South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • E2

2 Sun Sentinel SunSentinel.com Sunday, February 28, 2016 BR Go! Sunday Your guide to getting out, brought to you by the staff of SouthFlorida.com THEATER Re-creating Bessie Smith Today Music William Singe: The indie artist is massively popular on YouTube, Facebook and Spot-ify but remains unsigned by a major label. His "Introduction Tour" features original songs as well as his beloved pop, hip-hop and rap covers. 6 p.m., Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, $15, 954-564-1074, cultureroom.net. Dance Women of Ireland: An all-female lineup of Irish step dancers fuses elements of Irish and Celtic music and dance.

Also appearing is Anthony Fallon, four-time world champion and former lead dancer with "River Dance." 4 p.m., Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton, 561-237-9000, events.lynn.e-du. Moscow Festival Ballet: "Sleeping Beauty" features opulent sets, lavish costumes and Tchaikovsky's score which will transport audiences to a fairy-tale kingdom. 2 p.m., Parker Playhouse, 707 NE Eighth Fort Lauderdale, 954-462-0222, Theater The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith: This musical is a dramatization of the turbulent story of the legendary Empress of the Blues. Set in 1937 Memphis, the play re-imagines the singer's final evening after she and her band are turned away by a whites-only theater.

Local favorite Avery Sommers stars as Bessie Smith. 2 p.m., Arts Garage, 180 NE First Delray Beach, 561-450-6357, artsgarage.org. ALEX SHAPIROCOURTESY Family Avery Sommers and Elijah Taj Gee star in "The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith," at Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Arts Garage performance highlights blues singer's life New Shanghai Circus: This is a modern version of a tradition. The show features acrobats, gymnasts, jugglers and tumblers in a kaleidoscope of music and movement.

2 p.m., Aventura Arts Cultural Center, 3385 NE 188th 305-466-8002, aventuracenter.org. Nobody," "St Louis Blues," "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and "Tain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do." "The Devil's Music" features 15 numbers in about 90 minutes without an intermission, according to Croft. "They're not just a song," she says. "They're life. They're not just words and lyrics.

They're life experiences. I think people will come away thinking, 'She's a part of I'm an American. She was an American blues singer. She's a part of us. She's such a reflection of American culture." Sommers adds, "The thing we briefly touch on is the heartache she felt.

I think she was always looking for her mother and father. She lost them so young. Also, I hope this exposes the audience to this land of music out there for them to learn about. This may open up Bessie to another generation, or even people who know the music but then think, 'Oh, my God, I had no idea she was the originator of that song' You know what they say: You sing because you can't talk anymore. That's what these stories are." "The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith" will run through March 26 at Arts Garage, 180 NE First in Delray Beach.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays and 8 p.m. Saturdays, with 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets cost $30 and $45.

To order, call 561-450-6357 or go to ArtsGarage.org. By Rod Stafford Hag wood Staff writer Avery Sommers will be the lady who sings the blues when she appears as legendary belter Bessie Smith Feb. 28-March 26 at Delray Beach's Arts Garage. "The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith" is essentially a one-woman show in which Smith shares her memories, sparking songs from the star's 1920s-1930s repertoire. In the play, Bessie is near the end of her life in 1937.

Even though she was one of the highest paid luminaries from the vaudeville circuit (traveling the country in her own tricked-out train car), she is now performing in a "buffet flat" after the ignominy of being refused entry into a whites-only theater in Memphis. "I refer to her and the women from that era as walking heavy in the world," Sommers says. "They had to. I had to dig deep and think about what she might have been thinking in the particular time, one day in her life. This play takes place in a very short amount of time at the very end of her life, so she reminisces." Sommers also has to interact with the combo backing her, a new experience for the musicians, according to director Genie Croft.

"I told them, 'Listen to the stories, because then you'll understand why you are playing what you are Croft says, before explaining the serendipitous way "The Devil's Music" came to be part of Arts Garage's theater season. "Alyona Ushe, president and CEO of Arts Garage said that, 'The first thing I want to do is a Croft recalls. "Now, I knew they didn't want to do 'Hello Dolly so I started researching. I had done 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill' and I loved it when I did it. And I'm very big on women's stories.

We need to get women's stories out there." Croft started fishing through scripts, briefly considering doing a show about Janis Joplin everyone said the book is After some time, she came upon "The Devil's Music" and fell in love with the show by playwright Angelo Parra "The detail and work he put in is truly impressive," Croft says. "It was clear that he loved and adored Bessie Smith." Sommers agrees. "When I read the script, I fell in love with Bessie Smith all over again," Sommers says. "She had so much fire and so much life. And this is a well-written account riveting and captivating.

And it makes me, as an actress, rise to the occasion." Part of that process was to not watch Queen Latifah's turn in "Bessie," a 2015 HBO movie that was also about the singer, who was given the sobriquet "Empress of the Blues" by the press when she started scoring hits with her recordings in 1923. "I did not watch," Sommers says. "I don't want to be influenced in my performance or my perception of something." The show ran off-Broadway in 2011 and includes Smith hits such as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," "I Ain't Got IDI NEWS Ml WLRN's 'Says YouV rolls into Sunrise Anytime, anywhere, anyway you want it. iffy vided for a mystery word and only one of the definitions is true. "The philosophy of the show is to really celebrate a love of language but with a twinkle in your eye and an ability to laugh at yourself," Sher said.

"The audience comes and they participate in that they sit in their seats and play along, even though they are not up on the stage itself." Called "Sunny Puns Sandy Bluffs," the South Florida shows will each run about two and a half hours with an intermission. The broadcasts will be taped at 7 p.m. March 19 and 1 p.m. March 20. WLRN can be heard on 9L3-FM in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami area Palm Beach County listeners can find it on 9L3-FM and 10L9-FM, depending on location.

"The motto of the show is: It's not important to know the answers, it's only important to like the answers," Sher said. For more information, go to saysyou.net or call 954-747-4646. By Johnny Diaz Staff writer "Says You!" the national weekly radio quiz show heard on WLRN is coming to Sunrise for a two-day taping. To celebrate the show's 20th year, producers of the word game program are looking for people to attend broadcasts on March 19-20 at the Sunrise Civic Center Theatre, 10610 Oakland Park Blvd. Tickets start at $40.

Although based just outside Boston, the show has regularly hit the road since 201L The Sunrise event will be the show's first time taping in South Florida "There is no tougher word game out there," said Laura Sher, the show's executive producer. Her late husband, Richard Sher, created and hosted the program, which is heard on more than 100 stations nationwide. Now hosted by Barry Nolan, the show features two teams of three panelists. They are a mix of longtime Boston media figures, from TV writers to producers, who have been with the LAURA SHERCOURTESY Barry Nolan is the host of "Says the national weekly radio show. show since its start They answer questions from categories such as "Cryptic Puns" and "Definitions and Derivations." The main part of the game is the bluffing round.

That's when three definitions are pro SunSentinel SunSentinel.com.