Art: An exhibit titled County Contemporary: All Media Juried Show, composed of 44 works by 36 Palm Beach County artists using a wide range of media, is on display beginning today at the main gallery of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth. Mark Richard Leach, the executive director of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C., … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2013
Theater roundup: Goofy fun at Summer Shorts; moving ‘Lughnasa’ at Dramaworks
When you are trying to capture audience attention and tell a complete story in about 10 minutes, you might as well stick to comedy. That is apparently the lesson that Miami’s City Theatre has learned in its 18 years of producing Summer Shorts, an annual seasonal festival of playlets that accentuates the humorous and occasionally the out-and-out wacky. In recent years, Shorts … [Read more...]
To El and back: Superman retake too interested in being overwhelming
Whenever a character as iconic as Superman is revisited, the creative visions behind it rarely see past the conservative knee-jerk reaction to regurgitate the hero’s origin story. Which means each “new” take treads familiar narrative ground. Like the latest cover version of a populist classic, we know the melody and lyrics, but we still want to know what the new artist … [Read more...]
Marilynn Wick: South Florida’s costume mogul revives a theater
Marilynn Wick, president and chief executive officer of Costume World, the major national retailer and renter of theatrical costumes, has given herself a new challenge. Having bought the dormant Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton to house her 1.2 million costumes — many of them Broadway originals — and to place her Broadway Collection Museum in larger quarters, she also gained a … [Read more...]
History and art meet on Clematis Street
A splash of public art has recently appeared in unexpected places in downtown West Palm Beach’s Clematis Street District. Thanks to support from the Downtown Development Authority and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, six formerly graffiti-laden metal electric utility boxes have received an art makeover as part of the city’s Art in Public Places initiative. The six … [Read more...]
Tony redux: Lauper musical walks all over Matilda
Put away your grade-school uniforms and bring out the transvestite footwear. After Sunday night’s 67th annual Tony Awards telecast, Matilda is out and Kinky Boots is in fashion. The Cyndi Lauper-Harvey Fierstein musical walked off with six statuettes including Best Musical in what has to be considered an upset over the Olivier Award winner from London. (Translation of … [Read more...]
Sundays: The United States of Snoop
By Myles Ludwig Your life is just a click away, just a click away: “Every breath you take/Every move you make/Every bond you break/Every step you take/I'll be watching you/Every word you say/Every single day … I’ll be watching you.” Sting was prophetic. Even Paul McCartney knew what was going on: “She came in through the bathroom window … Didn’t anybody tell her? / Didn’t … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 7-9
South Florida Jazz wraps its 2012-13 season this Saturday night with an appearance by the jazz singer Kurt Elling, who made his mark at Chicago’s legendary Green Mill while studying the philosophy of religion as a grad student during the day. A Grammy winner and a regular audience favorite, Elling has a flexible voice and style more akin to Al Jarreau than to Johnny Hartman, … [Read more...]
A look at Broadway’s best, and our fearless Tony predictions
On the eve of the 67th annual Tony Awards, recognizing the season’s bests, here are reviews of some of the season’s standout productions: Matilda: If there were an award for best British import with highest level of hype, this engaging, but often unintelligible musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company would win hands down. It did win London’s Olivier Award and looks poised … [Read more...]
Strangeness dominates juried show at Boca Museum of Art
The joy of writing about art comes from the same place I imagine a curator’s joy comes from: discovering something truly interesting. I was hoping to find this among the 149 pieces encompassing the 62nd All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The show attracted more than 1,600 submissions. What I saw was art reflecting strangeness and … [Read more...]