When Gonzalo García moved to Miami last year to become Miami City Ballet’s new Artistic Director, he didn’t come alone. He brought along with him his orange cat and his incredibly talented husband, award-winning filmmaker Ezra Hurwitz, whose music videos and short dance films have been turning heads for years. (Just check out the jaw-dropping visuals in his film for Alvin Ailey).

Now he’s bringing his vision to short promo films for MCB’s performances, giving us more than just the dancing to look forward to. I’ll admit the last one, a Saltburn-esque romp through the Versace Mansion, left me with more questions than answers (like, how did the lobster get there?). But his latest film for ¡Vamos! To the Beach, MCB’s season finale, is all heart and a love letter to Miami. Enjoy!

Speaking of season finales, we have a lot of them coming up this week. This is your last chance until the fall to see New World Symphony, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and Miami City Ballet - and Zoetic Stage’s last production of the season opens this week, as well. So get those tickets! You’ve got all summer to binge watch TV.

For those of you into cars and stuff, Miami’s Formula 1 weekend starts Friday. And this year, MSC Cruiselines is building a ship inside Hard Rock so high rollers can get a shaded view of the action from their “yacht.” Okay, so it’s not Monte Carlo, but I give them points for ingenuity.

Lastly, some sad news: New World Symphony’s Founding Artistic Director and a leading light of Miami’s cultural scene, Michael Tilson Thomas, passed away this week at the age of 81, just months after his husband Joshua Robinson. Next time you’re enjoying a free WALLCAST concert outside New World Center, give a little thank you to MTT for his commitment to making classical music accessible to everyone and his love of our city. Rest in peace, MTT!

Let’s get planning…

Jump to: Music, Theater, Literary Events, Dance, Indie Cinema, Art Events, or Planning Ahead

For their 2025-26 season finale, Miami City Ballet serves up summer vibes with ¡Vamos! To the Beach, a celebration of sun and style. Three high-energy ballets are on the program: Twyla Tharpe’s Deuce Coupe, set to The Beach Boys; Paul Taylor’s Company B, set to the iconic Andrews Sisters tune; and the world premiere of Durante Verzola’s Grand Glittering Gershwin.

May 1st-3rd, Ziff Ballet Opera House at Arsht, $35-$309

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: Aoko, Klaw, Bunbury | Drinks: Casadonna, ViceVersa

To close out its 2025-26 season, Dance NOW! Miami presents Program III, featuring two world premieres: Love-less: Dance of the Last Moho braccatus, a new contemporary ballet by co-Artistic Director Hannah Baumgarten, exploring a paradise lost; and Traces, a modern work for the full company by co-Artistic Director Diego Salterini.

Saturday, May 9th, 8pm, Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, $26-$50

Neighborhood: Aventura

Nearby Eats: Xino Chinese (inside Reunion Ktchn), Abbalé Televivian Kitchen, Pubbelly Sushi | Drinks: Reunion Ktchn Bar

More Upcoming Dance:

Artistic Director and conductor Stéphane Denève’s final performance of the season with the New World Fellows features Jean-Yves Thibaudet, one of the world’s finest pianists and a recording overachiever (he appears on more than 70 albums and 6 film scores!). The two Frenchmen will join forces for Gershwin’s American in Paris reverie and Bernstein’s all-too-relatable Age of Anxiety symphony. *Saturday’s concert will be broadcast as a free byo-blanket WALLCAST in adjacent Soundscape Park.

May 2nd-3rd, New World Center, $25-$160

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Chō Asian Bistro (new!), Casa Tua, Pauline | Drinks: Little Torch, Brother’s Keeper

As part of its 8th annual Jazz Series, Faena Theater presents an evening with Brazilian music legend João Bosco. For fifty years, Bosco has been defining the música popular Brasileira sound, weaving it into bossa nova and samba. Seating at the Faena is mostly two-by-two, and tables can be upgraded with fancy bottle service, so this is definitely a date-night booking.

Wednesday, May 6th, 8pm, Faena Theater, $70-$225

Neighborhood: Mid Beach

Nearby Eats & Drinks: Make it an all-Faena night, with dinner at Pao or Los Fuegos and drinks at Living Room or The Saxony Bar.

More Upcoming Music Events:

Miami New Drama presents The Zionists, a highly anticipated new play by acclaimed playwright, choreographer, and director S. Asher Gelman, whose play Afterglow, had an extended run Off-Broadway and a sold-out run in London. The Zionists follows a prominent Jewish family having a fragile reunion on a Caribbean island after the politics around October 7th had driven them apart. The fragile peace is shattered by a “sudden hurricane,” which pales in force to the storm that erupts inside as the power goes out.

Through May 10th, Colony Theatre, $40-$90

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Mimi Chinese, Tropezón, Uchiko | Drinks: Brother’s Keeper, MILA

Zoetic Stage caps off its 2025-26 season with the Southeastern premiere of Moses, a one-man play about faith by award-winning playwright (and “rabbi whisperer”) Michele Lowe. The story follows a man in the Bronx, who, over the course of one night, loses everyone and everything he loves. Filled with grief and remorse, he turns away from God. But God has other plans.

