Like Neil Simon's alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, I am Broadway-bound, with 11 shows lined up to see in nine days. I arrive today and will soon be in a theater, seeing the musical adaptation of Boris Pasternak's great Dr. Zhivago. (Fill in your own punch line.) But before New York, I spent a week in my hometown of Washington, D.C. While there, I went to Arena Stage, the … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2015
Glorious Bach, exquisite Mahler at Seraphic Fire
By Robert Croan There are those rare and wonderful times in music when every element comes together and seems exactly right, when a great work is given a performance that captures the meaning and the message of the score. Seraphic Fire, a chamber ensemble led by the brilliant and creative Patrick Dupré Quigley, provided just such a moment Friday evening with an exceptional … [Read more...]
Community theater: Real-life couple energizes Delray Playhouse’s ‘They’re Playing Our Song’
By Dale King Playwright Neil Simon takes a well-aimed shot at musical comedy in They’re Playing Our Song, a sharp and witty production being staged through Sunday at the Delray Beach Playhouse. Actually, Simon wrote the book, then turned it over to songwriter Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager to provide words and tunes for a stage production. As it turns … [Read more...]
‘True Story’ a penetrating study in obsession
True Story is, among other things, a movie about addiction, but not to the usual addictive suspects — booze, drugs, sex, gambling. It’s about an addiction to the truth, or moreover the perception of truth, and the obsessions and compulsions that drive it. It’s the sort of addiction to which any dedicated newshound can relate, the kind that results in sleepless nights, 80-hour … [Read more...]
Athletic, virile Schumann closes Symphonia’s 10th season
One of the benefits of a smaller orchestra is that music of the early 19th century can sound lean and mean if the players and conductors enter into the spirit of the thing. And that’s precisely the way the Symphonia Boca Raton closed its 10th season Sunday at the Roberts Theater in Boca — with gritty, energetic readings of works on a meat-and-potatoes program led by James … [Read more...]
Profile tells us a lot about pope, but still comes up short
Pope Francis has impressed Catholics and non-Catholics alike with his displays of compassion and kindness for the less fortunate. Many will recall that on Holy Thursday in 2013 Francis visited an Italian youth prison, where he said Mass and washed the feet of 12 young inmates, including a Muslim boy and two girls, one a Catholic and the other a Muslim. It was the first time … [Read more...]
Gallery crawl: From tattoos to buoys, and exotic gelato, too
By Sandra Schulman The gallery scene along Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach is always a treasure hunt. There are gems to be found among the car dealerships and funky diners. Here are three I visited this week, each filled with some of the more unusual sights than the tourist trail usually leads to. Ink & Pistons For the punk and piercing set, this hardcore “artist driven” … [Read more...]
For James Grippando, the ideas keep coming
James Grippando, the Miami lawyer-turned-bestselling crime writer, used to be able to produce books faster than publishers could publish them. That’s no longer true, thanks to digital technology. But that doesn’t mean he’s slowed the pace. “It’s been more than a book a year for a while now,” says Grippando, who has two novels scheduled for the first half of this year, and an … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Buried Child’ at Dramaworks; ‘Oklahoma!’ at the Wick; ‘Memphis’ at Kravis
Diving headlong once again into the murky pool of absurdist theater, Palm Beach Dramaworks — the home of “theater to think about” — offers up Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, which features few concrete ideas but many stark dramatic images calculated to elicit emotional reactions. With such plays as Fool for Love and True West, Shepard has demonstrated a fascination with the … [Read more...]
Masterful new concerto, rousing Beethoven make splendid farewell for ACO’s Robertson
Conductor Stewart Robertson’s final concert with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens on Tuesday afternoon was a memorable occasion. It had a world premiere of an excellent violin concerto, two “Scottish” works to celebrate the land of his birth, and a rousing performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Robertson was presented … [Read more...]