These are the best things to do in Miami today

It’s Johnny Cash without Johnny Cash: The Man in Black’s music, and his loose biography, color this jukebox musical, in which five actors portray a Cash-like figure and his family through the stages of life, from success to struggle and back. The song list includes Cash hits from “I Walk the Line” to his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” performed on 20 unique instruments.

Prized for its complex, nuanced depiction of teenage girls in 21st century America, playwright Sarah DeLappe’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a slice-of-life ensemble piece about nine outspoken players on a diverse girls’ soccer team who navigate personal upheavals and larger sociopolitical issues while kicking their way to the next match.

This weekly, no-cover open mic night at popular Allapattah rocker joint Las Rosas brings together emerging talent from around the city, from live music to spoken word. The vibe is more relaxed out on the back patio, where you can join in on a drum circle and open jam.

Eclectic Little River food hall the Citadel sets the mood on its rooftop bar every Wednesday night with a rotating roster of live music curated by Miami’s ultimate musicians’ musician, Chad Bernstein, a connoisseur of South Florida’s Latin, jazz and funk artists and co-founder of local nonprofit Guitars Over Guns.

October kicks off New World Center’s annual SoundScape Cinema Series season. Pack a blanket and picnic with friends at these free screenings under the stars, running every Wednesday until May. October features selections from Cinema Italy: • October 9: Cinema Paradiso (1988)• October 16: Il Postino (1994)• October 23: The Great Beauty (2013) Special Halloween Presentation • October 30: Alan Howarth's “Mischief Night” (Halloween)

Africobra was a collective of ultra-political and genuinely radical black artists from late ’60s Chicago. They produced vivid, colorful, bold and seriously confrontational art that’s as relevant today as it’s ever been. The show was selected as an official Collateral Event of Biennale Arte 2019 in Venice, Italy.

Jungle Island reimagines an ancient Buddhist tradition with a distinctly Miami twist with the debut of Luminosa! Festival of Lights. Weaving giant lanterns—beautifully hand-crafted out of colorful silk by Chinese artisans—throughout 13 of the park’s lush 18 acres, the festival paints a magical story of the jungle, its wildlife, birds, blooms and the beautiful Biscayne Bay.

What do memories look like? Los-Angeles-based, Turkish-born artist Refik Anadol poses they resemble the trippy, kaleidoscopic world he’s created for his first major retrospective, “Infinite Space.” The immersive exhibition takes data from landscapes, space topography and cultural archives and turns it into billions of lights and flashes that envelope and interact with visitors, challenging the depths of perception. Every room in this place begs to be Instagrammed. 

Super Bowl LIV makes landfall in Miami Gardens this February at the Hard Rock Stadium. To celebrate our city’s hosting duties this year, HistoryMiami Museum welcomes 6,000 square-feet of the most coveted, priceless, monumental pieces of NFL history to the new “Gridiron Glory: The Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame” exhibit, opening this September. One-of-a-kind items like the seven-pound sterling silver Vince Lombardi Trophy and footballs thrown by Dan Marino when he broke the all-time career passing completions and yardage records will be on view at this interactive, multimedia show running all football season long.

Miami’s contemporary art mecca PAMM, in collaboration with Phoenix Art Museum, presents the first mid-career survey of internationally-acclaimed visual artist Teresita Fernández. “Teresita Fernández: Elemental” debuts this fall with more than 50 of the artist’s large-scale sculptures, installations, drawings and wall works created over two decades. Visitors have unprecedented access to experience the artist's works exploring themes of perceptions of place, the natural world and the US social order through her use of mixed media and natural materials.