“I would just love to do a musical comedy. I think the world needs a wonderful new musical comedy.” The speaker is Tommy Tune, the 10-time Tony Award-winning performer-director-choreographer who ruled Broadway in the 1980s and 1990s, churning out a succession of original hit musicals like Nine, Grand Hotel and The Will Rogers Follies. But it has been decades … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2017
Can’t-miss Stella show stuns in Fort Lauderdale
By Sandra Schulman As the last of his generation of art history-defining artists left alive, 81-year-old Frank Stella zipped around the opening of his eye-popping mind- and line-blowing show at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale like a kid in a candy store. Except this candy store holds seven decades’ worth of work that challenged, chastened, chug-a-lugged and ultimately … [Read more...]
‘Born Yesterday’ a little creaky, but jokes, situation still speak to us
The selection of a Maltz Jupiter Theatre mainstage season is a lengthy process, so it is important to keep reminding yourself that Garson Kanin's political satire-screwball comedy, Born Yesterday, was chosen before the current resident of the White House – who shall go nameless here – was elected president. For this Washington-based romp concerns wealthy scrap metal magnate … [Read more...]
It’s not ‘Phantom,’ but you might love it just the same
The ads for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats used to claim “Now and Forever,” but it is his Phantom of the Opera that keeps running with no end in sight. Now in its 30th year on Broadway, the longevity record holder, this mega-popular musical has brought in an estimated $6.5 billion dollars worldwide. No wonder Lloyd Webber wanted to write a sequel to the tale of the horribly … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 10-12
Music: One of the great tragic heroines of Italian bel canto opera returns Saturday night as Florida Grand Opera opens its new season with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The American soprano Anna Christy stars as the Scots noblewoman driven mad on her wedding night because of her forced marriage to a man she does not love. In addition to this tour de force scene, Donizetti’s … [Read more...]
Sher’s take on ‘King and I,’ at Kravis, renews a classic
With admired productions of South Pacific and Fiddler on the Roof behind him and My Fair Lady on his plate for this Broadway season, director Bartlett Sher is getting an acclaimed reputation for his affectionate, reverential musical revivals. That rep can only be enhanced by his take on Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s The King and I, now playing at the Kravis Center … [Read more...]
Master Chorale takes step forward with Duruflé, new work
As it begins its 15th season of concerts, the Master Chorale of South Florida has added another element to its music-making, that of commissioner of new work. On Sunday, the community chorale presented the first piece in what promises to be an annual series of new choral works with a setting of John Donne’s "Death Be Not Proud," composed by James Kallembach, who heads the … [Read more...]
‘The Square’: An absurdist look at the shape we’re in
In the inciting incident of Ruben Östlund’s The Square, Christian (newcomer Claes Bang), the chief curator of a modern art museum in Stockholm, is walking to work when he encounters a terrified woman racing through a courtyard, screaming that an assailant is going to kill her. With the help of a stranger, Christian protects the damsel from her muscle-bound predator, defusing … [Read more...]
FAU’s Wayzgoose celebration ‘makes book’ in Boca
By Myles Ludwig John Cutrone is a tireless cheerleader for the hand printed and the art of the book. He heads FAU’s Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for the Book Arts (JCBA) located in the school’s Wimberly Library, a treasure chest of the book as an art; i.e. the container, rather than necessarily the contents. I am a fan. On Oct. 29, John put together the first edition of … [Read more...]
Flagler exhibit shows romance, peril of World War I combat in the air
Before it became a battle skill, flying was first a question and a plane was a toy piloted by an eccentric character with lots of free time. World War I changed all of that. When it came knocking and looking for heroes, aviation had to hurry up and grow real fast. The subjects of Flagler Museum’s fall exhibition are no stranger to the spotlight and under no pressure to … [Read more...]