One way to attract an audience, as the theory goes, is to create a show from songs they already know. Thus was born the jukebox musical, made of existing hits from a particular composer or performer. Needing a subject too, this soon led to the jukebox biography, which tells the story behind the music illustrated with those familiar songs. That explains the recent glut of … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2022
Join us for our Culture Talks series at Cultural Council
In collaboration with the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, Palm Beach ArtsPaper is hosting a series of four Culture Talks this season featuring local culture makers discussing arts issues of the moment. We’ve long believed that South Florida needs more of this kind of cultural offering, one that expects that area residents will want to take a deep dive into aspects of … [Read more...]
Exhibit shows local artists’ love of plein-air painting
This month, Palm Beach County plein air artists have come inside to the Palm Beach Art, Antique & Design Showroom in Lake Worth Beach to kick off the fall season with a group exhibition titled Travel en Plein Air, curated by Debby Coles-Dobay, founder of Art Moves You. Collaborating with the showroom directors, Angelica Sua and Paola Sanchez, the exhibit highlights a diverse … [Read more...]
The View From Home: A lovely, insightful import from Greece
For Artemis (Sofia Kokkali), the 20-something protagonist of the Greek import Moon, 66 Questions ($24.99, DVD, from Film Movement), it’s often unclear if she’s enjoying her downtime or exorcising buried traumas. Perhaps her actions start as the former and end as the latter, or vice versa. What to make of the scene, for instance, when she jerkily maneuvers a car back and … [Read more...]
‘My Policeman’: Keeping the kid gloves on
Decorous and idealized, My Policeman updates the kinetic love triangle of François Truffaut’s Jules & Jim in a style more befitting the old Masterpiece Theatre. While the situation it depicts is precipitous, it’s a film that only suggests cliffs and edges, approaching them only to turn tail. As an LGBTQ film angling for a mainstream audience, it’s far too polite to be bold, yet … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The Met: Live in HD boosts options for opera fans
By Robert Croan There are limited opportunities to attend live opera performances in South Florida. In the upcoming season, Miami-based Florida Grand Opera will present four productions in the Arsht Center, repeating three of them in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center; while Palm Beach Opera offers three productions in Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. And they’re all pricey. … [Read more...]
The Wick’s ‘Milk and Honey’: See it for the music
In 1960, a promising young composer-lyricist was sent to Israel to soak up its atmosphere and culture in order to write a musical set in that plucky new nation. The songwriter was Jerry Herman and the show would be his Broadway debut --- Milk and Honey. It ran for a respectable 543 performances and, of course, has since been overshadowed by such Herman megahits as Hello, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in pop
"Pop" is an all-encompassing term used to describe music that basically isn't jazz, classical or opera. Therefore, it describes the sampling of James Brown, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Alison Krauss, Lucius, Nirvana, Public Enemy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Hank Williams. Which mostly constitutes a cross-reference of what's become, in the tribute act era, a form of … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in Palm Beach art
` By Christina Wood Moving forward from the darkest days of the pandemic, the arts in general --- as well as many of the artists and arts organizations specific to Palm Beach County --- seem to be more conscious of the steps they take. This season, you can count on the arts to provide perspective along with inspiration – from the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s … [Read more...]
‘Shy’ shows Mary Rodgers was anything but second-rate
Like a less significant middle child, composer, author and philanthropist Mary Rodgers is a mere footnote in the annals of the musical theater. After all, she is probably best known for being the daughter of Richard Rodgers (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound of Music and so many more) – a classic “hard act to follow” – and the mother of Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza, … [Read more...]