Tom Gregersen has been responsible for planning, designing and installing more than 100 exhibitions at the Morikami. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)

THE SCENE MAKER: 
TOM GREGERSEN

WHO HE IS: Gregersen is the cultural director at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. He holds a master’s degree in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan, and before joining the Morikami in 1978, Gregersen taught English as a second language in Japan. During his tenure at the Morikami, Gregersen has been responsible for planning, designing and installing more than 100 museum exhibitions and for overseeing the museum’s curatorial, collections, and education departments. Gregersen has authored or edited several exhibition-related catalogues and is currently working on a book about the Yamato Colony. He and his wife Sandi have one son and one daughter and live in Delray Beach.

A few of his favorite things:
FAVORITE CULTURAL INSTITUTION TO VISIT (OTHER THAN THE MORIKAMI!):
The Norton Museum of Art. I enjoy their special exhibitions and East Asian offerings, and I’m grateful that they are not competing with Morikami for Japanese art.
The Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

FAVORITE MOVIE THEATER:
The Regal Cinema. My son is employed there.
Regal Delray Beach 18, 1660 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach. Info: (561) 272-0510; regmovies.com
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What do you get for a musical that has traveled the world, playing to some 50 million theatergoers and setting box office records, to celebrate its 25th anniversary?

If you are producer Cameron Mackintosh and the show is Les Misérables, you mount a reconceived production and put it on the road to make new fans and more money.

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A few months ago I wrote about my favorite painting: Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow. I love it for reasons both aesthetic – the bird’s-eye point of view, the pervasive sense of cold – and documentary: This is how people really lived in the Renaissance, even though Bruegel’s art has always struck me as more tied to the Middle Ages.

So Larry Silver’s new book Pieter Bruegel (Abbeville) was a welcome addition to the pile of books on my desk. Compared with other artists, not a lot is known about Bruegel, although an engraving of the artist shows a distinguished man in early middle age with a long beard.

The first official mention of him comes in 1551, in a listing of the Antwerp painter’s guild, when he presumably would have been between 25 to 30 years old. He married, had a son – also a painter – was commercially successful, highly regarded by his contemporaries, and died in 1569.

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ON THE HORIZON

‘PROOF’: Opens May 25 and runs through June 17, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St, West Palm Beach. In this Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama, the daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Tickets: $55. (561) 514-4042.

‘UNDER THE SEA’: 7 p.m. May 25, Jupiter Community Center, 210 Military Trail, Jupiter. Jupiter Community Adult Dancers and soloists will perform the ballet. Admission is free. cballet123@aol.com or (561) 743-5837.

NOW PLAYING

‘GUYS AND DOLLS’: 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Borland Center, 4901 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Frank Loesser’s musical, as presented by an all-youth cast from the Atlantic Arts Academy. Tickets: $20 for adults and $15 for students and children. (561) 575-4942; www.TheAtlanticTheater.com

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The Norton Museum of Art is changing things up at Art After Dark from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 24, with a Backyard Barbecue co-hosted by WRMF-FM 97.9. There’ll be craft beer tastings and line dancing lessons from 5 to 7 p.m. followed by the music of The Samantha Russell Band.

The weekly pbpulse.com tour at 5:30 p.m. will take a closer look at The Art of Still Life.

As always, there will be food and drink specials offered in Cafe 1451.

When: 5-9 p.m. Thursday, May 24

Where: 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach

Admission: Free for members; $12 adults; $5 ages 13-21; free for younger than 13

Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

Picasso

Art After Dark, the Norton Museum’s popular Thursday evening event of art and entertainment continues from 5 to 9 p.m. and features a closer look at Picasso and Friends during the pbpulse.com tour at 5:30 p.m. American Art is the focus of the 6:30 p.m. tour.

Acoustic performer Jeff Harding plays from 5-7 p.m., and The Jason Cardinal Band performs from 7-9 p.m. At 1451 S. Olive Ave., west Palm Beach.

Free for members; $12 adults, $5 ages 13-21, free for younger than 13. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

New version of 'Les Miserables' playing at the Kravis.

Les Misérables, the international hit stage show based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 classic novel, is the third longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Over the years, it has been performed in 38 countries, translated into 21 languages, and is currently playing at the Kravis Center in a restaged and redesigned 25th anniversary production.

Cameron Mackintosh, the show’s producer, was interested in giving the show a new look, based on the advances in theater technology over the past quarter-century. The guiding principle, says associate director Anthony Lyn, the man in charge of maintaining the American tour, is “if one were approaching it new today, what would one do?”

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ON DISPLAY

TROPICAL IMPRESSIONS: EMERGING ARTIST BONNIE WILBURN: Through Saturday, Bruce Webber Gallery, 705 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth. An innovative style, vibrant colors and strong lines. Info: (561) 582-1045; www.webbergallery.com

AN ARTISTIC DISCOVERY: THE CONGRESSIONAL STUDENT ART SHOW: Through Sunday, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Features entries from Florida’s 19th Congressional District in the nationwide high school arts competition sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives. Info: (561)392-2500; bocamuseum.org.

EXHIBITS AT BOCA MUSEUM OF ART: Through Sunday, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Info: (561)392-2500; bocamuseum.org.

