Veteran singer-songwriter James Taylor.By Thom SmithJames Taylor is no stranger to Palm Beach County stages.He’s played the Kravis Center and Cruzan Amphitheatre (it then had a different name). He’s played private parties at The Breakers and out west in Wellington.So it’s hard to believe that never, not in its previous 27 incarnations, has he played SunFest. That will change … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 16-23
Music: The Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died of tuberculosis at the age of only 26 in 1736, but one of his last completed works, a Stabat Mater, is perhaps his greatest. The fine Miami chamber choir Seraphic Fire performs this beautiful work this afternoon at the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace in the first of four concerts it will give over the weekend. … [Read more...]
Arts feature: Susan Merritt, South Florida’s first lady of jazz
Susan Merritt, jazz impresaria. (Illustration by Pat Crowley) By Bill MeredithWEST PALM BEACH -- A strange thing happened to bassist and North Carolina native Susan Merritt when she came south for a gig in 1982 -- her working vacation turned into a relocation.And that eventually transformed her into a Floridian, jazz musician, club owner, and president of the non-profit Jazz … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Sunset Cove hopes for big crowds with June rocker fest
The Sunset Cove Amphitheater west of Boca Raton.(Photo by Thom Smith)By Thom SmithIt’s one of the best-kept secrets in South Florida, but that will all change this summer as Ann Butler and Randy Carrillo crank up the volume at Palm Beach County’s newest performing arts center, Sunset Cove, an amphitheater on the edge of the Everglades in South County Regional Park.Sunset Cove … [Read more...]
Theater review: ‘Legally Blonde’ is pretty in pink, but dull as dishwater
Becky Gulsving as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.By Hap ErsteinMovies have long been geared to the teen market, and now so are Broadway musicals.Female teens in search of sing-along tales of empowerment, such as Wicked and now Legally Blonde, the not-very-good, but wildly-popular-with-its-target-audience show at the Kravis Center this week.I recall the 2001 movie from which this … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: A busy week for musical events
The organ at Bethesda-by-the-Sea.By Greg StepanichIt's a busy week on the music front, with several events over the next two days worth noting:Organ concerti: Tonight at Bethesda-by-the Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Symphony presents an entire evening of music for organ and orchestra with Hal Pysher, the church's organist and choir director, as soloist. … [Read more...]
Music review: King and Guy, two remarkable monarchs of the blues
B.B. King acknowledges the applause Monday nightfrom the stage of the Kravis Center. (Photo by Thom Smith)By Thom SmithYou can have a souped-up roadster with growling pipes and screeching tires, searing the asphalt like the sun.Or you can have a long, long limousine that rumbles along effortlessly, glistening in the moonlight with its occupants swathed in silk and … [Read more...]
Music feature: Broward park honors Jaco, titan of jazz
Bassist Jaco Pastorius, performing with drummer Rich Franksat the Players Club in Oakland Park.(Photo courtesy Ingrid Pastorius)By Bill MeredithOAKLAND PARK -- A day in the life of the new Jaco Pastorius Park is generally pretty quiet.The seven-acre park at 4000 N. Dixie Highway in Oakland Park features a football field-sized lawn, benches and a lighted perimeter walkway, but … [Read more...]
Sondheim song revue, ‘Merrily’ revival in works, the Master says
By Hap ErsteinIn 1962, President John F. Kennedy is said to have addressed a gathering of 49 Nobel Prize winners at the White House, calling them “probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house, except for the times when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”That is essentially how I felt about Wednesday evening’s A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim at the … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Sondheim appearance Wednesday is a seasonal high point
Stephen Sondheim.By Hap ErsteinMusical theater is a highly collaborative art. Still, if you had to single out the one person who has been its dominant innovator during the past 50 years, it would surely be composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.Director Harold Prince did some of his best, though not most lucrative, work with Sondheim, and such book writers as George Furth, James … [Read more...]