The Duncan Theatre opened its popular Modern Dance Series on Jan. 20 with a new addition that deserves to be remembered — Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami. Founded six years ago by husband-and-wife Artistic Directors Carlos Guerra and Jennifer Kronenberg, this young company has a high dose of energy mixed with a tangible down-to-earth quality. In the post-performance … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2023
Tragicomic ‘Last Night in Inwood’ gets skillful debut at FAU Theatre Lab
Comedy, as they say, is tragedy that happens to someone else. And the calamities that are happening just beyond an apartment in Inwood, N.Y., and all around the globe — the effects of climate change, economic distress, the rise of white supremacy militias, rioting and looting — are nothing if not calamitous. Yet in Last Night in Inwood, now receiving its world premiere at … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘Guys and Dolls’ winningly shows off large, able cast
By Dale King After recently toying with a variety of theatrical genres, Lake Worth Playhouse has chosen to kick off the 2023 portion of its 70th season with a tried-and-true classic, Guys and Dolls. This stage staple centers on Depression-era gamblers and their women, referred to without objection as “dolls” and “broads,” whose major goal in life is to marry and raise … [Read more...]
‘Last Night in Inwood’: World premiere play suggests an all-too-real nightmare
The year was 2016 and graduate student Alix Sobler needed to write a play for her master’s thesis. “I write comedy, but the world was in a real state at that moment,” she recalls. “The election between Clinton and Trump was at its height. Things felt really off-balance and I wanted to reflect that onstage in a way that was going to be accessible to audiences.” The … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Anything Goes’ a vintage bubbly delight
When the sublime, sophisticated songsmith Cole Porter collaborated with Brits P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton on the enduring confection Anything Goes, the time was 1934, seven years after Show Boat demonstrated that musicals could take on weighty material. Porter and his writing team – which eventually included play doctors Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse – knew perfectly … [Read more...]
PBO’s non-edgy ‘Butterfly’ nice, but not challenging
By Márcio Bezerra A 15-year-old geisha is bought in marriage and later abandoned by an American naval officer in — of all places — Nagasaki. The storyline of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is ripe with political and gender-related controversies. Yet, most traditional productions avoid tackling the problematic subjects head-on. That was the case with Palm Beach … [Read more...]
At Four Arts, Calidore String Quartet turns in knockout performance
By Ava Figliuzzi Name any major U.S. chamber music competition, and it has likely been won in the past by the Calidore String Quartet. The New York City-based ensemble was the recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and the winner of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. Their 2022-23 season balances … [Read more...]
Atlanta Symphony delivers outstanding evening of Beethoven, Sibelius at Kravis
By Márcio Bezerra As the most prestigious musical institution in the Southeast, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra needs no introduction. For 78 years, the orchestra has established itself as a major American ensemble and one hopes that, under the new leadership of Music Director Nathalie Stuzmann, it will be able to expand its musical horizons by featuring a more varied … [Read more...]
Powerful ‘Time Alone’ at Boca Stage charts two kinds of imprisonment
Anger and pain are the shared emotions that link widow Anna Jackson and convicted killer Gabriel Wayland. They also share the stage — but never the same space — in Alessandro Camon’s powerful play of dueling monologues, Time Alone. Beyond their well-earned rage, these two lost souls have another unexpected connection, revealed only in the final moments of the 90-minute … [Read more...]
Ulysses Quartet effective, unified in diverse program at Duncan’s Stage West
By Ava Figliuzzi The Duncan Theatre's Stage West, a charming, small venue on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth Beach, opened its Classical Café Series on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 11) with the young Ulysses Quartet. Founded in 2015, the Ulysses Quartet has garnered top prizes at the Schoenfeld and Fischoff competitions and held recent fellowship … [Read more...]