Theater: Slow Burn Theatre goes less edgy for the summertime, with more popular fare to mark its final production in West Boca before moving its operations permanently to the Broward Center. Aiming at the entire family, the company serves up Little Shop of Horrors, the Howard Ashman-Alan Menken musical about a nerdy florist, his self-esteem-challenged girlfriend and an alien … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 8-10
Theater: Douglas Carter Beane’s sly comedy on the intersection of show business, the art of negotiation and sexual orientation, The Little Dog Laughed, is receiving a savvy and sexy production by Island City Stage at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale, through May 17. This is due largely to Chris Crawford as a sexually confused television star trying to make the leap to the movies … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 27-29
Music: The Argentine-born violinist Tomás Cotik has had a busy career in South Florida since earning his doctorate at the University of Miami, including sitting second-chair violin in the Delray String Quartet. Among his fields of study is the music of Franz Schubert, and he and pianist Tao Lin have just released a second disc of the composer’s music for violin and piano, … [Read more...]
At the Festival of the Arts Boca: ‘West Side Story,’ daughter celebrate Bernstein
By Dale King At the halfway point of the 2015 Festival of the Arts Boca, many audiences have already seen and heard a great deal about Leonard Bernstein. His elder daughter, Jamie Bernstein, kicked off the annual 10-day event March 4 with a lecture about her father’s legacy, offering backstories about the making of perhaps his most famous work, the musical and film versions of … [Read more...]
At Flagler, Fine Arts’ Tchaikovsky outshines its Mozart
The well-established Fine Arts Quartet came to the Flagler Museum for the penultimate concert of the museum’s 2015 music series on Feb. 17. Originally founded in Chicago in 1946, the two violinists, Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, have been its mainstay for the past 31 years. Juan-Miguel Hernandez is the violist and Robert Cohen, the cellist. Known as one of the “gold-plated” … [Read more...]
The complicated success of Greg Holden
By Hilary Saunders Greg Holden sounds like he still has a little chip on his shoulder. The young British singer/songwriter has found great success in the music industry since 2012, just not in ways that he expected, or perhaps wanted. That year, a song he wrote called “Home” debuted on the American Idol season finale, as contestant Phillip Phillips used it as his “coronation … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Theater: The musicals of Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel) are usually over the top with bombast and power anthems, but with Bonnie & Clyde, he seems to have learned how to tailor his music to fit the situation and characters. Of course, the story revolves around a pair of lovestruck petty bank robbers who become folk heroes during the Depression, played … [Read more...]
The Both: Friendly collaboration, musical powerhouse
By Hilary Saunders Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, who will be performing this weekend at the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival they curated, aren’t the only formidable duo who will take the stage at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre. Guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Aimee Mann — who established herself as one of the most adaptable and influential female musicians in the early … [Read more...]
Chamber Society eyes Breakers expansion; unpublished Bernstein piece at Four Arts tonight
If all the stars align correctly, look for the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, which now mounts its programs at Mar-a-Lago, to add The Breakers as a concert venue next season. The executive director of the society, Michael Finn, said wants to add three concerts at the landmark resort for the 2015-16 season if he can get approval from the society’s board to do it. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 5-7
Theater: You’ve already seen Fiddler on the Roof more times than you can recall, right? And if you’re like me, you love the show, but wish that its original director-choreographer, the late Jerome Robbins, would loosen the reins and allow other stagings. If so, then the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has a production you should not miss. Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose Hello, Dolly! and The … [Read more...]