening elsewhere. Empire Brass tubist Kenneth Amis will lead the band in music of Wagner (the Trauermusik), Camille DeNardis (The Universal Judgment), Henri Tomasi (Fanfares Liturgiques), Yasuhide Ito (Gloriosa), and the Psalm of the American composer Vincent Persichetti. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert are $10. Call 561-237-7607 or visit www.lynn.edu/tickets.
Art: For two centuries, American women used quilting as a medium for expressing political beliefs and calling for social change. A new exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Politics NOT as Usual: Quilts with Something to Say features quilts from the Colonial period to present-day America. Included in the collection from the American Folk Art Museum in New York City are quilts expressing Union pride following the Civil War, support for presidential candidates and anger at being denied the right to vote. A highlight of the collection is the 9/11 National Tribute Quilt. This art piece incorporates quilt blocks from 500 people, Americans from all 50 states as well as quilters from Canada, Spain, Denmark and Australia. The quilt’s four central panels form a montage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center against the New York City skyline. The exhibition is on display through Jan. 13. For more information, contact the Boca Raton Museum of Art by visiting http://www.bocamuseum.org or calling (561) 392-2500.
Film: There are few Communists around to focus our hatred on, extraterrestrials have been scarce lately, so the villains of choice these days are the unscrupulous rich. Sleek, confident well-tailored men like Robert Miller (Richard Gere), the hedge fund manager due for a meltdown in the smart new thriller, Arbitrage. Over the course of the film, this celebrated financier will see his professional and personal life crumble, first because his effort to cook the company books is discovered by the company’s chief financial officer ― Miller’s daughter ― and secondly, because he falls asleep at the wheel one night and crashes his car, killing his mistress, a crime the hubristic Miller attempts to cover up. It is a good role for the impassive, somewhat oily Gere, though he has the film stolen from him by Tim Roth as a persistent Columbo-like cop on his trail. Feel free to see Arbitrage as an indictment of the one-percenters, or just a cool, cerebral crime drama. Opening locally this weekend at area theaters.
DVD: I have never been much of a fan of “king of the world” James Cameron’s film Titanic, but with 11 Oscars to its credit and more than $2.1 billion brought in worldwide, I accept that I am in the minority in my opinion. Approaching the movie again with the newly released Blu-Ray video package that includes two-and-a-half hours of new content, including 30 deleted scenes, it is easy to admire the chemistry between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet ― they look so young ― while still wondering why a fictional story was felt needed when there are so many more interesting tales among the real-life passengers. Even 15 years after the film first was in theaters, the technical aspects still impress and they look terrific in hi-def. There is nothing remotely crucial in the deleted scenes and Cameron’s commentary is a bit too self-congratulatory for my taste, but the film as a whole is better than I remembered. Now if I can only get that theme song out of my head.
Theater: The area theater scene remains sluggish in the dog days of summer, but the buzz is good for a production of A Shayna Maidel, Barbara Lebow’s heartfelt drama about two young Polish sisters separated by the Holocaust, who are reunited 15 years later in New York City. It is playing at Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs, where is has just been extended by a week to Sept. 30. Hugh M. Murphy directs a non-Equity cast in this exploration of persistence, coincidence and remembrance. Call (954) 344-7765 for tickets.