The Five Most Exciting Stage Events Coming to the Arsht Center This Season

All New People
This four-character comedy by Scrubs star Zach Braff recently closed in New York City and London, and Miami's own Zoetic Stage at the Arsht snagged it up as soon as it became available to regional theaters. It's about a guy who's just turned 35 and is on the precipice of suicide -- a task he could complete were it not for the three eccentric characters who converge on his New Jersey beach house. Nicholas Richberg, Todd Allen Durkin, Amy McKenna and Betsy Graver will star in Zoetic's production.
Who should go: vintage movie fans. Braff is known mostly as an actor, and Hollywood cinema is a touchstone for All New People. Braff has called it "The Breakfast Club for adults," and there are elements in it of Harold and Maude, Woody Allen and It's a Wonderful Life. There's even film projection employed in the scenic design.
January 10-27, $40-$45

Brothers Beckett
Penned by local playwright David Michael Sirois and first presented by Alliance Theatre Lab in March 2011, Brothers Beckett earned three Carbonell nominations -- a major achievement for a new work. This funny, sensitive, authentic and occasionally heartbreaking examination of the bloodlines and love lives of 20-something college graduates was a notch above most world premieres. Now, two years later, it will receive a grander treatment its second time around, in the Arsht Center's Carnival Studio Theatre.
Who should go: Anyone with a sibling, anyone with a dream, anyone who's fallen in love, anyone who, for a time, didn't want to grow up. In other words, pretty much everyone.
March 7-24, $35

Fela!
Most exclamation marks, in titles or otherwise, are superfluous. In the case of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, one exclamation mark doesn't seem to do him justice. Before dying at 58 from an AIDS-related disease, he released 45 albums bridging gaps between jazz, funk, psychedelic rock and other genres, helping to create hip-hop and world music as we know them today. This groundbreaking Broadway musical celebrates his life, legacy and especially his music, in a phantasmagoria of light, color and sound, and of dance, theater and music, co-produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith.
Who should go: Naturally, Fela fans will love it, but the musical also will make a great primer for those who have never heard Kuti's music. The 27 songs in the show examine his political rage as well as his progressive musicality, with songs like "Coffin for Head of State" and "Expensive Shit."
March 19-24, tickets TBA.

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