Mark Rylance in Jerusalem.(Photo by Simon Annand)By Hap ErsteinMark Rylance may just be the best actor working in the theater today.You might agree if you saw Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, a powerful, but somewhat overwritten three-hour marathon drama about an iconoclastic former daredevil stunt rider and occasional drug dealer who rails against the world.Rylance … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 3: Three Boca producers, and struggling with Stoppard
Tom Riley and Bel Powley in Arcadia.(Photo by Carol Rosegg)By Hap ErsteinTuesday was an even better weather day in New York, with the temperature climbing into the 80s, and locals shedding their clothes like it was the second coming of summer.My dance card was busy with interviews and, in the evening, a much-anticipated viewing of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.But … [Read more...]
Music review: Pianist Weisman brings meaty program to Piano Lovers series
Assaff Weisman.By Greg StepanichAssaff Weisman leads a busy life as a pianist, teacher at the Juilliard School, and chief of an international chamber ensemble whose debut disc arrives later this year.To put it another way, he’s a thorough, expert musician, the kind on whom the classical world depends to keep the art form relevant and fresh for audiences and … [Read more...]
Pianist Weisman brings meaty program to Piano Lovers series
Assaff Weisman leads a busy life as a pianist, teacher at the Juilliard School, and chief of an international chamber ensemble whose debut disc arrives later this year. To put it another way, he’s a thorough, expert musician, the kind on whom the classical world depends to keep the art form relevant and fresh for audiences and students. What remains for him is to carve out a … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 2: Timely reminders of the AIDS epidemic
Larry Kramer and Joe Mantello.By Hap ErsteinThe sun came out Monday in New York, a lovely, crisp, cool day, but I spent most of it inside, thinking about AIDS.I spent the evening at one of the final previews of the revival of Larry Kramer’s impassioned, angry, autobiographical The Normal Heart, written in 1985, when the syndrome was a death sentence. … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 1: Scratch the dim sum brunch
By Hap ErsteinWhatever you’re doing today, you’re having a better day than I am, I assure you.Today was my travel day, heading to New York for my annual end-of-season Broadway show trip. For the past month, I have been combing through the listings, strategizing, negotiating with press agents, planning eight days of theatergoing. And because I was starting with … [Read more...]
Theater review: ‘Carnage’ shows parents behaving badly, but still getting laughs
Nick Santa Maria, Kim Ostrenko,Kim Cozort and Michael Serratore in God of Carnage.By Hap ErsteinLike her earlier Tony Award-winning comedy Art, playwright Yasmina Reza again explores adults behaving childishly in God of Carnage, which took Broadway by storm in 2009 and looks likely to meet a similarly appreciative audience at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 22-24
Jason Edelstein and Rick Pena in Blood Brothers.Theater: In only two seasons, Boca Raton’s Slow Burn Theatre Company has forged a reputation for producing edgy musicals outside the mainstream. The show that got its co-founders, Matthew Korinko and Patrick Fitzwater, interested in creating and running their own troupe is Blood Brothers, the cult hit that opened in … [Read more...]
Film review: Documentary captures exceptional New York eye
A scene from Bill Cunningham New York. By John ThomasonLess than two years after The September Issue probed the life and work of fashion kingmaker Anna Wintour, a new documentary offers a look at another figure residing in the nexus of fashion and print journalism.In Bill Cunningham New York, which opens Friday in South Florida, the subject is New York Times fashion … [Read more...]
Music review: Tchaikovsky quartet ends Delray SQ season in winning style
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).By Greg StepanichOn the verge of an eighth season that will include a new recording and a world premiere, the Delray String Quartet sounded confident, polished and vibrant as it finished up its seventh season Sunday afternoon in Miami.Closing its fifth and final series of programs at St. Stephen’s Espicopal Church in Coconut … [Read more...]