Every generation or so, the musical theater takes a quantum leap of originality, into unexpected, uncharted territory. The latest such milestone is unquestionably Hamilton, the saga of an orphan immigrant Founding Father, told with a largely hip-hop score by a cast of performers of color. For once, you can believe the hype. Hamilton is as engrossing, entertaining and … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2020
BalletX opens Duncan series in inventive but mixed-bag fashion
BalletX, a Philadelphia-based contemporary ballet company, opened the Duncan Theatre’s popular Modern Dance Series on Jan. 17 in Lake Worth. Under the leadership of Christine Cox, with an artistic mission to commission ballets from choreographers around the globe that will be inclusive and satisfying to the audience, the company has presented 78 world premieres by 39 … [Read more...]
‘Advocate’ offers rare perspective on Israeli-Arab conflict
Of all the complicated geopolitical flashpoints, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably still the most ideologically entrenched, the most bitterly divided, the prickliest to discuss with any degree of nuance or decorum. It is in this environment, in which one person’s defense of an accused Palestinian “freedom fighter” is another person’s unconscionable representation of … [Read more...]
The revolution that ‘Hamilton’ wrought
If Broadway composer, lyricist and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda had not taken a vacation to Mexico during the run of his Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, he might never have written his hip-hop history lesson, Hamilton. In the airport on his way to Mexico, you see, he popped into a bookshop and bought Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and read it while … [Read more...]
Zoetic triumphs with powerful ‘American Son’
Lawyer-turned-playwright Christopher Demos-Brown, a co-founder of Zoetic Stage, is one of the area’s most prominent dramatists. That status took a quantum leap upward when this South Florida favorite son took his ripped-from-the-headlines play, American Son, to Broadway in late 2018. While some of the reviews were brutally negative, the production managed to play 97 … [Read more...]
Splendid leads make Maltz’s ‘Chicago’ unmissable
Somewhere deep inside the Cook County Jail, circa 1920s, lies the intersection of blind justice and show biz. It is a cynical spot to be sure, but also extremely entertaining, thanks to composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, director-choreographer Denis Jones and a skilled Maltz Jupiter Theatre company of performers and designers. The show is Chicago, based … [Read more...]
‘To Life 2’ takes another look at Great Jewish-American Songbook
With very few exceptions, the composers of the Broadway theater during the 20th century were of Jewish heritage, some of them immigrants from Eastern Europe. That cultural anomaly was examined in song a year ago in a revue dubbed To Life, named for a number in Fiddler on the Roof. Since it proved popular with the audience at Boca Raton’s Willow Theatre, that show has now … [Read more...]
Soloist, conductor inconsistent in Polish orchestra’s Kravis visit
By Dennis D. Rooney Wrocław in Poland was the German city of Breslau until 1945, when it and the entire German Province of Lower Silesia were transferred to Poland at the Potsdam Conference. Located in Poland’s Southwest, Wrocław is today a city of 600,000. Its orchestra, the Wrocław Philharmonic, was established in 1945 and their 13-city U. S. tour this season included … [Read more...]
ACO, soloist solid in 30th season debut
By Dennis D. Rooney With a nod toward the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra opened the first concert of its 30th season on Jan. 8 at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 (in C, Op. 21). Conductor David Amado, in his fourth season as music director, preceded the performance … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Evita’ recycles Hal Prince, comes up with a dud
The Wick Theatre uses director Norb Joerder so frequently because he has staged most of its musicals already, often many times over. He could, as the expression goes, direct them in his sleep. And with the current production of Evita, that is exactly what it looks like he has done. The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice biographical musical about Argentina’s power-hungry Eva … [Read more...]