The pundits tells us life will be different after the pandemic. By switching to outdoor performances Palm Beach Opera may have stumbled on a panoply of new ideas for its future. Using the iThink Financial Amphitheatre at the South Florida Fairgrounds, with singers’s voices slightly enhanced, made for a reproductive quality not usually heard in smaller houses. Also, having … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2021
Artist Strosberg carries on Palm Beach portraits tradition
Is it coincidence or the fact that the universe loves symmetry when, in 2018, Palm Beach artist Ralph Wolfe Cowan, portraitist to some of the world’s most celebrated and wealthy glitterati, died at the same time that portrait artist Serge Strosberg, who lived in New York City for more than a decade, relocated to Palm Beach? Cowan’s career spanned seven decades, and over his … [Read more...]
Sharp cast shines in ‘Deathtrap’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Deathtrap, the wryly comic mystery by author/playwright Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives), is at once easy and hard for a reviewer to critique. The 1978 production won a Tony for Best Play, and begat a 1982 movie about the selfsame playwriting duo from the stage production that longs to create a ragingly successful Broadway thriller, even if blood … [Read more...]
Superb singers make PB Opera’s ‘Flute’ magical amid pandemic
It was different because of COVID: Palm Beach Opera held its season outdoors at the 6,000-seat iThink Financial Anphitheatre at the Fairgrounds (just one mile from the Florida Turnpike at the Southern Boulevard exit). The first of the major American opera companies to bravely adapt to an untested venue, the troupe’s general director, David Walker, thanked the people who made … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Pain and pleasure in two historic jazz documentaries
Two documentaries about the Golden Age of jazz, new on video from Kino Lorber and its affiliates, spotlight both the agonies and ecstasies of the lives of its performers. Both are essential, but if you’re going to make a double feature out of them, it’s best to get the tough one out of the way first. James Erskine’s arresting Billie ($13.99 DVD) charts the tragic life of … [Read more...]
Associated Press writer debuts Florida-based mystery caper
By Sharon Geltner It was witnessing 13 executions at Florida State Prison that persuaded Tampa-based Associated Press reporter Tamara Lush to write romances and cozy mysteries in her free time. “At first I considered dark police procedurals, but I get a mental break from daily crime reporting by writing something happy,” she said. Writing as “Tara Lush,” she has launched … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Adventures on Kanopy
I have a new favorite streaming service, and it’s called Kanopy. Marrying the deep archive of Amazon Prime with the art-house sensibilities of the Criterion Channel, the streaming service offers an ever-growing trove of foreign, independent, classic and documentary titles, often fresh off the festival, theatrical and pay-per-view circuits. The best part? It’s free for … [Read more...]
PB Opera ready for outdoor festival, with Met-style casts
By Robert Croan “And then the pandemic punched us in the face.” That’s how it felt to David Walker, in his first season as Palm Beach Opera’s general director – a post he took over after Daniel Biaggi resigned in 2019. “It was going so well,” says Walker, 54. “Puccini’s 'Turandot' [the opening production in January 2020] was our highest-grossing show in 12 years. … [Read more...]
Brewer cooking up live music in Lake Worth Beach
A surprising thing happened as the COVID-19 crisis ran roughshod over the local live music industry throughout 2020. You know, the year in which many performance venues — especially indoor-only ones — closed down from temporarily to permanently. The year in which most able to stay open downsized their calendars from full bands to solo artists, ranging from DJs to … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Jan McArt, the act who can’t be followed
To paraphrase a famous quote by Jerome Kern about Irving Berlin: “Jan McArt has no place in South Florida theater. She is South Florida theater.” Certainly she was producing and appearing in stage shows from Key West to Boca Raton when there was no other theater in the region to speak of. Most particularly, she built and ran the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre in Boca for 24 … [Read more...]