The cast of Shuffle Along performs “Broadway Blues.” (Photo by Julieta Cervantes) The only suspense at this year’s Tony Awards was over whether Hamilton would set a new record for winning the most statuettes. (It fell short of The Producers’ 12-Tony total by one.) Still, it has sucked most of the air out of the Broadway season, so here is a look at some of the also-rans: … [Read more...]
Last-minute changes unsettle last PB Symphony concert
The Palm Beach Symphony’s last concert this season April 10 suffered from a much-changed program, keeping the group’s largest public ever of 1,200 souls guessing. New insert programs lay in piles undistributed by the volunteer ushers at the Kravis Center. Lola Astanova, the highly regarded Russian-American pianist, was scheduled to play three solo pieces after her Mozart … [Read more...]
Masterful Beethoven, Mozart from Aspen Trio at Flagler
Taking their name from the famous summer arts festival where they meet every year in Aspen, Colo., the Aspen String Trio is made up of David Perry, playing a 1711 Venetian Gobetti violin; Victoria Chiang, on a 1996 Paris viola specially made for her; and Michael Mermagen, with a 1774 Galliano cello — which was stolen from his car parked on 67th Street in New York City. The … [Read more...]
After 21 years, Palm Beach chamber fest opens fall series
A musical series that began almost the same way a kids’ lemonade stand does —as an activity for friends to have some fun in the long days of summer — expands after 21 years this week into the fall season. Tomorrow night at the Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University in Boca Raton, and Friday night at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lake Worth, the Palm Beach Chamber … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 1-2
Art: The American version of Impressionism is perhaps best-known in the work of painters such as Mary Cassatt and Childe Hassam, but there is a rich tradition that comes from eastern Pennsylvania, and today the Society of the Four Arts opens an exhibition that brings that tradition to a wider audience. Painting the Beautiful contains more than 60 paintings from the James A. … [Read more...]
Sunday Comment: Why I’ll be following the Sandusky trial
As a longtime music journalist who needed extra income in 2006, I turned toward another passion -- sports. Since then, I’ve covered high school football, basketball, volleyball, tennis and soccer – as well as music -- for area print and online outlets. Yet most of my sports writing has involved stories about youth athletes of high school age or younger. Since many of my … [Read more...]
Cancer comedy ‘50’/50’ an odds-on winner
The idea of a comedy about cancer is hardly unheard of. After all, the cable series The Big C is based on exactly that premise. But the very savvy new film 50/50 -- named for the odds of surviving the cancer that young NPR radio segment producer Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) contracts -- handles the precarious tonal balancing act with impressive ease. The film is written by … [Read more...]