An evening by the ocean with friends, food, libation and live music is always an appealing option, and that’s just what’s on tap (no pun intended) this very weekend: It’s Sunset Saturday Night, the free monthly concert hosted by the Oceanside Business Association and featuring, this month, Jessica Spears and Plan B. This Florida gal can kick up some dust, pickin’ and singin’ with a classic country style. You’ll be tapping to the beat before the night’s over, for sure. Sunset Saturday Nights are family-friendly events, which feature a different music genre each month, south on Ocean at Humiston Park, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Post-concert, you can linger and enjoy a late supper at one of the great restaurants, hotels or bars nearby.
For over a century (the last one), Ann Landers dispensed advice to millions of us, who turned to her newspaper column first thing in the morning for our daily dose of insight, humor and common-sense advice. Landers, aka Eppie Lederer, she of the big hair and bigger style, is remembered in “The Lady With All the Answers,” a solo play by David Rambo, opening at the Vero Beach Theatre Guild this coming Thursday. The show is a chatty tour de force starring Guild favorite and multi Genie Award-winning actress Eleanor Dixon. It takes place in Landers’ Chicago apartment on a night in 1995, as the straight-talking advice columnist faces a column she doesn’t know how to write. Although she had fearlessly and confidently written about everything from nude housekeeping to sibling rivalry to heartbreak, she was going to write about a heartbreak of her own. Unable to face the typewriter, she chats with us as she rummages through columns, reading from some, and sharing her life story. “The Lady with All the Answers” opened at New York City’s Cherry Lane Theatre in 2009. Director for the Guild production is Art Pingree, and long-time local director Jon Putzke is producer and set designer. The 10-show run is Sept. 14-24.
If you’re in the mood for some stand-up, grown-up comedy (and can’t we all use a few laughs these days?), head for Riverside Theatre this Friday or Saturday because it’s Comedy Zone time again. You always get a two-fer at Riverside’s “hilarious, wild, untamed” Comedy Zone: this weekend it’ll be Larry Reeb and Bob Lauver. Well-known on the stand-up circuit, Chicago native Reeb has had a good bit of TV experience, primarily with fellow comic Rodney Dangerfield. His alter ego, Uncle Lar, is that sarcastic, often raunchy uncle (every family has one) who is compelled to interject his observations into everybody’s conversations. Lauver grew up in rural central Pennsylvania, then joined the Navy and saw (a good bit of) the world. He was a “gentlemen’s club” manager for a while as well, and that unusual combination of experiences left him with an interesting perspective on life, and a great source of fodder for his routines. Show times are 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. And, P.S.: If you didn’t have time to grab a bite before, you can get food and drinks at Riverside.
Here’s what cooking, musically, at the Tiki Bar and Grille in Sebastian: Friday it’ll be Minus Turmoil (soulful Roots Reggae mixed with rock and blues) 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday you’ll hear Front Porch Blues (acoustic blues), 1 pm. to 5 p.m., then Big Bad Murphy (rock ’n’ roll and blues) from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday afternoon, grab a brew and enjoy Dave Goodman (acoustic guitarist and vocalist) from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. If you haven’t been, the Tiki Bar and Grille is one of those laid back, toes-in-the-sand, locals-and-visitors hangouts along the Indian River.
