By Dale King The latest production at the Lake Worth Playhouse, I Hate Hamlet, is a mixture of factoids and fantasy, a whimsical frolic that seems to encourage every performer to overact. Be prepared to suspend your disbelief for this skewing of Shakespeare at the downtown Lake Worth venue. IHH, which opened on Broadway in 1991, is an over-the-top tale of a successful but … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2015
Norton’s ‘This Place’ explores ‘otherness’ of Israel
By Sandra Schulman The Norton Museum of Art is the first U.S. venue to host This Place, an international photo exhibition that explores Israel and the West Bank. “I wanted to do a broad-ranging exhibition that looks beyond the headlines,” said photographer/curator Frederic Brenner. “It was not done to connect the dots.” Brenner started the project in 2008 to “try and … [Read more...]
Art Basel, and explosion of art fairs, about to hit South Florida
By Sandra Schulman In an overwhelming Art Fair week ready to descend on Miami from all corners of the world, there are so many events to choose from it’s almost unreal and pure art nirvana. The sheer quality and quantity of shows, promotions, screenings, talks, public art and fairs ready to land on the billion-dollar sandbar is unparalleled in America and perhaps the world. … [Read more...]
You’re looking swell, Lee Roy: ‘Dolly’ in drag is a triumph
Certain roles are simply owned by their originators, whose memorable performances cast a shadow over all those who dare attempt to fill their shoes. Like, say, Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly! But at The Wick Theatre, as reverent as Lee Roy Reams is to the Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart musical and to those who walked down that red velvet staircase before him, he will have you … [Read more...]
Strong Slow Burn cast can’t save ‘Dogfight’ from its meanness
I think we can agree that anything can be turned into a musical, but you start with two strikes against you when you endeavor to adapt material as mean-spirited and misogynistic as Dogfight. That was the task undertaken by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, a pair of young composer-lyricists whose Broadway debut show, A Christmas Story, looks geared to be revived annually at holiday … [Read more...]
Marvelous Romeros, Munich SO should have had larger house
There couldn’t be a more refreshing matchup than a symphony orchestra and four brilliant guitarists, which is what I heard Saturday night at the Kravis Center when the Munich Symphony Orchestra of Germany joined forces with the eminent guitar-playing Romero family. Together with his father Celedonio Romero, and brothers Celin and Angel, Pepe Romero, the soloist Saturday night, … [Read more...]
‘Brooklyn’ too buttoned-down, but message resonates
On the cusp of the 1950s, sharing a ship with countless other European immigrants en route to the brighter pastures of Ellis Island, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) falls ill. Whether it’s from food poisoning or seasickness, the result is the same: a peaked scramble down dank corridors, seeking the relief of a random janitor’s bucket with which to dispense of the material flowing, … [Read more...]
Sound woes prove frustrating for Holdsworth, audience
No one inside the black box theater at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton — not the overflow crowd of 300 or the reason they were there, the three instrumentalists led by veteran British jazz/fusion guitar great Allan Holdsworth — could’ve possibly been fully prepared for what they’d experience Saturday. Considering the reputation and incendiary talents of the … [Read more...]
Student actors deliver intense ‘Agnes of God’ at FAU
By Dale King Agnes of God is a mystery of biblical proportions. Literally. When a novice nun and purported virgin sequestered in a convent gives birth to a child — and that child is almost immediately found dead in a wastebasket, the investigation of a possible murder sets off a clash of personalities and ideologies. God is invoked, not just for prayer, but as a suspect. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 20-22
Film: Its expansion delayed for a couple of weeks to maximize its impact and exposure for Oscar consideration is a small, but powerful film, Spotlight, certainly one of the year’s 10 best and a sure competitor for Best Picture honors. Spotlight is the name of the Boston Globe’s small, elite investigative team, which launches a major project to look into the city’s … [Read more...]