A feast for arts lovers in South Florida

Matisyahu will play the Kravis Center  on Feb. 9

South Florida, from Palm Beach to Miami, is one long arts festival during the winter. Films, exhibits, concerts and theatre run throughout the season, competing with the sun, sand and sea for visitors’ attention.

For theatre, Fiddler on the Roof will be at the Coral Springs Center on March 1. A Raisin in the Sun runs until March 3, and Exit the King, by Ionesco, March 29 to April 28, at the Palm Beach Drama Works. 

Kiss Me Kate will be at the Herb Skolnick Center, Pompano Beach, Feb. l6 to 24. The Mosaic Theatre, Plantation, is showing Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Feb. 7 to March 17. Damn Yankees will be at the Stage Door Theatre, Coral Springs, until Feb. 10. The Levis Jewish Community Centre, Boca Raton, presents the play My Life on a Diet, on Feb. 16.

Ellis Island: Gateway to a Dream will be performed at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, on Feb. 11. March 13 to 17, the centre presents Wiesenthal: The Conscience of the Holocaust. I Love A Piano will be at the Byron Carlyle Theatre, Miami Beach, to Feb. 24.

The Jewish Music Festival, at the Posnack JCC, opens on Feb. 17. This JCC has scheduled a Disco Gala, Dancing with the Stars, for March 17.

As for dance, the Miami City Ballet presents La Valse, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Symphonic Dances, from Feb. 22 to 24, at the Kravis Center, and from March 1 to 3, at the Broward Center.

Michael Feinstein performs at the Kravis Center on Feb. 9, and Matisyahu appears there on Feb. 24. The Kravis also presents The Streisand Songbook, with the Boston Pops, on March 3, and Billy Elliot the Musical, March 5 to 10.

Miami’s Arsht Center brings Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on March 15 and 16, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, and Diana Krall performs there on April 2.

 The Broward Center, as part of its classical series, brings the Russian National Orchestra on Feb. 26, and the young cellist Alisa Weilerstein on March 18.

The Symphony of the Americas presents Opera to Broadway, Feb. 26, and The Five Beethovens on April 15 and 16.

The following two music programs will be held at Lynn University, Boca Raton, on Feb. 10 and March 18, respectively – Lory Shihor, Schubert & Mozart, and Bosom Buddies: A Tribute to Jerry Herman.

Among the operas to be performed this winter, Salome will be at the Kravis Center March 15 to 17 and The Turn of the Screw April 12 and 14. Tosca will be performed at the Miramar Cultural Center on Feb. 26, and on March 11, the centre has scheduled a Tribute to Pavarotti.

An abundance of museums and art galleries along the coast  are there not just for rainy days, but for a break from some of the sunny days as well.

The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, will be hosting Annie Leibovitz’s works until June 9. Thirty-nine of Leibovitz’s most iconic celebrity photographs will be on view. Also at the Norton is Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, until June 2.

A private collection of prints featuring works by Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso can be viewed at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, Feb. 16 to March 23.

The Jewish Museum of Florida, Miami Beach, is showing Project Mah Jongg, to March 17, and Miami Mosaic Portraits, to May 12.

Two notable exhibits at the fine Wolfsonian museum, Miami Beach, are Postcards of the Wiener Werkstatte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection (to March 31), and Esther Shalev-Gerz: Describing Labor (to April 7).

The 13th Annual Broward County Jewish Film Festival, at the Posnack JCC, in Davie, opens Feb. 2 with Israel’s No. 1 box-office hit, The World Is Funny. The festival runs until Feb. 13. 

Among the films to be shown are Nicky’s Family, Brothers, The Other Son, A Late Quartet and Welcome to Kutsher’s: The Last Catskills Resort.

The biannual O, Miami Poetry Festival runs throughout the month of April.

The Storytelling Festival, in Deerfield Beach, will be held on March 9. 

Jewish Storytelling, with Caren Neile, will be presented at Florida Atlantic University, on Feb. 10. Two other programs at FAU are the Chamber Soloists, with From Vikings to Faberge: Enjoy the Spirit of Russia!, on Feb. 17, and the Klezmer Company Orchestra with “2nd Avenue Jazz ’n Jive,” on March 3.

For accommodations in South Florida the choices seem endless. The beautiful, historical (since l926) Boca Raton Resort & Club, a Waldorf Astoria resort, is an eco-friendly, 350-acre vacation destination with 30 tennis courts, and eight swimming pools. The resort will be hosting Passover visitors this March.

In Fort Lauderdale, Il Lugano, a boutique hotel with stunning views of the Intracoastal Waterway, offers upscale, modern efficiencies. The beach is a short walk away from the hotel.

The classic historic Biltmore Hotel, in Coral Gables, has one of the largest swimming pools in South Florida and 150 acres of landscaped grounds, and is famous for its service.