If you’re used to the moody, melancholic version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” there’s a slew to be found on Netflix or Amazon. But if you’re in the mood for a big Broadway-style production with a lot of Christmas carols, this Saturday at 7 p.m. Melbourne’s King Center is hosting a touring version interlaced with songs of the era – Greensleeves, Wassail Wassail – giving a big dose of dazzle to what Dickens called his “ghostly little tale.”
The show is staged by Nebraska Touring Caravan, a professional arm of the Omaha Community Playhouse. Since 1979, the tour has been taking “A Christmas Carol” across the country in what is likely the most-seen production of the Dickens classic. They claim to reach an annual audience of 100,000 in 60 cities.
This is the last weekend to see another Christmas classic, albeit more modern: “A Christmas Story – The Musical” at the Henegar Center. Directed by Hank Rion and choreographed by Amanda Manis, the Henegar adaption for stage of the 1983 movie stars Ron Landers and Brenda Sheets as the parents of Ralphie, the BB gun-obsessed boy played by Aidan Holihan. Aidan played Michael in “Peter Pan” last year at the Titusville Playhouse. In May, he was Young Will in Henegar’s “Big Fish,” and played Pugsley in “The Addams Family” in 2014, with and Michael Halvin as his little brother.
The State Ballet Theatre of Russia brings its 60 dancers to the Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce to present the Russian version of “The Nutcracker” next Friday, Dec. 23. That’s the touring name of Voronezh State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. They’ll be presenting the version of Vasili Vainonen, the great Soviet choreographer who in the 1930s was with the Kirov Ballet. You’ll recognize a number of his ideas in the Nutcrackers of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Yuri Grigorovich. Baryshnikov used his Snowflake Waltz choreography, as well as Drosselmeyer’s puppet show in the party scene.
And while it won’t be live, you can see the Grigorovich “Nutcracker” performed by the legendary Bolshoi Ballet in a broadcast at the Majestic Theatre Sunday at 12:55 p.m. and again on Wednesday at 7 p.m. In Port St. Lucie, it will be shown at the Carmike Theatres on Sunday at 12:55 p.m. At Melbourne’s Cinemaworld West and Carmike Avenue 16, the broadcast is Sunday at 12:55 p.m. Cinemaworld shows it again Monday at 7 p.m. The ballet was recorded live in 2014. Denis Rodkin dances the role of the Nutcracker Prince. Anna Nikulina is Marie. Tickets are only $20.
If you want to see the Treasure Coast’s own Summer Gill, she’s home from college and performing at Kilted Mermaid in Vero Sunday night, and at the first Open Mic Night at Ground Floor Farm next Thursday, Dec. 22. This will be a regular event at the downtown Stuart urban farm on the fourth Thursday of every month, and Summer will be hosting it. The mic is open for more than music – comedy, prose, poetry and any other talent are all appreciated. Sign up is at 6:30 p.m. And pick up a few copies of Summer’s new seven-song EP, “Stormy Weather,” recorded at Stuart’s Rain Cat Studios. The proceeds can be her graduation present – she just finished up her last semester at FSU, a year and a half early.
Another South Florida singer of note is playing here this weekend. Melinda Elena, a Wellington-based jazz and R&B singer, performs at Stuart’s The Crafted Keg Friday night starting at 9, and at Port St. Lucie’s Shindig Irish Pub Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Sultry, soulful and committed to her craft, she, like Summer Gill, is writing her own music. She started singing with bands in her early teens and went on to study vocal jazz at Florida International University in Miami as well as Palm Beach State College. She also fronts a Fleetwood Mac tribute band as Stevie Nicks.
Violinist Itzhak Perlman has been coming to West Palm Beach since 1969, when he played with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the West Palm Beach Civic Auditorium. It was not long after he’d been discovered in Israel – by Ed Sullivan – at the age of 13. Sixteen Grammy awards later, and a recipient last year of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Perlman comes to the Kravis Center for a Sunday evening concert. Tickets start at $35 for the guaranteed thrilling performance – even in the nosebleed seats.