• Will Barnet at 100: To mark the 100th birthday of pioneering painter, printmaker and educator Will Barnet (born May 25, 1911), this exhibition of nearly 50 works explores the evolution of Barnet’s art from realism to abstraction.
• Muted Imprints: An Installation by Misako Inaoka: Inaoka’s kinetic sculpture and site-specific installations evoke wilderness, but are grounded in technology.
• Glass Act: The contemporary studio art glass movement turns 50 and this survey of contemporary studio glass celebrates one-of-a-kind fine art glass pieces made in individual studios rather than glass factories.

FIELD OF COLORS: AN EXHIBITION BY ZIVI AVIRAZ: Through May 31, PBSC Eissey Campus Theatre Lobby Gallery, 3160 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Mixed media-acrylic paintings. Info: (561) 207-5905.

PAINTINGS IN THE AFTERMATH: Through May 31, Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. Japanese students painted in the aftermath of the tsunami of March 2011. Compiled from six schools in Japan’s Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the paintings are based on three themes: Appreciation of World Friendship, My Life 10 Years from Now and What I Want to Do in the Future. Info: (561) 495-0233; www.morikami.org

IMPORTANT CERAMIC WORKS: Through June 2, Elaine Baker Gallery, Gallery Center, 608 Banyan Trail, Boca Raton. Works by Jun Kaneko, Peter Voulkos, Ken Price, Don Reitz, Toshiko Takaezu, Pablo Picasso, Michael Lucero, Tony Marsh, Rick Dillingham, Christine Federighi, Richard DeVore and Betty Woodman. Info: (561) 241-3050.

WYNN BULLOCK: INSIGHTS & SURPRISES: Through June 9, Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 415 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. The mid-20th century master photographer is best known for his evocative black and white images, but he also created a significant body of color work he called Color Light Abstractions. Info: (561) 253-2600; www.workshop.org or www.fotofusion.org.

OUTSIDE/ FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHERS FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE MUSEUM COLLECTION: Through June 10, Norton Museum, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Selected photographers’ work, juxtaposed with works from the Norton’s Photography Collection. Featured photographers: Maria Martinez-Cañas of Miami; Alexander Diaz of St. Augustine; Valerie George of Pensacola, Christopher Morris of Tampa; and the team of Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez of Miami. Christopher Morris will present an Artist Lecture at 6:30 p.m. Thursday . Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

DECODING MESSAGES IN CHINESE ART: Through June 24, Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. A special installation of seven Chinese works of art features the newly acquired 13th century painting, Five Quail. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: ELLE SCHORR AND MARK FOREMAN: Through July 2, Palm Beach Cultural Council, 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. Schorr, a Lake Worth resident, calls her photographs ‘contradictions and overlapping impressions of city life.’ Forman’s work challenges the ideas of Expressionism and Reduction. Info: (561) 472-3336; palmbeachcultural council.org

FORT MOSE: COLONIAL AMERICA’S BLACK FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: Through July 29, The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum, 170 N.W. Fifth Ave., Delray Beach. This exhibit from the Florida Museum of Natural History explores the history of Fort Mose, America’s first legally sanctioned free black community. Info: (561) 279-8883; www.spadymuseum.org.

PBC: ART: Through Aug. 4, Palm Beach County Cultural Council, in the Robert M. Montgomery Jr. Building, 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. A collection of 26 original works chosen from almost 400 submissions by a jury panel of art industry experts. Info: www.palmbeachculture.com

‘POP! MOVABLE BOOKS FROM THE ARTHUR J. WILLIAMS POP-UP COLLECTION: Through Aug. 12, The Jaffe Center for Book Arts at FAU Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. Wildly colorful and interactive books that open to elements that pop up, slide and twirl. Info: (561) 297-3770; www.library.fau.edu/geninfo/hours.htm.

PARADISE IN PERIL: WORLD WAR II IN PALM BEACH COUNTY: Through Aug. 18, Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum, 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Archival photographs of Palm Beach County citizens, maps of historically significant areas and artifacts. Free. Info: (561) 832-4164; www.historicalsocietypbc.org.

WHAT REMAINS REMEMBERS: Through Sept. 7, Palm Beach State Art Gallery Campus, 3160 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Features the work of Justin Rabineau. Info: (561) 207-5015.

NEW EYES SHOW: FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER BARRY SEIDMAN: Through Oct. 31, Harris Private Bank, Phillips Point, 777 S. Flagler Drive, Suite 140 E, West Palm Beach. Seidman exhibits 85 pieces from various photographic series. Presented by the Lighthouse ArtCenter. Available by appointment through Christi Thompson at (561) 366-4218. www.BarrySeidman.com

AMERICAN MASTERS AT THE NORTON: Through Fall, Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Features the work of Clyfford Still and Joan Mitchell, masters of late 20th-century American painting. Still is credited with laying the groundwork for the Abstract Expressionism movement. Mitchell used paint directly from tubes, applying it with her hands and conceiving of compositions that worked from the center out, rather than over the entire surface of her canvas. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

Cast of 'Les Miserables'

The acclaimed Les Misérables opens today  and runs through May 26 at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.

Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand-new 25th-anniversary production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s legendary musical, with new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. The score of Les Misérables includes the classic songs I Dreamed a Dream, On My Own, Do You Hear the People Sing? and One Day More.

Tickets start at $27. (561) 832-7469.