Classic shows from the ’50s and ’60s – the so-called golden age of musical theater – keep being revived and often given a directorial spin to add a new viewpoint or to fall more in line with contemporary attitudes. Think of the modern opening touch in the recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, the more Shavian ending wordlessly attached to My Fair Lady or the new, … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2019
Pianist Daneshpour commanding, wayward at Steinway Gallery
By Dennis D. Rooney A Washington, D.C., native, pianist Sara Daneshpour has studied with Leon Fleisher at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, Yoheved Kaplinsky at New York’s Juilliard School, Oleg Volkov, and at present is studying with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute. Her recital March 22 at the Steinway Gallery Boca Raton, sponsored by Piano Lovers of South … [Read more...]
Close to perfect ‘Fences’ stuns at Dramaworks
William Hayes has long wanted to produce August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Fences, but felt he had to wait until Palm Beach Dramaworks was capable and ready to take on such a challenge. Boy, is the company ready now. Onstage through April 21 is a virtually perfect rendering of Wilson’s 1950s play in his 10-play cycle that charts the evolving black experience … [Read more...]
‘Palm Beach Wife’ a fun beach read, but could have been edgier
By Sharon Geltner The heroine of A Palm Beach Wife, Faith Harrison, lives in a stunning, $10 million mansion on the Intracoastal in Palm Beach. She doesn’t wrinkle or gain weight. She wears designer gowns to fancy charity galas that she co-chairs with her rich, handsome spouse. And Faith owns a luxury goods consignment shop on Worth Avenue where, “husbands with twitching … [Read more...]
Morton Kaish: An eye for nature, color and life
Not even gloomy rainy days can get in the way of radiant butterflies determined to glide over grassy fields in search of the sun. To aid their journey, an artist arms them with multicolor marbleized wings. Spring is the perfect backdrop to the jovial artworks of American painter Morton Kaish, whose solo exhibition is now on view through May 5 at the Ann Norton Sculpture … [Read more...]
Gardner helps lift Simon’s minor ‘Gingerbread Lady’ at Primal Forces
Nine years after he made his Broadway debut with the wisecracking Come Blow Your Horn, long after he was proclaimed the commercial theater’s reigning king of comedy, Neil Simon made a drastic tonal shift with the darkly dramatic The Gingerbread Lady. This tale of an alcoholic nymphomaniac and her emotionally needy friends did have glimmers of the serious Simon of his later … [Read more...]
Reduced-forces ‘Sweeney’ still packs fierce punch at Zoetic Stage
Ever since Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s bloody brilliant, massive, large-cast Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street arrived on Broadway in 1979, subsequent takes on the show have grappled with how to deliver its oversized emotions and exquisite score on a reduced scale. That presents an enticing challenge for a director, as Patrick Fitzwater of Slow Burn … [Read more...]
‘Woman at War’: Fighting the good eco-fight
There’s an old Icelandic proverb that goes, “Never underestimate a woman with a crossbow. Or a circular saw. Or explosives.” OK, so it’s not an ancient Nordic proverb, but it should be. Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), the protagonist of Benedikt Erlingsson’s loopy yet sobering second feature, Woman at War, is a middle-aged choir conductor by day, and an ageless … [Read more...]
At PB Opera, a fun ‘Fledermaus’ with an aria surprise
A little Italian magic came as the most unexpected surprise Saturday night during the Palm Beach Opera’s presentation of Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus. Playing Prince Orlofsky en travesti was the celebrated mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, resplendent in Russian battle dress and a white beard. Pressed in Act II to sing something (itself an interpolation into the … [Read more...]
Broadway baby: ‘School of Rock’ cast member, 10, tells of life on the road
Like many a New Yorker, 10-year-old Alyssa Emily Marvin considers South Florida to be her second home. After all, her great-grandmother was a longtime volunteer at the Kravis Center until recently and her cousin is a rabbi at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton. And on Wednesday, Alyssa makes her Kravis debut as Marcy, one of the kid rocker back-up singers in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s … [Read more...]