This nation was built by immigrants, but you would never know it from the political brouhaha that has arisen from the current border crisis over the issue of immigration. Refuge, the saga of a young Honduran girl’s harrowing journey crossing our southern border into the inhospitable, barren land of Texas, completes Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab’s season of … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2023
Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica promises out-of-the-box music-making at the Norton
In 1971, British comedy troupe Monty Python released And Now For Something Completely Different, its absurdist first feature film. Roughly 35 years later, percussionist Brian O'Neill formed Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica (orchestrotica.com), a group that's taken that title concept into musical terrain ever since. Featuring O'Neill on vibraphone and hand percussion, Geni Skendo … [Read more...]
Artist and WPTV journalist Walters gets solo show at Lighthouse ArtCenter
From the Hall Hardware sign in the shape of a hammer, juxtaposed against the blue-and-white Florida sky, to the Dixie Highway and Dyer Road street signs, to the telephone pole and all its wires, to the red-and-white stop sign, WPTV reporter and artist Ashleigh Walters paints realistic still lifes and landscapes of la vie quotidienne. Now, 50 of Walters’s latest paintings … [Read more...]
West Palm drummer’s T’s Express sings jazz gospel of Corea, Hancock
In case you hadn't noticed, even though it's hard to miss, tribute acts have become all the rage by offering discounted versions of the material that lowest-common-denominator fans — especially of classic rock — can't seem to get more than enough of. As a result, tributes are sadly turning up in South Florida concert venues and clubs that in previous years booked much more … [Read more...]
Entertainer Cumming’s love of life, theater keeps his career soaring
Although he grew up in Scotland speaking the King’s English, when actor, singer, dancer, emcee, author, reality show host and all-around performer Alan Cumming first came to the United States at the age of 30, the two most foreign words for him were Tucson and Boca Raton. “I had never heard that name before,” he says. “I thought it was a Mexican dish.” Since then, he’s … [Read more...]
Intense central performances give Zoetic’s ‘Next to Normal’ profound impact
Lyricist-book writer Brian Yorkey and his composer partner Tom Kitt researched well bipolar disorder to write the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal, about one woman’s battle with the mental affliction and its effect on her family. And in his program note, Zoetic Stage artistic director Stuart Meltzer is very candid about his own history with … [Read more...]
PBO marks repertory milestone with sparkling ‘Falstaff’
By Márcio Bezerra It was well worth the wait: After 60 seasons, Palm Beach Opera finally staged Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, in a remarkable production that will remain as one of the highest achievements of the (at times heroic) company’s history. Premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1893, the opera is not as popular as Verdi’s earlier output, not only because it … [Read more...]
No weak links in powerful ‘Osage County’ at Dramaworks
How fortunate for playwright Tracy Letts that he grew up in a bitter, vindictive and addiction-prone household. For his relatives became the inspiration for the Westons of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning August: Osage County, a darkly dramatic and often quite funny look at his wildly dysfunctional family. The three-and-a-half-hour, … [Read more...]