By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse has opened its 69th season with a frenetic production of Peter and the Starcatcher, a paean to Peter Pan that offers up a plausible prequel to J.M. Barrie’s 1904 children’s fable, elaborating on the tale of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” by focusing on friendship, leadership, fealty and a few other add-ons. The hectic performance combines … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘Patsy Cline’ a memorable, tuneful two-hander
By Dale King Not all of us remember Patsy Cline, the country vocalist whose powerful voice, often measured in tearful tones, vocalized poignant stories in song. But we know her music, even 58 years after she died in a plane crash while returning to her home in Nashville the same year John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Her legacy of tunes is still golden, even in the 21st … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2019-20: Birthday boy Beethoven will be a big presence in 2019-20 season
The shade of Ludwig van Beethoven looms large over this season, as he will the next, because the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth falls in 2020. No fewer than five performances of the Ninth Symphony are coming our way this season, but there’s also plenty of the master’s chamber music to be had this time around, too (including several readings of his late string … [Read more...]
Broadway baby: ‘School of Rock’ cast member, 10, tells of life on the road
Like many a New Yorker, 10-year-old Alyssa Emily Marvin considers South Florida to be her second home. After all, her great-grandmother was a longtime volunteer at the Kravis Center until recently and her cousin is a rabbi at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton. And on Wednesday, Alyssa makes her Kravis debut as Marcy, one of the kid rocker back-up singers in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s … [Read more...]
At FAU, a compelling look at a Nazi resister
Our history books depict the German people as mostly going along with the Third Reich, offering little pushback to the rise of the Nazi Party. But a group of students at the University of Munich, the so-called White Rose Society, offered resistance in the form of an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign. As you might assume, they were eventually crushed by Hitler’s … [Read more...]
Lynn University launches BFA program for theater
By Dale King Lynn University has amped up its drama curriculum this year with the addition of a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) program – a course of study offering would-be actors concentrated theatrical training that prepares them to work professionally in theater, movies, television and musicals. Lynn has offered a BA degree in drama for about 15 years, said Adam Simpson, … [Read more...]
St. Paul’s music director bids 2018 farewell with ‘Goldberg Variations’
It’s said that the insomniac Count Hermann von Keyserling, an ambassador from Russia to the royal court of Saxony, commissioned the work by Johann Sebastian Bach we know now as the Goldberg Variations as a sonic sleep aid to be played for him by one of the court’s musicians, Johann Goldberg. Although this monumental set of variations was out of the cultural mainstream for … [Read more...]
What’s on in New York: The Broadway season in review, Part Two
Here is Part Two of my survey of the current Broadway season in New York: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical – There were surely biographical jukebox musicals before 2005’s Jersey Boys, which celebrated the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. But it was the enormous success of that show that begat Beautiful about Carole King’s life, next season’s Cher musical and this … [Read more...]
Bell, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields splendid in familiar works
By Robert Croan England’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields is arguably today’s No. 1 chamber orchestra, but it was likely the presence of its music director and violin soloist, Joshua Bell, that brought a sizable crowd to the Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale on March 25. This was the second of three concerts in the season’s admirable and valuable Broward Center … [Read more...]
Directors seek fresh angles for two 1940s chestnuts
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre and the Wick Theatre are both grappling with a dilemma. Each has selected a classic musical – 1949’s South Pacific and 1947’s Brigadoon, respectively – because of its intrinsic dramatic and musical quality. But how do you approach such a show, knowing that your audience has probably already seen it, often many times over? To director Gordon … [Read more...]