By Dale King Monty Python’s Spamalot is back, and winning over audiences at the venerable Crest Theatre in Delray Beach. While the run of the show is limited – it opened June 20 and concludes Sunday – the laughs are unrestrained, thanks to a fine ensemble that exquisitely interprets the silly songs and dialogue crafted by the Pythons in their addled “tale of the Grail.” … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2019
‘Yesterday’: Fixing a memory hole, rom-com style
Back in April, I interviewed Daniel Hartwell, founder of the inaugural Beatles on the Beach Festival, which would soon descend on Delray Beach. I asked him to reflect on why the Beatles remain so perennially popular, with generation after generation. He answered, in part, “the music, if it were to come out today, would be a hit. It would be alternative rock.” Yesterday, a … [Read more...]
West Palm tries to make a construction summer ‘i-coneic’
By Sandra Schulman Construction is never fun. But the city of West Palm Beach is making lemonade out of construction lemons this summer with a lineup of orange cone-themed events and activities while the 100 and 200 blocks of Clematis Street is undergoing its “pardon our dust” period. Past summers have found twirling tops and fairytale-painted cottages in the waterfront … [Read more...]
‘Seven Solos’ dazzles at the Cornell
By April Klimley Art lovers will be thrilled with Seven Solos, an exhibition of immersive installations now showing at the Cornell Museum in Old School Square in Delray Beach. The museum’s dynamic curator, Melanie Johanson, has brought together eight artists to create seven fascinating spaces that will transport viewers from celestial awe (Brookhard Jonquil) to soothing … [Read more...]
Woodstock doc: The friends we all need a little help from
Like the seasoned storyteller he is, documentarian Barak Goodman opens his new film Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation in media res, with the most alarming visuals and most calamitous sound bites he can muster. “Everything that could possibly go wrong was happening,” we’re informed, as rain clouds darken the teeming throng of 400,000 hippies on Woodstock’s … [Read more...]
‘The Dead Don’t Die’: A love letter to zombie movies
In Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, the zombie apocalypse rustles yawningly but determinedly to fruition in Centerville, an anonymous American hamlet, population 738. The omens, initially disparate and disconnected, begin to cohere into an existential collapse: Wild animals flee, and pets attack their owners. The sun is still out at 9 at night, and the next evening it’s … [Read more...]
Lead performance lets FAU’s ‘Sabrina Fair’ get summer off to sparkling start
By Dale King Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theatre and Dance has launched its two-play Festival Rep summer series with Sabrina Fair, a captivating mid-20th century romantic comedy. The play features delightful performances by FAU Class of 2020 master of fine arts students along with a couple of Actors Equity players who give them a taste of the real-world … [Read more...]
New ‘Victory Dolls’ group recreates musical magic of World War II
By Dale King Memories of World War II are getting a shot in the arm from a group of talented stage performers and a veteran theater management CEO, all intent on reviving the music and cultural impact of the war period. Kevin Barrett, a theater manager for 28 years who took over last year as director of the Delray Beach Playhouse, has joined forces with Carbonell … [Read more...]
Herzog’s encounter with Gorbachev respectful, revelatory
When Michel Gondry directed Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?, his offbeat 2013 interview documentary of Noam Chomsky, he was clear about the project’s particular timing. Gondry wanted to fast-track the movie because, frankly, he wanted enough time with Noam while his subject was still alive. Though it’s never delineated as bluntly, a similar sense of temporal urgency permeates … [Read more...]
The New York season: Irish drama ‘Ferryman’ leads play pack
Editor’s note: Each season, Hap Erstein heads to New York to see the new plays and musicals in advance of the Tony Awards, which are scheduled for this Sunday. All things considered, it was a good Broadway season for new plays, which are generally thought of as unwelcome compared to musicals. An epic play of the Irish Troubles, The Ferryman, has had a healthy eight-month … [Read more...]