April 30th-May 17th, Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, $67-$73

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: ViceVersa, Klaw, Bunbury | Drinks: Casadonna, Kaona Tiki Room

More Upcoming Theater:

The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA) celebrates the opening of three new exhibits with a free reception in its lovely sculpture garden (one of my favorite places in town). Opening that night will be Mother Earth Dances, the first solo institutional show for multidisciplinary Mayan artist Manuel Chavajay; The Stranger and the Tree, a posthumous show of abstract expressionism by Iranian painter Manoucher Yektai; and a new curated exhibit from the permanent collection.

Thursday, April 30th, 5-8pm, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Free

Neighborhood: Design District

Nearby Eats: Mother Wolf, Michael’s Genuine, Cote Miami, Yasu Omakase | Drinks: The Roof at The Moore, Michael’s Genuine

Oolite Arts inaugurates their new Conversations series with an evening devoted to multidisciplinary artist Antoni Miralda, whose participatory art events have recruited boy scouts, famous chefs, fashion designers, and the general public over five decades and multiple continents. Miralda will be in conversation with University of Chicago anthropology professor Stephan Palmié and Miami artist and public art curator César Trasobares.

Thursday, May 7th, 7-9pm, Proscenium Theatre at Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Free

Neighborhood: Little Haiti

Nearby Eats: Fiorito, Walrus Rodeo, Blue Collar | Drinks: Mi Chini at Phuc Yea, Churchill’s

More Art Events:

For 11 years now, our annual O, Miami Poetry Festival and WLRN have invited Miami residents to submit a poem about their zip code, using the numbers as the structure (meaning if your zip code is 33133, your poem has 3 words on the first line, 3 on the second, 1 on the third… you get the picture). This year’s ZipOdes Finale, hosted by Vizcaya, will feature poetry readings, interactive activations, and the chance to craft your own ZipOde - plus light bites and wine.

Wednesday, April 29th, 6-9pm, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, $15

Neighborhood: Coconut Grove / Brickell

Nearby(ish) Eats: head north to Edge Brasserie or LPM, or south to Bayshore Club or Regatta Grove (those places should have you covered for drinks, as well).

Books & Books welcomes Life of Pi author Yann Martel to discuss his career and his new novel, Son of Nobody. This new work follows a Canadian classics scholar, on a fellowship at Oxford far from his wife and young daughter, who unearths an unknown ancient Greek epic by Psoas, a humble goatherd’s son drafted into the Trojan War. Echoing reimaginings of the classics from the female perspective (see Circe, A Thousand Ships, The Silence of the Girls, The Penelopiad), this one aims to do the same from the point of view of a regular guy (i.e. not a demigod).

Thursday, April 30th, 7pm, Books & Books Coral Gables, $35 (incl. two tickets + one book copy)

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Luca Osteria, Zitz Sum, Rò Steakhouse | Drinks: Sospiro Wine Bar, Books & Books Café

More Literary Events:

Coral Gables Art Cinema welcomes Josiah Howard, author of Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide, and black cinema scholar Ale Duckenfield-López for Bookends of Black Cinema: The Classic & The Cult, a two-day event screening The Guy from Harlem (the classic) and Super Fly (the cult), followed by a discussion on the finer points of the genre.

May 12th-13th at 6:30pm, Coral Gables Art Cinema, $12

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Zitz Sum, Eating House, Luca Osteria | Drinks: Books & Books Café, Bay 13 Brewery

More Indie Cinema:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those restaurants you want to try book up. Here are a couple of upcoming events to get on your calendar now…

Gablestage closes out their 2025-26 season with a play I’ve been looking forward to all year. Eureka Day, the Tony Award-winning play by Jonathan Spector, is a hilarious send-up of superwoke parent culture that got rave reviews for its Broadway run last year. The action follows the hyper-polite and painfully correct school board of an elite Berkeley, CA private school, trying to keep the peace when a mumps outbreak triggers all-out parent war.

7pm evenings, 2pm matinees, Gablestage at the Biltmore, $40-$60

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Nearby Eats: Zitz Sum, Rò Steakhouse, Zucca | Drinks: Sospiro Wine Bar, Armstrong Jazz House

The Miami Book Fair and Books & Books welcome Michelin-starred chef, bestselling author, and global humanitarian José Andrés to discuss the launch of his latest book, Spain My Way. A love letter to his homeland, the new book lays out the cornerstones of Spanish cuisine and favorite recipes from his home kitchen. Tickets will sell out for this one!

8pm, MDC Chapman Conference Center, $52 (for 2 guests, incl. 1 book copy)

Neighborhood: Downtown

Nearby Eats: ViceVersa, Yamashiro, NIU Kitchen | Drinks: ViceVersa, NIU Wine, 400 Vinyl Room (new!)

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