There is a literal monster in Scott Cooper’s Antlers, namely the wendigo: a mythological spirit from indigenous American lore that craves human flesh, sprouts horns and possesses people. But as with the best horror storytelling — think Poe, think Shelley — the supernatural element is an offshoot of prosaically human conditions like greed, abuse and theft. The wendigo is a … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2021
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in theater
This was supposed to be the first post-COVID theater season in South Florida, but the delta variant took care of that wishful thinking. Most stage companies are optimistic that they can produce something this season. Whether the audience will show up is another story. If all goes well, it could be an exciting year at the theater, with a new artistic director at … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in jazz
“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny,” Frank Zappa announced during the performance of his dizzying, bop-infused composition “Be-Bop Tango (of the Old Jazzmen’s Church)” on the 1974 live album Roxy & Elsewhere. Hopefully, his satirical words about the genre’s decay aren’t proving prophetic nearly a half-century later. The COVID-19 pandemic altered the second half of … [Read more...]
Flimsy but hugely popular, ‘Mamma Mia!’ wins over Wick audiences
Popularity doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with quality. Consider Mamma Mia!, which ran nearly 14 years on Broadway, the ninth longest running show in the commercial theater. But this lazy jukebox musical is built from songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA that only occasionally coincide with the show’s credibility-stretching plot. Still, did I mention that it ran nearly … [Read more...]
The View From Home: A revolutionary rock doc, a socialist treatise
For hardcore fans of the Velvet Underground — which is to say all fans of the Velvet Underground — Todd Haynes’ new documentary bearing their name is manna from heaven, a film as disobedient, innovative and multilayered as the band itself. The Velvet Underground played with temporality through its druggy, hypnotic music, and The Velvet Underground tells their story through a … [Read more...]
Hyper ‘Starcatcher’ at LW Playhouse can’t outrun overlong material
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse has opened its 69th season with a frenetic production of Peter and the Starcatcher, a paean to Peter Pan that offers up a plausible prequel to J.M. Barrie’s 1904 children’s fable, elaborating on the tale of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” by focusing on friendship, leadership, fealty and a few other add-ons. The hectic performance combines … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s ‘Songs for a New World’ makes the case for composer Brown
In 1995, audiences did not yet know composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brow. After all, he had not won his Tony Awards for best score (Parade and Bridges of Madison County). Nor had he written The Last Five Years, the two-character, backward-and-forward narrative musical that regional theaters all across the country have since embraced. But he had penned Songs for a New … [Read more...]
FAU student cast does well by Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’
By Dale King Students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Florida Atlantic University have picked up where their predecessors left off nearly two seasons ago when a COVID pandemic forced FAU to curtail public performances and required young actors to hone their talents behind the scenes. Last weekend, a new troupe of budding thespians – 10 of them pursuing master’s … [Read more...]
At Gavlak, Deborah Brown mingles objects and fantasy
By Sandra Schulman For artist Deborah Brown, the pandemic allowed her the luxury to reconnect with both sentimental objects she lives with every day and the fantasy of self-portraits through a Western art history lens. Her new show at Gavlak in Palm Beach has the enigmatic title Return to Forever, a show that was delayed a year. “This show was supposed to take place in … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The year in pop
One of the first popular music shows of the 2021-2022 South Florida concert season was scheduled to be by Dead & Company this week. The group canceled, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been a long, strange trip to get here over the past two years. The COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head in the middle of the 2019-2020 season, altering both the second half of … [Read more...]