The Comedy Club at Sunrise Theatre features a Fort Pierce native this weekend. Saturday night, Eddie Mauldin is flying in from L.A., where he now lives, to do a show at the Black Box Saturday night. A comic as well as a cartoonist, Mauldin studied film at the University of Miami, where he won the campus Belly Bust competition three years in a row, and was a finalist at the South Beach Comedy Festival.
He’ll be performing along with headliner Carmen Morales, an Orlando native who performed at Riverside last weekend. The Sunrise show starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.
With Christmas behind us, the peace on earth we all wished for may be right in our own backyard, at McKee Botanical Gardens or the Sebastian Inlet, or a pleasant drive away at Lake Wales’ beautiful Bok Tower.
The local gardens, open Saturday and Sunday, are adding Monday, Dec. 28 to the holiday schedule, as well as the Monday after the New Year.
Bok Tower Gardens is open every day of the year, with a special carillon concert on New Year’s Day. It’s without a doubt one of the prettiest spots in the state, and it’s great for early risers – it opens at 8 a.m.
Sebastian Inlet State Park adds a little country music to the sound of the waves in another of its Night Sounds concerts Saturday. There’s a seven-piece band called Classic Country covering the songs of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. The concerts start at 7 p.m. and last two hours or so, long enough to see the full moon rise.
If anyone else is looking for a way to get delirious without drinking this New Year’s Eve, Mel Brooks’ musical “The Producers” is onstage for one night only at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
At press time there were plenty of seats left at Kravis.
And if Christmas morning left you with some awkward IOUs, you can have some tickets sent to those generous souls’ inboxes before they ever realize they were overlooked.
For fans of musical theater, you can start right here at Riverside: “A Chorus Line” is good for an evening’s entertainment, even if you’ve seen it a dozen times. It’s playing Jan. 5 through 24.
For kids, Kravis has “Matilda the Musical” coming up March 1 through 6. There’s also the Trinity Irish Dance Company Jan. 2.
Any lover of dance would thrill at tickets to the Joffrey Ballet March 12 at Kravis, or any of Miami City Ballet’s three remaining programs. The performance Jan. 29 through 31 includes Twyla Tharp’s absolutely astonishing “In the Upper Room.”
And in Vero Jan. 22 and 23, Ballet Vero Beach has a world premiere of Adam Schnell’s “Pastoral Symphony” as well as a repeat of its wonderful 2014 “Museum Pieces” previously staged at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Another program, April 8 and 9, includes two more premieres, one by Schnell and the other by Camilo Rodriquez.
How about an evening with Sophia Loren? Seriously, the ticket alone would add years to some lives. She’s at the Kravis Center March 28. And Bernadette Peters might be good for the soul. I saw her at Gloria Estefan’s Broadway opening and, to paraphrases the line from “Seinfeld,” she’s real and she’s spectacular. Peters appears April 7 at Kravis.
Speaking of soul, there’s the legendary gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples appearing at the Kravis with the Blind Boys of Alabama. That’s May 6. If that’s too far off, Patti Labelle is at the King Center Feb. 3.
If you’re watching your budget, the affordable seats at comedy clubs at Riverside Theatre and Sunrise Theatre are always a good time. And there are some bigtime comedians headed to the King Center in Melbourne. Jay Leno plays Feb. 21; Lewis Black appears April 10; Kathy Griffin has a show April 16, and Bill Maher appears May 15.
At the Kravis: Jackie Mason plays Jan. 26, and though I’m not sure how to categorize him, William Shatner performs Feb. 2.
As for interesting popular music, Ani DiFranco is at the Plaza Live in Orlando on Jan. 15. And the great Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo are playing the King center February 12; Rolling Stone says it’s a spectacular show.
There’s a fantastic lineup for the Sunshine Music Festival in Boca’s Mizner Amphitheatre Jan. 17. Tedeschi Trucks Band, Indigo Girls, Jerry Douglas Band, and Trombone Shorty are hard to beat in a great, small outdoor venue.
If you’ve got someone who loves a real rock concert setting, Dixie Chicks are playing the Perfect Vodka Amphitheater (formerly Coral Sky) in West Palm. That’s not until August, but the good shows go fast.
And finally, if you can stand the wait, Adele has scheduled a two-night Miami stopover Oct. 28 and 29.