Israel’s Maymon wins Norton’s second Rudin Prize Israeli photographer Rami Maymon has won the second Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers at the Norton Museum of Art. “Rami’s photographs are elegant and complicated, and engage the viewer with their intellectual rigor and stunning visual layers,” said Tim B. Wride, the Norton’s William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2014
At Boca Museum, a rich retrospective of an overlooked American master
Aside from the surprising change in her painting style and her death at age 111, the most shocking aspect of Theresa Bernstein is that she painted from a hidden place. The fact that the artist was born in Poland, but insisted on being solely American, comes to light more than once throughout an exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art that celebrates her long artistic … [Read more...]
Looking back: 2014’s best in film
After another summer of superheroes, sequels and special effects, Hollywood got serious and released enough films of quality for adults to fill a 10-best list. You have to wonder how the industry can churn out so many exceptional movies in November and December, and so much junk in the first 10 months of the year. To land on the list, a film has to open in South Florida during … [Read more...]
Looking back: 2014’s best in theater
On balance, 2014 was not a bad year at the theater in South Florida, with a couple of blockbuster touring shows, two startling takes on classic musicals at the Maltz Jupiter and a few worthy productions from many of the area’s other resident companies. Here is my undeniably subjective list of the 10 shows I enjoyed the most during the year. Fiddler on the Roof (Maltz … [Read more...]
Director of ‘The Gambler’ offers a tale of outsider redemption
English-born filmmaker Rupert Wyatt is well aware that there was a 1974 movie called The Gambler, starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton, but to his mind he was never doing a remake. “I remember it being specifically a study of addiction,” he says of the earlier film. “So when I read the script that Bill Monahan had written, I knew immediately that we weren’t making the same … [Read more...]
Pacifica Quartet took epic journey with Shostakovich
One of America’s finest string quartets, the Pacifica Quartet, opens the musical year with a performance Friday afternoon at the Kravis Center of music by Ravel and Haydn, as well as the Piano Quintet of Johannes Brahms, for which they will be joined by pianist Christopher O’Riley, familiar to public radio audiences as the host of From the Top. The performance should start … [Read more...]
‘Stars of David’ revue celebrates Jewish celebrities
If you had a new musical revue about the lives of celebrated Jewish figures, wouldn’t you bring it to Florida? That is what New York-based producer Daryl Roth decided, after developing Stars of David, Story to Song, beginning a three-month tour now at the Broward Center through Jan. 4 and playing West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center from Feb. 17 to March 15. The Sunshine State … [Read more...]
A.I.M.’s ‘Pavement’ timely, powerful art
By Tara Mitton Catao Kyle Abraham took careful aim at gun violence and suppression in his powerful and intimate portrayal of life in the historically black Pittsburgh neighborhoods of East Liberty, Homewood and the Hill District where he grew up. In a short time, Abraham has established himself as an award-winning choreographer (last year, he received a so-called “genius … [Read more...]
Uggams kept star power burning for ‘Mame’
Playing flamboyant Mame Dennis in the musical version of Patrick Dennis’s comic tribute to his bohemian auntie is not exactly opening a new window for Leslie Uggams. After all, she has a history of being associated with the songs of composer-lyricist Jerry Herman. She appeared on Broadway in the retrospective revue, Jerry’s Girls and played Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, … [Read more...]
Sondheim, Streep and visual wizardry unite for ravishing ‘Into the Woods’
I have the regret or the pleasure, depending on where you’re coming from, to admit that I’ve never seen Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods onstage. It’s a regret because it’s a grievous blind spot for any theater critic, but it’s a pleasure because I can view Rob Marshall’s film adaptation with the fresh eyes of discovery — and without the burden of screaming blasphemy! at the … [Read more...]