Gregg Weiner (above) and David Nail in Cane.By Hap ErsteinTwo years ago, Palm Beach County was under dire drought conditions, with a water supply estimated to last only 21 days. It was a desperate situation, but how do you create a play about it without it seeming like a, pardon the expression, dry discourse?That is the challenge that Florida Stage has … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in dance
A scene from Barak Marshall’s Monger.By Sharon McDanielThere’s dance in a variety of styles, stars and stripes this season.The mix runs from modern dance to Irish, contemporary ballet to tango, flamenco to Philippine. A dance fan can catch a Russian ballet classic—featuring a cast of Russians to the ballet born—then make tracks for really rad, cutting-edge … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: ‘Spring Awakening’ set for Kravis; Classical South Florida chief mum on WXEL changes
Sarah Stevens and Trey Gerrald in Spring Awakening.(Photo by Joan Marcus)The Kravis Center’s 19th season of theater, film, music, dance and comedy will include a performance in March of Spring Awakening, the Duncan Sheik adaptation of Franz Wedekind’s play that won the Tony for best musical in 2007.In its initial run, the musical starred Lea Michele, the … [Read more...]
Theater reviews: ‘Low Down Dirty Blues,’ ‘Macbeth’ provide eclectic summer fare
Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Mississippi Charles Bevel,Felicia P. Fields and Gregory Porter in Low Down Dirty Blues.By Hap Erstein Over the weekend, Florida Stage unveiled its new roomy, yet still cozy home at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse, inaugurated with a shapeless musical revue imported from Chicago, Low Down Dirty Blues.The show is enormously … [Read more...]
Opera feature: Ever-vital ‘Carmen’ to close PB Opera season
Georges Bizet (1838-1875).By Greg StepanichThe young Frenchman Jean-Luc Tingaud is the associate conductor at the venerable Opéra-Comique in Paris, the same theater (though not the same building) where the opera Carmen premiered in March of 1875.Three months later, Carmen’s composer, Georges Bizet, died of runaway strep throat at the tragically young age of 36. Tingaud says the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 26-31
Pianist Ingrid Fliter.Music: The Cleveland Orchestra wraps up its third and final week of residency in Miami with two performances by the fine Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, who will perform the Chopin Concerto No. 2 (in F minor, Op. 21) with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Also on the program is the Romeo and Juliet suite from Prokofiev’s ballet score. 8 p.m. tonight and … [Read more...]
Theater reviews: Three shows demonstrate strength of South Florida season
Tom Beckett, Bret Shuford and Tari Kelly in Anything Goes.By Hap ErsteinDepression-era escapism proves to still be potent entertainment as Cole Porter’s 1934 enduring hit Anything Goes splashes across the stage of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.Surely it cannot be because of the flimsy story line, even if it got a major overhaul in 1987 by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, who simply … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 12-16
Iceland Lagoon, by Lewis Kemper.Art: From capturing firework-like sprays of red lava in Hawaii to the cool icebergs of Iceland, Lewis Kemper’s masterful photographs are some of the best that can be captured of the natural world. An exhibit of his dramatic landscape photographs, Capturing the Light, opens Saturday night (5:30-7 p.m.) at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre and … [Read more...]
Theater review: Capitol Steps’ brand of gentle satire proves durable
The Capitol Steps originated among U.S. Senate staffers.By Hap ErsteinDealings in Washington have become so acrimonious lately, there seems to be nothing to laugh about as government grinds to a halt. But that has not stopped The Capitol Steps, which has been poking fun at federal machinations for almost 30 years, putting -- as the group likes to say -- “the MOCK in … [Read more...]
Music review: Cellist Gabetta a standout at Detroit SO concert
Cellist Sol Gabetta. (Photo by Marco Borggreve)By Greg StepanichIf Sol Gabetta had done nothing else besides come out and play her concerto, the young Argentinian cellist might have attracted additional attention for the balletic, kinetic way she moved behind her cello, or the way she smiled and nodded her head along with the music during the moments she wasn’t playing.But … [Read more...]