Jacqueline Laggy and Matthew Korinko star in Same Time, Next Year. (Photo by George Wentzler) By Dale King Same Time, Next Year is an engaging play with a fairly basic plot. Still, it is filled with intrigue that runs the gamut from humor to tragedy and guilt to glorious lessons learned. And while a number of people are mentioned in this play, Same Time, Next Year is still … [Read more...]
Strong Slow Burn cast can’t save ‘Dogfight’ from its meanness
I think we can agree that anything can be turned into a musical, but you start with two strikes against you when you endeavor to adapt material as mean-spirited and misogynistic as Dogfight. That was the task undertaken by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, a pair of young composer-lyricists whose Broadway debut show, A Christmas Story, looks geared to be revived annually at holiday … [Read more...]
Marvelous lead performances stand out in powerful ‘Room’
There’s something inherently limiting about the movie screen that makes cinema a more claustrophobic medium than theatre. In theatrical sets, doors suggest a world beyond the confined drama, providing an escape from the demons, the embarrassments, the high jinks. Even if the characters don’t use them, it’s comforting to know they’re there. Movie screens, on the other hand are … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 19-21
Music: The Symphonia Boca Raton has a busy season ahead of it, and it begins tonight and this weekend with three performances of Baroque music led by David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He’ll lead a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on a program that also includes the Double Violin Concerto of Bach (with violinist Mei Mei Luo) and the Christmas Concerto … [Read more...]
News briefs: Ballet Palm Beach, Palm Beach Pops
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Ballet Palm Beach, formerly Florida Classical Ballet Theatre, kicks off the season with “flash ballet” performances this week, beginning today at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth. A performance of “flash ballet” lasts no more than 10 minutes, and Ballet Palm Beach, led by Artistic Director Colleen Smith, will be performing at … [Read more...]
Gritty performances lift Arkansas swamp thriller
If anything can connect the ambitious young oeuvre of writer-director Jeff Nichols, it’s the sense of angst and dread permeating flyover country. The filmmaker behind Shotgun Stories, set amid a sibling feud in Arkansas, and the extraordinary Take Shelter, about a doomsday prepper in Ohio, Nichols is back in Arkansas for his third feature, Mud, an appropriate title for a grimy … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 5-7
Dance: The Miami City Ballet closes out its season at the Kravis Center this weekend with four performances of two well-loved ballets: Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, set to music by Chopin, and Slaughter on 10th Avenue, part of Richard Rodgers’ score for On Your Toes, as choreographed by George Balanchine. If you can’t catch this fine company’s mounting of these two … [Read more...]
Passionate Brahms performances marred by piano tuning
Anyone who’s been to an arts camp or summer festival has heard that sound before – enthusiastic, friendly voices loudly acclaiming a performance by members of the team. Tuesday night at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Persson Hall, the applause from a home-court crowd was heard for two aggressive performances by faculty members at the summer Stringendo School for Strings, who … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 15-17
Film: Sure, he won an Oscar 30 years ago for making Ordinary People, but Robert Redford remains an underrated director. To see how he can bring history alive, involving and even a little instructive, check out The Conspirator, his take on the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, as seen through the conspiracy trial of Mary Surratt. The luminous Robin Wright plays the … [Read more...]
Fine performances mark nuanced, subtle ‘Collected Stories’
Most productions of Donald Margulies’ wily, articulate drama Collected Stories portray the relationship between renowned short story writer Ruth Steiner and her persistent protégé Lisa Morrison as the literary equivalent of All About Eve. For despite her seeming innocence and adoration of the older writer, the ambitious Lisa ultimately betrays her trust, making public a very … [Read more...]