The African-American musical tradition is a vast one, extending as it does from that day 400 years ago that the first enslaved Africans were brought to the English colonies that became the United States, to the hip-hop titans of our current popular music universe. And while much of that music is steeped in sorrow, there is also much of it that expresses joy in life, and … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2019
Capsule reviews: Four movies at the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
Here are capsule reviews of four films showing in the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, which opens Sunday and runs through Feb. 12. The Last Resort: What begins as a nostalgic look at the changing face of Miami Beach turns much darker in The Last Resort, a history of the 1970s cultural transformation of the area as seen through the lenses of two fascinated young … [Read more...]
Jewish Film Festival returns, landing important premieres
For the past three decades, January in Palm Beach County has been synonymous with an international array of Jewish-themed movies. And beginning Sunday, the 29th annual Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival screens 33 such selections – many of them world, Florida or county premieres – at four venues over 21 days. This will also be the sixth such event for … [Read more...]
Maltz’s ‘Mamma Mia!’ exuberant and delightful
There’s a party going on at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, a high-energy, high-stepping blast grafted onto a score of pre-existing hit songs by the Swedish pop rock group ABBA. And it goes by the name of Mamma Mia! As long as you do not mind that this show’s musical numbers only occasionally seem specific to the story line, you can have a giddy, good time at Mamma Mia’s … [Read more...]
Art Palm Beach outdoes itself with marvelous fair
By Myles Ludwig If you see only one art fair in West Palm Beach, this is the one. Art Palm Beach at the Convention Center is sassy, sexy and spicy, with dishes of Latin flavor, Korean “kidult,” spiritual significance, intellectual challenge, irony, inscrutability, installation, process, counterfeit, the best of contemporary art (the art of yesterday) and refined Danish … [Read more...]
Fort Lauderdale Art and Design Week: Boats, mansions and art galore
By Sandra Schulman Cultural crusader Evan Snow looked at the art action in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties and wondered why Broward wasn’t getting in on the art fair game. So three years ago he did something about it, fusing the lush waterways of Fort Lauderdale – which give the town its “Venice” nickname – with the many mansions along the water and filling them with … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 18-20
Film: You would be understandably wary of the latest John C. Reilly movie if you made the mistake of seeing Holmes & Watson recently, but his latest buddy picture, Stan & Ollie, is really quite entertaining. No, really. Reilly plays Oliver Hardy to Steve Coogan’s Stan Laurel in a biography that focuses on the latter years of their performance partnership as they toured Great … [Read more...]
At Duncan, Jessica Lang Dance impressive in one of its final shows
Having the talented choreographer Jessica Lang on hand Saturday night as her outstanding young company gave a stellar performance at the Duncan Theatre turned out to be a bittersweet affair. The audience, freshly in love with both Lang’s choreography and the ensemble, learned in the post-performance talk-back that the 8-year-old company would disband in April. That … [Read more...]
Shymalan holds ‘Glass’ up to his devotees, but few others
How many times can an artist deconstruct his craft and still surprise us? How often can a magician reveal his illusions and still leave us flummoxed? This is the challenge facing M. Night Shyamalan, Hollywood’s most esoteric trickster, as he burrows ever deeper into the cocoon of his cinematic universe, not so much playing to mainstream audiences as to film theorists, comic … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire program to explore African-American musical legacy
When Seraphic Fire takes the stage tonight at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton for a concert called I Have a Dream, they’ll be doing more than bringing attention to the vital literature of the African-American spiritual tradition. In addition to such beloved examples of black American sacred folksong as “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” and “Go Down, Moses,” the … [Read more...]