When I started reading Toni Bentley’s Serenade: A Balanchine Story, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. In fact, I wasn’t sure that I was going to continue reading it. I had my suspicion that the tone might be overly reverent, as Bentley was young and impressionable when she joined the ranks of New York City Ballet and was chosen by master choreographer George Balanchine to dance … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2022
For artist Kasha McKee, everything comes from the heart
As an artist, DJ and fine art photographer, Palm Beach-based Kasha McKee marches to the beat of her own drum – or shall we say to the beat of her own dance music. Born Katherine Marie Tomski in Canada 53 years ago to Polish and Ukrainian-born parents, McKee recently debuted her latest conceptual photographs in a solo show at the Palm Beach Art Antique and Design Showroom in … [Read more...]
‘Murina’: From Croatia, a luminous coming-of-age story
Director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s extraordinary debut feature Murina starts and ends submerged in water, specifically the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia. The beginning is serene, and the conclusion is fraught. It’s an elegant, circular structure that closes a loop while opening another. Then again, we never really leave the sea, so intrinsic is this vast, … [Read more...]
Top-notch ‘Rent’ concludes FAU Summer Rep season
By Dale King Student actors at Florida Atlantic University have tapped a Broadway blockbuster --– the breakthrough musical Rent --- to wrap up their Summer Repertory Theatre season. Playing through July 31 at Studio One on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, Jonathan Larson's Rent is based loosely on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera, La Bohème. The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, which … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘Heathers’ brings offbeat story vividly to life
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse continues to exercise its theatrical muscle by bringing unorthodox plays to its main stage in downtown Lake Worth Beach. Since the COVID pandemic eased, show planners have presented such quirky entries as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a gender-bending two-person performance, and We Will Rock You, an idiosyncratic collection of tunes by the … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Fest’s ‘Richard II’ persuades with strong lead performances
As my high school history teacher once drummed into my head, the only reason to study history is if it has something to say about contemporary times. The rule applies well to Shakespeare’s Richard II --- the first history play that Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival has tackled in its 32 years of existence --- a tale of malevolence. power and the uneasy transition of power. So … [Read more...]
The View From Home: ‘Offseason’ an atmospheric chiller with an all-too-familiar setting
Writer-director Mickey Keating’s confident and chilling horror feature Offseason ($28.96 Blu-ray, $27.97 DVD, and streaming on Shudder) is set in a community called Lone Palm Beach. Lone Palm Beach is an isolated island off the coast of the Eastern United States, accessible by bridge, that jolts to life only during high tourist season. Its few year-round residents — all of them … [Read more...]
Letter from New York: Grateful for ‘Company’ revival, sorry about production choices
NEW YORK -- The late Stephen Sondheim is arguably the greatest composer-lyricist that Broadway has ever produced, and certainly the most meticulous and exacting. Yet whenever called upon by others to revise his work, he seemed more than willing to do so. Think of the London production of Follies that Cameron Mackintosh wanted to be less downbeat. Or his new lyrics for his … [Read more...]
‘James Patterson’: Prolific storyteller clams up in frustrating autobiography
By Sharon Geltner In James Patterson by James Patterson, the author gets a disturbing phone call. "Your Jersey Shore house is burning!” What happened? Don’t know. How did the fire start? The author doesn’t say. Was it an electrical short? Nah. Spark from a neighbor’s grill? Yawn. Lightning strike? Maybe. Was it arson? Yes! That’s it! Arson! And the … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Festival takes on ‘Richard II’ in its first history-play foray
For 32 years, the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival has been exploring the works of its namesake playwright, but has avoided his history plays. Until now. From July 7 through the 17th, at Jupiter’s Carlin Park Seabreeze Amphitheater, and again at Royal Palm Beach’s Commons Park Amphitheater, July 21–24, the Festival will present the Bard’s Richard II, his first history play … [Read more...]