May/June Holidays

This is a season of fun—and festivities. Here are the key dates:

CINCO DE MAYO, MAY 5: This day is supposed to mark the Mexican victory over the French during the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. But we all know it’s really about margaritas and tacos, primarily— and rustling up a lively roomful in honor of same.

KENTUCKY DERBY, MAY 6: The grandest American horse race there is, complete with mint juleps, lavish hats and daylong Southern hospitality. Make yourself a little party and have some unbridled fun.

MOTHER’S DAY, MAY 14: We say forget all the gifts and go out to brunch for the best present of all: you, your family and someone else doing the cooking.

MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 29: This federal holiday honors and mourns U.S. military personnel killed in the course of doing their duties. It’s a solemn holiday but also serves as the unofficial kick-off to summer.

FATHER’S DAY, JUNE 18: Ask him what he wants to do. And then let him do it.

JUNETEENTH, JUNE 19: This holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. It was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the final enslaved people learned they were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.

NATIONAL MARTINI DAY, JUNE 19: We have never heard of this holiday, but it appears to be a stroke of genius. We’ll have ours dry, with three olives.

CHAIR: The Homevative folding beach chair recommended by thespruce.com checks all the boxes: Transported like a backpack (which makes it easier to carry your other gear; see nine-pound umbrella), abundant storage, removable pillow, insulated cooler pouch, cup/phone holder, plastic gadget holder. Plus, and this is critical, it is a roomy 19 inches, has five different positions (including flat) and, best of all, it is a tall chair, so it’s easier to get on and out of. About $95.

2.2 billion

Number of mothers estimated to be in the world

93 Percentage of moms who report feeling burnt-out sometimes

$31.7 billion

How much we spent on Mother’s Day in 2022

“BEETLEJUICE”

WHEN : June 13-25

WHERE: Broward

Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale

COST: TBA

CONTACT:

954/462-0222, browardcenter.org

If we haven’t yet reached peak Gen-X nostalgia, this musical adaptation of Tim Burton’s cult comedy moves us one step closer up the mountain. The ghoulish horror-comedy seems perfectly attuned to its new format: Its title character, a scheming and maniacal bio-exorcist, is tailored for the footlights. As in the film, Beetlejuice is summoned by a newly deceased couple that only in death discover a zest for life; perhaps, with the help of their crazy-haired, stripe-suited fiend, they can have some fun haunting the absent father and morose little girl now inhabiting their former home.

Joining, of course, the Jamaican classic “Day-O” is a slate of fresh songs from Australian musical comedian Eddie Perfect, in this Broadway Across America tour.

Leslie Jones

WHEN: May 13

WHERE: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale

COST: $39.50-$65

CONTACT: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org

It’s hard to imagine a time when Leslie Jones was not funny, but in her formative years in comedy, she evidently bombed: She endured boos when opening for Jamie Foxx, who advised her to “live life for a little while” before jumping into the Darwinian world of standup. So she took three years off, during which she cultivated a brash, voluble and magnetic style. When Chris Rock saw Jones perform in 2012, he helped her land an audition for “Saturday Night Live,” which changed everything: In 2014, Jones became the oldest cast member to join “SNL” (at 47). Major roles in “Ghostbusters” and “Coming 2 America” followed, along with her now-legendary live-tweeted commentary of the 2016 and 2022 Olympic Games. She’s even hosted a game show,“Supermarket Sweep.”This rare South Florida tour appearance finds Jones in her cultural primacy, the solo stage. These days, when she breathes, it’s funny.

Benn Mitchell Photographs

WHEN: June 14-Oct. 22

WHERE: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton

COST: $12-$16 museum admission

CONTACT: 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org

Gifted with an eye for composition and detail from the time he could hold a camera, Benn Mitchell sold his first photograph to Life magazine, in 1926, at the ripe age of 16. A year later, Warner Brothers granted him permission to shoot around Hollywood sets and sound stages, where his iconic “Humphrey Bogart” image captures the legend between takes, looking archetypally Bogartian while taking a drag off a cigarette. But Mitchell is perhaps most notable for his candid street images of quintessential New York City—its architecture, its bustle, its kinetic denizens. Mitchell’s oeuvre offers something like the visual equivalent of Damon Runyan’s prose: punchy black-and-white visions of art, commerce and nightlife, snapped in the right place at the right time.

MIAMI CITY BALLET: “ENTRADAS”

WHEN: May 12-14

WHERE: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach

COST: $30-$115

CONTACT: 561/832-7469, kravis.org

The tradition of square dancing, a staple of Americana, migrates from the honkytonk to the concert hall in one of four eclectic works in Miami City Ballet’s “Entradas.” Conceived by George Balanchine in 1957, “Square Dance” marries classical ballet with the titular folk dance, whose high spirits the choreographer adored. A piece for 14 dancers, MCB’s “Square Dance” even brings back a live caller rapping directions to the dancers (“Two little ladies, up the track/sashay over, sashay back…”) and onstage folk musicians—immersive elements often removed in later productions. “Entradas,” a robust program closing MCB’s season, also includes Jerome Robbins’ sensual two-character ballet “Afternoon of Faun”; Robbins’ ethereal “Antique Epigraph,” an MCB premiere in which eight women dancers embody Greek statues to the music of Debussy; and Balanchine’s crackling “Symphony in Three Movements.”