Entertainment in Florida
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A
Irish Kevin’s
One of the most popular megabars on Duval, Kevin’s has a pretty good entertainment formula pinned down: nightly live acts that are a cross between a folk singer, radio shock jock and pep-rally cheerleader. The crowd consistently goes ape-poo for acoustic covers of ’80s favorites. Basically, this is a good place to see 50 women from New Jersey do tequila shots, scream ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ at the top of their lungs and then inexplicably sob into their Michelob. It’s more fun than it sounds.
reviewed
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B
Florida Room at the Delano
‘Wanna buy me an eight-dollar beer?’ asks an out-of-towner, gazing awestruck at the sheer mass of model-types packed into this den of iniquity. The Florida Room is as exclusive as they get, plus a popular dancehall/samba piano lounge for local scenesters who eschew the tourist trap megaclubs further down the beach. Show up before 11pm or be on the list (or be Lenny Kravitz – who helped design this place) to get in.
reviewed
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C
Mango’s Tropical Café
- Miami, USA
- Entertainment › Bar
Cuba meets Coyote Ugly Saloon in this tourist hotspot, where a staff of gorgeous and/or ripped bodies (take your pick) dances, gyrates and puts some serious booty on the floor. Of course, you’re here for anthropological reasons: to study the nuances of Latin dance. Not to watch the bartender do that thing Shakira does with her butt.
reviewed
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D
Space
This multilevel warehouse is Miami’s main megaclub. With 30,000 sq ft to fill, dancers have room to strut, and an around-the-clock liquor license redefines the concept of after-hours. DJs usually pump each floor with a different sound – hip-hop, Latin, heavy trance – while the infamous rooftop lounge is the place to be for sunrise.
reviewed
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E
Premier Muvico Palace 20
Ahhhh, this is how movies were meant to be enjoyed! This elegant and massive film house (sister property to the one in West Palm's CityPlace), offers luxurious seating, a private bar and a wine menu for sipping while you watch your movie. For some, the best detail is that children are not admitted into the theatres.
reviewed
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Mck's Tavern
Just want a low-key spot to enjoy a beer? Chill over drafts and darts at McK's Tavern.
reviewed
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F
John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center
The John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center is a sprawling combination of buildings dedicated to preserving and performing the works of the old bard. Appropriately, the center is home to the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival (Sep-May), which is actually a performing group rather than an annual event, and has performances here and at the Lake Eola amphitheater.
Among the center's more notable features, the Darden Courtyard is a leafy yet minimalist spot in which to wander before heading inside for a show. But you'll have to pass through the lobby and the frighteningly large, life-size portrait of Queen Elizabeth - we swear her eyes followed us. There are two theaters: the 1…
reviewed
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Gay Bars & Clubs
What Cherry Grove is to its neighbor the Fire Island Pines, Fort Lauderdale is to South Beach - a little more rainbow-flag-oriented and a little less exclusive. And for the hordes of gay boys who flock here, either to party or to settle down, therein lies the charm. You don't need to be A-list to feel at home at any of the many gay bars, clubs or restaurants, and you won't have any trouble finding 'the scene'.
Fort Lauderdale is home to more than 25 gay bars and clubs, about a dozen gay guesthouses, and a couple of way-gay residential hubs including Victoria Park, which is the established gay ghetto, and Wilton Manors, more recently gay-gentrified and boasting endless nig…
reviewed
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G
Lyric Theatre
Hallowed names such as Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald walked across the Lyric stage when it was a major stop on the ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’ – the black live-entertainment trail of pre-integration USA. But as years passed both the theater and the neighborhood it served, Overtown, fell into dysfunctional disuse. Then the Black Archives History & Research Center of South Florida kicked in $1.5 million for renovations and overhauled everything. The phoenix reopened its doors in 1999 to appreciative neighbors, civic leaders and entertainers alike. A 2003 expansion feels a little too modern when juxtaposed with the Lyric’s elegant early-20th-century exterior, but it’s shiny, we …
reviewed
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H
Boomtown Theatre & Coffee Salon
About a mile north of downtown, Jacksonville's historic district of Springfield is budding as a hip center for the arts.
Check out the Boomtown Theatre & Coffee Salon , a very experimental dinner theater, whose lineup runs from gospel-style sing-alongs to contemporary(ish) tunes (Tainted Love tears the roof off), spoken-word open-mic nights, an ongoing Vampire improv serial every Thursday, swing dancing (including free lessons), and 'Soul Release', a spoken-word jazz hip-hop jam. All this is accompanied by an equally eclectic - and excellent - menu that includes a 4000-year-old recipe Egyptian honey cinnamon chicken.
reviewed
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Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
This is the largest performing-arts center south of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It hosts major concerts, touring Broadway productions, plays, the Tampa Ballet and special events. The complex has five theaters: Festival Hall (a 2500-seat venue where touring Broadway shows and headliners perform), Ferguson Hall (with 1000 seats), the Jaeb (a three-floor cabaret), the Teco (with 200 seats) and the 100-seat Shimberg Playhouse, a ‘black box’ venue for cutting-edge performances by local and national artists and groups. Free backstage guided tours are offered Wednesday and Saturday at 10am, by reservation.
reviewed
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J
Ninth & Main Street
About a mile north of downtown, Jacksonville's historic district of Springfield (www.thenewspringfield.com) is budding as a hip center for the arts.
