Dance: Let the Nutcrackers begin: Today marks the beginning of the annual productions of the ballet Peter Tchaikovsky scored in 1892, a year before his death, and while the composer thought his work was inferior to his other ballets, generations of dancers, choreographers and audiences beg to differ. Florida Classical Ballet Theatre gets its four performances under way this … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 19-22
Film: Somehow the matter of global warning has become a political football, perhaps in part because it veracity was expressed so eloquently by former vice president Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. Now comes what is essentially a rebuttal film, Cool It!, in which Danish environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg argues that a little more rational thought and … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 27-29
Art: Earlier this month, China claimed the title of the world’s second-largest economy, overtaking Japan for the No. 2 spot behind the United States. It seems a local achievement for a nation that has long been a much-desired global trading partner, and a new show at the Norton Museum of Art focuses on one of the more familiar offshoots of that commercial energy. On the Silk … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 13-18
Music: Brad Paisley got his start in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and since then he’s gathered up every important award in country music. He’s on the road a lot, too, and on Saturday afternoon, he’s at the Cruzan for a stop on his H20 World Tour. The tour will feature a “water world plaza” meant to evoke summer and water fun, as part of Paisley’s efforts on behalf … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 6-12
Film: Robert Oppenheimer had a very good idea of what his Manhattan Project had unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945, but at the time, his team was all alone in having become “Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Today, an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons exist, and the makers of the powerful Countdown to Zero want you to understand how terrifying a prospect that is. Approved … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 25-27
Theater: Gable Stage’s Joseph Adler is often eager to showcase new talent, as he does with Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which features three recent graduates of Miami’s New World School of the Arts -- Jackie Rivera, Ryan Didato and David Dearstyne -- in a quirky, contemporary comedy about geeky high schoolers growing up and fitting in. Karam may still need some seasoning … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 28-June 2
Film: Even art houses have to compete with the action movies that major studios churn out in the summertime, so that probably explains the arrival of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a rock-’em, sock-’em Korean western from director Ji-woon Kim, a master of camerawork and production excess. Set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, the movie concerns a treasure that is … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 7-13
Theater: The brilliant composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim turned 80 in March, and did you even send him a greeting card? Well, you can make up for that lapse by attending Slow Burn Theatre Company’s salute to him with its aptly chilly, but well-sung and edgy production of Assassins, Sondheim’s hummable exploration of those warped men and women who tried, and in some cases … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 23-25
Film: Yes, you could check out the foreign movies at the 2010 Palm Beach International Film Festival, which continues through Monday, but it seems unlikely that it has an entry as enjoyable as Mid-August Lunch, opening Friday at several area theaters. This puckish Italian comedy stars writer-director Gianni Di Gregorio as a middle-aged guy stuck looking after his 93-year-old … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 9-13
Film: Fresh from the Miami International Film Festival comes City Island, an amiable look at a dysfunctional Bronx family, each of whom is harboring a secret. Cuban-born, South Florida-raised Andy Garcia gets a rare opportunity to flex his comic muscles as the prison guard dad who yearns to become an actor. When he is taking evening classes, his wife (the terrific Julianna … [Read more...]