By Sharon Geltner Very few people have a movie made about their life, let alone one starring Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rebecca Hall. Wellington High School grad Beth Raymer (played by Hall) had sold the book and film rights to Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling by the time she was in her late 20s. Raymer, author of the new novel Fireworks … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2023
Business gathering touts economic clout of arts in Palm Beach County
We all know art and artists bring beauty into the world, but did you know they also bring millions of dollars in economic impact into Palm Beach County? Artists and arts and cultural organizations bring revenue, tourist dollars and millions into communities, according to the sixth Arts and Economic Prosperity study, an economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture … [Read more...]
LWB brewery and music hot spot opens new kitchen
Location, location, location. It's the well-known mantra for any real estate investor. But when anyone opens a successful establishment that's slightly off the beaten path, then expanding can figuratively necessitate starting again from scratch. Mathews Brewing Company Scratch Kitchen officially opened at 125 S. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach on Jan. 5 — complete with a … [Read more...]
Dramaworks’ ‘The Messenger’ proves powerful, topical
By Sharon Geltner Palm Beach Dramaworks is achieving a lot of significant firsts. It is emphasizing new plays. And it just staged (it ran Dec. 8-24) the world premiere of The Messenger, scripted by its first residential writer, Jenny Connell Davis. The four-character, 100-minute play is about a Hungarian Holocaust survivor teaching math in Southern California who is … [Read more...]
New MCB principal approaches art with authenticity
By Hannah Deadman From the time she was 8 years old, Dawn Atkins knew she wanted to dance ballet. Now at age 29, she’s one of Miami City Ballet’s newest principal dancers — the highest rank a dancer can earn in a professional company. Atkins grew up in small-town Vermont. Although her early childhood in Middletown Springs wasn’t filled with the arts, her parents … [Read more...]
Veteran Gardens music producer launches audio engineering venture
PALM BEACH GARDENS — In music, what a listener hears on recordings or sees on stages constitute only a few pieces of what’s a larger sonic jigsaw. And perhaps no one in South Florida’s music scene understands that more than Palm Beach Gardens resident Guy Gualtieri (gualmusic.com), since he’s covered practically every piece of that completed puzzle during various points of his … [Read more...]
Cultural Council’s ‘Whimsy & Wonder’ gives us something to smile about
Pink flamingos, those graceful pink birds and the unofficial kitschy symbol of Florida, have landed in the Main Gallery at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County as part of the new exhibit titled Whimsy & Wonder, on view through Jan. 13. Flamingo photographs, flamingos on one leg, surreal flamingos and flamingos splashing in the fountains. In Kasha McKee’s conceptual … [Read more...]
‘Farewell, Mr. Haffmann’: WWII drama sees the enemies within
“We’re not in danger … we’re French.” These are famous last words, perhaps, from one Hannah Haffmann (Anne Coesens), wife of a successful jeweler in Paris, toward the beginning of Farewell, Mr. Haffmann. It’s 1941 Paris, a year after the Third Reich seized France, and Hannah’s husband Joseph (Daniel Auteuil) can literally see the writing on the wall: a “Census” posted outside … [Read more...]
‘Fireworks Every Night’: A vivid, gritty fiction set in Palm Beach County
By Sharon Geltner She had me at Palm Beach Mall. Fireworks Every Night is a vivid, authentic story set in Palm Beach County. Author Beth Raymer labels the book as “fiction,” but she writes from her own lived experience. And what an experience that was. Similar to her protagonist, C.C. Borkoski (named for her father’s favorite Canadian Club whiskey), Raymer grew up … [Read more...]
Veteran area drummer soldiers on despite collapse from leukemia
For every veteran musician, there are shows etched into memory over the course of a career. They’re usually high-water marks: a gig at a lauded festival; a reunion, an opening slot for a national to international touring act, and/or a night when everyone on stage performed with uncommon synchronicity. And then there’s the other kind of memory, one West Palm Beach-based … [Read more...]