Over the course of his long career – 25 years as producer at 60 Minutes and another 15 years as senior producer of ABC’s Primetime Live and 20/20 – Ira Rosen has won a long list of accolades, including multiple Peabody and duPont awards, 24 Emmys and six Investigative Reporters and Editors awards -- more than Washington Post editor Bob Woodward. But for Rosen, the most … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2022
‘Rx’: Boca Stage’s gentle skewering of Big Pharma delivered with dispatch
Workplace depression is not an officially recognized medical condition, but that does not stop Schmidt Pharma from trying to develop a lucrative cure for what ails so many of us. That includes Meena Pierotti, managing editor of American Cattle and Swine magazine, a trade publication so dreary that depression seems the logical response to employment there. Meena is the … [Read more...]
Rolston String Quartet brilliant but too aggressive
By Dennis D. Rooney The Rolston String Quartet is a foursome of young Canadians and Americans who play under a name honoring the distinguished Canadian pedagogue, Thomas Rolston (1932-2010), longtime director of music (1979-2004) at the Banff School of the Arts. The members, who played a concert Jan. 19 at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West, boast an impressive list of … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘9 to 5’ a bright revival of workplace classic
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse flips the calendar page on its 2021-22 season, opening the new year with a lively and entertaining revival of the comic workplace improvement saga, 9 to 5. The 2008 stage production inspired by the 1980 film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton (who wrote the tunes and lyrics for the show’s mainly up-tempo soundtrack) … [Read more...]
‘Almost, Maine’ at Dramaworks: Dramatic fare takes pleasant backseat to whimsy
Palm Beach Dramaworks likes to say that it traffics in “theater to think about.” But if you are looking for an entertaining night out without much thinking required, the West Palm Beach stage company has a lightweight slice of whimsy on view now that certainly fills that bill. Called Almost, Maine, it consists of nine brief vignettes on the subject of romance, … [Read more...]
Like Mama Rose herself, Wick’s ‘Gypsy’ soldiers on
Many shows in South Florida have had to be canceled or postponed because of the COVID pandemic, but the Wick Theatre’s production of the musical Gypsy has toughed it out and barreled on – just like its leading character, Mama Rose Hovick, the ultimate stage mother. Veteran director Norb Joerder has dozens of shows to his credit, but he has never experienced anything … [Read more...]
‘Scream’: Self-referential pose dulls slasher’s edge
Perhaps the most enduring innovation from Wes Craven’s original Scream (1996) is its acknowledgement of its existence within the continuum of horror movies, both the classics to the schlock that preceded it. For at least two decades prior, in every monocellular slasher that oozed red paint in every midnight-movie ghetto and fading VHS tape, the teenage automatons passing … [Read more...]
Cárdenes leads Symphonia in substantive string concert
By Dennis D. Rooney A modest audience, socially distanced, heard a program Jan. 8 of Paganini, Vivaldi and Schubert played by 25 members of The Symphonia under the direction of Andrés Cárdenes, the co-founder and artistic and music director of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, a program geared toward educating young musicians. He is also on the faculty of … [Read more...]
COVID shelves more shows: ‘Sweet Charity,’ ‘Last Night in Inwood’
Two more theater troupes have postponed or canceled shows as the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus continues its spread across the country. “Due to the recent surge of Omicron,” the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has announced further changes to its grand reopening season. The COVID-19 variant has delayed the completion of the $36 million building renovation, causing the … [Read more...]
Early Warhol on view at Tequesta’s Lighthouse ArtCenter
Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta opens the new year this Thursday with a celebration of pop art that includes more than 20 pieces of rarely seen original works by Andy Warhol from the collections of Marshall Field and Beth Rudin DeWoody. “We’re pleased to offer this astonishing exhibition from the world-class collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody in our newly renovated gallery,” … [Read more...]