The Zukerman Trio, from left: Pinchas Zukerman, Angela Cheng and Amanda Forsyth. (Photo by Nicholas Brodard) By Robert Croan There was an atmosphere of disorder and disorganization about the Zukerman Trio’s performance on the Broward Center Classical Series in the Amaturo Theater on Sunday. It had little to do with the excellent performers — violinist Pinchas Zukerman, … [Read more...]
Director of ‘The Gambler’ offers a tale of outsider redemption
English-born filmmaker Rupert Wyatt is well aware that there was a 1974 movie called The Gambler, starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton, but to his mind he was never doing a remake. “I remember it being specifically a study of addiction,” he says of the earlier film. “So when I read the script that Bill Monahan had written, I knew immediately that we weren’t making the same … [Read more...]
‘Cock’: Battle of words enlivens question of sexual identity
There is an art to upping a play’s controversy quotient with its title. Certainly Stephen Adly Guirgis knew he was stirring up trouble and attention when he called his 2011 stage work The Motherf***** with the Hat. The same probably goes for British writer Mike Bartlett, who named his verbal tug-of-war play Cock, a title that the exceedingly prudish New York Times refused to … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York, No. 3: ‘Finks’ addresses dark pages in show-biz history
Mondays are sparse on Broadway, but I’d go through withdrawal symptoms without a play to see. I was scheduled to see a new musical called Hands on a Hardbody, based on the little-seen film about a truck dealership's marathon promotion, but it failed to attract much of an audience and closed two weeks ago. Instead, it was back to off-Broadway, to Ensemble Studio Theatre far on … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 2: ‘City Club’ and ‘The Columnist’
Saturday, the day I arrived, was sunny and slightly brisk. Sunday was continuous rain and much colder. The theater also was inclement. Few Broadway shows perform on Sunday night, so I headed off-Broadway to the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, where a new musical called The City Club had its final preview prior to opening Monday evening. With so many shows opening … [Read more...]