Festival of the Arts Boca: The operatic world, unlike what many casual observers may think, is flush with youthful activity, as young singers try to scale the heights of musical Parnassus and see the stages of the world. Last night, the Boca Symphonia performed the soundtrack of the 1942 classic Casablanca with a showing of the film, but tonight the orchestra and conductor … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2012
‘John Carter’ grinds good premise into shameless mediocrity
The very idea of a Confederate cavalryman transported, in the blink of an eye, to Mars is an idea so juicy it sounds impossible to muck up. The potential is there for both epic, Tolkeinian sweep and confrontational social commentary. Just imagine what a director like Samuel Fuller would do with this material, with his bigoted Civil War straggler finding an all-new batch of … [Read more...]
‘Billy Elliot’: Mining a major musical
In the same way that the musical Annie developed an army of mop-topped little girls able to belt Tomorrow to the last row of the balcony, the stage version of Billy Elliot has generated a passel of pre-teen boys, all expert at ballet, tap, hip-hop and character dance. And if they are as energetic and talented as J.P. Viernes, the Asian tot who opened in the title role to kick … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s music-in-the-round a great success
What could top an all-Bach program? I’ll tell you: The arrangement of the orchestra in the octagonal DeSantis Chapel at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Seating for the Feb. 27 concert was in a great circle with orchestra and soloists in the center. “Switch seats after the intermission, and look into the conductor’s eyes,’’ suggested the symphony’s new executive director, … [Read more...]
For 25 years, Duncan Theatre has been cutting-edge
If you lived in Palm Beach County 25 years ago, to get your culture fix you went to the Duncan Theatre in Lake Worth or the “leaky teepee,” the familiar name for the West Palm Beach Auditorium, which earned that name from its pointy roof and less-than-watertight conditions. The leaky teepee lives on in lore and memory, but the county’s cutting-edge performing arts house, the … [Read more...]
‘Florencia’ really should be on PBO mainstage
The Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists troupe wrapped its One Opera in One Hour season Friday night with an abridged version of Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. And it showed that this is an opera that really should be on the mainstage here. That’s not because Catán’s score is a great one: Even cut to an hour, it never goes anywhere. It just sits and … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 2-4
Film: If there were six best actress Oscar nominations instead of five, the sixth would probably have gone to androgynous Tilda Swinton, who plays the mother of an exasperatingly evil son in We Need to Talk About Kevin. It is kind of an update of The Bad Seed, about a defiantly rotten kid and the mother who cannot cope with him. Director-writer Lynne Ramsey wants us to consider … [Read more...]
Caldwell Theatre’s Cholerton: ‘We are not folding’
The first thing Clive Cholerton wants you to know is that the Caldwell Theatre is not folding. The Boca Raton playhouse has been in a financial bind ever since it took out a $6 million mortgage on its new theater in 2008. But it sees an end to its difficulties with an imminent filing for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. “The decision has been made and that is what we’re … [Read more...]
At the Flagler: Two standout string quartets
Editor’s note: Here are two late reviews of recent concerts at the Flagler Museum: The Moscow String Quartet (Feb. 21) Sitting in the magnificence of Henry Flagler’s Gilded Age mansion, Whitehall, I was struck by the ironic contrast of listening to a string quartet that began life in the old USSR. This was the Moscow String Quartet, four women whose exceptionally high … [Read more...]