I am a sucker for magic, for the jaw-dropping, “How did they do that?” tricks and illusions that seem to defy the laws of nature and logic. There is a profusion of such stunts in The Illusionists: Live from Broadway, an Australian-born, Great White Way-branded show that is flummoxing audiences at the Kravis Center through Sunday. Yes, there are a few sub-par sequences in … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2018
Amid the camp, Trocks present some startlingly good dancing
There is a whimsical banner on Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s website that almost looks like it could be for a vaudeville show. It says: “The World’s Foremost All-Male Comic Ballet Company. Though initially it might be hard to envision classical ballets performed en travesti, it certainly was easy to sit back, relax and go just along – laughing all the way – with … [Read more...]
‘Wrinkle in Time’: Hokey, clunky, but its heart is in the right place
Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time is the first $100 million feature to be directed by a woman of color. This is a big deal for the news chyrons and for DuVernay’s rising clout in an industry dominated by white males. But headlines about budgets and box-office returns give us critics the blues, because they rarely have anything to do with the art and politics of cinema. For … [Read more...]
Murray charms Mizner Park audience in hybrid literature-music show
By Dale King Bill Murray found himself in Boca Raton on Friday night. He wasn’t there to bust ghosts or whack moles. And if he were not standing on one of the city’s largest outdoor stages with three other talented performers, he might have been sitting in the sold-out crowd of a Festival of the Arts Boca event, sipping a Heineken and enjoying the vibe. But Murray, who … [Read more...]
Arts news: 2nd Oliveira contest dates announced; PGB venue closes
BOCA RATON — The second Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition will take place Jan. 12-26, 2020, at Lynn University, its founder said in a press conference Feb. 12. The celebrated American composer Christopher Theofanidis has been commissioned to compose a work for solo violin to be played by contestants in the competition. He is a member of the Yale University … [Read more...]
At Norton: Art patron Whitney had gift of her own
Who should Meryl Streep play next? The Norton Museum of Art’s latest exhibition could be the answer. It might seem at first the story of a poor little rich girl finally getting what she wanted or a study on the wonders money can do to procure recognition and fame. But it is not what it looks like. Unlike her New York City neighbor Florence Foster Jenkins, Gertrude … [Read more...]
Faux Beatles get audience moving at Crest
By Dale King Four chaps from Liverpool visited the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach on Feb. 16 and, quadruple-handedly, recreated a piece of the global phenomenon that altered the world of music 50-plus years ago, a feat accomplished by — four other chaps from Liverpool. Meet the Mersey Beatles, childhood friends from that port community in northwest England, east of the … [Read more...]
Attacca Quartet shows its worth in Ligeti, Beethoven at Duncan
By Dennis D. Rooney It took only a few measures of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 6 (in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6) to explain the high rank among contemporary American string quartets of the Attacca Quartet, founded in 2003 and actively concertizing for a decade. In the opening work of their Duncan Stage West program Feb. 21, they excelled in its strongly rhythmic character … [Read more...]
Three artists hosts interactive gallery space at CityPlace
By Sandra Schulman Further expanding the way the arts are seen in West Palm Beach, a new artist-run space has opened in CityPlace that lets gallery goers interact in an up-close insider way. Garala – a combination of the names of the three artists who run it – actually have studios in the elegant space and also exhibit the work is a bright, accessible way. The … [Read more...]
Voices carry the day for a ‘Candide’ that tries too hard
The celebration of the Leonard Bernstein centenary is bringing a lot of the composer-conductor’s music back into the public eye, and last weekend at Palm Beach Opera, the company tackled Candide for the second production of its current season. Like all troubled theater works, Candide has had several iterations since its relatively unsuccessful 1956 debut, with multiple … [Read more...]