By Robert Croan At the start of Seraphic Fire’s concert of English cathedral music Saturday night at Fort Lauderdale’s All Saints Episcopal Church, director Patrick Dupré Quigley spoke to the audience, explaining that there would be 75 minutes of uninterrupted music, and asking that the listeners not look at the printed program during that time. “Just let the music wash over … [Read more...]
FAU closes season with gritty ‘Lear’
By Dale King Student actors from the Department of Theatre and Dance at Florida Atlantic University wrap up their 2015-2016 performance season this weekend with performances of what many consider to be William Shakespeare’s greatest play, King Lear. The show opened last week to a sellout crowd at the Studio One Theater on the Boca Raton campus. Based on a Celtic folk tale, … [Read more...]
‘Closed Season’: Desire among the human ruins
Closed Season is a spartan movie for a spartan time. It opens in a dusty kibbutz in Israel in 1970, where a young entomologist in a pressed shirt aims to question a stoic farmer named Albert about his past. He finally does, and the next 100 minutes or so re-create that past, in a secluded farm on the border of Germany and Switzerland. It’s 1942, and Albert (Christian Friedel), … [Read more...]
Symphonia Boca Raton gets season off to boisterous start
An energized and muscular Symphonia Boca Raton opened its new season Sunday afternoon with a spirited appearance by a guest conductor and violin soloist who made the most of a mostly meat-and-potatoes program. Alastair Willis, who is closing his tenure this coming year as the conductor of the young Illinois Symphony (which plays in Springfield and Bloomington), led the … [Read more...]
Arts season preview 2015-16: The fall in film
Fanboys have been circling Dec. 18 on their calendars for more than a year, salivating over the arrival date of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (a/k/a Episode VII). It will surely dominate the year-end box office, no matter how much it satisfies or disappoints moviegoers. So it is OK if, like us, you are more interested in festival fare and awards fodder like Carol, Joy, The … [Read more...]
Tonys will celebrate a record season in awards telecast
The stats are in for the Broadway season that ended May 24, and it was a record-breaker. The 2014-2015 season had the highest attendance and highest total box office ever, with ticket sales topping out at $1.365 billion. Of course, it helps that ticket prices are at their highest ever. Most major musicals top face-value tickets hovers around the $150 mark with Book of Mormon, … [Read more...]
BodyTraffic closes Duncan season in spectacular style
By Tara Mitton Catao Have you ever wondered what contemporary performing art is coming out of Los Angeles — that jaded bastion of entertainment — these days? What is fresh and authentic? Your question would have not only been answered but also splendidly fulfilled if you had seen BodyTraffic perform this past weekend at the Duncan Theatre in Lake Worth. This terrific … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 20-22
Opera: All eyes will be on the Kravis Center tonight as a new American opera makes its official debut, a milestone in South Florida arts history. Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story, based on a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, features a young cast and a score rich with the melodic power that has made Moore’s music a favorite recital item for singers such as Deborah Voigt. Set in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 16-18
Theater: The Wick Theatre has been anything but consistent in its debut season, but when it is good, it is very, very good. That describes its final show on the season, the Tony Award-winning Fats Waller revue, Ain’t Misbehavin’. It helps considerably that director-choreographer Ron Hutchins gathered a company of seasoned veterans of the show, then stuck closely to the original … [Read more...]
Inventive, explosive Koresh Dance closes Duncan season
By Tara Mitton Catao The Duncan Theatre’s dance season came to a resounding finish with the explosive performance on Friday night of the Philadelphia-based Koresh Dance Company. Artistic director and choreographer Roni Koresh unleashed a movement vocabulary that was a fascinating flurry of endless invention. As the show unfurled, one got a tremendous sense of the artistic … [Read more...]