By Myles Ludwig This is a query, not a criticism. I’m wondering why we find ourselves living in the Republic of Technology, as Daniel Boorstin called it, a sovereign state with its own rules, a state in which privacy has become a philosophical issue, rather than practical one, a privilege to opt out of rather than a right to opt in. A state in which my U-verse is my … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2014
Music roundup: Morris delightful at Four Arts; Han and trio shine at Flagler
Tenor Jay Hunter Morris would have you believe he’s one of the good old boys: A good-looking, sweet-talkin’ Southern Baptist boy from Paris, Texas, where Mom was choir director at church. At 40 years old, down on his luck after 20 years of singing roles like Alfredo (Traviata), Calaf (Turandot) and Cavaradossi (Tosca) in American regional opera houses, Mom suggested a choir … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 24-26
Music: The jazz singer Kurt Elling famously turned away from a career in academia to reinvent himself as a vocalist, starting out at Chicago’s legendary Green Mill club while a graduate student and collaborating with pianist Laurence Hobgood. Late last year, the two musicians parted company to work on solo projects, and Elling is touring with his 1619 Broadway: The Brill … [Read more...]
Community theater: “Ain’t Misbehavin’” does right by Waller at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Thomas “Fats” Waller lived a short but notable 39-year life. A master of stride piano and a sparkling entertainer, he was a fine songwriter whose best work occupies an honorable place in the Great American Songbook. He deserved wider recognition, but it took 35 years from his 1943 death before the high-energy compilation of his tunes, Ain’t Misbehavin’, hit the … [Read more...]
Right-wing moralizing warps ‘Gimme Shelter’
Ron Krauss’ Gimme Shelter is a social-problem film, the sort of earnest exploration of a tendentious topic that Stanley Kramer might have made — if Stanley Kramer were a 21st-century Tea Partier. Or maybe a 20th century John Bircher, because none of the film’s targets feel especially new. Either way, the drama’s dog-whistle conservatism is so pernicious that it eats away at … [Read more...]
In 17th year, ArtPalmBeach builds broader buzz
With 85 galleries and a full five days of exhibitions and events, this year’s 17th annual ArtPalmBeach is intended to make an even bigger mark on the South Florida cultural landscape than it has done in the past. Opening tonight at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, the festival also includes six satellite art fairs: ART al’FRESCO at the Boynton Beach … [Read more...]
Chioldi to bring fresh Verdi experiences to PBO’s ‘Macbeth’
It’s a common, affectionate criticism of opera to point out how fast improbable things happen in the stories the art form tells. Rodolfo and Mimi, for instance, in Puccini’s La Bohème, are strangers in a Paris apartment building who meet cute when her candle goes out, and are pledging undying love 10 minutes later. But Michael Chioldi knows differently. “Opera really is a … [Read more...]
Symphonia makes fine showing at Eissey with Platt, Schubert
It was a pleasure to see Alexander Platt back at the helm of The Symphonia Boca Raton last week, and to see the orchestra trying out a new venue at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. But seeing the conductor who led the band for three of its nine seasons would not have been as pleasurable had the music not been as good as it was, in particular in his choice of a … [Read more...]
Theatre roundup 2: Challenging new ‘Hummingbird’ at Arts Garage; Wick rebounds with sparkling ‘42nd Street’
Playwright Carter Lewis uses a light touch to address heavy issues. In such past works as Women Who Steal, Ordinary Nation and The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider — all produced by Florida Stage — he has gathered current social ills and shaped his observations about them into entertaining, and often challenging, theater. Certainly that is the case with his latest play, The … [Read more...]
Sundays: The end of advertising
By Myles Ludwig I like to stay just ahead of the knuckleball. So before the minions of Hypostan begin their campaign to whisk up a kind of consumerist Cool Whippy enthusiasm for the TV commercials interrupting the Super Bowl game — and overshadowing the game itself — I’d like to throw a pitch against American advertising in general, and broadcasting ads in particular. … [Read more...]