Theater: If, like me, you were floored by Maureen Anderman in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ A Delicate Balance, you will not need much coaxing to see her in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt: A Parable, John Patrick Shanley’s clash of wills between a suspicious nun and an affable priest (Jim Ballard) who she is convinced behaved inappropriately with a 12-year-old male student. And this takes place in 1964, before such transgressions were surfacing with regularity. J. Barry Lewis directs with an eye towards balance, as the play plays with the audience’s sympathies. The hour-and-a-half work may not be weighty enough to deserve the Pulitzer, but it certainly makes for crackling good theatrics. At the Maltz Jupiter Theatre through Feb. 17. Call (561) 575-2223 for tickets.
Film: OK, it isn’t art, but chances are you will be laughing too loudly to notice as Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) demonstrates she can carry a movie almost single-handedly with Identity Thief. She plays a Winter Park woman who is a pathological liar and credit pilferer, and who gets more than she bargained for in her latest victim, a Denver accountant (Jason Bateman) who is tired of being a patsy. So he flies to Florida to find her and drag her to Colorado so he can save his job and clear his name. McCarthy does have a potty mouth and does seem willing to try any physical slapstick bit for a laugh, but the movie sustains itself on their odd couple chemistry and road-trip hijinks. Directed by Seth Gordon, who gave us Horrible Bosses a couple of years ago, and this one is funnier. Opening this weekend at area theaters.
Art: Nine contemporary abstract artists come together this weekend for Pour, at Florida Atlantic University’s University Galleries. Artists featured in the exhibition include Ingrid Calame, Kris Chatterson, Roland Flexner, Angelina Gualdoni, Carrie Moyer, Carolanna Parlato, David Reed, Jackie Saccoccio and Carrie Yamaoka. The exhibition explores why in the digital age so many contemporary abstract artists continue to create art by pouring paint. Located in the Schmidt Center Gallery on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, the exhibition runs through March 23. A symposium featuring participating artists Carrie Moyer, Carrie Yamaoka; essayists Stephen Maine, Tyler Emerson Dorsch; and co-curators Carol Prusa and Elisabeth Condon, will be held Feb. 23 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Schmidt Center Gallery is open Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
Music: Like him or not, you can’t ignore the contribution composer John Cage made to the world of contemporary music. This weekend, Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony are celebrating the 100th birthday of Cage (who was born in 1912) with three days of concerts. Tonight’s concert features Cheap Imitation / Second Hand, a deconstruction of music by Satie according to the chance dictates of the I Ching, and Song Books, a bouquet of shorts settings of texts by some of Cage’s favorite writers, including Thoreau and E.E. Cummings. Tilson Thomas has assembled some extraordinary people to get this music across, including soprano Jessye Norman, composer Meredith Monk and pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. Tomorrow night, the orchestra performs Renga and Dance /4 Orchestras, and Hamelin performs the Etudes Australes. There’s not likely to ever be a festival that takes such a close look at Cage anywhere else in South Florida any time soon again, so this event bears close attention. Both concerts start at 7:30 p.m. in the beautiful New World Center on Miami Beach. Call 305-673-3331 or visit www.nws.edu.