Boyhood, perhaps the most acclaimed film of 2014, was a risk on many levels. Foremost among them was the pressure put on a 6-year-old kid named Ellar Coltrane to carry a movie that revolved around him, that he would grow before the viewers’ eyes into an accomplished actor as he grew — literally — from 6 to 18 years old. But the risk by writer-director Richard Linklater paid … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2015
PB Symphony and Astanova end season in magnificent Russian style
The great, the good and the fashionable gathered at Mar-a-Lago for a stunning night of music making by the Palm Beach Symphony and pianist Lola Astanova on March 18, their last concert of this season. Astanova, tall, slim, very model-like in her black, short, backless, sequined, glittering evening gown, played superbly: as gifted as Lang Lang but without the showmanship, with … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Les Miz,’ ‘Man of La Mancha,’ ‘Uncertain Terms’
France’s Victor Hugo and Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes each wrote epic, complex novels that stand as national treasures, but to most people today they are best known through the stage adaptations that they spawned. Les Misérables and Man of La Mancha are two great examples of that singularly American genre — the musical — and by coincidence, both are currently on view in … [Read more...]
Weekend picks: March 21-22
Theater: The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, it seems, keeps getting better as the challenges it selects increase. There is perhaps no more difficult a musical for a theater of the Maltz’s size to carry off than Les Misérables, but director Mark Martino makes it look easy. He gives the epic show a cinematic sweep, without resorting to the show’s original turntable staging. Yes, he … [Read more...]
Flagler features art of an enigma-less master
In true dramatic fashion, he went from being the trendy artist everyone desperately copied to being something like the universal symbol for what to avoid. What else is new? The fame, popularity and recognition enjoyed by French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau in the 19th century no doubt landed him in the history books. When else have America and Europe been on … [Read more...]
PB Opera Young Artist ready for Donizetti main role
When she got the word, Bridgette Gan was ready to go. As a member of the Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists Program, Gan was preparing to cover the central role of Marie in the company’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, which opens Friday. But Erin Morley, the soprano scheduled to sing the role in two of its performances, had come down with a cold, and it … [Read more...]
‘Gett’: A bill of divorcement, Israeli-style
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem begins in a courtroom, and, like 12 Angry Men, never leaves it. But unlike Reginald Rose’s morality play, there are no heroic shifts in conscience or unequivocal denunciations of prejudice in this legal drama. Instead, we become the voyeurs of a wrenching case study of religious chauvinism masquerading as proper litigation, a tunnel of … [Read more...]
German duo pianists give refined Mozart with ACO
The Atlantic Classical Orchestra’s third concert last week at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens had conductor Stewart Robertson on the podium for the penultimate time. Alas, the doctors won’t allow him to continue past his next concert April 7, which is such a pity because the March 10 concert was a coming together of orchestra and conductor in a most … [Read more...]
Our drug policy and its costs, scrupulously researched
The war on drugs has spawned more crime, violence, addiction and suffering — the exact opposite of what was intended. That is the theme of this provocative and timely book by British author Johann Hari, who spent three years researching the subject. In 1914, Congress banned the sale of heroin and cocaine, although doctors could continue to prescribe these drugs. But that … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 14-15
Theater: Cole Porter’s 1934 shipboard farce, Anything Goes, contains a score of hits that remain standards of the American Songbook 80 years later. The script — dusted off and freshened up by two contemporary wags, Timothy Crouse and John Weidman — is a string of groan-worthy jokes, but at least it delivers the songs efficiently. Now playing the Kravis Center through Sunday is … [Read more...]