Saturday, the day I arrived, was sunny and slightly brisk. Sunday was continuous rain and much colder. The theater also was inclement. Few Broadway shows perform on Sunday night, so I headed off-Broadway to the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, where a new musical called The City Club had its final preview prior to opening Monday evening. With so many shows opening … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2012
Barnet exhibit shows artist quietly going his own way
Forget garlic: When it comes to art, passion and honesty will get you far or, at least, get you to live forever. In case you have any doubts, the Boca Raton Museum of Art is currently offering a large dose of pieces by an artist who has always been far from extravagant and is now about to turn 101 years old. Will Barnet at 100: Eight Decades of Painting and Printmaking is … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 1: A Saturday doubleheader
I am up in New York for a week to take a bite of the Broadway season, 12 shows in nine days. Ah, the sacrifices I make for the sake of my readers. By most accounts, it is a dismal year for musicals, with lots of screen-to-stage transfers, but little inspiration in the bunch and certainly no Book of Mormon -- still the hottest ticket in town a year later -- among them. We'll … [Read more...]
Adams classic leads challenging Firebird program
There are at this point only a relatively small number of 20th-century American compositions that have entered the repertory on any kind of permanent basis. But two of them were on an all-American program presented by the Firebird Chamber Orchestra on Thursday night at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. And the third piece on the program is attractive enough to … [Read more...]
Manzarek-Rogers are hit-and-miss at Bamboo Room
On paper, a band co-led by former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and former John Lee Hooker slide guitarist Roy Rogers might not seem likely. But when their common agent suggested the pairing, the two collaborated on their 2011 debut CD Translucent Blues (Blind Pig), a dark yet accessible take on modern blues-based musical structures. After all, the 73-year-old Manzarek was … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 21-22
Theater: Eighteen years ago, a wordless theatrical event involving a gang of street urchins banging on garbage can lids and oil drums, making unlikely percussive music with brooms, sticks and other found objects opened off-Broadway, where it continues to this day. The show is called Stomp and the touring edition plays West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center this weekend only. Even … [Read more...]
Chanticleer impressive in program of old, new love songs
By now, the 12-man vocal band known as Chanticleer has sung and recorded pieces in almost every imaginable genre, a long way from the Renaissance group its founder had in mind back in the late 1970s. But Chanticleer has managed in its career of nearly 35 years and multiple personnel changes to bring the same kind of polish and quality to everything they do, and that makes … [Read more...]
Kline and Kasdan: Two cut-ups making their sixth film together
Just as director Martin Scorsese has had a longtime collaboration with Robert DeNiro and, more recently, with Leo DiCaprio, filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan has made six features with Kevin Kline. Their work together began with 1983’s The Big Chill, includes such varied movies as Silverado, Grand Canyon and French Kiss, and continues with Darling Companion, which will be released … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Into the Woods’ and ‘Master Harold’
Most fairy tales see the world in extremes of good and evil or right and wrong. But leave it to Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, in their musical constructed from intertwined fables, Into the Woods, to consider the ambiguity in these stories, asking us to look at matters from the witch’s viewpoint or the much-maligned giant’s perspective. Is it that adult take on stories … [Read more...]
Late review: South Florida Symphony at the Crest
Editor’s note: Here is a late orchestral review from last month. Technical difficulties prevented it from being posted until now: South Florida Symphony (March 11, Crest Theatre, Delray Beach) The South Florida Symphony has had something of a rocky history over the past couple years, with short funding and repeated complaints about overdue payments to its freelance personnel. … [Read more...]