Even if you know drummer Nigel Olsson’s name, you may not know he’s worked with the Spencer Davis Group, Uriah Heep, Jimmy Webb, Neil Sedaka, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Rick Springfield, Leon Russell, Helen Reddy, Bob Weir, Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Toto, and B.B. King. But you’d likely know the singular Olsson association that overshadows those. The 66-year-old has been … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
‘Maps’ leads us to tiresome Hollywood hatred
It was just Sunday that Julianne Moore won a much-deserved Oscar for beautifully, elegantly portraying a woman navigating the slippery, debilitating reality of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Now, she’s back in theaters again in David Cronenberg’s blunt-force satire Maps to the Stars, where the tone is a wee bit different: We witness her making a putrid bowel movement, engaging in a … [Read more...]
Fine singers carry important weight of world premiere ‘Enemies’ at PB Opera
The two big questions for the new American work now in its world premiere at Palm Beach Opera are these: Does it succeed as a compelling piece of theater? And does it have a future? The answer to both of these questions is Yes, but for the second question, it may take some more work for the opera to have the kind of legs its producers and well-wishing audiences would dearly … [Read more...]
At Flagler, Fine Arts’ Tchaikovsky outshines its Mozart
The well-established Fine Arts Quartet came to the Flagler Museum for the penultimate concert of the museum’s 2015 music series on Feb. 17. Originally founded in Chicago in 1946, the two violinists, Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, have been its mainstay for the past 31 years. Juan-Miguel Hernandez is the violist and Robert Cohen, the cellist. Known as one of the “gold-plated” … [Read more...]
Hampson in strong voice and smart selection at Four Arts
Great opera stars have extended their careers for many years with lieder recitals, and they have a vast repertory of art song to choose from. America’s baritone, Thomas Hampson, came to the Four Arts on Feb. 11 with a lieder recital. The debonair singer is surely one of our finest ambassadors. Still active operatically in 2015, Hampson will be singing on stage in New York, … [Read more...]
Ford Fine Art’s Suzanne Snider: Bringing Central American modernism to Delray
Suzanne Snider has been running the hidden treasure that is Ford Fine Art gallery long enough to know its best years are still ahead. Delray Beach is not where one would expect to find the most significant collection of Central American modern masters and established artists in the country. But that’s exactly what the gallery houses, according to Snider, who used to be the … [Read more...]
Mamet’s gritty ‘Glengarry’ impresses at Maltz
The real estate world of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross is a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog business, where the salesmen are pitted against each other to see who will win a Cadillac and who will lose his job. It is Mamet’s jaundiced view of the American way of commerce, an all-male landscape brimming with testosterone and casual profanity. As seen at the … [Read more...]
Dramaworks’ ‘Liaisons’ played to icy, venomous perfection
Fifty Shades of Grey is the current hot novel of a sado-masochistic sexual predator and his prey, but do not think for a moment that there is anything new about this steamy tale of dominance, submission and matters of the heart. You could draw a direct line between E.L. James’ contemporary best seller and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a similar yarn of malice and deceit that curled … [Read more...]
Hap’s Oscar predictions: ‘Birdman,’ Keaton, Moore and Iñárritu
This is the year to dive into the office Oscar pool, because what looked murky in December has since become clear with a distinct consensus from the preliminary awards. Now watch me be wrong, but here are my fearless predictions for Sunday’s Academy Awards: * Best Picture: Birdman — It’s a two-horse race between Birdman and Boyhood, with the former getting a late boost from … [Read more...]
Absorbing ‘Choir Boy’ affirms playwright McRaney’s promise
Miami-born, and internationally produced, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney has been enthusiastically endorsed locally by GableStage’s artistic director Joseph Adler. The Coral Gables company has presented four of McCraney’s scripts — two original works and two adaptations of Shakespeare — including the current Choir Boy, the writer’s most naturalistic, accessible and, arguably, … [Read more...]