Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in Countdown to Zero. Film: Robert Oppenheimer had a very good idea of what his Manhattan Project had unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945, but at the time, his team was all alone in having become “Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Today, an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons exist, and the makers of the … [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...]
Music review: Winwood underwhelms, but Santana cooks at Cruzan
Carlos Santana at the Cruzan Amphiteatre on Sunday. (Photo by Tom Craig/Live Nation)By Thom SmithBoth were boy wonders. Both were performing in public before they reached puberty. Both have kept the fires burning, enthralling, inspiring and enlightening audiences for more than five decades.But perhaps Sunday’s show at Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 30-Aug. 5
Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes. Dance: Julie Kent, long a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, takes the title role tonight and through the weekend in Giselle, with the Boca Ballet Theatre at Florida Atlantic University’s University Theatre. Kent, one of the best-known ballerinas of her generation, partners with another ABT standout, Marcelo … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 24-28
Hey Monday.Music: Things might be a little soggy out there thanks to Tropical Storm Bonnie, but as of this writing, the Vans Warped Tour, 2010 edition, is set to hit the Cruzan Amphitheatre on Saturday for a day of bands and extreme sports. The skateboard company Vans, which launched this festival in 1995, welcomes 72 bands to this year’s tour, … [Read more...]
Music feature: FAU’s Zager brings golden touch to commercial music program
Michael Zager.By Bill MeredithWhen Michael Zager founded the commercial music program at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in 2002, it's unlikely that some students knew about the level of commercial success he'd achieved in the music industry.Perhaps they know now. The 67-year-old professor and eminent scholar has had a 50-year career as a keyboardist, … [Read more...]
Music feature: Conductor, guitarist happy to be touring with Sting
Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting.By Bill MeredithPop music went through the beginnings of a seismic shift in late 1976, when the artist formerly known as Gordon Sumner decided to give up a teaching career in his hometown of Newcastle, England.The 25-year-old Brit was also a vocalist and bassist who'd taken on the stage name Sting, and he was preparing to move … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 25-27
Ryan Didato, David Dearstyne and Jackie Rivera in Speech & Debate. (Photo by George Schiavone)Theater: Gable Stage’s Joseph Adler is often eager to showcase new talent, as he does with Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which features three recent graduates of Miami’s New World School of the Arts -- Jackie Rivera, Ryan Didato and David Dearstyne -- … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 11-13
The Entr’Acte Theatrix cast of Hair.Stage: There’s a new theater company in the area, Entr’Acte Theatrix, a professional offshoot of the 10-year-old Palm Beach Principal Players, which hangs out its shingle for the first time with a worthy production of Hair, the “tribal love-rock musical” from 1968, the previous time we were mired in a protracted, … [Read more...]
Music feature: Violinist-composer Roumain charts cross-genre path
Daniel Bernard Roumain.(Photo by Julieta Cervantes)By Greg StepanichIt’s not easy to categorize a musician who can write sonatas for turntables and hip-hop etudes, a violin concerto and dance scores, but the world of contemporary classical music is quickly getting used to the cross-genre fluency of people such as Daniel Bernard Roumain. “I think there are a lot of … [Read more...]