Monday evening, Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre takes its first plunge into the risky waters of new work, putting its usual menu of classic musicals on hold for a one-night concert of a show with aspirations of Broadway, Song of Solomon. If it goes well, look for it to return for a fully staged run this summer, prior to a move to New York. Yes, Solomon is Biblical King Solomon. … [Read more...]
New ‘Phantom’ looks great, but it’s still soulless
After 11,159 performances on Broadway, and billions of dollars of ticket sales worldwide, it is probably time to halt the critical carping and accept that theatergoers love the kitsch-heavy, empty spectacle that is The Phantom of the Opera. The producer of the theatrical blockbuster, Cameron Mackintosh, has such faith in the drawing power of this beauty-and-the-beast tale that … [Read more...]
New documentary is loving tribute to pioneering superstar
Fortunately for Lloyd and Susan Ecker, they both were big fans of Bette Midler. In 1973, he took her to see The Divine Miss M on their first date, which led not only to their 40-year marriage but to a cottage industry of bringing one of Midler’s idols — “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” Sophie Tucker — to the silver screen, the written page and, perhaps, the Broadway stage. … [Read more...]
New opera company triumphs with ‘Bluebeard’
All Hallow’s Eve gave birth to a new opera company for South Florida. Oct. 31 saw the launch of Opera Fusion at Lake Worth Playhouse in a well- presented, well-sung mounting of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. The group’s mission is to get opera to the people; it’s an artist-driven startup offering a new approach. Less stodgy, as proven by the very young audience who came … [Read more...]
New season is start of something big for Delray String Quartet
It’s been 11 years since the Delray String Quartet was formed and made its first appearance, but only four since its current lineup took shape. And this one feels like a keeper. “Like any quartet, you go through lots of personnel changes. Some of the quartets I know have none of the original members,” said Richard Fleischman, the group’s violist. “We went through so many … [Read more...]
Lou Tyrrell, still developing new works and new audiences
Three years into his new venture, Theatre at Arts Garage — picture a little brother of Florida Stage with fewer resources and a limited physical plant — artistic director Lou Tyrrell is facing the reality of less adventuresome theatergoers. “The audience for theater in general seems to be diminished, unless you are doing very familiar stuff,” he says. “Two of our pieces last … [Read more...]
Arts Garage’s ‘Ring of Fire’ conveys spirit of Cash’s America winningly
This is the summer of commercially unsuccessful musicals revived and reexamined on South Florida stages. There was High Fidelity at Slow Burn Theatre, and now the Johnny Cash revue Ring of Fire at Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, followed by Frank Wildhorn’s Bonnie and Clyde at Florida Atlantic University. Each show ran headlong into the brick wall of Broadway … [Read more...]
New western Delray theater opening with ‘Sounds of Simon’
By Dale King South Palm Beach County’s cultural arts scene is getting a new theatrical and general use venue. Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman of Florida Theater Productions Inc. will open the Delray Square Performing Arts Center tonight with a reprise of their Sounds of Simon show, a compilation of Paul Simon songs that enjoyed a couple of runs last year at the Cultural … [Read more...]
Hahn, New World triumphant in Mozart, Prokofiev
Here’s something we can agree on for 2014: It might be time to stop worrying so much about the future of classical music, and of the symphony orchestra. Two superlative reasons why that is came together Saturday night when the great American violinist Hilary Hahn appeared for the first time with the New World Symphony, in the Knight Concert Hall at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht … [Read more...]
Saxman Garrett finds new worlds with stint at piano
If 53-year-old Kenny Garrett wasn’t already well-known as one of the leading alto saxophonists of his generation, evidence might otherwise suggest he was a jazz pianist. “My main inspirations are Art Tatum and McCoy Tyner,” he says of the blind virtuoso pianist Tatum (1909-1956), who dominated jazz in the first half of the 20th century, and the 75-year-old Tyner, who rose to … [Read more...]