A certain reverence is called for when adapting an admired film into a stage musical. No such respect is required, however, when the original movie is cheesiness personified, like, say, 1980’s pop-rock mortal-and-muse love story, Xanadu. So five years ago, playwright Douglas Carter Beane, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and lots of comic attitude ― snap! ― transformed … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2012
Weekend arts picks: June 29-July 1
Film: No, it will never be confused for art, or even much of a story line, but if you could use a few laughs these days, you have got to see Seth MacFarlane’s feature film directing debut, Ted. MacFarlane voices the title character, John’s (Mark Wahlberg) foul-mouthed teddy bear, and everything he says is as funny as it is crude. Ted is getting in the way of Wahlberg’s … [Read more...]
Stringendo summer camp works to build serious string players
By Chloe Elder The Stringendo School for Strings, founded in 2000, is dedicated to giving young musicians the tools and experience they need to better their craft and become serious instrumentalists. The summer camp at Palm Beach Atlantic University, which ends Friday, provides intensive 9-hour days of music, music, and more music. For the 45 accepted students this year, the … [Read more...]
Lead performance clunky, but ‘Magic Mike’ has artistry, too
I recently rewatched Gray’s Anatomy, Steven Soderbergh’s film adaptation of Spalding Gray’s extraordinary monologue about his experiences with an obscure ocular condition. Released in a delicious Blu-ray transfer from Criterion, the film looks better than ever, with Soderbergh’s colorful aural and visual additions enhancing Gray’s already gripping narrative. As I watched … [Read more...]
‘Moonrise’ a fable for auteurs and regular audiences
It is perhaps fitting that Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is opening in select theaters the same week that Andrew Sarris, one of the most important film critics in American history, died at age 83. Sarris’ legacy, immortalized in his book The American Cinema, was to apply the auteurist ideas of the 1950s French critics to such neglected American directors as Raoul Walsh, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 22-24
Music: It’s not too early to get into the holiday spirit for Independence Day. This Sunday, the Klezmer Company Orchestra at Florida Atlantic University mounts a concert of American music (mostly) under the baton of its leader, Aaron Kula. The concert also serves as an advertisement for the Spirit Of America Collection at FAU’s Wimberly Library, which contains 13,000 books, … [Read more...]
‘Standing on Ceremony’: The playwrights explain
The assignment was to write a 10-minute play about marriage equality, and nine nationally known playwrights ― from Moises Kaufman to Wendy MacLeod to Jose Rivera ― answered the call, turning out what collectively has become known as Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. After benefit performances around the country and a successful commercial run off-Broadway, the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 16-21
Art: This coming week, the Norton Museum of Art, which just opened a retrospective of the work of artist Edward Gorey, new photography curator Tim Wride offers more than 75 images devoted to the crowds and places of popular music. Clubs, Joints and Honky-Tonks brings together work by eminent lens artists such as Jeff Dunas, Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Horenstein, and even the quirky … [Read more...]
It’s hippie, dippy and substantial as pot smoke
Bruce Beresford, the Aussie director behind such gems as Breaker Morant and Tender Mercies, has become only the latest director of commercial cinema who has been relegated to indiedom – in turn suffering the limited distribution and paucity of TV ads that accompany the transition. But unlike a Jonathan Demme or William Friedkin, whose art has become too renegade for the … [Read more...]
Carn opens Arts Garage jazz-blues series with piano dazzle
St. Augustine-raised, St. Augustine-based jazz keyboard master Doug Carn kicked off the nine-concert Jazz Project and Garage Blues series at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach on Saturday night. And the Florida resident’s quartet delivered an understated performance that combined jazz and blues to raise the venue’s temperature a few degrees on a humid June evening. Yet any of … [Read more...]