By Dale King It’s encouraging to see that drama students at Florida Atlantic University haven’t lost their interest in performing plays written several centuries ago, despite interruptions wrought in FAU’s theatrical schedule by COVID-19. The energetic performers in FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance wrapped up the 2021-22 season with a formidable performance of … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2022
Cellist Herbert, ACO close season with satisfying Tchaikovsky, Wolf
By Dennis D. Rooney Music of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) opened the Alantic Classical Orchestra's final concert of this season, which I heard at its second performance April 21 at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens. Like Schumann, Donizetti, and Smetana, Wolf was infected with syphilis and eventually made mad by it. Despite his short … [Read more...]
Accomplished cast lifts slight Sedaka musical at Wick
Neil Sedaka was a prolific singer/songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s, but few of his catchy hit tunes could be described as theater music. Yet for the past 15 years, thanks to that frequently popular subgenre known as the jukebox musical, he has enjoyed a new revenue stream from a show of his collected songs called Breaking Up Is Hard to Do. The title also happens to be the … [Read more...]
The View From Home: A new DVD collection resurrects the paranoid Atomic Age
As a longtime devotee of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I expected to encounter a familiar brand of B-movie schlock with the new triple-feature DVD Drive-In Retro Classics (Corinth, $22.99). The cover art depicts a man gleefully shooting death rays from his eyes, and the titles — The Brain From Planet Arous, The Hideous Sun Demon — seem ripe for riffing. The biggest surprise … [Read more...]
The Queen at 96: Happy birthday, Your Majesty. You can retire now.
It’s April 21st, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II turns 96. We wish her a very happy birthday. Last February 6, the queen celebrated 70 years since she ascended to the throne at age 25, the same age as Elizabeth I in 1558, who reigned for 45 years. Elizabeth II’s long reign, now the subject of the Netflix series The Crown, has provided insights and some intimate moments … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Opera gets $6 million gift; announces 2022-23 season
WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach Opera has received a gift of $6 million from a local foundation, the largest donation in the opera company’s 61-year history. The gift, announced last week, will allow Palm Beach Opera to move forward with renovations on its new home in the artsy Northwood section of West Palm Beach. The company announced in September it had bought an … [Read more...]
Big art, movie magic: Boca Museum celebrates the art of the backdrop
Remember Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, and their harrowing descent down the face of Mount Rushmore? That 2-minute montage defines Hitchcock’s classic film, yet credit went to everyone making the film except the scenic artists who made the dangerous escape possible by creating the 90-foot-wide backdrop depicting … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s closing concert satisfies with Midori, Schuman
By Dennis D. Rooney The final program of this season’s Palm Beach Sympony Masterworks Series, which took place April 10 in the Kravis Center's Dreyfoos Hall, was well-balanced and enjoyed by the (largely un-masked) audience. Among the many important commissions made by conductor André Kostelanetz is William Schuman’s New England Triptych, subtitled "Three Pieces for … [Read more...]
Complexions ballet troupe astonishes as its widens dance audience
The “wow factor” when seeing a performance of Complexions Contemporary Ballet is incredibly high — in fact, it is off the charts. During their one-night stand at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts on April 2, the amazing New York-based ballet company checked off every box with aplomb — gorgeous dancers, a dazzling display of technical prowess, fantastic music and … [Read more...]
‘The Northman’: Revenge pic’s hallucinatory power will go all medieval on you
If Alexander Skarsgård is a Method actor in the pop definition of the term — someone who never breaks character even when the cameras stop — I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere near his quarters in Northern Ireland from August through November 2020, during the shoot for The Northman. God forbid I were a gofer with unpleasant news; say, craft services were out of … [Read more...]