A former disused automotive repair shop, the 'place of no particular style', Ninth & Main Street, now houses an outstanding Caribbean restaurant, Henrietta's, a theater, an art gallery, and a live-music venue (Thursday and Friday). It also hosts the annual Springfield Film Festival, showcasing independent filmmakers from Florida and beyond. The festival kicks off in spring, with a rolling series of screenings (usually Thursdays) until the fall.
reviewed
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K
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
The Olympia Theater at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts is a one-of-a-kind classic. You know how the kids in Hogwarts can see the sky through their dining hall roof? Well the Olympia recreates the whole effect sans Dumbledore, using 246 twinkling stars and clouds cast over an indigo-deep, sensual shade of a ceiling. The theater first opened in 1925; today the lobby serves as the Downtown Miami Welcome Center, doling out helpful visitor information and organizing tours of the historic district; at night you can still catch theater and music performances.
reviewed
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Jackie Robinson Ballpark
On an island in the Halifax River, Jackie Robinson Ballpark is home to the Daytona Cubs, a Class A minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. In 1946, the Montreal Royals, Jackie Robinson’s team, was in Florida to play an exhibition against their parent club, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Other Florida cities refused to let the game proceed due to segregation laws, but Daytona Beach cried, ‘Play ball!’ and Robinson later went on to be the first African American baseball player in the majors. The ballpark, seating 4200 people, was renamed in his honor in 1990.
reviewed
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L
Karu & Y
Karu smacks of an Atlanta hip-hop megaclub in ways good and sundry. Basically, it’s a bottle of iced-out Cristal given club form – there’s a Dale Chiluly chandelier in the entrance, waterfall out front and restaurant (Karu; Y is the lounge) that serves foie-gras lollipops. It’s all (literally) smack on the tracks that separate tatty but gentrifying downtown Miami (bling!) from Overtown’s worst projects (bang!). Come here to star in your personal MTV video, and expect to pay for the privilege.
reviewed
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M
White Room
Miami’s hipsters are so, well, Miami – artsy yet glam compared to their London and NYC counterparts. They flock here, where there’s the requisite weird movies playing on open-air projectors, Lawrence of Arabia tents curving around an exposed-industrial main-stage and, according to promoters, a shared design-aesthetic-lifestyle-blah blah blah. Hot hipsters get drunk and dance with other hot hipsters. You go, White Room. The very popular Poplife party goes off here Saturdays.
reviewed
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N
Feelgood’s
Co-owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil, this 8500-sq-ft rock bar/dance club has shiny choppers, rock memorabilia and a mammoth snake slithering into the rafters. Heads up: the place is packed with girls, from bartenders in skimpy outfits, to dancers on the poles, to customers coming to get wild – some visitors will love it and some will loathe it; bypass this place if you are of the latter variety. Not enough big ’80s hair, but it’s still good, cheesy fun.
reviewed
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O
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
All things to all people - arts-loving people, that is. Comprising a main concert hall, the black-box Rinker Playhouse, a pavilion housing lecture halls and practice rooms, and an outdoor amphitheater, the Center is host to astounding fare. A recent sample includes the World Famous Count Basie Orchestra with Bob Lappin and the Palm Beach Pops, the Russian National Ballet Theatre's production of Swan Lake and a concert by Englebert Humperdinck.
reviewed
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Buck 15
Located in a loft above Miss Yip, B15 manages to blend everything we like about going out – kinda edgy but not scary graffiti chic, cast-off action figures, consistently awesome DJs (Did they just mix ‘Your Love’ by the Outfield into ‘Low’ by Flo Rida? Oh yes they did), free entry, a good mix of the hip and the hot and the drunk and the folks who just don’t care but definitely wave their hands in the air – into one shot of nightlife fun.
reviewed
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Q
FSU Theatre Department
The FSU Theatre Department has three venues. The Richard G Fallon Mainstage Theater in the Fine Arts Building, north of Call St on the campus, does large productions of plays and musicals. The Studio, in the Williams Building on campus, stages various free student productions. Off campus, at the corner of Lafayette St and Copeland St, the Lab does a range of works, from Shakespeare to musicals, in its 150-seat thrust-stage setting.
reviewed
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John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center
The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center, home to the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, holds performances of Shakespeare stand-bys like Macbeth and As You Like It, as well as classic theater, two children’s shows a year, an annual theatrical premier, and holiday favorites – well, perhaps A Tuna Christmas isn’t a favorite, but it’s certainly an interesting holiday option.
reviewed
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Cucina Dell’arte
Reminiscent of a Florentine cafe, this high-end eatery overflows with warm colors, art and some of the finest glitterati in Palm Beach. Around 10pm, they shove the tables out of the way and blast the music. Expect to see dancing botox queens, beautiful visiting fashionistas, desperate old guys and totally normal people soaking it all in. Pretentious enough to be fun, if you arrive wearing a serious face, you’ll be sorry.
reviewed
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R
Rose Bar at the Delano
The ultrachic Rose Bar at this elegant Ian Schrager original is a watering hole for beautiful creatures (or at least those with a healthy ego). Get ready to pay up for the privilege – but also prepare to enjoy it. The tiki bar in the back of the Delano is another winner; wait for staff to set out a wrought-iron table in the shallow end of the pool and you’ll start rethinking your definition of opulence.
reviewed
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Café Eleven
Decorated by an Ikea-ophile, this slick hangout is a full-service coffee shop/restaurant during the day. At night, the tables get shoved aside and it transmogrifies into a theater for some of indie rock’s biggest names (recent acts include Vampire Weekend, Modest Mouse and the Walkmen). Super-intimate but roomy enough to avoid crazed dancers, it’s simply the best small venue on the east coast to catch a live show.
reviewed
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S
Stubbie Shirt Pub
When Berkeley Hoflund visited Australia, she fell in love with the beer. Upon returning, she opened this very orange, very Aussie, very awesome pub serving 255 types of international ‘stubbies and tinnies’ (beer bottles and cans, mate), plus quirky T-shirts, custom-made while you wait. Don’t try to outsmart the razor-sharp staff: they know waaaay more about beer than you. BYO food; they have games behind the bar.
reviewed
