Theater: The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton does not go in for fresh directorial concepts in its musicals like the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, but it has recently taken to injecting Broadway veterans into its productions, like Walter Charles and Lee Roy Reams as nightclub owner Georges and his gay partner and drag queen headliner Albin in La Cage aux Folles. That is reason enough to see … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2015
‘Two Days, One Night’ an exquisite look at a moral dilemma
A cruel and sweeping movement of capitalism’s chilly hand leaves a damaged woman in its wake in Two Days, One Night, the Dardenne brothers’ latest quietly gripping moral inquiry into the human condition. In the great Belgian directors’ first feature since 2011’s extraordinary The Kid with a Bike, they’ve cast a bona fide international star, Marion Cotillard, whose combination … [Read more...]
Oscar nominations have more than fair share of snubs
What do Jake Gyllenhall, David Oyelowo, Amy Adams and Jennifer Aniston have in common? They all turned in first-rate performances last year -- in Nightcrawler, Selma, Big Eyes and Cake, respectively -- but failed to earn Oscar nominations for their efforts when the career-boosting list of potential Academy Award winners was released this morning. 2014 saw a crowded field of … [Read more...]
‘It’s just so human’: ‘La Bohème’ to open PB Opera season
If your task is to direct the most popular opera ever written, you might not have to stretch your conceptual-overhaul muscles all that much. “It’s a traditional opera that’s OK to keep traditional. You don’t get bored with it,” said Fenlon Lamb, who is directing Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, Palm Beach Opera’s season opener. “Coming to this and knowing it was going to be … [Read more...]
The Both: Friendly collaboration, musical powerhouse
By Hilary Saunders Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, who will be performing this weekend at the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival they curated, aren’t the only formidable duo who will take the stage at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre. Guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Aimee Mann — who established herself as one of the most adaptable and influential female musicians in the early … [Read more...]
PB Jewish Film Festival screens at multiple venues in 25th year
For its 25th anniversary, The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival is hitting the road. Don’t worry; it remains within Palm Beach County, but each week it will move to a different location, giving local residents the opportunity to see nearly every one of the 31 major Jewish-themed films in their own neighborhood. Following the opening night film, Above and … [Read more...]
Conductor Schwarz, cellist son shine for Boca’s Symphonia
The eminent American conductor Gerard Schwarz, who has done so much for orchestra building and for American music of the 20th century, made a return appearance to Boca Raton on Sunday in the company of another returnee, his cellist son Julian. Schwarz led the Symphonia Boca Raton in the second concert of its current season, and he demonstrated not only his excellence as a … [Read more...]
Youthful Parker Quartet dazzles in Flagler opener
Running out of superlatives to describe the Parker Quartet is a hazard music critics must face after hearing their excellent performances. Tuesday saw them at The Flagler Museum at Whitehall in its music series season opener, which was sold out. Is it any wonder the public takes a liking to them after experiencing the ho-hum attitude presented by some of the older established … [Read more...]
N.Y. artists cook up puppet magic for Maltz’s ‘The Wiz’
In lower Manhattan, in the unassuming former kitchen of the Lower Eastside Girls’ Club, a trio of cut-ups are making theater magic. Even more improbable than running away to join the circus, six years ago Emily DeCola, Michael Schupbach and Eric Wright formed a collective — The Puppet Kitchen — to design, build and operate puppets for plays, operas, cruise ship shows and … [Read more...]
The View From Home 66: Altman’s brilliant neo-Western, war and its addictions, Streisand’s gender bender
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson: This 1976 comedy by Robert Altman (Kino, $16.99 Blu-ray, $11.99 DVD) isn’t as poetic as his earlier ‘70s Western, McCabe and Mrs. Miller. But whereas that film explored capitalism through the prism of frontier life, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson similarly employs Western tropes to … [Read more...]