By its very title, Much Ado About Nothing is immune to criticisms about its triviality. In its central conceit, it’s one of Shakespeare’s silliest comedies, and he must have known it. But its structure of combative, polarized characters gradually coming to love one another has become a romantic comedy archetype for the ages, and its other, opposite storyline, about an … [Read more...]
‘Catch Me’ too weak to deserve good cast, sharp staging
The concept musical was an invention of the 1970s, typified by Chicago, which couched a tale of murders in Cook County as a series of vaudeville turns. When it works, the results are dazzling. When it doesn’t, you have a dull misfire like Catch Me If You Can, currently on view at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. Based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg flick starring Leonardo … [Read more...]
‘Florencia’ really should be on PBO mainstage
The Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists troupe wrapped its One Opera in One Hour season Friday night with an abridged version of Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. And it showed that this is an opera that really should be on the mainstage here. That’s not because Catán’s score is a great one: Even cut to an hour, it never goes anywhere. It just sits and … [Read more...]
Director Montiel draws on his tough early life for film
Director-screenwriter Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Fighting) grew up in the low-income housing projects of Queens, N.Y. Many of the guys that he grew up with are now either in prison or dead, yet through sheer determination he avoided both and became a filmmaker. How did he beat the odds and avoid the violence that he recreates in his latest feature, The … [Read more...]