The reason I come up to New York at this specific time of the year is that it is the final week of Tony Award eligibility, when there is a last burst of openings for the season. But in addition, this is the week of the Easter Bonnet Competition, a two-performance celebration of the end of the annual fund-raising begathon drive at New York theaters for Broadway Cares/Equity … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2013
Orchid City Brass Band gives promising nod to British institution
The concert by Palm Beach County’s new Orchid City Brass Band at the Duncan Theatre on Saturday had the title Brassy Britannia: an offhand compliment to this very British institution ― all brass instruments, no woodwinds. Military bands and concert bands mix brass and winds, delicate reed-driven things needing far too much attention for the likes of working-class lads and … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York, No. 3: ‘Finks’ addresses dark pages in show-biz history
Mondays are sparse on Broadway, but I’d go through withdrawal symptoms without a play to see. I was scheduled to see a new musical called Hands on a Hardbody, based on the little-seen film about a truck dealership's marathon promotion, but it failed to attract much of an audience and closed two weeks ago. Instead, it was back to off-Broadway, to Ensemble Studio Theatre far on … [Read more...]
Strong singing makes for a rich ‘Traviata’ at FGO
South Florida has been a good place for the Mexican soprano Maria Alejandres. She has sung Lucia for Palm Beach Opera, Manuel de Falla for the Palm Beach Symphony, and Juliette for Florida Grand Opera, and Saturday night she returned to FGO as the best-loved of Giuseppe Verdi’s heroines, Violetta Valery, the doomed courtesan of La Traviata. She was joined by a very fine … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 2: Bette’s back in ‘I’ll Eat You Last’
Sunday in New York, a two-show day after a tasty brunch at the Brooklyn Diner, a justifiably popular theater district eatery. This afternoon it was I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers, a one-woman show about the mega-powerful Hollywood talent agent of the ’80s and ’90s, starring Bette Midler in her first return to Broadway since appearing in Fiddler in the Roof in her … [Read more...]
Sundays: Sidelining the old narrators
By Myles Ludwig The Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath is a McLuhanesque moment: the medium has indeed finally become the message. This is in no way meant to trivialize the events and the horror and the victims and the PTSD that the citizens of Boston and perhaps all of America will need to find a way to recover from. This story had many of the characteristics of … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York, No. 1: ‘The Trip to Bountiful’
I arrived in New York Saturday morning for an eight-day visit, during which I will see 10 or 11 plays and musicals, the most promising productions on Broadway and off, as the season winds to a close. Less than six hours after I took off from West Palm Beach, I was in a fourth row center seat at the Sondheim Theatre for one of the final previews of Horton Foote’s The Trip to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 19-21
Art: A stunning series of space shuttle photos by photographer Mark Widick opens Saturday at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County’s Lawrence A. Saunders Foundation Gallery in Lake Worth. The exhibition runs through May 18. The International Panoramic Photographic Society, Digital Imaging Association, and Google Earth have each published Widick’s photography. His … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Intense ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and ‘An Iliad’ tour de force
Stephen Sondheim is drawn to unconventional source material for his musicals, so it is hardly surprising that Slow Burn Theatre Company ― which gravitates towards the offbeat and challenging ― has an affinity for his shows. Now ending its fourth season, it tackles the great composer-lyricist’s masterwork, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a grisly but undeniably … [Read more...]
Community theater: Voices stand out in Lake Worth’s ‘Barnum’
By Dale King In his day, master showman Phineas Taylor Barnum could probably have followed you into a revolving door and come out ahead of you. Such was the reputation of the legendary P.T. Barnum, fast-talking wheeler-dealer, circus icon and consummate con man whose life is celebrated in the frantic and festive musical, Barnum, now playing at the Lake Worth Playhouse. The … [Read more...]