The choice of companies for this year’s Modern Dance Series at the Duncan Theatre in Lake Worth Beach is a celebration, not just of the modern dance companies that made it through the pandemic, but of those that have been around for decades and are on the verge of becoming historic institutions. Parsons Dance (which opened the series) is 40 years old, and Cleo Parker … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2022
‘Worst Person in the World’: Trier’s entrancing look at a woman unbound
The trailer for the Norwegian Oscar hopeful The Worst Person in the World is my favorite kind of teaser, the kind that says nothing about the story. Some cryptic dialogue is exchanged; a woman runs through an empty street in a fugue of exaltation; a carpet rushes headlong to meet her as she falls prostrate onto it. We know nothing of the plot, but we’re primed for something … [Read more...]
Haydn trio proves highlight for Lysander Trio at Duncan
By Dennis D. Rooney The Lysander Piano Trio was founded at New York’s Juilliard School in 2009. Their performance at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West on Feb. 2, part of the Classical Café matinee concerts, featured cellist Alice Yoo deputizing for regular cellist Michael Katz. She and pianist Liza Stepanova opened the program with Gaspar Cassadó’s arrangement of the … [Read more...]
Indian jewelry designer Dani makes Palm Beach Show debut
Inspired by the vivid colors of her South Asian heritage, Indian-born and -based jewelry designer Neha Dani is showcasing her full portfolio of "high jewelry" – contemporary, timeless and sculptural high-end rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces – for the first time at The Palm Beach Show in West Palm Beach, now running through Feb. 22. Also making its debut at the show … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s lovely ‘Once on This Island’ another winner for company
Two seasons ago, Slow Burn Theatre almost produced the epic Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical, Ragtime, but COVID got in the way. Perhaps they will get back to that show one day, but fans of the songwriting team should be pleased with the company’s current musical offering, Once on this Island, a spirited tale of the power of love, class distinctions and godly interventions, … [Read more...]
Hewitt’s Barrymore makes Maltz’s ‘I Hate Hamlet’ a must-see
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre never expected to start its season with Paul Rudnick’s puckish comedy, I Hate Hamlet, but such as the vagaries of COVID and construction. Still, when you think about it, what better way to welcome back its audience than with this tongue-in-cheek celebration of theater and of the man who wrote with such peculiar, stilted, yet soaring language – William … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Restored ‘La Dolce Vita’ laughs all the way to the apocalypse
There may be no better example of a film’s prologue forecasting its themes than the exhilarating aperitif that opens La Dolce Vita. A helicopter, its heavy cargo suspended from wires, delivers a statue of Christ to its final destination in St. Peter’s Square. Trailed by a second copter of tabloid reporters and photographers, the spectacle traverses an ancient Roman aqueduct, … [Read more...]
PB Opera’s ‘Carmen’ a study in strong women
By Rosie Rogers What kind of woman is Carmen? Since the premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen in 1875 she has been many different things. She can be a dangerous femme fatale, a proto feminist icon, or just another operatic woman doomed to die. In Palm Beach Opera’s Jan. 28 performance of Carmen, J’Nai Bridges’ Carmen fits none of these archetypes. She was fully human — … [Read more...]
World premiere ‘The Duration’ at Dramaworks takes on 9/11 legacy
As we continue to deal with the dark cloud of the COVID pandemic, Palm Beach Dramaworks wants us to look back 20 years to another tragic time in our history — September 11, 2001 — the day two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan and 3,000 lives were lost. It is the event that motivates Bruce Graham’s drama The Duration, receiving its world premiere at PBD on … [Read more...]
Artist-prankster Banksy subject of major Miami exhibition
By Sandra Schulman It’s bizarre that in this modern world with a camera and a snitch on every corner that we still don’t really know who Banksy is. Lots of theories abound, though at this point it’s better to not know who he — we are pretty sure it’s a he – is. Embraced by collectors and sections of the art world, he sells for millions while thumbing his nose at the … [Read more...]