Playwright and novelist Jennifer Lane recalls exactly what the initial motivation was for her to write Harlowe, which is having its world premiere Friday at Florida Atlantic University’s Theater Lab. It was years ago, while she was in Columbia University’s graduate playwriting program. She was falling behind in her work and the program director was growing impatient with … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2019
MCB sparkles in Peck’s ‘Heatscape,’ Balanchine
It’s hard to believe the season is almost over. This past weekend, Miami City Ballet presented its Program Three at the Kravis Center and fast on its heels will be its final program, the full-length A Midsummer Night’s Dream by George Balanchine with music by Felix Mendelssohn, which will close out the company’s season in the Palm Beaches on April 4 and 5. Program Three was … [Read more...]
Dramaworks does its first August Wilson, taking swing at ‘Fences’
In its 18 years of producing great American plays, Palm Beach Dramaworks had never done one by August Wilson, but that is not veteran local actress Karen Stephens’ fault. She had long been lobbying for his 1987 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, Fences, the tale of former Negro League baseball player Troy Maxson and his uneasy relationships with wife Rose and son … [Read more...]
Maltz’s ‘West Side Story’ will reflect current anti-immigrant climate
Puerto Rico-born Marcos Santana has long admired the musical West Side Story, yet he finds it unbalanced. “The Jets definitely have more presence through the entire play than the Sharks,” he says, referring to the American street gang versus those who grew up in his native island. “I still love this show, but there was always something inside of me saying, ‘This … [Read more...]
Boca’s arts fest wraps, with hints of Beethoven for next year
By Dale King If you’re planning to attend Festival of the Arts Boca in 2020, you have just a shade less than a year to gather up 250 birthday candles. While commenting on the recently concluded 2019 Festival of the Arts Boca, which wrapped up March 10 on a literal high note with a performance by jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and his blazing-hot sextet, Festival Director … [Read more...]
Doppelganger portals and inequality in America: This is ‘Us’
As a horror movie setting, a groty carnival on the beaches of Santa Cruz in 1986 is a ready-made place to start. And so begins Us, Jordan Peele’s gripping new creep show. A proud father has just won his curious little girl, Adelaide Wilson (Madison Curry), a prize at one of the midway games. She picks a Michael Jackson “Thriller” T-shirt (speaking of scary things), many … [Read more...]
Writer T Kira Madden: Leaving Boca, opening doors for ‘Fatherless Girls’
The tattoos dotting T Kira Madden’s arms may not symbolize everything you need to know about her, but they unlock a number of doors. They include likenesses of the Hawaiian islands, her ancestral homeland; the key to her father’s apartment in New York City; a top hat, tipped in reference to her passion for stage magic; and a hot air balloon, which she and her parents … [Read more...]
Loehr, Kleiner shine in sensational ‘Crazy for You’ at The Wick
Legendary composer George Gershwin died in 1937, but that has not stopped the creation of three major book musicals featuring his songs in relatively recent years. The best of them is surely 1992’s Crazy for You, a clever romantic comedy with the emphasis on the comedy, thanks to a jokey script by Ken Ludwig. But to work, the show needs a charismatic hoofer in the male lead. … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Frida’ a brilliant, energetic read on iconic Mexican artist
By Robert Croan Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s 1991 opera, Frida – based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo – requires only 15 singers (some in double roles) and an orchestra of six to 11 players, but the brilliant, kinetic Florida Grand Opera production that opened last weekend in the Miramar Cultural Center, seemed huge. The energy level soared from first note to … [Read more...]
Young, exciting Thalea SQ wows Flagler audience
Oh, to be a member of a young string quartet nowadays. A format that reached its first flowering in the days when leaders of Britain’s American colonies were looking for the exit sign is today a group synonymous with the kind of tight-but-exhilarating camaraderie that results from a small band of people attempting something Olympian while navigating concert-packed road … [Read more...]