By Myles Ludwig Writing about a friendship is a lot more difficult than it seems. Yes, one can write about the mutual gifts and the rewards. But writing about the thing, the stuff that holds it all together as one travels through life is a little like trying to define love or capture dark matter or a miasma in a photograph ― you know it’s there, but you can’t see it, touch it, … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2013
Illeana Douglas: On indies, hard work, loving the business, and Phase II
Granddaughter of two-time Oscar winner actor Melvyn Douglas, Illeana Douglas began her career as a stand-up comedian, but soon found herself on the big screen in Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear (1991), one of four Scorsese films she’s appeared in, and started a long-term relationship with Scorsese that lasted eight years. She is most widely known for her roles as Denise Waverly in … [Read more...]
New World’s bracing concert at Boca Fest deserved bigger audience
By Donald Waxman On the next-to-the-last evening of the 2013 Festival of the Arts Boca, Peter Oundjian, the Canadian conductor and violinist, led the New World Symphony of Miami in three early 20th-century works. The guest soloist was the Russian-American pianist Valentina Lisitsa, whose career in recent years has flourished in an unprecedented way. The program promised to be … [Read more...]
Community theater: An excellent ‘Last Romance’ at Delray Playhouse
By Dale King On the playbill, Joe DiPietro’s The Last Romance is described as a “comedy.” But the show, now being staged at the Delray Beach Playhouse, is not simply ha-ha funny. It is a deft combination of lamentations and laugher, a tribute to love in the golden years that’s neither a caricature nor an understatement. Three talented theater veterans, a young man back from … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Film Festival turns 18: At last, it’s about the movies
The Palm Beach International Film Festival, running April 4-11, turns 18 this year, and it reaches the age of maturity with a new emphasis on the films themselves. There will be 141 in all, including eight United States premieres and 26 world premieres from such diverse nations as Russia, Spain, Thailand, Palestine, Ethiopia and Nepal. As she was putting the final touches on … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 29-31
Film: British director Michael Apted has made such commercial movies as Coal Miner’s Daughter and the 1999 James Bond flick, The World Is Not Enough. But by far his more significant project has been the Up series, a documentary visit with a dozen or so British subjects every seven years for the past 49 years, to track their lives and learn how they have overcome or fallen … [Read more...]
‘War Horse’ is best bet for Kravis’ 2013-14 Broadway season
It was to be a routine announcement of the show titles for next year’s “Kravis on Broadway” series, the sixth season of touring productions since the West Palm Beach performing arts center began presenting road shows on its own. But the publicist kept frantically e-mailing a strong suggestion that I bring a camera to the event. Which headliner of which show had the center … [Read more...]
Joan Jett fires up Hard Rock crowd
By Kylie Phillips Many sons were embarrassed by their mothers’ attempts at rock ‘n’roll war cries last Wednesday night (March 20) as Joan Jett and The Blackhearts took fans at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood back to an era of rock in which leopard vests and red-stitched leather pants were everyday wear. With eight platinum and gold records and nine Top 40 hits, Jett was not … [Read more...]
Jenkins’ ‘Peacemakers’ makes engaging debut at St. Paul’s
By George S. Brown The Peacemakers, a cantata by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, had its world premiere in January 2012 at Carnegie Hall, and its South Florida premiere earlier this month in Delray Beach. The work, which sets words of peace from such figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., texts from the Bible and Qu’ran and quotes from people ranging … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Smart ‘Lungs,’ engaging ‘4000 Miles’
Duncan Macmillan’s 90-minute conversation, Lungs, is both up-to-the-minute and timeless. While it is certainly a new play, it has already had more productions than most scripts that The Theatre at Arts Garage’s Lou Tyrrell is used to dealing with. But Macmillan’s way with dialogue is so crisp, glib and theatrical, it is easy to see why the Delray Beach artistic director would … [Read more...]