Nineteen-year-old Tommy, the main character of Stephen Brown’s Everything is Super Great – a sarcastic title is ever there was one – lives a lonely life in a dead-end job at Starbucks. He is attracted to the female assistant manager who has no interest in him, he has no friends, his older brother has been missing for months and an inept therapist has arrived at Tommy’s home … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2019
‘Andy and the Orphans’ deals thoughtfully with Down challenges
If the term “orphans” conjures up those adorable tykes from the musical Annie, playwright Lindsey Ferrentino asks us to adjust our sights and consider the more common situation of adults whose parents have died, leaving them with clean-up chores, both physical and emotional. That is how it is in Ferrentino’s Andy and the Orphans for siblings Maggie (Patti Gardner) and … [Read more...]
‘Honey Boy’: A bracing look at an actor’s haunted childhood
“The only thing my father gave me that was of any value was pain. And now you want to take that away from me.” This line, spoken by the troubled young actor Otis Lort (Lucas Hedges) in a therapy session in a rehab center, captures the ache at the core of Honey Boy. The project is directed, with great sensitivity and poise, by Israeli filmmaker Alma Har’el, but is the … [Read more...]
‘Giovanni’ opens FGO’s 79th season in distinctive style
Although Lorenzo Da Ponte’s reading of the character best known as Don Juan is that he is an unrepentant rake who deserves perdition with a capital P, today’s opera directors have a dilemma on their hands: How exactly are we to understand Don Giovanni? As the focus of one of Mozart’s finest operas, it’s a crucial question. I’ve seen him depicted as a Las Vegas crime lord in … [Read more...]
Oz Noy in Boca: Too little of a superb thing
Israel-born, Manhattan-based jazz/fusion guitarist Oz Noy returned from an overseas tour in late October, having played across Europe, the Czech Republic and Russia in a trio with renowned band mates in bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Dennis Chambers. Noy’s first dates upon his return to the United States were 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. trio shows Nov. 5 at the Funky Biscuit in … [Read more...]
FAU cast dispatches ‘Urinetown’ smartly
By Dale King Student actors at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton have clearly taken the satirical comedy Urinetown to heart. Their performance is a laugh-laden riot. Coincidentally, the show doesn’t sink to the level of toilet humor – well, not often — as it could so easily do. Director Lee Soroko seems to gleefully turn ownership of the stage over to the young … [Read more...]
MCB in fine form for evening of Balanchine, Taylor
Miami City Ballet adroitly launched its new season with the first of four diverse programs at the Kravis Center earlier this month. With a plethora of new dancers on the roster and some well-deserved promotions within the company ranks, MCB was in excellent form. Fully energized and technically strong, the company members took on the challenges of the different dance … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire gives 12th-century mystic the respect she deserves
Posthumous fame came very late for the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen, but her rediscovery in the late 20th century some 800 years after she died has been a salutary achievement for the appreciation of early music and the music of women composers. That isn’t to say that Hildegard’s idiom, which consists of her own special style of plainchant, blends smoothly into the … [Read more...]
Superb performances a highlight at Zimmermann’s
By Dennis D. Rooney The attendees of Zimmermann’s Café Chamber Music (whose motto is “Music Written Today; Composers Here and Now,”) are an amiable group who gathered patiently in the quiet space of St. Andrew’s on Oct. 27 to wait until the doors of Frazell Hall (a/k/a social hall or fellowship hall) opened at about 3:45 p.m., whereupon they took seats at about a dozen … [Read more...]
Grateful Dead drummer Hart brings his artwork, consciousness to South Florida
Drummer Mickey Hart’s name will always conjure up imagery of the Grateful Dead, the ground-breaking, San Francisco-launched act he joined in 1967. With elements of rock, blues, jazz, bluegrass and country music, and a massive legion of loyal Deadheads as a traveling following, the group launched an ongoing musical movement as the ultimate 20th-century jam band. The Grateful … [Read more...]