Never accuse the Maltz Jupiter Theatre of thinking small. During the past year, when most resident stage companies were idled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maltz was busy demolishing its theater chamber and rebuilding an improved, larger complex to the tune of $36 million. The new theater could eventually house pre-Broadway tryouts, and in a later phase an expanded … [Read more...]
TV’s ‘Shirley,’ Cindy Williams, to debut one-woman retrospective at Wick
A not-so-funny thing happened to Cindy Williams on her way to the Wick Theatre. COVID-19. Not only did the comedienne most closely associated with the long-running sitcom Laverne & Shirley contract the deadly virus — she’s fine now — but the production of Nunsense that would bring her to Boca Raton had to be canceled. As Williams recalls, it was Dan Goggin, the … [Read more...]
Dramaworks emerging from lockdown with robust 2021-22 season
Early last year, when the pandemic we have come to know as COVID-19 first hit, disrupting the nation’s live theaters, closing their doors and halting their seasons, Bill Hayes of Palm Beach Dramaworks did the opposite of almost every other non-profit stage company. “One thing I had noticed very early on is many non-profits were immediately soliciting for funds,” says the … [Read more...]
Without a clear villain, ‘Art Heist’ at Kravis comes up short
The Kravis Center has been understandably dark for the past 14 months, shuttered by the indoor social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic. If only it could find a show that fits the current health and safety criteria, the West Palm Beach arts complex could open its doors again. Maybe “open its doors” is the wrong term, for the center’s first glimmer of … [Read more...]
Oscars 2021: Radical reinvention was good thing for awards show
It sounds heretical to say this, because the pandemic has taken such a toll on the film industry this year, but COVID-19 is the best thing to happen to the Academy Awards broadcast. The virus and its social distancing protocols, which previously sank the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and other awards programs prompted Oscars producer Steven Soderbergh – an Oscar winner … [Read more...]
Hap’s Oscar predictions, 2021 edition: ‘Nomadland’ will take top flick
Following a year of COVID-caused theater closings and postponed blockbusters, the Motion Picture Academy will try to put a positive spin on the industry this Sunday evening when the 93rd annual Oscar winners are announced. Understandably, it will not be the usual ceremony. For starters, the main venue will be Los Angeles’s iconic Union train station – featured in such major … [Read more...]
Solve the greatest art mystery of recent times: Who stole the Gardner paintings?
One of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century is the 1990 theft of Rembrandts, Vermeers, Manets and other old master paintings, valued at $500 million, from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. But from now through May 16, the Kravis Center invites you to crack the case by interrogating characters who represent the actual suspects, in an outdoor, socially … [Read more...]
Magisterial (and literally weighty) bio explores life of playwright Stoppard
One of the most memorable days I ever spent in a theater was when I saw all three parts of Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia at New York’s Lincoln Center, a cumulative 8-1/2 hours of pre-revolution Russian history and philosophy. As the audience left the Beaumont Theatre late that night, ushers were passing out buttons that said, “I survived 'The Coast of Utopia.'” … [Read more...]
Dramaworks returns, virtually, with Dickinson show ‘Belle of Amherst’
There are two plays that feature Emily Dickinson and by early April Margery Lowe will have played the reclusive poet in both. Three years ago, the area actor appeared at Palm Beach Dramaworks in the world premiere of Edgar and Emily, Joseph McDonough’s fanciful and improbable meeting of Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe. Lowe returns to the character April 2- 6 in the better … [Read more...]
Oscars, woke: Nominations feature record diversity
It wasn’t that long ago that the Oscar nominations were a blanket of white — #OscarsSoWhite in 2015 and 2016 — an embarrassment to the Motion Picture Academy and a poor reflection on the increasingly diverse array of quality films produced by Hollywood. Well, what a difference a few years make. When the 2021 Oscar nominations were announced Monday morning — much later than … [Read more...]