If you prefer your theatrical entertainment to be less than Shakespearean, The Wick Theatre is serving up a solid production of an enduring piece of musical foolishness, Forever Plaid. This parody and celebration of Eisenhower-era close harmony guy groups has been amusing audiences — off-Broadway, in regional theaters and around the globe — for the past 27 years. And … [Read more...]
Promising, but rough-edged, Mahler at Miami Music Festival
Yuriy Bekker MIAMI SHORES — It takes some serious ambition to open your first concert with a Mahler symphony, but that’s exactly what the students in the current Miami Music Festival did Saturday night. The orchestral program of the 3-year-old festival, which is presenting opera, chamber music and symphonic literature through July 31 at several Miami-area venues, made its … [Read more...]
PB Chamber Fest 1: Mozart concerto, chamber-style, enchants
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), as painted by Barbara Krafft in 1819. The piano concertos of Mozart work well in chamber settings, as has been demonstrated by none other than the composer himself, who arranged several of them for piano and string quartet. This past weekend, members of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival did that one better with a reduced version of … [Read more...]
FAU’s ‘Mattress’ is raucous, delightful
Connor Padilla, Emily Freeman and Eytan Deray in Once Upon a Mattress at Florida Atlantic University. (Photo by Viviana Puga) By Dale King Those adventurous and sometimes crazy student actors at Florida Atlantic University have spent a lot of time this year taking theatrical journeys into centuries past. They plumbed the psyche of 17th-century English playwright … [Read more...]
‘Infiltrator’ brings back 1980s drug war, with a Cranston star turn
Diane Kruger and Bryan Cranston in The Infiltrator. Actors are salesmen pushing the products of their characters, and Bryan Cranston, as the saying goes, could sell snow to Eskimos. Disappearing into his roles like a ghost in a fog, he’s arguably the greatest thespian of his generation, which is to say the greatest confidence man, hooking us into believing there’s no one … [Read more...]
‘Motor City’ gives Broward Stage Door an unforgettable groove
Gabrielle Graham, Alexandria Lugo, Mimi J., Joshua Graham, Jar'Davion Brown and Elijah Word in The Soul of Motor City at Broward Stage Door Theatre. (Photo by George Wentzler) By Dale King Musicals have reigned supreme this year at the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Margate. Not just the traditional ones, with actors, dialogue, songs and fancy sets. No, the powers-that-be … [Read more...]
Mezzo stands out in Ravel; cast charms in ‘Schicchi’ at Miami Music Festival
Isabel Signoret (center front) as The Child with the cast of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. (Photo by Kristin Pulido) The operatic repertory is vast and rich, and some of its greatest gems can be found in shorter pieces. That’s not to say we hear them all that often in South Florida, so the Miami Music Festival’s mounting of two one-act masterpieces that almost never turn up … [Read more...]
Amid sadism of ‘Wiener-Dog,’ Solondz finds meaning in mortality
Greta Gerwig and the pooch in Wiener-Dog. (Photo by Linda Callerus) Wiener-Dog may be Todd Solondz’s most Solondzian movie ever, and there is no image more Solondzian than his tracking shot of a seemingly endless train of dog diarrhea on a city street, scored to Debussy’s Clair de Lune. It’s simultaneously elegant and nasty, beautiful and repulsive, the cheekily contrapuntal … [Read more...]
Big crowd enjoys KCO’s ‘South Pacific’
Avery Sommers and the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida in South Pacific. (Photo by Jeffrey Tholl) By Dale King One of the largest performing arts venues on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton is the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium. There are hundreds of seats on the floor, more in an elevated section to the rear and bleacher-style seating running up the … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire closes season with radiant Byrd
By Robert Croan At the start of Seraphic Fire’s concert of English cathedral music Saturday night at Fort Lauderdale’s All Saints Episcopal Church, director Patrick Dupré Quigley spoke to the audience, explaining that there would be 75 minutes of uninterrupted music, and asking that the listeners not look at the printed program during that time. “Just let the music wash … [Read more...]