When director Jonathan Van Dyke first moved to New York in 1990, the hot show off-Broadway was Closer Than Ever, a revue of “the anguish, amazement and human comedy of contemporary living” by lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. and composer David Shire. Van Dyke has fond memories of its intricately personal story songs, so when MNM Theatre Company’s plans to produce Bye Bye Birdie … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2020
The View From Home: Revelatory early works from an indie film artist
For casual indie film enthusiasts, writer-director Azazel Jacobs likely landed on their radars with his 2011 feature Terri, his first picture with a marquee actor (John C. Reilly) and a million-dollar budget. Many more viewers saw his 2017 comedy The Lovers, with Debra Winger and Tracy Letts, his most expensive and best-marketed picture to date. At first blush at his scant … [Read more...]
‘Freaky’: Been-there-slashed-that horror pic runs out of laughs, gas
In the increasingly popular subgenre of the meta-horror-comedy, irony is the soul of wit. How else to explain the moment in Freaky when two of its supporting characters — written and cast for their tokenism — run for their lives through the corridors of their school, a purported serial killer barreling down upon them, and the flamboyant Josh (Misha Osherovich) offers this … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Palm Beach art institutions forge ahead
By Sandra Schulman Palm Beach is counting on the arts and art lovers to rebound this season, with ambitious shows planned, and plenty of outdoor art viewing available. The Norton Museum plans to reopen this month, and the Boca Museum has been renovated and is offering several new exhibits. Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue emerges as a new gallery hotspot. Norton Museum of … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Classical shows shrink, but concerts still plentiful
South Florida’s classical music community is surely one of the nation’s most vibrant, with at least seven regularly appearing orchestras playing from Key West to Fort Pierce, two opera companies, three chamber music series, a nationally known concert choir, and a season that in the winter months sees many of the touring stars of the Northeast come down to shake off the … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: The big films, with or without cinemas
Few things are as changeable as film release schedules in a coronavirus pandemic. Major movies like Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and Daniel Craig’s final James Bond flick, No Time to Die, have delayed their openings into 2021. Others – The Glorias, Mulan, Antebellum – have given up on theatrical showings entirely in favor of home video streaming. The good news for … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Book, literary fests go virtual
Despite the dearth of live events during the winter of COVID-19, there are enough virtual literary events to keep one’s mind engaged. From poetry to fiction to children’s literature and books with local themes and authors, this year’s offerings, while reduced, offer enough stimulation and diversion to almost make you forget our altered state of collective reality. Palm … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: COVID stifles dance, but live shows set for 2021
By Dale King Performance stages throughout South Florida that would normally host all sorts of dance programs this time of year are silent, dark and vacant. Producers have dismissed dancers, sent staff home and barred patrons from entry as COVID-19 has rudely slammed the door on art forms of all genres. While most dance companies have replaced live shows with online … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Aging veterans come out for abbreviated pop season
An abbreviated yet guardedly optimistic 2020-2021 South Florida pop concert season surges forward starting in November, featuring mostly veteran performers among folk, blues and other roots music styles. Star blues guitarists Tab Benoit, Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd are featured this month, in hopes that COVID-19 complications don’t give ticket-buying patrons a bluesy … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Area’s opera companies move to outdoor festivals, concerts
New York’s Metropolitan Opera announced in September that it would be canceling all its shows for the 2020-21 season, but plans to reopen in September 2021 with American composer and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first opera by a Black composer the Met has presented in its 140-year history. The area’s opera companies face the same … [Read more...]